Anonymous wrote:3 because you need a reliable car in a more rural area, and it will be safer for the commute. But buy new, used cars are artificially expensive now.
+1
OP, we are maybe going to be in a similar boat next year (1-car family but likely moving further out than the walkable neighborhood we now live in, and DH has to commute 3 days a week so will need two reliable cars). Our 1 car is not quite as old as yours -- a 13yr old chef with just 70k on it. But it's already becoming a money pit and we've already spent more on it than I think it is worth in trade in value.
Our plan is to trade in the Chevy (so we no longer have to keep fixing it) and use cash on hand to get a new family car, and then plan to finance a car for DH's commute when it happens. Well actually our plan is to see if we can find a house with a public transportation commute option, even if it means driving him to a train station on commute days, to avoid buying a second car. But that's unlikely, so we're probably going to finance his commuter car.
You can't have the car he uses for work breaking down all the time. And you can't have the car you use for kids/groceries/etc. breaking down all the time. It sucks but if you live far out and one person commutes, you have to have two reliable cars. This is why the argument that families can save so much money by just moving further out is annoying! Some things are much more expensive!