Do you really need the auto you drive?
First things first, I’ll admit. We could do without three cars. The packrat in me is saying to keep the Buick until our kids can drive (our oldest is NINE) but by then, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be rusted.
We did need a larger vehicle to transport our kids safely, and on not-so-rare occasions, to transport friends or other family. Often enough so that renting a minivan from time to time really wasn’t a feasible option for our family. Or so I thought at first. Looking at it honestly …
* The last time we needed room for 6 was Mother’s Day. That was over three months ago, and certainly an occasion where we could have rented a car for the day.
* The last time I needed that much room for transporting something was two weeks ago. Before that? January. These were both situations that would have been a pain to rent a U-Haul for, but doable, given the circumstances. Buying a small trailer to hitch to a car might be a more reasonable option.
So, no, I suppose the car I drive is not really “needed”. Guilty. But (and I should have posted this the first time around) where do we draw the line between fun and functionality? How much convenience is OK?
Regardless of whether you’re talking about traveling, recycling, consumerism or cooking, there are choices we have to make and very seldom are they perfect.
I hate the guilt when you stop and think. I’m actually planning on a topic like this at tree hugging, but not about cars (we have only one car). I like the idea of car sharing; but I also don’t like to have plan trips in advance so it’s a tough call what to do. Especially if you live somewhere where you need a car. (like no bus; or far out in the country).
You know, I’m going to go ahead and amend this entry a little bit. I don’t want anyone feeling like I’m trying to call them to task. It’s easy to get caught up in what we “might” need down the road though and base our spending decisions on that instead of what we realistically use.
I can’t ever see myself car sharing. For one, we’re very fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants type people. Having to schedule trips would feel very limiting. Two though, I’ve dealt with so many accidents over the years, that I would be afraid of being home without a car and needing to get to a hospital. Granted, that’s another thing I rarely do but the risk seems to outweigh the benefits for me.
I agree, if there’s an accident or you’re sick a car is a very handy thing to have. I think that the real issue may be availability and cost effectiveness of hybrids. It should be simple to be eco-friendly but the expense when you consider organic foods, clothing, jumping through green building hoops, and more it gets to be frustrating at times.
We have 3 kids in the house, two of whom are boys that play hockey. We need, on a weekly basis, a vehicle that can carry all the crap that comes along with a bunch of active kids. To that end, we have an SUV.
When you live outside the city, having one car just isn’t practical. Our second car is much more economical though. The Protege5 is a 4 cylinder that gets decent gas mileage, but we can still put all 5 of us in it. Well, at least until the boys start getting bigger!
The kid factor is HUGE (and I have a feeling its only going to get worse as they grow lol).