How much does it cost to have two cars?

[Pizaza]

We currently have only one car, a Mazda 6 as my husband needs a big car for his job. He works out of home in an office so he takes the car every day.
We have a 6 year old and a 2 year old, the school of the older one is a 20 minute walk away which I can do during the warmer months but in winter it can be difficult. However there's a bus which stops almost next to our home. The 2 year old goes to a childminder who lives 10 minutes away from us so I don't need a car, when it rains I ask a friend if they can drive me.
My husband would like me to have my own car but I try to avid it as we have a babysitter 3 times a week who brings my daughter home and I don't like to add additional costs to that. So my question is: How much would a second car actually cost?

True answer would be it depends ...
Running costs could be kept down by having a small economical car with a clean engine for zero emissions tax and cheap to insure. If you didn't use it much then fuel costs would be small. Insurance can sometimes be lower for a second car policy and you could perhaps consider restricted mileage as well.
Depreciation might be the biggest cost that is difficult to avoid unless you get a really cheap secondhand model that can't fall in value much further.
You end up trying to balance a newer, higher value car that is cheap to run but with high depreciation, against a lower value car that costs more to run and maybe costs in repairs, but doesn't depreciate much.

Tbh it depends on how much you want it. At times we have struggled with the cost of 2 cars but I would have been climbing the walls if I hadn't been able to jump in the car and head off. I have friends who stay in the local area all day every day and it fries my head just thinking about it. So for me the cost is absolutely worth it. Other people feel differently and so if you're happy with the way things are then a car may not be worth the money

I've just bought a three year old car, so missing out on the depreciation annoyance but new enough to be reliable. Old bangers may seem a bargain but only until you take them into the garage...