We are finally and reluctantly a two car family again (the last time we had two cars was in November 2004). We bought a very used 1996 Honda Civic EX from a friend of ours. The plan is to drive this thing at most a year and then donate the car to charity.
Right now I am using the car to get to and from rugby practice, and to take boy to and from school when Ali's chaotic rotation schedule requires her to head in early or stay late. We are both resistant to this car though, and only want a temporary second vehicle. Right now we are leaving it parked at my work when not in use (which is most of the time), which allows me to still bike to and from work for most of the week. So far it is parked at our neighbors empty carport 2 nights a week.
We looked into a variety of different solutions to get another car including used cars, long term rentals, and taking over a lease for 6-12 months. The only solution that came close to working was the utilize Zipcar. There is a fleet of 3 cars scattered around the UNM campus, which made it more or less easy for Ali to walk over from the hospital to get the car. We would leave a spare car seat at school with Connor, so she could pick boy up from school and get him home while I was at practice. It had two disadvantages: (1) getting the car back after we were done was slightly tricky as it required either both of us to drive both cars to drop it off the Zipcar or to chuck Ali's bike into the back of the car (mine would not fit) and have her bike home and (2) being inconvenient for me to utilize as it required me to bike the 7 miles to UNM in order to drive it. If time was not an issue, we could have made this work, as I would just have had to leave work and hour before practice to fetch the car. (Unlike last year, this year biking to practice is not really that practical, at least until the switch to daylight savings time, because it involved a lot of on road biking.)
While initially the price of Zipcar seemed steep - $28 bucks for a 3 hour session - I am not convinced that it would have been more expensive that purchasing, operating, and insuring a second vehicle. We will see how our experiment pans out. We will see at the end of our 6 month trial period if we would have come out ahead or behind on the purchasing versus Zipcar front. Right now it depends upon how much use we get out of it, keeping the operational costs low (no breakdowns etc…), and how much we can get in a tax rebate for it when we donate it to the local NPR station. Right now by my estimations, if I drive it to or from work for more than 40 days over the course of our time with it, then each individual trips will work out to be less than a Zipcar session. Obviously if we were to keep it long term the price would go down, but again we are both resistant to a second car until we figure out what Ali will be doing after graduation.
Bottom line, a second car is surprisingly expensive thing, one that I would prefer to be without.
Right now I am using the car to get to and from rugby practice, and to take boy to and from school when Ali's chaotic rotation schedule requires her to head in early or stay late. We are both resistant to this car though, and only want a temporary second vehicle. Right now we are leaving it parked at my work when not in use (which is most of the time), which allows me to still bike to and from work for most of the week. So far it is parked at our neighbors empty carport 2 nights a week.
We looked into a variety of different solutions to get another car including used cars, long term rentals, and taking over a lease for 6-12 months. The only solution that came close to working was the utilize Zipcar. There is a fleet of 3 cars scattered around the UNM campus, which made it more or less easy for Ali to walk over from the hospital to get the car. We would leave a spare car seat at school with Connor, so she could pick boy up from school and get him home while I was at practice. It had two disadvantages: (1) getting the car back after we were done was slightly tricky as it required either both of us to drive both cars to drop it off the Zipcar or to chuck Ali's bike into the back of the car (mine would not fit) and have her bike home and (2) being inconvenient for me to utilize as it required me to bike the 7 miles to UNM in order to drive it. If time was not an issue, we could have made this work, as I would just have had to leave work and hour before practice to fetch the car. (Unlike last year, this year biking to practice is not really that practical, at least until the switch to daylight savings time, because it involved a lot of on road biking.)
While initially the price of Zipcar seemed steep - $28 bucks for a 3 hour session - I am not convinced that it would have been more expensive that purchasing, operating, and insuring a second vehicle. We will see how our experiment pans out. We will see at the end of our 6 month trial period if we would have come out ahead or behind on the purchasing versus Zipcar front. Right now it depends upon how much use we get out of it, keeping the operational costs low (no breakdowns etc…), and how much we can get in a tax rebate for it when we donate it to the local NPR station. Right now by my estimations, if I drive it to or from work for more than 40 days over the course of our time with it, then each individual trips will work out to be less than a Zipcar session. Obviously if we were to keep it long term the price would go down, but again we are both resistant to a second car until we figure out what Ali will be doing after graduation.
Bottom line, a second car is surprisingly expensive thing, one that I would prefer to be without.
1 comment:
Ah. The one car/two car Debate. We know it well. Thank you for testing the hypotheses for us, letting us gain the reward of your trials. And I raise my fist in the air, shouting, "Fie, single commuter driver" [albeit with precious cargo]. JG
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