Separate cars

Now we are retired we only have one car, a 12 year old Mereva with no plans to change it. It only does about 2500 miles each year as we use our bus passes a lot and locally if I'm on my own I use a pedal cycle. My wife can drive but does not like driving and won't go any distance.

I gave up my car when I retired and got my bus pass believing we could easily share one car as my husband was planning to spend even more time on his bike when he retired the next year. Things have not turned out as I expected as he need the car in order to get himself and bike to the start of the cycle runs!!!!

All our cars(we have three) belong to me. My daughter drives my old polo as she is back home and I mainly drive the fiesta as I do most miles. We have a very old Volvo estate which is mainly used for dog walking, tip runs and for dh’s golf.

We have a largish 4x4 as we tow a caravan and occasionally a boat and use it for out of town stuff and carrying large stuff. I inherited my DM’s little car and we use that for short trips and when we go into Norwich or shopping. We both drive both cars. But as we live in a small town and shop locally most days we sometimes go days without driving anything.

We live in a biggish town with an excellent bus service and two bus passes. Trains as well if we need them. Taxis in emergency. We feel no need to clutter the roads with one car let alone two. When my husband retired and finially dumped his car ( he hated driving)...we calculated that we could use taxi 22 times a month if necessary for the cost of running a car. It’s seemed a ridiculous waste of money...do our foodshopping on-line... and mist other things and have never been happier OR richer!!

When my husband was alive he would never drive my car. When my car was in for service he offered his. The lights went out coming down the M25 just as I had to take the "fast" lane to leave for my exit. I managed not to get driven into and managed to get through the subsequent winding lanes and then the small town without the Police seeing me, knowing that if I stopped the car would not start again and my husband would not provide for a taxi and I had no money. When I arrived home I said that the electrics had failed coming home leaving me to drive without lights on the M25. He said, "Yes. I knew that was going to happen."

We have two cars, one each. There is a big one for towing our caravan and a smaller one for about town and short journeys. The big one is definitely more comfortable and lively to drive and it's mine whilst the smaller one is more economical in short journeys. We do share though.

We have our own cars. I never ever use his - just don't like the feel of it - but he takes mine at the slightest excuse. Mine is only 2 years old.
I absolutely hate him using my baby. He alters the seats, mirrors, heater, music - everything-& never puts them back. I get in & seat is so far back I miss it sometimes. Takes me ages to get my Spotify playing my play list & mirrors back in line.
I also hate being without a car.
It is a bone of contention all the time.

We both drive and have two vehicles, an old Land Rover Discovery and a camper van. Both belong to DH. We had a great brand new Kia Sportage but DH is a LR fanatic, he’s had five ranging from new to old. I loved the Sportage but DH wanted a LR to tinker about with, I drive it as my car was sold, we didn’t need three vehicles. I refuse to drive the camper van, again DH had always wanted one, I don’t really enjoy it and have never wanted one! I really miss having my own car.

We have two cars that we both share, one is really small and is used for shopping etc, the other larger car has a bike rack on the back so is not used much shopping or town visits. We share the cars and the driving but not the fuel, thats his job!

Our boy has purloined my DH's car so we have to share mine. Neither of us mind.

Luckily in Portugal it is the car that is insured and not the driver so no such problems and there isn't a no claims discount to worry about. As long as the driver is over 25 and has the owner's permission anyone can drive on the insurance.

If you go down to one car who has their name on the insurance as the main driver? And does the other person lose their no claims bonus if they have accrued one. This has always concerned me about going down to one car as my husband would undoubtedly expect to be the main driver on the insurance and keep his no claims bonus.

DH has always preferred small cars so his car is a Juke whereas I, having had a large family, preferred a large car so my car is a Jaguar XF . They are both interchangeable although I prefer the automatic Jaguar. I think my DH has little spacial awareness and finds the size of the Jaguar difficult. We tend to use the Juke for short journeys. He was having a down period recently and said he was going to give up driving. I replied "okay then we will sell the Juke if we don't need 2 cars." He hasn't mentioned it since

We are a two car couple. We both drive my BMW X3 it's such a great car to drive. I'm getting the hang of parking it now although where we live we only have on street parking and it's also the road leading to a main line station and the up line to London Bridge and no resident's parking either. You can imagine the frustrations and we are more than happy if we can get both cars parked on the road at any one time. My OH has an Astra estate which we call 'the allotment car'. I've only driven it once as I felt really low down in the driver's seat and could hardly see over the bonnet. The BMW is so easy to get in and out of (especially when the knees are playing up). I thought the X3 would be too big for me but it isn't and I just love it. OH usually cycles to work. I like to use my Freedom Pass especially now I'm retired and I try to walk most places or use public transport also as we have fantastic transport links where we live.

When DH worked he had a company car so when he retired we decided to see how we got on with just one car. It was fine so we never got another one. I only passed my test when I was 50 and drove an automatic which we shared when DH retired. We had Two Fiat Puntos, a Fiat Marea, an Alfa Romeo 147 (fabulous to drive), a BMW and a Honda Jazz, which we have had for 11 years. The Honda Jazz is such a reliable car, always starts first time even after it has been left on the drive for two or three weeks when we go on holiday. Every year we think perhaps we should get rid of it but it has done less than 50,000 miles and is so reliable it would probably be foolish to replace it, perhaps next year?

They were interchangeable but once we retired we went down to one car that we both agreed upon. Sadly DH had to surrender his licence over a year ago - medical reasons - so I am now the sole driver. The thing I really miss is being able to say "You hover in the car park/drive around the block whilst I pop in and pick something up." Never realised how useful that facility was. Oh well .....

I would never share my care with anyone (only in an emergency) My dear departed husband had a motor bike.

After we retired (I took Early Retirement due to DH's poor health) we got rid of my 15 year old Fiesta under the scrappage scheme & got £2000 off a brand new car, neither of us had ever had a new car. When we had two cars they were interchangeable.

Bought brand new Fiesta 3 door Automatic in 2009, 3 years later I persuaded DH that we needed 5 door so we part-ex our car just before MOT due & got another Fiesta 5 door Automatic brand new, he never drove that car as his confidence in his driving ability had gone. I love driving an Automatic but drove my DM's manual last year just before she sold it as she is no longer able to drive (eyesight problems).

When we got 5 door Fiesta I found myself referring to it as my car not ours as he never drove it. Sadly no longer a DH to share a car with, I've been widowed almost 6 years, so it is my car now

We have two ancient cars that are in good condition, not a speck of rust between them, reliable - and interchangeable. As we have a dog, the estate is used most of the time and the other car is a bit of an ornament - but I couldn't part with it, and if we ever do talk about it within days a situation invariably arises where we end up agreeing that we really do need two. We don't mind having ancient vehicles as neither of us care a fig about having the latest model and consequently we have spent next to nothing on cars for about twenty years!

We each have our own car and never drive each other’s. He used to have a bigger car, but last time he changed it, he bought one like mine, only a newer model which has all sorts of gadgets I don’t want, and 6 gears, so I would not be keen to drive his. I sometimes think how useful it would be, for example if we have to park further away than he can comfortably walk, for me to drop him off then park, but he won’t hear of it. It also means we always take his car for long journeys and do not share the driving. He drives too fast for my comfort. One day I shall refuse to drive with him.
I do need my car to go to see my daughter and to go to places on my own, though I use the bus whenever possible.

We currently have a Juke and an MG TF which is SORN and turning to rust on the drive. DH refuses to sell it for some unknown reason. He won’t drive the Juke either, usually making up a reason on the spot. Don’t feel well, too many blind spots in it! Etc etc.basically just much easier to be a passenger and give a running commentary on my driving. ?
Considering changing to an electric car and they’re doing good scrappage deals, so I live in hope that the MG will go.

we have our own cars, mine is manual, his auto - I avoid, at all costs, dogs going in mine but will drive DH if we are 'sharing' the driving though I dislike it. I once mentioned we might go down to one car one day as we 'mature' the response was entertaining!!

We decided to go down to one car once we’d both retired but just before we got around to it my own car was off the road for repair for almost 5 weeks. That was quite long enough to convince me I needed to keep my own independence as sharing was difficult for us both.

We now share a car (DH's Mazda), probably the best car we've ever had. Before we moved house I also had my own car, a 50 year old classic, which I absolutely adored. But it was soon going to need some serious chassis repairs and the only local restorer in the area we were moving to was horrendously expensive, so very reluctantly I sold it. I really miss that car. Would love to have another classic, so much fun to drive.