WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

My car is a lease and it's due next year.

I am having this CRAZY idea that we should drop my car next year and only keep DH's car. He commutes to the City every day. I could either drop him at the train station in the morning and pick him up at night. We are only 10 minutes from there. And if he needed the car that day, I would arrange for me to be "stuck" at home that day.

If it meant saving $$ would you do it? I mean LOTS of people did it in the past, right?

It's not the most convenient but I would save us $$

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

Nope, I could never give up my car.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

I would if it were to save $$ ~ my DH works in the city too ~ I would drop him off & pick him up! I don't think I would want to be stranded in the house w/o a car though....

Message edited 4/17/2009 4:58:33 PM.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

We are sort of in this situation b/c DH's car is a racecar. Although he does take C3 for little runs to the store in it.

Honestly, I would at least get a beater car so that if DH needed one or something you would have it.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

What about just buying a used car for one of you?

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

my neighbors do this and its soo hard for the wife..she's a SAHM of two young kids and shes always stuck in the house b/c the DH needs the car. But it seems like your situation is different and you would have the car for most of the time. personally i think i would look for a used car or something else to have anyway, as having only one could get difficult

Message edited 4/17/2009 5:07:23 PM.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

It sounds good on paper. If you need the extra money, then you do what you have to do. Lots of people make it work. But if I had a choice, I wouldn't. There are too many variables.

What if the baby gets sick? Do you really want to drag him out in the car?

It would be very inconvenient for either of you to deviate from the routine. Both of you would be a slave to the train schedule. And then what happens when the train is late?

What if DH worked late? What if it was passed the baby's bedtime?

What if you needed to go out and he had the car? What if there was an emergency?

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

DH and I did this in October. I sold my Honda civic for a really good price, paid off the note and had some extra $$ leftover. His Camry is almost paid off (I think we owe about 700 bucks right now), so we would be saving soooo much money on insurance and payments.

However, we live in Park Slope and DH's commute is only a few minutes.

Also, last week i got into the car to go to work and it was dead. I had to get a cab there and take the subway home. It turned out our alternator was gone.

When we made our decision, we said to ourselves, we can try it out and if we just can't live without 2 cars, we'll just lease or finance another one...it's not like it has to be a permanent situation.

And it really does ave thousands of dollars.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

How about just buying a cheap used car that he can use to go to and from the train station? Then you can use his car during the day.

We have one car that is already paid off. We both work downtown, so it's easy to drop the kids off and then go to work. Would it be more convenient to have 2 cars, definitely but iit's more important to us not to have a car note.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

We just did this, this past month because my DH only works 2-3 (12hr days) days a week and im a SAHM so I don't mind being stuck in the house for a couple of days. It saves us a lot of money especially since we just bought a new house. If worse comes to worse one of my sisters or my parents are always around to call. It works great for us. I really thought it would be hard to be without a car on those days, but I really get a lot of stuff done now around the house that I used to put off.

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

I say try it

Re: WWYD? Going from 2 cars to 1 car

We have done it when a car was in the shop and it stinks. Dragging DS out in the morning and in the cold to drop off at the train is the worst. Even though its 10 minutes away it will take almost a half hour at night. 10 minutes each way and waiting for the train to get in. If it coincides with your schedule it might not be that bad.