This is really more of a philosophical question than it is a practical one. I’m less interested in statements like “No, she drives a new car and I drive a beater, so I worry mine will break down” than I am statements like “She drives a new car and I drive a beater so that if the car breaks down, the person driving it might have some clue what goes on under the hood”
Still, any insights into this issue are welcome.
At this house, the answer seems to be “yes”.
3 people, 3 cars.
Car A, driven by Mom, kept well maintained.
Car B, driven by Dad, gets its oil changed once in a while. Had major repair work done recently–but what inspired this question was when Dad said “Honey, I’d rather you didn’t drive the car home from the body shop–sometimes the clutch sticks”. Mom made an appointment the day after it came home from the body shop for a new clutch–and assorted other routine maintenance which was being neglected.
Car C, driven by Me. Kept reasonably well maintained–although I’ll admit that just before my recent thousand mile journey–Dad’s the one who added oil, and windshield wiper fluid, and air to the tires. I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to it, even though I should have.
So to recap: Mom worries about Dad’s car, because he only worries about it when she’s driving. Dad worries about Mom’s car and my car, because he worries about us. I worry about Dad’s car–same reason as Mom.
I’m not sure what the difference is between those two satements, but here is how it works at my house. My wife always drives the better of our vehicles because A) she generally has the kids with her; B) if she gets stranded she can do nothing more than call me, then entertain the kids until I get there; and C) I prefer her to have the most reliable vehicle possible. I don’t mind taking my chances in a beater.
Also, whenever we have to take both vehicles to the same place at the same time, I will always follow her. If she breaks down or gets in an accident I want to be there immediately. If it happens to me - oh, well.
That pretty much describes me and Mrs Geek for most of our married life.
I never cared much about having a fancy car, so I used to drive some real beaters. My friends and co-workers even gave them nicknames. There was the “uncle buck” car (which if you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about), the “bondo bandit” and the “bronze bomb” (the nice thing about a bronze colored buick is that the rust almost matches the paint).
I think part of it is the knowledge that if something went wrong with one of the beaters there was a good chance I could at least get it home, whereas Mrs Geek can’t even change a tire if it goes flat. The uncle buck car had a coolant leak and blew a power steering hose (not at the same time - 2 different incidents). The bondo bandit lost its clutch (which made getting home a LOT of fun) and was famous for dropping bits of its exhaust system all over the road. When the bondo bandit decided to drop everything from the muffler on back onto the middle of the road, I just hopped out, threw the remnants into the back of the truck, found some old wire inside the truck, and crawled underneath and tied up the remaining bits so that nothing dragged. Mrs Geek would have been stranded. Similarly, when the uncle buck car lost its power steering, Mrs Geek would have probably panicked, and maybe would have wrecked. I just calmly pulled over, crawled underneath to see what had gone wrong, mumbled a few curse words, and muscled the car home.
A couple of years ago, we went out for putt putt golf and I came home with a used cadillac, so now for a change I’ve got the better car. I still have a beater pick up truck, because let’s face it, you don’t want to throw a bunch of crap into the bed of a nice new truck, but you can throw all kinds of crap into an old beater and not think twice about it.