The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: vagon on August 18, 2015, 12:35:02 AM
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Obviously MMM has two (Fit and a van), some badass will have 0, others are passionate about cars and will have several.
Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
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Owned by my household, or by my personally, or averaged out to number of drivers per household?
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Two, but we should really only have one. I bike to work, wife walks to work.
Except when it rains and when the bike is out of action for some reason.
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Three in a two-person household, but that's because I'm a car guy. I use zero of them for commuting, and that's the important thing.
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Zero cars for my little family. Every once in a while I think about getting one, but it seems more trouble than it is worth. I live in a place with pretty good public transit, some bicycle infrastructure, and pretty good walkablity. Occasionally I make use of zip car or Uber, but pretty rarely.
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zero! manhattan's not car-friendly
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This thread reminds me that I need to pop over to EBay motors for car porn. Haven't done that lately.
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2. It's been up to 4 and usually sits around 3, but I have consolidated. :)
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3 for two people. :(
My husband bought a mustang, but kept his truck for winter driving and hauling stuff. I hate the mustang, but keep quiet about it because I quit a high paying job for a more satisfying crappy paying job and he kept the high paying job that he hates, so overall I guess I've cost us more money.
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Zero. Use public transit, bike, airplane, occaisionally rent a car.
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1 car for a family of 2 wage earners and 2 young kids ... but the real story is that we used to have 4 cars: 2 commuter cars, a summer car and a camper van.
The transition to one car was easier than we expected. I absolutely love my 20 minute bike ride to work and would find it hard to go back to driving everyday.
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One for the two of us, and honestly I'm considering selling it. We commute to work via walking or bike and metro. Car gets used maybe 3-4 times a month.
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2 for 2 adults and a baby. The corolla is what my wife uses (used to commute to work, now for running errands w/ the baby). The 2nd is a 15 year old truck that my wife came into the relationship with. I bike to work, and when the truck dies I hope to not replace it.
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zero! manhattan's not car-friendly
Which leads to a favorite of mine...
No one in New York drives... there is too much traffic..
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Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
and tractors if you use that definition. Mine does 13mph in top gear.
If we count tractors, I'm at 5. Yes, that's too many. 2 of them are very rarely driven and probably need to be disposed of. For one of those, "disposed" might be "take to car crusher". Yeah, it's that bad.
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2 adults and 0 kids, living in a big city. No car yet, but will be buying one (used) soon-ish.
Not looking forward to it, but our car-equipped friend drove his to the ground, and for my SO projects is very useful to have one, so we'll bite the bullet.
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Obviously MMM has two (Fit and a van), some badass will have 0, others are passionate about cars and will have several.
Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
WHAT?!?! When did they get rid of the Scion xA?
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Two cars...one is 13 years old, the other 6. This is two cars for two separate households, though (my husband and I personally just use one). My mother drives are other car and she lives across town, so I do occasionally call on that car when needed. Very rarely, though. It's been surprisingly easy to live with one car, given that the town is not bike or pedestrian friendly.
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Obviously MMM has two (Fit and a van), some badass will have 0, others are passionate about cars and will have several.
Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
WHAT?!?! When did they get rid of the Scion xA?
I don't think he did, just a mistake from the op.
He also has a truck, though I don't think he technically owns it. So really MMM has 3.
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Two cars for a two-person household. One tiny car ('99 Chevy Metro), one hilariously large car ('92 Buick Roadmaster Wagon). Tiny car used for commuting and lightly packed roadtrips, hilariously large car used for multiple canine transportation on big roadtrips and for 15MPG in-town commuting when the tiny car's clutch goes out (ahem).
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We have two. The most I've had at any one time is three. We could probably go down to one now, but I'd rather not...
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Four ...... FacePunch me.
We have 4 adults in the household (1 is a student) and live in suburban sprawl. Public transportation is difficult other than trains to the city.
All were bought used and are practical except for the decadent Mustang convertible.
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2 - my Fit for the gas mileage and economy and DH's XTerra which burns through $20 worth of gas just turning on the engine. He'll be getting a Subaru once we have sufficient funds for a nice used one.
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One car for a family of five.
edit: we rent a second car about twice a year when the need arises.
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We've been a one-car family (two drivers) for 10 years now. We probably could have ditched the car completely when we moved last month (extremely bike-able, walk-able city with excellent public transportation), but we want something for weekend trips to the coast.
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Two cars for two drivers. We've talked about dropping one at some point, since I mostly don't use my car for getting to work, but we live in Minnesota and it's been good for both of us to have reliable older vehicles when the weather gets nasty and it's impossible to bike or walk.
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1 car, 2 adult household
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zero! manhattan's not car-friendly
Which leads to a favorite of mine...
No one in New York drives... there is too much traffic..
Along those same lines, I don't plan on getting an encyclopedia, either. Let my kids walk to school like I did.
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Owned by my household, or by my personally, or averaged out to number of drivers per household?
My thinking was by household, but feel free to elaborate as necessary with a post
Obviously MMM has two (Fit and a van), some badass will have 0, others are passionate about cars and will have several.
Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
WHAT?!?! When did they get rid of the Scion xA?
I don't think he did, just a mistake from the op.
He also has a truck, though I don't think he technically owns it. So really MMM has 3.
Oops, I had read his post on recommended cars and mistook his recommendation for his ownership.
Does he have a truck or just the van? Seems a bit counter-intuitive for him to have both.
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I need two vehicles. One is a back up to use when the main one breaks. The back up vehicle is a van which is also good for hauling furniture and stuff from Home Depot.
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Zero.
Single, and I ride a bike. Very occasionally take a taxi (like, $5 to get to town, or $12 to get to work).
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One. In our 2 person family. That is in part due to the transmission on DH's PT cruise dying. $3500 repair on an $1800 car, so it clearly didn't happen. However, we were probably only 2 months from selling it anyway. We plan to be a one car family for about a year, and then reevaluate when we move to Japan, where used cars are super cheap. We'll definitely buy one, and likely will pick up a second car for less than $1000 (which isn't even a complete POS there), but that remains to be seen.
We own 3 bikes. I don't fully understand why DH has two, but it's not something I care about, either.
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Owned by my household, or by my personally, or averaged out to number of drivers per household?
My thinking was by household, but feel free to elaborate as necessary with a post
Obviously MMM has two (Fit and a van), some badass will have 0, others are passionate about cars and will have several.
Consider the definition of "car" to be any engine powered vehicle with four or more wheels (i.e. includes trucks and RVs).
WHAT?!?! When did they get rid of the Scion xA?
I don't think he did, just a mistake from the op.
He also has a truck, though I don't think he technically owns it. So really MMM has 3.
Oops, I had read his post on recommended cars and mistook his recommendation for his ownership.
Does he have a truck or just the van? Seems a bit counter-intuitive for him to have both.
He has both. The truck is a 88 toyota or something of the sorts.
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While I've never owned a car, my wife has a Corolla. I've been able to fend off the need to buy another via cycling often.
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0. Sold our car in 2012, after a year of stashing it in my parents' driveway "in case we ever needed it."
We take public transit and/or walk everywhere. We used to take the bus or train to visit family, but with Fido tagging along we now rent a car for those trips (about 2x/year).
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2 cars in a household with 2 drivers. I voted 1 though, because only 1 is mine.
The other car is my husband's and it is not driven for commuting when the weather is warm. So it is more of a seasonal vehicle. In the summer it only gets used if he needs to take out the kayak.
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One for two adults and a toddler.
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I grew up in a big family that only had a van until my older sister was of age to learn to drive (SAHM, Dad biked to work). My parents bought a car with a manual transmission to teach their kids to drive and ofloaded as many errands as the could on teenage drivers. When my wife and I got married we were committed to being able to afford a single income lifestyle which pretty much meant no more than one car (only recently started considering the possibility of owning zero cars). I bike to work (using the same rack and bags that my father used to) or take transit. My wife is starting to bike more too. I haven't been much for winter biking - cold, wet, and/or dark have all been reasons to take transit to work in the past (time has never been a reason for transit as I've never found transit to be faster than biking for any commute I've had) - so my challenge to myself is to extend my biking season this winter.
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Zero... always been zero, except for a year when I owned half of a very old car.
I've just always lived in places where transit, bikes, or walking were good ideas.
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Three for two people. Kind of silly, really.
1997 Saturn--My daily driver. Had it before I got married.
2005 Dodge truck--we got a truck when we bought a house that needed some work. My husband uses it to haul materials, compost, and so on. It's not driven much otherwise.
1998 Saab convertible--My Dad's old car, which he gave to us (my parents usually gave their old cars to us kids when they bought a new one). Very fun to drive; we take it on trips, and my husband uses it when he needs to drive to buy groceries, etc. We don't *need* it, though. It reminds me of many happy memories of my father. When it goes, it won't be replaced.
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We're now down to 4 for 4 people. Don't need that much; 2 people could commute together, 1 is a fun car, 1 person could walk to work (I walk to the train).
When I get married we'll be at 1 car for 2 people, but I might buy my BIL's Camry if he sells it cheap enough. That would be a city beater--I'd use it for going to play and ref hockey and I'd get to ref a lot more because of it, so it probably would pay for itself in a year. As soon as we move out of the city we'll probably have 3 again--the Corolla for wifey (or something similar, but nicer like a Mazda3 or an Acura TSX), whatever cheap but reliable SUV I can find, and some sports car--probably a Miata again.
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Two currently: 93 Camry and 09 Rav4
The Camry was recently out of commission for a couple months so I was biking during that time. I really should be biking though after my doc appt yesterday - BP is at 140/98!!!
I think it's the added stress of prepping for a baby on the way + things at work getting stressful and crazy...
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I recently went from three to four - wrong direction! - after finally buying something I've wanted my whole life. I will probably get rid of one car in the spring. If I had more space and didn't live in the city and had more money that I was willing to spend on discretionary stuff, I'd probably be a cheap-car Jay Leno.
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10. There are 10 cars here and I don't regret a thing! LOL. Actually, it's a hobby that also happens to be considered transportation. Pay cash, add in some sweat equity on weekends and sell when the market's right. If it's something you like, keep it around, turn on insurance only when you drive it, and enjoy. If not, sell it off and live for a month or two off the profits. -C
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Yep, 4 cars for us. My daily driver is a hyundai sonata and my husband drives an older f-150. Since neither of those will accommodate the four grand children we kept my previous vehicle - a ford explorer. We also have a classic mustang that we have had for over 40 years.
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There are nine four-wheeled, engine powered objects on this property.
Of those, three should go, none of them running.
Five run, and one of the non-running ones is a parts car for the daily driver (it's my former daily driver, totaled by insurance and paid out more than we bought it for).
Of the five that run, one is a full-sized backhoe and one is a 4WD dually full-sized pickup that works as a truck on our property only (no insurance or tags because no public road driving).
One is the daily driver, soon to be retired due to length of commute and gradual need for more repairs. We're shopping casually, waiting for a great deal to present itself.
One is a Jeep Wrangler, used in off-road applications such as getting to our home after bad storms, rescuing stranded relatives in ice storms, and going to our favorite areas in the adjoining national forest sometimes - was his daily driver and will be again if he gets a job close by in a couple of years (for now we carpool 35 miles each way to the college where I teach and he has just enrolled).
The last is the backup for the commute if something happens with the daily driver midweek when we don't have time to repair: a 1981 Tercel that cost us $800 a few years ago and was his daily driver when he had more of a commute. Will become his daily again if he gets a job further away than 10-15 miles (likely).
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One car worth $4k
One motorcycle worth $6k
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Two currently: 93 Camry and 09 Rav4
The Camry was recently out of commission for a couple months so I was biking during that time. I really should be biking though after my doc appt yesterday - BP is at 140/98!!!
I think it's the added stress of prepping for a baby on the way + things at work getting stressful and crazy...
Welcome to Team Hypertension! We have coffee and donuts in the corner, but we're not supposed to eat them.
My goal starting September 8th is to bike to work at least 3 times a week until November 1.
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The Camry was recently out of commission for a couple months so I was biking during that time. I really should be biking though after my doc appt yesterday - BP is at 140/98!!!
For a while, I was getting (what turned out to be) spurious high blood pressure readings because I always bike to the doctors office.
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We have one car - 2013 Toyota Prius. Love the car. In addition to the good fuel mileage it has a surprising amount of leg room and cargo capacity.
Also have a Honda Goldwing but there was no spot on the poll for motorcycles.
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Here's my SUV.
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I own 1 - a 91 oldsmobile cutlass ciera.
But I answered 4+ because my SO has 3 running vehicles and 1 non running, plus a quad, and a myers manx.
:)
the newest one is his 96 subaru legacy. The oldest vehicle is 53 Willys flatbed. Plus an '82 Jeep with tires so anti-mustachian I should probably be kicked off the forum by association.
But I love him, and he also does all the maintenance on my car, so I'm not complaining.
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I own 1 - a 91 oldsmobile cutlass ciera.
But I answered 4+ because my SO has 3 running vehicles and 1 non running, plus a quad, and a myers manx.
:)
the newest one is his 96 subaru legacy. The oldest vehicle is 53 Willys flatbed. Plus an '82 Jeep with tires so anti-mustachian I should probably be kicked off the forum by association.
But I love him, and he also does all the maintenance on my car, so I'm not complaining.
Hey, if we're going by ownership, I'm off the hook, too! I (think) I own the Tecel, the dually with no tags, and the flatbed trailer (which does have tags, and no, it can't substitute for the dually because a load of gravel would snap its axle). It came free with a tractor we sold ~5 years ago.
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Two adults, one toddler, two cars:
2013 Volkwagen Jetta TDI, great car, but somewhat of a dumb purchase (more car than I need, bought new...dumb)
2012 Nissan Altima. Decent sedan, no issues thus far, good enough for hauling around a kid and his crap, and paid for.
My wife insists on an SUV if we have a second child, and it's a battle I won't win, so it's either trade in the Altima and get ripped off, or try to sell it for a better price on Craigslist and waste my time dealing flaky lowballers. I was thinking of keeping the Altima and driving it till it dies, while keeping the Jetta in my garage and drive it occasionally to keep it running. Then, when the Altima is dead many years from now, I go back to using the Jetta full time. Is this a dumb idea, keeping a third car, what with still having to pay insurance and local property tax on them? I'd just hate to get ripped off on trade in.
And yes, I realize I could/should sell the Jetta, but I love the car and can't bear to take an even bigger loss on it.
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My wife insists on an SUV if we have a second child
Sounds like you shouldn't have a second kid. (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/09/10/great-news-youre-allowed-to-have-only-one-kid/) :)
When I was a kid my parents took my brother and I on a trip through Nevada to the Grand Canyon and several other parks. The vehicle they choose to haul four people and enough clothes and camping supplies to last over a week? A mid-90s Subaru Legacy wagon.
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Nah. My son has brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined and I think second child would only increase that (difficult infant period notwithstanding.) I agree, getting an SUV is unnecessary, but this is something she is adamant about. The wife is on board with cutting way back on unnecessary spending, takeout, etc. so I'm not gonna go to war over the SUV.
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Nah. My son has brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined and I think second child would only increase that (difficult infant period notwithstanding.) I agree, getting an SUV is unnecessary, but this is something she is adamant about. The wife is on board with cutting way back on unnecessary spending, takeout, etc. so I'm not gonna go to war over the SUV.
Understood. Maybe you could steer towards the relatively smaller SUVs, like a Subaru Forester (24/32 mpg), Honda CR-V (27/34 mpg), Toyota RAV4 (23/30 mpg), etc. [2015 model fuel economy numbers]
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Downsized to one car a few years ago. Bike/transit mostly now. Rent a vehicle as needed a few times per year. Annual vehicle rentals don't add up to one month of second car ownership/operating costs, so, I'm well into the plus column each year.
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1 car a trailblazer - gets horrible has mileage. It's actually posted on craigslist now and once I sell it I probably won't buy another car. I can walk to work and the grocery store and my job gets good deals on rental cars so if I ever needed to rent one it wouldn't be too expensive.
I also have a $10k motorcycle, I know I know it's not Mustacian like. For now I will sell the car and work on the motorcycle later, but I feel like I have to have motorcycle. ( I know I don't NEED one)
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One car for a two-adult family, a 2007 Yaris. We put right around 5,000 miles on it this past year. I strongly suspect someday we'll end up buying a different car for non-mustachian reasons like "it looks cooler" or "it's more comfortable." But I don't really see us increasing the number of cars (or the number of family members) in the future.
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Three adults, two cars and a truck. I'm retired, DH walks to work and college student son drives to school. Newest vehicle is a 2007 and all are in good repair and long paid for. We could get rid of one, but his mom has Alz. and lives with us, so it's just easier if everyone has access to a car. We're FI, they don't cost us much, so meh.