We are a one car family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

What?? That's my point. The extra car is not a major expense compared to our mortgage and daycare for two young kids. We paid for it from savings and the ongoing expense of insurance, gas is minimal in light of our overall budget.

Well, it wouldn’t be minimal for mine. DH takes metro to work (fed employee, so he doesn’t pay for it) and I stay home with 2 kids. Our rule, due to car seats, is whoever has the kids has the car. 95% of the time that’s me. Why should we incur the expense of an extra car, plus pay $250 a month for him to park in the garage at his office, when he can commute for free? Your monthly outflow is probably much higher than mine, even though we have a big (for us) mortgage.

Okay you answered this yourself - you have one car bc you have one working person. Many have 2 ppl with jobs.

[Anonymous]

We have one car but I work from home and my spouse commutes to work on a train.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

What?? That's my point. The extra car is not a major expense compared to our mortgage and daycare for two young kids. We paid for it from savings and the ongoing expense of insurance, gas is minimal in light of our overall budget.

Well, it wouldn’t be minimal for mine. DH takes metro to work (fed employee, so he doesn’t pay for it) and I stay home with 2 kids. Our rule, due to car seats, is whoever has the kids has the car. 95% of the time that’s me. Why should we incur the expense of an extra car, plus pay $250 a month for him to park in the garage at his office, when he can commute for free? Your monthly outflow is probably much higher than mine, even though we have a big (for us) mortgage.

It’s much harder when kids are older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH works from home and I work from home. We do not need two cars. We share one small SUV.

I am surprised this is not more common.

I more than completely offset your perceived contribution.

I had FOUR cars, a couple motorcycles, a boat, and an airplane when I was single.

[Anonymous]

We have two cars because we started running into too many instances where our two kids had to be in different, non-Metro-accessible places at the same time. But we had one car for about nine years (with no work-from-home for all but one of those years), and most of the time, both of our cars are just sitting outside our house, as we can Metro to work.

I think OP is being disingenuous if they're really surprised or confused about why more people have more than one car. But I also think it's easier than a lot of people might expect to get by with just one.

[Anonymous]

This is extremely common in my neighborhood that's about 60 percent Indian immigrants. Most of the families have sahm and the dad seems to work from home. Dh and I make it work. He goes in person for 2 days. My work is a few minutes away and he and the kids drop me off when I work weekends. Owning a second car or a car in general is expensive. I'm surprised people spend so much money on cars they don't own outright. Our home only has one garage and it's a townhome so two cars would be annoying. I think a lot of the families here decided to spend more on their house instead of owning two new cars. Our community is new construction. Not too far from us are single-family homes and you can sometimes see 3-5 cars in the driveway.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I also share a car which we bought last December. We have two in elementary (previous marriage, shared custody) and an infant. Both WFH. Really only possible because of our location and work arrangements. If either of us is called back to the office or gets an in person job, we will need to get another car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is extremely common in my neighborhood that's about 60 percent Indian immigrants. Most of the families have sahm and the dad seems to work from home. Dh and I make it work. He goes in person for 2 days. My work is a few minutes away and he and the kids drop me off when I work weekends. Owning a second car or a car in general is expensive. I'm surprised people spend so much money on cars they don't own outright. Our home only has one garage and it's a townhome so two cars would be annoying. I think a lot of the families here decided to spend more on their house instead of owning two new cars. Our community is new construction. Not too far from us are single-family homes and you can sometimes see 3-5 cars in the driveway.

Why even own a car if you never leave home?

My adult daughter owns no car. She works from home. Takes train or Ubers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

What?? That's my point. The extra car is not a major expense compared to our mortgage and daycare for two young kids. We paid for it from savings and the ongoing expense of insurance, gas is minimal in light of our overall budget.

Well, it wouldn’t be minimal for mine. DH takes metro to work (fed employee, so he doesn’t pay for it) and I stay home with 2 kids. Our rule, due to car seats, is whoever has the kids has the car. 95% of the time that’s me. Why should we incur the expense of an extra car, plus pay $250 a month for him to park in the garage at his office, when he can commute for free? Your monthly outflow is probably much higher than mine, even though we have a big (for us) mortgage.

Some of us who work downtown and live in the burbs have our parking paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is extremely common in my neighborhood that's about 60 percent Indian immigrants. Most of the families have sahm and the dad seems to work from home. Dh and I make it work. He goes in person for 2 days. My work is a few minutes away and he and the kids drop me off when I work weekends. Owning a second car or a car in general is expensive. I'm surprised people spend so much money on cars they don't own outright. Our home only has one garage and it's a townhome so two cars would be annoying. I think a lot of the families here decided to spend more on their house instead of owning two new cars. Our community is new construction. Not too far from us are single-family homes and you can sometimes see 3-5 cars in the driveway.

Why even own a car if you never leave home?

My adult daughter owns no car. She works from home. Takes train or Ubers

We do leave home. We have kids. We go to the gym, grocery store etc, etc. That would be too expensive for us as we are in the suburbs.