Should we become a one car family?

[icyappraiser]

So, I am debating selling one of our cars. Help me decide what to do!

Background info:

Currently, it just my wife & I in the house and we both WFH most of the time. If we do sell, it would be "my car". My wife is not a big fan of the idea, so if we go through with it I'd like to minimize the impact to her as much as possible (since this is my idea and we don't NEED the extra money) - I'd be the one biking or going out of my way in situations where this would cause us any inconvenience.

It looks like I may be going into the office maybe ~1 day/month going forward for team building/brainstorming, but my office is 9 miles away and we have an e-bike I can take in all but the worst of the winter months. My wife drives to client visits for business 1-2 days a week and WFH the rest of the time. She will use "her" car for this purpose, the car we are definitely keeping.

I expect our situation to be stable in the short to medium term, until we have kids that have places to be or unless there is some drastic change in our companies post-pandemic plans.

Lately I find we only "need" both cars (i.e. we are each in different locations that require driving to) maybe once a month on average, since most outings are together or the other one remains at home.

"My" car that we would sell is a 2017, 52k miles, hatchback, fuel efficient (35mpg), worth about $15-16k in today's crazy used car market. It is paid off and insurance runs about $800/year, registration $130/year.

Me: age 30
Wife: age 28
NW: ~$800K
HHI: $195K
Annual Spending: ~$35-40K
No Debt

What say you, Mustachians?

[Just_Me]

Sell it and feel good about taking an Uber once a month if the weather sucks.

[six-car-habit]

 You say "currently" its just the two of you in the house, did someone recently leave, or do you expect children soon ?

 I'm not sure why you'd sell a reliable, known history, low milage, < 5yrs old, good mpg car for $15000...
  Can you not set it aside for a few months, during a "test-run" ?

 Compared to the amount of income you could potentially continue to save at these spending/income levels [ $100K annually], and the amount already saved, 15K seems small compared to the hassle and expense of buying another car if your wife eventually doesn't want to live as a one car household.
 I'd cancell the insurance except for comprehensive [ tree falls on it, theft or break in] and park it.  And reassess after a year. Buy a $50 trickle battery charger.

  On days your wife has a client visit , you get wet, if you have to ride the E-bike  -or- she drops you off early and picks you up late on the day you need to be in the office.

[Fru-Gal]

Sell and use a car share when need arises, or arrange to share a neighbor's car. You may never get this good a price selling a used car!

Yes, cars are convenient, and yours does sound like a good one to keep around, but you also have maintenance. And the pure simplicity of no longer paying for something you barely use "just in case" is a great feeling. I applaud your focus on not impacting your wife.

Source: Family of 4, 1 car, many bikes/buses/trains/ferries for 15 years+. And very infrequent use of car share.

[AccidentialMustache]

Beyond kids, how close and how old are your parents/in-laws. We were a 1-car couple and family for 20 years, but we ended up getting a second recently because we're having more need to be able to go help our parents without a lot of planning time. Since we have a kid and soccer/friends are a haul, biking/bus/walk isn't a great option. The timing on bus/uber for those things is also potentially problematic (it exists, but we aren't a huge market here, so substantial delays for a 5-10 minute ride are a thing).

[chemistk]

My parents, who are frugal but definitely not MMM-esque, have been without two cars for the past 5, maybe 6 years. My Dad runs or bikes to work, albeit a closer distance than you, every day including rain and cold.

It works out better than fine for them, there's not been a single time when they've been in a pickle because they didn't have a second vehicle. They can plan ahead for maintenance or other times when one of them takes the car for a couple days - my Dad can borrow a work truck or more often, one of them will just rent a car.

Do it!

[Tester]

We were one car for 6 years, no car for the first 9 months in the USA (those first 9 months with one 3 year old kid).
Since June we are two cars.
I thought it is a waste/face punch, especially as I am WFH and DW is SAHM.

But, with two kids, 9 and 3, we are finding ourselves leaving the house at the same time in two different directions.


Still, in your case, I would sell it and buy another one when it is needed.

Another angle to look at:
You are at 800K (don't know what HHI part is :)) net worth with expenses at 40k - so you are really really close to FIRE/you could just get part time jobs for a while? Does that mean that selling the car won't really move the needle - although selling it for 15k would mean almost half year of expenses :).
Sell it, get barista job and FIRE.

We are at 570k NW, with only 270k invested, with much bigger expenses so we are far from FIRE.

[RWD]

I'm not sure why you'd sell a reliable, known history, low milage, < 5yrs old, good mpg car for $15000...
  Can you not set it aside for a few months, during a "test-run" ?

 Compared to the amount of income you could potentially continue to save at these spending/income levels [ $100K annually], and the amount already saved, 15K seems small compared to the hassle and expense of buying another car if your wife eventually doesn't want to live as a one car household.

This. Seems like over-optimization when you're already more than fine financially.

[jac941]

Cars are a money pit. Even if they’re paid off and reliable and hardly driven they still cost quite a bit to own between insurance and regular maintenance. They’re also a drain on the mental load - they need maintenance appointments, smog check, registration fees paid, gas, battery tending if infrequently driven, moving for street sweeping, etc. The mental load is real and not worth taking on for a seldom used vehicle. I feel even more strongly about this now that I have kids who come with their own significant mental load.

Our kids are 9 & 7 yrs old and we only have 1 car. On the extremely rare occasion we need 2 cars, someone takes Lyft. Most of the time we bike, walk, or take transit.