We have a 2007 Chevy and a 2012 Honda. The Chevy is a total recovery title meaning it was totaled and we repaired it to safety standards and kept driving it.
We just got another bill from the mechanic for $1500 to fix the suspension on the Chevy.
We've spent about $5,600 on repairs on both cars for the year, including things like breaks, tires, and oil changes.
Each time we get a large mechanic bill we contemplate selling the Chevy for parts and just going down to one car.
The problem being that we don't have functional public transit in our city and if the Honda breaks down we would be stuck renting a car to get around.
Is it worth it to take ourselves down to one car?
Should we go down to 1 car to save on repairs?
byu/Icy-Cheesecake8828 inFrugal
Posted by Icy-Cheesecake8828
9 Comments
Can you share driving needs? Do you guys both work and need to commute? Do you have kids and what is their schedule like?
Could you guys supplement with a bike?
Could you use Uber to supplement your car needs. It’s not cheap anymore but cheaper than owning a car if you only need to use it occasionally.
Can you function on one car? If yes, then probably a good idea.
If no then probably not a good idea. No matter what vehicle you will spend money on the things you’ve listed (brakes, etc ).
How urgent is the repair?
If it’s not super urgent, take the car out for a lower speed drive around the neighborhood and let it run for a little while every week to keep stuff from seizing or the battery from dying but try to get by on one car otherwise. Do that for a little while and see how feasible one car would be for you.
Give it a trial run. Park the Chevy and only rely on the Honda for several months (4-6). Then decide if it’s actually feasible.
Going to depend a lot on what the actual model of Chevy is. Some are way more reliable than others.
None of the stuff you listed are repairs. That’s all just wear items. They aren’t repairs any more than putting gas in the tank is.
The real trick is going to be learning to do some of the work yourself. I currently need $2000 worth of brake work on my secondary car, so I’m going to figure out how to do it myself for a couple hundred.
Personally, I don’t even think one vehicle is enough for one person if you don’t have some sort of backup transportation, whether that be borrowing a family members vehicle, or have insurance that covers a rental.
Find a shop that gives a courtesy car while yours is in for work. Or rent a car for a couple days. Way less to do that than pay insurance and registration on a second vehicle.
If you drive one car twice as much, would it not require twice the maintenance? Wouldn’t things wear out and break twice as fast? Having a second car that doesn’t get used much really doesn’t suffer any wear and tear and shouldn’t require much maintenance other than ensuring the battery is maintained and you use gasoline stabilizers to keep it from going bad.
I have thought about the same thing, going from two cars to one car, but then I realize how screwed we’d be if our only car had problems and needed to be in the shop. We’ve got pets that might need to be rushed to the vet, and my wife has health problems that require lots of doctors visits. We’re keeping the second car for peace of mind.
Keep The Chevy as a backup and do minimal repairs. $5,600 in a year for two aging cars sounds crappy but it’s still cheaper than replacing a car. One modest used car is $10k-15k minimum right now. A new one is $25-50k! Repairs look expensive until you compare them to a car payment.