Downsizing to one car from two cars in a family can save you a great deal of money on your monthly bills while at the same time making it more difficult to coordinate everything that you’re doing within the family especially if you have two or even three or four drivers in the family. Yes, you may spend more gas because your car is always going to be on the road. But it will still cost much less overall since there will be less insurance and maintenance to be concerned about.
Benefits of Downsizing to one car from two cars
On the plus side, you save all of the expenses associated with the car. For example, there are no monthly payments. There are no maintenance and repair charges, no license fees, no insurance fees and you’re only driving one car. There is less gasoline that you’re spending. The big item is that the car is being devalued over the time that you own it. So now is the time to sell it and recover as much money as you can.
One last point is that when you downsize to one car, you reduce the amount of car insurance that your pay. This can amount to $500 or more a year depending on the age of the driver. Also where you live, whether someone drives it to work or not, and the type of car that you drive.
More coordination Required
On the negative side of downsizing to one car, is that there is much more competition for the car from multiple drivers. A lot more coordination must take place in terms of getting everybody to where they have to go. This is particularly true for families with children who are engaged in various activities or working outside the home.
When you downsize to one car you must coordinate and make sure that you have a schedule for everyone so that you can get people to where they need to be. And if you combine trips you can actually reduce the amount of gasoline that you would have spent and used compared to having two cars on the road at the same time going in the same direction.
Another savings opportunity is the reduction in your insurance particularly if you have teenage drivers. If for example one of the drivers is designated as a driver on a car your insurance will be much higher, however, if you are the sole designated driver for the car and the teenagers are the secondary drivers, your insurance is going to be much lower.
The writer’s family has been driving one car for the past couple of years. Initially, it was difficult and we had to really coordinate. But then we got used to it and the reduced expenses associated with having one car instead of two made up for the inconvenience that we have. Occasionally one of us will have to drop the other off. Then go on do other errands etc. but this is a small price to pay compared to the amount of money that you can save by downsizing to one car only.
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