By Robert Emslie
You’ve probably heard the socialistic maxim – (Marxim?) which is to share and share alike. That’s all well and good in theory, but especially when it comes to bacon and cars, it can a tough dictum to follow. Whether spouse or sibling, parent of child – having to share a car can cause all kinds of ruckus.
I was lucky when I got married, both my wife and I not only each had a daily driver, but we each additionally had one or more fun cars as well. Having a toal of five cars between us there was never any fighting over the keys. These days, I greatly appreciate the advent of memory seats and mirrors because, while the family car collection has kept apace of the added kids, there are only a select few members of the current stable I am willing to share.
But what about you? After all, not everyone marries into a car-nut family, or is lucky enough to be able to buy or be gifted with their very own car. Do you have to share a car or truck with someone? If so, how does that work for you, do you roshambo for dibs? Have you set up rules for your ride, things like no food containers or farts left in the car after its use? If you do share, how do you keep from pulling out your hair?
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Jeff Glucker
My ex and I each had our own vehicle, me a car and him a pickup. We had no problem in sharing our vehicles with each other. Now, I'm the only one who drives my car.
I ran into my ex a couple of weeks ago. I put it in reverse and hit him again. JOKE!
My wife and I each have our own DDs. When we go anywhere together, particularly road trips, we take her Edge. It's much more comfortable and fuel efficient than my Jeep. Though, when we take the dog to the park or hiking we take the Jeep because it's more tolerant of dirt and mud on the inside.
Luckily, we never have to adjust seats or mirrors. I specifically married a woman dimensionally similar to me to avoid this problem.
What the hell? I made a comment here earlier about my wife's Jeep being our go to vehicle because it gets better gas mileage than the others. Then I came to the page again, and the comment was duplicated. So I deleted the duplicate. Now the comment is gone entirely. Damn internet.
I blame the sequester.
I'm in the same boat.
I wasn't upset the wife choose a very boring and unexciting 2006 Impala as her car when I got her TrailBlazer after my baby Blazer was wrecked. We use her car for just about everything we do together or as a family. When we purchased the car it had 32,000 miles on it and the Trailvoy had 158,000. She now has 141,000 on it and the trailvoy has 180,000.
The only thing the Trailvoy does is patrol Rulandstan and go back and forth to work. Easy, enjoyable miles.
Very topical for our house. Between my wife and I there are four cars at our house, two of them she doesn't like to drive. We're about to add two motorists to the world. I'm planning to expand the fleet accordingly but the Mrs. doesn't approve.
Two drivers and four cars. . . are you simply doubling the cars for the number of drivers? Or going by powers of 2?
Because if x= the number of drivers and y=the number of cars, 2^x=y justifies you having 16 cars, whereas 2x=y gives you only 8.
You should definitely go with powers of 2.
See honey, math tells us I must buy more cars.
That won't work for me. My wife knows I'm a geologist.
I think I can make due with 8. I have a friend who has 16. He is not a wealthy guy, and it's more trouble than it's worth.
My girlfriend has a Scion tC, and I have both my Cressida and my Tracker. Aside from her ever needing to carry stuff, we both take our own cars for the most part. When we go places together, we alternate cars, but trips of any distance are taken in my car solely because of how uncomfortable the seats in the Scion are, fuel economy be damned.
I don't share a car anymore, although I did co-own a Legacy a few friends and I specifically bought for a rally. Nowadays my cars need to share me!
I have a 1971 Cutlass as my toy and a 1997 C36 AMG as my daily driver. My wife know I'm quite fond of both these cars therefor she doesn't want to drive either for fear something bad will happen while she's driving. We have a 1996 Land Rover Disco for camping and towing the boat. She's driven it a handful of times. Mostly she just sticks to her Vibe, and I drive it too when we have errands to run as a family, it's by far the most economical of all our vehicles.
With the Phaeton gone, my wife and I share her Civic. It's been really interesting, as it forces me to think– Do I really need to go to X and can I combine that tomorrow with trips to Y and Z.
Also, I am seriously considering signing up for Zipcar and seeing how that experiment goes.
But finally, I have the high bid on a car on eBay with 2 days left, but alas, I have not yet hit the reserve price.
Jim, ZipCar is very convenient (if you happen to be near one of their locations). We used it in Seattle this weekend on vacation for a day and loved it. Not having to think about gas as a separate, additional cost was nice. And in our case we drove the hell out of it in our rental time span.
The person with the longest penis gets to drive.
Almost always, that means me, but there are some awkward moments on those rare occasions when a neighbor asks for a ride someplace.
My wife and I have 3 cars between us. We don't really share all that much- she drives her Jeep, I drive the Blazer or the Spirit. She refuses to drive the Spirit- she's backed it out of the garage once. Same reasoning as lost_and_found's wife. That said, it's not uncommon for one of the vehicles to be down for repairs, which sometimes requires a little switching around.
There was a couple weeks this winter when I was rebuilding the rear end in the Blazer and there was snow on the ground (so no driving the Spirit), so we shared the Jeep briefly. That got old quick, especially since we work on opposite ends of town.
My pseudo-wife and I each have our own cars – her a Civic, me a 94 Fleetwood. We both share the Civic (especially when it's the easier one to get out of the driveway), but the Fleet is just "too damn big" for her to take.. That, along with my OCD nature and love of the car means she's scared shitless of hitting something or scratching the car.. It's also scheduled to get a T56, so that'll make it impossible for her to drive since she can't drive stick.
Additionally, other than our cars, both our families live within 10 minutes and freely share their cars or swap with the Civic when we need to – Silverado pickup, Roadmaster Wagon, F-350, Mazda 6, Honda Fit.. In other words, we almost always have the right vehicle for the trip/job.. Works out nicely, and since no one ever wants to take my baby (despite offering), I get to keep it pristine and one-driver
No.
The closest I got was bumming a ride in my pals VW race car at DEs. One weekend I drove it the first session and he got thru the warmup lap and came in with a death rattle. I felt terrible about it and tried to make it up by sending a print of him and his car on track. Took a year or 2 to get it fixed.
Once in a while, my wife will borrow the truck for work. Usually that means grinding gears (oh, clutch, right) and a smokey burnout (clutch dump, FTW) as she leaves the house. I dont mind sharing with my wife.
Three cars, one truck, one motorcycle; two drivers. Only one car has an automatic, and so that's the one she drives. She has even covered it in girly butterfly and flower stickers to stake her claim and ensure I don't borrow it too often.
The sweetheart that she is, she actually sold her automatic Cavalier in order to fund the WRX. However, after a few attempts at driving stick shift and right-hand-drive the shared-car idea was aborted and we had to buy another automatic.
Heck no. In fact I have cars to spare, which is a good thing since my wife's Highlander just cracked its radiator, so she is driving my Mazdaspeed 3 and I am driving my LTD until I can fix her car today.
In a house of 4, well all share my 2001 Buick LeSabre. About to come on to 200k miles. 3 out of 4 of us are working, 2 of us driving and the other 2 are learning. My girlfriend and I are the main drivers. This car doesn't have memory seating unfortunately, I'm 6'2" and she is 4'11". lol This year, I believe, we are all getting our own cars and the Buick is getting replaced… or kept till the wheels fall off, haven't decided yet!
Sort of. My wife has the Trailblazer as her primary vehicle and the primary "family car". I have my Silverado and my truck and DD. However, my wife works part time in the late afternoon/evenings. We usually meet somewhere and swap cars. This is mainly due to my almost 2 year old daughter. While my truck does have a car seat base it is usually just easier to swap vehicles than move the little one and her car seat. When I get back in my truck the next morning to go to work it usually involves moving the seat back, adjusting the mirrors and changing the radio station and volume. I have given up on leaving spare change in the console, it disappears. I think I have finally convinced my wife to leave the gum in the console and not to stick it in her purse. I have tried to also keep a pair of sunglasses for me in the Trailblazer, it is a struggle.
It depends. I'm happy to let people drive my daily driver, but on the 2-3 occasions I've let someone else drive the racecar, they've spun and in one instance almost hit a lightpole. Now no-one but me drives the racecar, ever.
…or to be more accurate, no-one currently drives the racecar, as it's stuck in my garage with 16 bent valves. Oops.
I drive a truck, so yeah, I share my ride. In fact, I'm getting paid to share it tomorrow to make some dump runs.
I'm single, so it's just me and the cat in the house, and the cat can't drive.
So, no sharing.
I'm guessing you don't own Toonces then.
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Mostly no, but sometimes yes. My wife has her Civic, and I've got my Jeep. There has to be some overriding reason for me to drive the Civic, often to the auto parts store because I've got the Jeep on stands in the garage. You know, to buy the thing I should have remembered before I started, but didn't. That thing. You know the one.
There's a few other occasions, if we're on a long road trip in the Civic, we'll trade (but see below). But it's 90% her car.
It's also an automatic, which is why she doesn't drive the Jeep. It's got an awesome 5 speed. Which means, if we're road tripping in the Jeep, I'm driving. I'd let her drive if she'd learn how, and there's an open offer to teach her. She hasn't made time for it.
One person has driven my Jeep without me in the passenger seat. I've known him for 20 years, he stood up at my wedding and if he needed to move a body, I'd help. I might let my brother and one other friend borrow it if they asked, but they both know how to drive a manual and fit the same description. I cannot imagine loaning it to anyone who didn't.
No wife – no problem. Generally I strongly dislike sharing my car or even letting anybody else drive it for that matter. I guess I'm very possessive. 🙂 But the truth is I'm just afraid they'll break something.
My wife and I share both our cars depending on the trip. I mostly drive the older BMW and she mostly drives the new Fiesta. It's really a good situation, plus we're getting a Cayenne soon and the same "rules" will apply.
The Mrs. daily drives my F150 to/from her 2 mile commute to work, while I dd her Impreza to/from my 40 mile commute to work. I drive the truck on weekends to run errands as I miss it. But we take the Subaru if heading into downtown during the evening as its easier to park.
My wife and I have 3 cars; Bullmobile ( '04 Taurus ), Rat-L-Trap (rat rod) and her '13 Soul. She refuses to have anything to do with Rat-L-Trap and when we go anywhere as a family I drive her Soul. If her and I are going somewhere without kids we might take Bullmobile as it has bench seat.
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LeMons Rule 5.1: …An Entry's minimum driver count is four and maximum driver count is six….
Not so much shared with other drivers as forced upon them.
That's why it has a sturdy five-point restraint system.
My Daily Driver is a 1996 Honda Accord that I share with my sister, except we live across town from each other and I have to walk 2 miles to get to where it's parked, rendering it somewhat useless for using regularly.
I have to share my ride with my GF, she actually drives it almost more than I do. However I choose to pay the car, so I decide which one its gonna be. Just ditched the old Rover for a nice BMWRe36 coupe, which I feel is safer for her travels. Oh, and because RWD ofcourse.
My daily driver is a 2010 Acura TSX. I have a 110 mile round trip commute, so the relative fuel efficiency of the TSX is appreciated. We recently replaced my wife's daily driver (previously a 2004 Cadillac DeVille) with a 2013 BMW x5 xDrive35d. The BMW is an amazing car. The torque from the diesel makes it a fantastic and relatively quick cruiser. She mainly sticks to the BMW, and it's the car we take on trips. Also in our "collection" is a 996 911 Carrera, my previous daily driver and now weekend car. It is nearing 150,000 miles and is still running strong. The wife will drive it on occasion, but isn't always comfortable driving it because it is a manual. We also have a '91 Toyota pickup. It doesn't get much use. It's used to haul our bikes, trash, and if we would ever have to escape our rural home if the weather got bad. Lastly we have a 1991 Geo Storm that my friends and I plan on gutting and hopefully running in Lemon's next year.
I drive my wife's '04 Accent, since I need a car for work, and it's far more convenient and cheaper for her to take transit since she works downtown. Other than that, we live within a km or so of virtually everything we need, have bikes, and are both members of a car sharing service (Car2Go) as a backup. Plus, with street parking only, having a second car would be a pain. If I'm lucky, we'll add a motorcycle to the fleet by the end of the summer though.
What I'm getting out of these comments is… it's pretty normal that my (awesome) girlfriend doesn't like to drive manual transmission? I used to think it was pretty lame, but I'm learning that very few women actually enjoy it. I do wish she did: the visions of my future self driving an automatic Mazda5 are unsettling.
My girlfriend knows how to row the stick very well indeed
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3 drivers (Me, wife, daughter) plus 2 cars ('91 Volvo 245, '99 Saab 9-3) plus No money for ride #3 = No joy for you know who
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If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Appreciate it!