The one car household

In short

A friend of mine sold his second car three summers ago and told me he felt like he had lost a limb for about a week. If your household owns two cars and one of them mostly sits, you have probably wondered what it would feel like to let it go. Going down to one car can save real money, and the savings are easy to count. The trade is time and flexibility, and those are harder to count. Start by writing down what each car costs per year, including the parts that hide in the budget. Then list the trips a second car actually makes in a normal month. If the list is short, a one car household may fit you better than you expect.

The whole of it

What it is

I once watched a neighbor spend a full Saturday washing a car he drove twice a week. He loved that car, and I am not here to tell him he was wrong. A one car household is simply a home where two or more adults share a single vehicle, using walking, biking, transit, rides from friends, or rentals for the gaps. Some people choose it to save money. Others choose it to simplify life, or to cut down on driving. It is not a rule for everyone. It is one option, and an honest look at it starts with the cost of the car you might not need.

How it works

If you are holding two sets of keys, you are also holding two sets of bills. Each car brings a loan or a lost chunk of cash tied up in the vehicle. Each one brings insurance, registration, fuel, repairs, tires, and the slow loss of value that comes with age. Drop one car and most of those bills drop with it. Some of them do not. Insurance may fall less than you hope, because the remaining car may be driven more miles.

Now the other side of the ledger. A shared car means shared schedules. Someone has to drop the other person at work, or the other person has to find a way there. That takes time, and time has a price too. Some households fill the gap with a bus pass, a bike, or a car share service. Others lean on a rental a few times a year for the long trips. Each of those has its own cost, and an honest count includes them.

The numbers, and where to find yours

I like to tell people to use their own numbers, because averages tell you little about your garage. Your loan statement shows the monthly payment. Your insurance declarations page shows the premium for each car. Your registration notice shows the yearly fee. Your fuel and repair costs come from your bank or card statements over the last twelve months.

For a sense of what a car costs to own, the American Automobile Association publishes a yearly report called Your Driving Costs, and the Internal Revenue Service sets a standard mileage rate each year for business driving. The IRS rate is set by the agency for tax purposes, so it is not a full picture of your own costs. Still, it gives a rough yardstick. The current figure is the current figure, which the official source publishes each year per mile, and you can confirm it on the IRS website.

Last, price your replacements. A monthly transit pass, a car share membership, and a few rentals a year all have posted prices in your town. Write those down next to the car costs. The comparison only works when both columns hold real figures from your own life.

A worked example

Let me tell you about Marcus and Dana. They live in a mid sized town. They each had a car, and Dana's car sat in the driveway most weekdays because she works from home three days a week.

Marcus and Dana added up the yearly cost of Dana's car. The loan payment was $310 a month, which is $310 times 12, or $3,720 a year. Insurance was $95 a month, which is $95 times 12, or $1,140 a year. Registration was $140 a year. Fuel came to about $60 a month, which is $60 times 12, or $720 a year. Repairs and tires averaged $600 a year. Add it up: $3,720 plus $1,140 plus $140 plus $720 plus $600 is $6,320 a year.

Then they priced the gap. A transit pass for the two days a week Dana commutes was $70 a month, which is $70 times 12, or $840 a year. A car share membership and a few trips added about $400 a year. Four weekend rentals at $85 each came to $340 a year. Together that is $840 plus $400 plus $340, or $1,580 a year.

The difference is $6,320 minus $1,580, which is $4,740 a year. Marcus said the number surprised him. Dana said the number was not the whole story, because on the days the schedule got tight, she felt the pinch. They kept a rule for themselves. If they found they were renting more than twice a month, they would sit down and count again. Fair enough, I would say.

Where it goes wrong

Nobody likes to hear this part, but I would rather you hear it from me than learn it on a rainy Tuesday. The plan breaks when the schedules do not line up. If two people start work at the same hour in opposite directions, one car turns into a daily puzzle. It also breaks when the replacement costs creep up. Rides and rentals feel small one at a time, and they add up quietly.

There is also the matter of the one car you keep. It gets driven more, so it wears faster. A breakdown is a bigger deal when there is no spare. A household without a backup needs a plan for the week the car is in the shop, whether that is a rental, a borrowed car, or a few days of working from home.

Selling a car brings its own wrinkles. If the borrower still owes more on the loan than the car is worth, the lender must be paid in full before the title can pass to a buyer. That gap has to come out of pocket. Check your loan balance against the car's market value before you list anything. Taxes and fees on a sale vary by state, so the motor vehicle agency in your state is the place to ask.

Last, there is the plain human side. Some people feel freer with one car. Others feel boxed in. Neither feeling is wrong. It helps to try a trial run, such as a month of treating the second car as if it were gone, before you sign any papers. You will learn more in that month than in a year of guessing.

Questions to answer before you leave this page

What does each of your cars cost you in a full year, once you count the loan, insurance, registration, fuel, and repairs? How many trips did the second car make last month, and could each one have been done another way? Do the work schedules of everyone in the household line up well enough to share a single car? What would you do in the week the one remaining car sits in a repair shop? How much would your replacements cost for a year, including passes, rides, and rentals? Does the loan on the car you might sell exceed what the car is worth, and could you cover the gap? And when you picture the change, do you feel relief, worry, or a bit of both, and what is that feeling telling you?