One car

[wawot1]

I have to dissent from the majority here - I say go down to 1 car. 98% of the time this will be fine. 2% of the time you can take an Uber.

Probably won't move the needle on a financial metric, but what about carbon footprint? Cardiovascular benefits of biking everywhere? Foregone headaches at the mechanic?

[wideopenspaces]

I'm betting most posters here haven't actually lived the one car lifestyle. . .

We've been married 17 years and have had one car for all but 3 years while I was in residency. The other car sat in storage for 2 of those 3 years, so leasing a second vehicle was pretty stupid. If we were able to do it with no problems while we had a kid in daycare, me in residency with weird hours, and my husband working full-time. . . You can do it vagabond. People think we are crazy but it really is not at all inconvenient. Neither of us have ever even had to call an Uber to get by. Or not go somewhere because the other person had the car. We do walk and bike most places, no matter the weather but this is absolutely my preference. I could never live somewhere I was car dependent. It's easy to get my 15k steps a day and just one more way to stay mentally and physically healthy.
I don't see us ever having a second car for just the 2 of us. Personally I'd keep the leaf and rent a car for road trips, but just my 2 cents.

[Tim]

I'm betting most posters here haven't actually lived the one car lifestyle. . .
Personally I'd keep the leaf and rent a car for road trips, but just my 2 cents.

This is what some do in VHCOL areas. Keeping a car can be inconvenient and expensive in some urban areas.
.

[CordMcNally]

but what about carbon footprint?

Is the UN governing body posting here?

[dayman]

false economy/not worth it.

the cost of maintaining a low mileage second car could be <$1k year.
get something really small and simple like a hatchback, carry high deductible insurance that doesn't cover replacement costs.

have you considered how well your strategy would hold up in some sort of personal crisis? sick family member, ankle fracture making bike impossible etc?

They would still have a car for the rare crisis that would require one. "What if you break your leg" seems a little out there but raises a good point. Ideally, car travel for routine day to day errands would only be the default for someone who is disabled or elderly. Unfortunately most of our cities and towns are not designed in a way which makes that realistic. (I concede that rural areas are a different kettle of fish)

[CM]

I sold my car in Chicago in 2007 after I met my then girlfriend, now wife, and she didn't own one. I rented one when needed for road trips.

After moving, we had just a Hyundai Elantra between 2009 and 2016. At first, she commuted and I worked from home. Later, I returned to cardiology and she "retired." When she needed to take the car she dropped me at the hospital, less than 10 mins from home.

It was fine, but I eventually bought a second, somewhat nicer/roomier car for our 8 hour road trips back home. It's more convenient to have two. I think my wife runs around town more often now that we don't have to plan every errand.

You can certainly do it, but why would you? Why is it a dream?

[TheDangerZone]

I am strongly considering going to one car to share between my wife and myself. This has been a dream of mine for many years. Talk me into or out of it.

You and I have very different dreams... my dream garage would hold 4 cars! 3 for me and 1 for my wife. I agree with the previous posters that it is most reasonable to keep a second car even if it is under utilized.

[wawot1]

Is the UN governing body posting here?

Umm....108 degrees in Seattle? Catastrophic flooding in Germany?

Why make a comment like this?

[G]

You and I have very different dreams... my dream garage would hold 4 cars! 3 for me and 1 for my wife. I agree with the previous posters that it is most reasonable to keep a second car even if it is under utilized.

now we're talking! the commuter car. the truck. the campervan. the street legal racer.

I would throw in the rally car and the convertible, but that might come off as gluttonous.

[Huggy]

1. Insanely negligible to no financial benefit.

2. Can be very inconvenient, even if only on rare occasions.

3. Unexpected extensive repair of only car? Injury? What now? No, this is not likely, but we have people in the EF thread stocking away 6 figures for the unlikely chance of losing their job, market tanking 40%, and having a massive medical emergency all in the same month.

4. Unanticipated costs with Uber to and from destinations. I drove for Uber/Lyft throughout college and med school, can be extensive wait times (20-30+ minutes) or hefty surges (2-10x fare) depending on what's going on. Not to mention the complete lack of drivers in most areas during COVID. I always remember picking up a guy one evening last year who accidentally got off at the wrong bus stop and had to wait a few hours at a gas station late into the night because no drivers were available.

5. No impact on carbon footprint whatsoever (since you hardly ever use the second car now, anyway)

Seems more like a pointless and inconvenient demonstration of frugality. If that's what you desire though, then by all means go for it.

[EH]

We've had one car for 20 years and just got a second one out of necessity for school drop offs (seriously, you can't bike with a kid with an AQI of 150 due to wild fires). As long as you like biking/walking and live in a walkable area, it's really not an issue. Of course we also chose our location based on not wanting to have to drive everywhere so that helps. I definitely think it's better for the planet not to have cars just sitting there not being used 95% of the time. I would keep the Leaf (assuming the range suites you) and get rid of the volvo, and plan on renting for the road trip if one car is working out. Electric is so much nicer.

[loeffy]

Could always rent a car for road trips.

[Nysoz]

Or just get a Tesla for all driving! Road trips with the Tesla takes a slightly longer period of time compared to ice with forced charging/bathroom stops but not bad at all.

On another note, Elon says that Tesla will slowly open up the supercharger network to other cars. So hopefully other evs will be more tolerable for road trips soon.

[adventure]

I am strongly considering going to one car to share between my wife and myself. This has been a dream of mine for many years. Talk me into or out of it.

Facts:
I work from home. On most weekdays, I do not drive my car.
Wife currently works from home. In September she will be going to work in the office 3 days per week and WFH home 2 days per week.
We live in an inner ring suburb. I can easily (within 10 minutes) bike to grocery store, specialty stores, haircut, etc. Would need to drive to doctors and dentist appointments.
We have no current plans for a road trip, the earliest possible would be in June, 2022.

The cars:
2015 Volvo XC 60 ($15,600 from Carvana)
2018 Nissan Leaf ($19,600 from Carvana)

The additional savings - about $1000/year in auto insurance and $300-500/year in personal property tax; potential service costs on Volvo, which are more frequent and expensive than I would like

I would prefer to sell the Volvo, but that almost guarantees a future auto purchase in 2022 or soon thereafter as we cannot use the Leaf for road trips. The Volvo is more likely to require more service and more expensive to maintain. This could leave us without a car while the Volvo is being serviced (which could probably be coordinated on a weekday with wife working from home). The smart move would probably be to sell the Leaf and continue to hold the Volvo, as the latter is more versatile and the former limited to its battery range and the charging requirement. What do you all think?

It's a Type II decision (it's easy to reverse it). We would also like to go to 1 car, and have the same situation. 1 used leaf, and 1 used SUV.

Intertia has kept us from letting go of the SUV, as it's in the driveway today, and there it sits. We could happily rent for road trips, etc. We do tell ourselves it's nice to have the AWD vehicle for those more snowy days, or ski trips, but if you count the days that's actually required - it's pretty close to zero.

We've had several times when we've only had 1 car, and those times were not a problem, at all. There is some perceived, and I suppose real convience if one car dies, but I've never really suffered from that, even when we've had a car get totaled.

I've found some inner peace by parking the 2nd car to the side of the driveway so it's more out of the way than usual. I use Strava now, so I can track and record my biking trips and I bike when I can. I also pay for insurance and registration, but I smile every time I bike.

I suppose put another way, I get the joy I "think of" in a one car life by biking, and the existance of a car in the driveway is negligable.

[beagler]

The people I know that love having no car are avid all-weather bikers. It is freeing and environmentally admirable.

Buddhist - less is more mindframe. I think this might be what Vagabond is thinking.

We can consume less and possess less and have no loss of happiness and even a spiritual gain. This ethos is sorely lacking in our Western consumption and accumulation based mindset. Lead on Vagabond!