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My daily driver is a 2012 Ram 2500 diesel and my wife's is a 2014 Expedition EL Limited. In the garage sits a 2002 Jeep Wrangler Sport. It comes out about twice per week on nice days where we can ride with the top off. It also helps if one of our other vehicles needs to be pulled out of rotation for maintenance/repairs. We don't have to be concerned with how one of us will get to work.
Fuel mileage isn't really a consideration for us. The Ram gets 18 mpg, Expedition, 14.5 mpg, and the Jeep gets a whopping 13 mpg. We drive what we enjoy.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We have almost always had a 3rd car. Most of the time it was due to one being a classic, and not wanting to drive that in the snow or frosty weather. Also because a 40 year-old car can break down and take tome to get the parts. Part of the time was when we had one of the kids driving, and most recently, just wanted a semi-beater commuter for a sketchy transit center garage and avoid risk to the good ones. Now we are finally down to two, a 2014 and a 2017 for the first time since about 1994.
My wife and I have three cars among the two of us. Her Outback and my Charger are our daily drivers, and I have a Chrysler Crossfire for my own enjoyment. I have mostly had two cars since the late 90's (a seasonal sports car and a daily driver)...
We have 4 vehicles. My daily driver, a 2016 F-150, is on driveway duty; the wifes 2017 Avalon gets to share the garage with the nice weather cars, an '86 Mercedes 560SEL and an '01 BMW Z3.
My spare vehicle has always been an old 4wd truck. Functions well as a spare vehicle... can also haul, tow, drive in the snow, pull stumps, go offroad, etc.
Currently that's a 2000 GMC half ton. I drive it every week or two to keep the battery charged. Make sure it looks good enough to avoid attention from the police... otherwise I don't care how it looks. I repair it as needed, and generally it gets the cheapest parts that money can buy... because 90% of the time it just sits in the driveway.
I'll probably limp it along another 5 years or so and then get something newer.
I wouldn't call it a spare car, but not including my wife's car, I have two cars. One is a Mustang I only drive on the weekends if the weather is nice. Terrible fuel economy so I just rate it in Smiles per Gallon instead.
I guess technically my wife's car is mine as well, and it's an SUV I typically use for the Home Depot run, but it's nice having options.
When all the cars are old and have high miles on them, it's impossible to consider any one a spare car.
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