I totally side eye keeping the car. Except they were probably thinking he would get a job any day, and then they would have to desperately scramble to buy a car. We sold our second car when H was able to bike/bus to work. Within a year the company collapsed, he was laid off, and we were in this horrible limbo of him job hunting, me driving the car to work, and the minute he landed a job we needed to go buy a car. Luckily for us it ended well with being gifted an old beater. But I get why they struggled with it.
I agree with the PP who said the worst part of unemployment is not knowing when it will end. When H was laid off a second time and I was staying home with a baby and toddler, I applied for wic as soon as he lost his job. We had about six months of cash, plus could have tapped retirement accounts. But we were underwater on our house, had noidea how long he would be out of work, and we knew that one house/car/medical emergency could wipe out our emergency fund. I got us on WIC asap to extend the period of time we could go until the kids were truly hungry. I feel no shame about that. Luckily H was employed within six months so we didn't get to that point, and we ate once again paying more in on taxes than the cost of the six months of wic we qualified for.