We have the diesel Jetta for mrAru to commute with [he drives 75 miles each way and it gets 43 MPG] a momvan for me [I need to be able to womanhandle a wheelchair in and out, and the slidey door on the drivers side makes this possible] or for moving all 3 of us around and possibly a few more people as it has all 3 rows of seating and our roomie has an ancient Chevy S-10 that she uses to haul animal feed around in, and haul camping gear when we do SCA events like Pennsic. I do not want to haul bales of hay and straw, and bags of feed around in my mom van, I would like to keep it looking clean and respectable. Pickups exist to haul stuff around to keep passenger vehicles clean.
So people that don’t pay taxes and live off of government handouts are rude?
They may be free to own as many cars as they want, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel however you want to feel about it. I agree with you that it’s inconsiderate for people to hog common spaces. Anyone who says you’re getting your knickers in a twist obviously have never had to deal with the headache of having to force visitors to park a half mile away from your house in the driving rain, while carrying a hot casserole dish and a birthday present, just because there are no nearby parking spots. If you’re rich enough to have a car for every day of the week, you’re rich enough to rent garage space somewhere.
This.
Also this.
The bylaw where I live is a car on the street needs to be moved every 72 hours - if I had neighbours with too many cars who were just parking them long-term on the street, I’d be calling them in as derelict regularly. On-street parking is for daily use cars, not warehousing.
You guys would absolutely hate me!
Yes, I think General Electric is very rude for doing that. On the other hand, a natural person who is poor not by choice but by circumstance, is justified in taking a handout until he or she is able to support himself or herself.
My point was that street parking spaces are a shared resource, and one should attempt to use only one’s fair share, not as a matter of legality but as a matter of fairness.
Tragically, my brother and his girlfriend are in this situation.
She has her Toyota sedan. He has his Prius, which he bought to get better gas mileage than the van that he’s had for years. He really needs the last for installing air conditioners and for plumbing - hard to fit a 3 ton condenser into the back of a Prius.
The 4th vehicle came out of nowhere when his company insisted on supplying him with a company car.
He tries to keep things reasonable by storing the van behind my apartment in one of his rental properties.
We had a neighbor from hell - he used to store his boat in his driveway. Then he’d store two cars on the street in front of other people’s houses. The association came down on him - he has TWO parking spaces. He’s allowed his garage and his driveway. The on street parking is for GUESTS. And yes, because he was the neighbor from hell and I had a contact who was high up on the association board, calls were made when he violated the rules and he hwas fined. He was the same asshole who wouldn’t move his vehicles off the street when the plows come through - thereby making everyone elses driveways inaccessible because the plow couldn’t get close to them. There were some tows of his vehicles involved during every winter that douchebag lived here. Thank GOD HE MOVED!
We did find it hysterical one night when the SUV he insisted parking in front of another neighbor’s house right near a curve got side swiped by a hit and run driver.
But we’re mean like that. The stories I could tell about this guy…
I can see one per driver plus the SUV (or a pickup truck) for delivering large things - say, if you bought a bookcase from Ikea. (I owned a Camry for 10 years, which had only a small hole between the trunk and the back seats, so anything longer than about 5 feet (which would fit in the rear seating area) and wider than about 2 feet wouldn’t fit in the car; my current Fusion Hybrid doesn’t have any connection between the trunk and the rear at all, because that’s where the hybrid battery is located).
Go out and paint while stripes to indicate parking spaces too small for RV use.
1987 Toyota MR2 - parked in the garage amongst various parts. Garage door is closed. Fun car but under construction.
1986 Toyota Corolla - Parked on the gravel beside the garage, beat to crap and horrible to look at. Winter commuter–does well on ice/snow and I won’t care if someone wrecks it.
1992 VW Golf - Hate it myself, but the wife loves it. Summer commuter–lethal on slippery roads. It gets parked when the Corolla comes out.
2005 Neon SRT4 - Wife’s car. Dependable, presentable, commuter.
2009 Sedona - personnel carrier (4 kids), road tripper, hardware hauler.
In a pinch, the old cars would go. But nothing gets parked on the street. All you see on casual observation is the van, the neon, and one other on the gravel next to the driveway.
God almighty. I thought maybe you guys just forgot you had old cars and kept buying new ones. 
Don’t you do trade-ins? Or sell your old car?
I’m a guy with 3 motorcycles, could easily be cars if that was my thing. My opinion is stay out of my wallet.
Do you really think the OP is complaining about money?
They probably need one car per person, but I can see them wanting more. On the other hand, there’s no such thing as street parking here, so you can have as many cars as you can fit in your driveway. Ours is 1/8th of a mile long, so I guess we could fit several more if we had a mind to.
With my current “backup” car, I’d get pretty close to nothing selling it let alone trading it in, but it’s still a perfectly functional car. Especially since I know all the maintenance and such has been done over the previous decade or so that I was driving it regularly. It costs me about $50 a year to keep between insurance and the bi-annual oil changes (my state also has permanent registration for old cars, which makes keeping an old jalopie around a bit more attractive.) The way I figure it, it costs me less than adding rental coverage on my insurance and it does come in handy from time to time.
Of course, I’m also a bit of a car hoarder anyways with funky old cars, so grain of salt and all that. And, for the record, I can juuuust squeeze the fleet into the on-street parking in front of my house.
Well, it’s funny. Wife had the Neon when we met, I had the MR2 which became a project almost immediately (engine trouble). Minivan was a necessity for hauling the kids around. The Corolla was given to us by the FIL who was moving back to Philippines–so hey, free reliable car. Then one day at work, the wife talked some guy into selling her the Golf for $800. Put another $800 into it and now it’s worth $3k easily but good luck trying to talk her into selling it. I dunno, they just kind of pile up on you. It IS ridiculous. And I admit right here if I ever come across a '76 Celica GT in decent shape it WILL be #6 even if I have to turn tricks for a while.
This isn’t a “how many cars do they need” question, it’s a “how much space on a street should someone take up” question. The answer is the space in front of the residence.
If I had a farm I’d have an economy car, a touring car for hauling people, a sports car for fun, and a box truck for hauling stuff. If cars were my hobby then it would of course be what I could afford to buy “Jay Leno Style”.
It IS funny. This line actually made me laugh out loud. I mean, they just pile up on you? I have NEVER had that problem! Even my first car, which is the car I loved the most, went right to a donation program when I got the next one.
Well, thank you and Greasyjack for explaining! 
I, myself, wouldn’t mind having at least three cars, though I could probably extend that list well into double digits.
But if there are space and parking considerations, one per person is likely more practical.