Living As A One Car Family

If someone were going to ask me, what is the most unusual thing you did that helped you get ahead financially? I suspect that my best answer would be, living as a one car family.

Over the past week, I had to deal with some of the inconveniences of having just one car in the family, as Mr. PiN took ours out of state to help with a family emergency. [This might be why this post is coming out a week later than expected.]

I thought it would be worthwhile to go through the many ways in which this one-car situation has overall yielded great benefits, while acknowledging that sometimes it is not ideal.

When I was growing up (many moons ago) in the suburbs of America, we kids couldn’t wait to get our drivers license. It meant adulthood, mobility, independence. We could go where we wanted, when we wanted, without too much parental input, as long as we could get the keys to the car.

I later spent many years living on my own, which meant that, of course, I needed a car. That car didn’t always work so well, which was its own set of problems, but I had one.

However, owning and driving a car comes with expenses: gas, insurance, registration, repairs. Purchase price, car payments or lease payments. If you live or work in a city, then parking costs become an issue.

Once I married, we became a 2 car household. However, one of those cars was mostly driven by my stepson, and was our back up/emergency car. Really, we only used one.

When he graduated, about 6 years ago, we became a two-person, one-car family.

Also about 6 years ago, we started on our quest to pay off the mortgage and work on our retirement plans. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

The Advantages

We enjoy plenty of monetary advantages by owning just one car:

• we pay less for auto insurance.
• we pay less for registration and inspection.
• repairs are presumably cheaper (though you could argue that by driving the one car more often, we are putting more miles on it).
• we use less fuel.
• we don’t pay for parking at work, since I get dropped off.

We have some non-monetary advantages as well:

• Since our garage only fits one car, we don’t have to jockey around for a covered parking spot.
• Because I am getting picked up, I can choose to walk part-way home, and get a lift for the more painful (second) half of the commute.

The Disadvantages

Let’s be real, there is a reason why having one car for two drivers isn’t the norm anymore.

• Dealing with car repairs is a pain: without the second car, we can’t just have one spouse drop off a car and then go home with the other.
• We have to coordinate sharing the car on the weekends. This usually means I go out shopping less (perhaps this is a financial gain), but it also means that Mr. PiN gets stuck with more errands.
• If someone has to leave town, as happened this week, the one left behind has to live a car-less life. Very inconvenient for shopping and getting to work on time.

So, I suppose the question is, do the advantages outweigh the inconveniences? Some of that is a qualitative problem, but we can try to put some numbers out there.

Show Me the Money

It is very difficult for me to estimate the savings we managed, because of the multiple options for a second vehicle, the choice of which will affect purchase price, insurance, fuel use and repairs. But I will give it a try.

I took a look this weekend for used truck prices in the area, since Mr. PiN periodically yearns for a pick up truck. Without looking too carefully, it seems we could probably get one for $30,000 (probably less, but this is a nice round number). Assuming we drive it into the ground over 10 years, that would mean it costs $3,000 a year to own.

Add in some more WAGs, and I get some numbers like this:

• $3000 a year to own.
• $150 a year for inspection and registration.
• $500 more per year to insure the second vehicle (totally guessing on this).
• $600 per year for fuel (at $3 per gallon, this comes out to roughly 4 gallons a week, assuming we don’t use this for road trips).
• $1200 per year for me to park at work.
• $900 per year for repairs (estimate found on a quick internet search).

The total comes to $6350 a year. This number has all the reliability of a patient explaining how that cocaine in their urine drug screen must be a mistake, and yet… the estimate is probably in a reasonable ball park. If I bought more expensive cars, or traded cars more frequently, I could add a couple thousand to the yearly cost of my second vehicle.

On the other side, we should count the options to rent a car when ours in the shop, and parking if I take a rental car to work instead of walking.

I estimate we would have to rent a car 3 or 4 times a year, and I might pay for parking for 1 or 2 of those days. Assuming we don’t rent a car during this current shortage, nor do we get a great deal (or just borrow a car), I will put forth $450 a year as our costs.

Paying $450 a year extra to get a ride versus saving $6350 a year by not owning a second car.

Maybe this doesn’t sound like a big savings to you. To me, it sounds like a good way to get ahead financially. A Roth IRA, or 2 nice vacations, every year. Worth the price of having to coordinate who gets the car on the weekend.

How about you? Have any of you considered becoming a 1-car couple?