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Old 07-11-2016, 12:05 AM
 
9,868 posts, read 7,596,911 times
Reputation: 22118

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No way! We have three right now and eventually probably will go down to two, but NEVER just one! Noooooooo, noooooo, noooooo. That is despite the fact that we get around a lot on foot, and neither one of us drives every day or even close to that.

It is a matter of being free to do things without having to schedule who uses one car, and also of simply having S P A C E that each of us can consider our own, with our separate choices of music and "stuff" (recreation gear) and tidiness level. If my husband leaves an empty fast food bag in his car, I don't bug him about it, but you betcha I would if he did it in mine, and vice versa.

Some things should just be separate, if doing so keeps the peace. It was, and still is somewhat, tough to adjust being home together after retirement. Two cars = escape hatch!

Also, I HATE that in the past, he forgot to set my parking brake and left the manual transmission in neutral. Another time he almost rolled his own car backward into another car when parked at a store, even though I yelped as soon as it started to move. He actually kept his head down--fiddling with something--as I told him, "LOOK OUT!" Took him another coupla seconds before he felt it moving and believed my warning. Sheesh.

Definitely not going down to just one car for two people, ever.

Last edited by pikabike; 07-11-2016 at 12:18 AM..
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Old 07-11-2016, 10:31 AM
 
12,047 posts, read 10,178,435 times
Reputation: 24772
Quote:
Originally Posted by pikabike View Post
No way! We have three right now and eventually probably will go down to two, but NEVER just one! Noooooooo, noooooo, noooooo. That is despite the fact that we get around a lot on foot, and neither one of us drives every day or even close to that.

It is a matter of being free to do things without having to schedule who uses one car, and also of simply having S P A C E that each of us can consider our own, with our separate choices of music and "stuff" (recreation gear) and tidiness level. If my husband leaves an empty fast food bag in his car, I don't bug him about it, but you betcha I would if he did it in mine, and vice versa.

Some things should just be separate, if doing so keeps the peace. It was, and still is somewhat, tough to adjust being home together after retirement. Two cars = escape hatch!

Also, I HATE that in the past, he forgot to set my parking brake and left the manual transmission in neutral. Another time he almost rolled his own car backward into another car when parked at a store, even though I yelped as soon as it started to move. He actually kept his head down--fiddling with something--as I told him, "LOOK OUT!" Took him another coupla seconds before he felt it moving and believed my warning. Sheesh.

Definitely not going down to just one car for two people, ever.
my oldest sister and her spouse have one vehicle. She still works, so drives it there. He likes taking the city bus, but will pick up the car if he needs it.

They are just tightwads and pinch every penny there is and put up with the inconvenience.
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Old 07-11-2016, 11:17 AM
 
4,423 posts, read 7,331,052 times
Reputation: 10934
We still need two cars but we're in the process of buying a snowbird residence and we're questioning the second car which will sit undriven for 4+/- months a year. It seems wasteful.
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Old 07-11-2016, 12:42 PM
 
Location: 89052 & 75206
8,097 posts, read 8,231,717 times
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UPDATE: So here's what happened. If you recall, I wanted a very small car -- because we'd moved to a city condo with public trans, and very walkable. I was then driving a small SUV I loved (Infiniti EX35) but had already bruised it a couple of times in the building underground parking (tight ramps and small spaces with poles in the garage). MY DH was driving a convertible sedan and pushing me to buy a Cadillac SRX thinking ahead of our summer plans.

In the end I bought a Mini Cooper and DH traded his car for a new SRX. 2 new cars! I was determined to have a small city car for my wheels and he became enamoured with the SRX, thinking about all the summer car trips ahead. So we park the SRX in a remote space in our underground parking and use the mini exclusively in the city. We have never once had the situation of both using separate vehicles simultaneously. But we are not home much at the condo. Last summer we were gone 3 months and took the SRX on the road. It was great in the mountains. This summer we are residing in Utah, again with the SRX, and I do like it. But will be happy to have my mini back when we return to the city. Truth is, we don't need 2 vehicles for shared use but we need 2 kinds of vehicles if we are going to continue to reside in the city and I continue to drive.

BTW, we both miss our former vehicles. I loved my EX35 and he loved having a convertible (tho we have sunroofs on our new cars, we hate open sunroofs). If we move again to a place with easier parking I will get rid of the mini and the SRX and get the Infiniti QX50.
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Old 07-11-2016, 01:07 PM
 
9,868 posts, read 7,596,911 times
Reputation: 22118
Quote:
Originally Posted by WorldKlas View Post
UPDATE: So here's what happened. If you recall, I wanted a very small car -- because we'd moved to a city condo with public trans, and very walkable. I was then driving a small SUV I loved (Infiniti EX35) but had already bruised it a couple of times in the building underground parking (tight ramps and small spaces with poles in the garage). MY DH was driving a convertible sedan and pushing me to buy a Cadillac SRX thinking ahead of our summer plans.

In the end I bought a Mini Cooper and DH traded his car for a new SRX. 2 new cars! I was determined to have a small city car for my wheels and he became enamoured with the SRX, thinking about all the summer car trips ahead. So we park the SRX in a remote space in our underground parking and use the mini exclusively in the city. We have never once had the situation of both using separate vehicles simultaneously. But we are not home much at the condo. Last summer we were gone 3 months and took the SRX on the road. It was great in the mountains. This summer we are residing in Utah, again with the SRX, and I do like it. But will be happy to have my mini back when we return to the city. Truth is, we don't need 2 vehicles for shared use but we need 2 kinds of vehicles if we are going to continue to reside in the city and I continue to drive.

BTW, we both miss our former vehicles. I loved my EX35 and he loved having a convertible (tho we have sunroofs on our new cars, we hate open sunroofs). If we move again to a place with easier parking I will get rid of the mini and the SRX and get the Infiniti QX50.
Thanks for relating what you did. If it works for both of you, that is what matters. My husband and I use separate vehicles at the same time, about once a week. We do a lot of things together but also NEED time apart to do different activities that require driving beyond walking distance.
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Old 07-11-2016, 01:38 PM
 
Location: Wasilla, AK
7,448 posts, read 7,509,795 times
Reputation: 16456
No way could we survive with only one vehicle. We had three. One for each house and one to drive back and forth, so we always had two vehicles at any given time. Now that it looks like we're selling our winter home we are going to go down to two vehicles. I just bought a new pickup truck, bringing us up to four vehicles, to haul the travel trailer my wife wants and we're keeping the sedan that gets 32 mpg. The Jeep and the wife's CUV are going to be sold within the next month. But as long as both of us are driving, going down to one vehicle is not an option.
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Old 07-11-2016, 02:52 PM
 
4,668 posts, read 3,864,874 times
Reputation: 3437
My wife and I are not retired, but we switched from 2 cars to 1 car last year, it wasn't meant to be a permanent change, but I have to say I did actually like it and there are many advantages. We just got a second car around Christmas again, so we went almost a year with 1 car. Lower taxes, insurance, gas, and maintenance really add up, ours were both paid off, but for some people it could be one less car payment. We both work full time and we managed, we live in a suburb area. In that one year, I can only think of 1 time when we both needed the car for different things, and it still wasn't a big deal, my wife just dropped me off at work and picked me up when I was off. My hope is to eventually move into the city, get rid of one car, and buy a newer small suv. If someone has multiple homes in different locations it may be difficult, but I had a retired uncle who had a home in Alaska, Florida, and Kansas, and he only had 1 car, but he was single as well. He enjoyed driving between the homes. He has more or less settled down in Florida now. Owning 1 car is not for everyone, but for retired people who own a single home, or don't mind driving back and forth, I think it makes a lot of sense.
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Old 07-13-2016, 09:57 AM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
44,905 posts, read 59,894,528 times
Reputation: 60444
It won't happen with us, Mrs. NBP can't see out of my truck and I can't carry goose decoys in her Forester.
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Old 07-13-2016, 12:07 PM
 
Location: Redwood City, CA
15,242 posts, read 12,816,144 times
Reputation: 54012
We have four cars now and we'll have four cars if we ever find our way into what is bound to be a complicated retirement.

I would give up my 2006 PT Cruiser but DH won't permit it. He's probably right: I drove it yesterday and it runs really well, only about 110k miles on it. He won't part with either of his cars and that's fine, too.

I hate car dealerships and the games they play. I would be thrilled if we never bought a new car again.
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Old 07-13-2016, 03:58 PM
 
Location: Wasilla, AK
7,448 posts, read 7,509,795 times
Reputation: 16456
Quote:
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post
We have four cars now and we'll have four cars if we ever find our way into what is bound to be a complicated retirement.

I would give up my 2006 PT Cruiser but DH won't permit it. He's probably right: I drove it yesterday and it runs really well, only about 110k miles on it. He won't part with either of his cars and that's fine, too.

I hate car dealerships and the games they play. I would be thrilled if we never bought a new car again.
Don't play their games and be willing to walk out. I just bought a new truck with a MSRP price of $52,430. I was out the door for $36,622 plus $280 for license/registration for two years. And I never trade in a vehicle, so they didn't make it up there. Earlier that day I walked out of another dealer who didn't want to deal. That's fine with me, I don't take it personally. I just walk out and go to the next dealer.
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