We have one car, and it’s 2.5 years old and hasn’t hit 10,000 miles yet. The previous car was 14 years old and hadn’t hit 70k miles. I bought it in my single days - I’m 5’1", so leg room wasn’t exactly an issue. But Tom Scud is 6’2’, so when the old Sentra AC condenser went out and the repair was going to be a significant chunk of the value of the car, we decided to upgrade, and not having his legs hit the steering wheel if he was driving was a bonus.
I do most of the driving, unless we’re on a road trip and we alternate. It makes us both happier - he hates driving, and I don’t mind for daily errands and such.
I’ve never lived in a multi-car household. My parents (when they were still married) had one car, and Dad commuted by train. I think he did most of the driving when we went out as a family, but they probably put equal mileage on it all in all.
Dad has a new car, and mom’s isn’t quite a beater, but several years old. However, Dad works and Mom no longer does, so he needs a car that won’t leave him by the side of the road more.
I had a '94 Legend that was the automotive LOVE of my LIFE- the best car ever made, as far I’m concerned! I bought it in 1997 when it was turned in at the end of a 3-year lease in perfect condition. I drove it until 11/22/2005 when I was t-boned by a drunk bastard who ran a red light at 50mph! I actually tried to steer toward him when I realized what was happening because I had my 26-month-old nephew in the back seat!!! I don’t recall doing that, but that’s what the accident investigator determined…instinct, I guess.
The passenger door panel crushed my right leg (it was in the middle of the car) and the roof buckled upward because he hit me so hard. That caused the windshield to pop out of the frame but it held together despite being shattered into a million pieces. But that caused a freakish thing that none of the cops or paramedics had encountered before…the rearview mirror broke loose from the windshield, nailed me on the side and top of the head and left most of the mirror glass in my skull…and 46 staples in my skull later, that was good as new! Then they had to cut through the upper door frame and part of the roof away to get me out.
But I didn’t care about any of it because the entire time, the lady driving the car behind me was standing 10-feet away holding my nephew! Not a scratch on the kid!
The only death that day was my Legend. It had 272k miles on it and was just getting broken in…I still miss it!
Back on topic, my mom is now 60 and step-dad is 65. But she has a 2013 Mazda CX-9 (sticker price of $39k) and he drives a 2004 Honda Accord LX with almost (or maybe over) 300k miles on it! So mom has the sweet ride and dad has the high-mileage, slightly-tattered-looking 10 year old Accord…
It was a really nice car. I rode in it a lot, and actually only got to drive it one weekend when my car was out of commission, but I remember enjoying driving it, and I actually asked my parents if I could have it after my mom retired, but my sister needed it more. I already had another car at the time, so I let her have it ;), but I would have loved to have gotten it.
Still wish I had held on to that Volvo 240. That thing was built like a tank. I actually tried to kill it, but it just wound’t die, even after 3 solid years of intentionally ignoring all maintenance and general abuse. I have no doubts someone is still driving that thing around.
We’ve been married 40 years. We had two cars from about '85 to '00. During that period. I drove an '85 VW Golf and she drove a slightly older '83 Chrysler K wagon. About 1990 the wagon was replaced by a '90 Caravan and in '95 the Golf was replaced by a '95 Golf. So it changed back and forth. In '99, her vision got too poor to drive, and shortly thereafter we replaced both cars with '03 a Jetta station wagon which is the only car we still have.
That is all the cars either of us have ever owned except for a '72 Dodge Dart purchased new. So in 80 people years of marriage, we’ve owned 6 cars. Most we’ve owned for > 10 years.
My parents’s cars were usually within a few model years of each other. My dad commuted 40 or so miles to work each day, so he usually had the one with the better gas mileage.
Suburban Plankton and I have kind of switched off getting the “new car”. What happens is, when I need a new car, I get one. When his car needs replacing, he gets one. We tend to drive our cars until they die (or get crashed or something) so at some point either one of us was driving a very old car and the other was driving a much newer one. At the moment he drives a 2004 Passat and I have a 2008 Outback so our cars are relatively even.
As a single (once) young gay man with no interest in having kids, I never kept a car for more than two years from age 16 until after I turned 30! At least I had the good sense to buy/lease cars with high residual values (all Hondas and Acuras) during those 14 years. Still, I spent a lot of money to drive a new, top-of-the-line Prelude, Accord, TSX or TL all the time!
Funny how life rarely works out the way I think it should. I bought a 2006 Mazda3 when I was 30 and a few months later, I decided to buy a new luxury townhouse (more than twice what I should have been spending on a house at the time, in late 2005). By mid-2007, my high-paying job in the housing industry was history and I was suddenly making 40% of my former income. I paid off the Mazda, thankful not to have a car payment and tried to keep up payments on the townhouse until I finally had to let it go…
Then I moved back to my hometown, just in time for my baby sister (11yrs younger than me) to start using heroin with her live-in baby-daddy…and I filed for custody of my then 15-month old niece and was her court-appointed guardian for more than a year. Soon thereafter, little sis had a relapse while pregnant with her second child from a different guy and she used until I managed to get her arrested on a possession charge well into her 2nd trimester! She eventually was released and started using (in 3rd trimester now), overdosed and was placed on a ventilator for more than 48 hours. She recovered and, even more miraculously, my nephew was and is PERFECT despite her drug abuse while she was pregnant! I was awarded guardianship and custody of him before he was released from the hospital and took him home when he was five days old!
Suddenly, Mr. Single No Kids needed a larger, safer, newer vehicle…so I bought a 2012 Mazda CX-9. At the age of 36, I was self-employed, living in a house next door to my my parents and a single ‘dad’ with custody of my 4-yr old niece and newborn nephew! So I was the Mom and the Dad and I got the nice car…
This insane story actually has a happy ending. My baby sister is now 32 months clean, married to my nephew’s father and being a pretty damn good mom to both of them! And I’m ready to sell my sporty, gorgeous CX-9 that only gets 17mpg…
I drive a 2001 pickup (that I keep in prime condition) while my wife drives 2 year old SUV. That has been the pattern for all our marriage. I’ve always wanted her to have a reliable car; that doesn’t seem nearly as important for me. I admit I am an old and perhaps sexist husband. In the last 49 years, I expect she has driven one of my trucks less than a couple of dozen times. A major exception to that is when we are traveling; if I get sleepy I ask her to drive. This seems to be happening more with greater frequency in the past few years.
When we drive together, we mostly take her car. She says it is because she prefers for me to drive, but I know that it is so she can look for estate sales and such.
We own a 5-year-old minivan and a 13-year-old sedan. Whoever is driving the kids around takes the minivan, whoever is not takes the sedan. Which means that I am usually driving the minivan and my husband is driving the sedan. Although he typically bikes to work, so the sedan is usually just sitting in our driveway during the week.
So I do drive the nicer vehicle, but it’s just how it worked out from a practical standpoint. When our sedan finally dies, we will get a new sedan so whoever is not on kid duty will get to drive the new car. Which will mostly be my husband.
Back when I was a kid, my dad had the ‘family’ car. My mother, when she did have a car (which was not always, due to asshole dad), it was a beater. When they traded in her old van a couple of years back for a Jeep, she refused to drive it, and so it became my dad’s car and she took the Impala. We had a helluva fight with him when he decided to trade sell it to the nephew and started working on leasing a new car (they’re in their late 70’s, why buy at this point?) entirely without any input from mom, who would be driving it. When he called my older sister from the dealership, she called nephew and had him drive our mother out there NOW so she could test drive it before he signed the paperwork.
My sister and BIL. He drives the family van. She drives the Mercedes. Before that she had a Jaguar.
Come to think of it, we are recreating the pattern in my family of origin. We buy a new car for one or the other of us, and that person drives that car until it dies. The car I drive mostly is the car I drove mostly when it was new and my wife’s car was the old beater. My mom didn’t work out of the home, so my dad drove the newer car until it died, then they got another for my dad, until my mom’s car died and they bought a newer one for her.
My wife has always driven the “nicer” car, even when they were relatively similar in age/style/class.
To be honest, I beat the shit out of the things, tossing my wrappers/pens/etc wherever the hell I want. She keeps hers relatively spotless. There really is no question as to who should own the “nicer” car in our household - regardless of make, hers will end up being the nicest by default.
In my house I drive “my” car, and she drives “her” car.
What I mean by that is whenever the ‘beater’ gets replaced, that person is then driving the newer car, and the other person now has the beater by default.
It’s comforting to see other people that have situations that have to be dealt with when driving as a couple. When my wife I first met, she would freak out when I drove. She would accuse me of being a “late breaker.” I work on it; she still has to occasionally give me a gentle reminder that I’m doing something that makes her nervous; but for the most part I’m a lot better.
Yeah, that’s my perception too; but I finally just accept the fact that even if you were dealing with a salesperson that you knew to be honest; the fact remains that you’re dealing with someone who brokers car deals many times in a day, and most customers buy a car, what, about every 3 or 4 years if they’re lucky? Once I accepted that fact I stopped going to typical car dealers and have done most of my business with CarMax. I respect your right to make a profit. But it’s pre set for me or the next guy that comes in. I don’t have the anxiety of getting ripped off; and I’ve very good experiences from their 7 day return - no questions asked, and 30 day - fix almost anything guarantee. Yes I’ve used both.
It had 272k miles on it and was just getting broken in…I still miss it!
