Did you downsize your fleet after retiring?

[eytonxav]

That said. I would drive the "parked" car once every week or so to keep the battery happy. A bit longer trip is better than short. Sitting a long time is probably hard on the tires and other things too, I'd guess.

GM

GM, Your right about that, but I took the recommendation to really mean just try to use one of the cars vs both together.

Also, Walt has me going with the bike picture. Used to have a KZ1000J, but always wanted a nice Harley or BMW, except DW does not care for that idea.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Wife can't drive and I sold the only car 2 years ago, what a pleasure it has been. Every possible thing I need is within a 5-10 min walk, including the Pacific Ocean!

 

[tmm99]

Currently DW and I have older cars (for us), she has a 2006 Forrester, and I have 2007 Civic.

Wow, when I read "older cars", I thought you were talking about cars made in the 90's. I have a 2004 Accord, and I consider that quite new. (It still drives like new.)

 

[foxfirev5]

We have two cars, a 2005 Chevy Equinox (145k) and a 2005 Lexus ES(82k). The Equinox is requiring some repairs but I plan to keep both beyond our target 2014 retirement date. My wife really wanted the Lexus and I supported her decision in that if she got what she wanted she would keep it "forever".

 

[Cruisinthru]

DH and I live in an over55 and much of our activites are in our little community. When we retired five years ago we toyed with the idea of one car, but decided that one or the other of us would be sitting at home and wishing we had the car alot of the time. We decided that we would go with one and a half cars, sort of. We bought a 2007 Yaris as our second car. It isn't much, but it gets me to the grocery store when he is off doing something else. It now has less than 30,000 miles on it. Our thinking is that when it is too old to go any more, we will be too! Then we can go down to one car. Our other vehicle is a Toyota Avalon which is great for trips, etc.

I second the suggestion that you keep the Civic and park it in the driveway for the first six months. If you haven't driven it much, maybe you can do without it. If you find yourself driving it more than you thought you would, you can then keep it or look for another inexpensive vehicle that will do you for a number of years.

 

[kcowan]

We had an SUV and a BMW convertible. After a year I sold the BMW. When we acquired a palce in the sun, we drove DWs SUV to there and left it. It is a 1993 Explorer owned since new (90k miles). When we returned north carless, we rented for a couple of months then bought a used Escape (4yo).

Obviously our lifestyle in both places does not rely on a car. We did a home swap to San Diego (Poway) and appreciate how important a car is to that lifestyle. They have a 4-car garage although only 2 cars. The rest of it is devoted to storage of stuff!

 

[Finance Dave]

Currently DW and I have older cars (for us), she has a 2006 Forrester, and I have 2007 Civic. While the Forrester has only 50K miles, my Civic is approaching 85K and has had a few problems. Last night we were discussing replacing these vehicles when we retire next Spring and the thought occured on maybe going with one car when we retire. We are both home bodies, so this may not be too much of a limitation on either of us, but I was wondering if others have do so? We thought maybe going for a little nicer vehicle like an Acura MDX instead of two cheaper individual cars for each other. Insurance isn't cheap here in Texas, so there would be some savings in a single car approach. While DD is still in college, we will still have to pay for her insurance for a few more years as well.

While these cars ages and mileages may not seem like much to many on here, we have typically bought new cars every 3-4 years in the past, so extending the life span of these existing cars isn't much of a concern for us.

I think this is a highly personal question/issue. DW and I have discussed this. Our strategy will be to buy one really nice car (i.e. newer, more comfy, loads of features) that we use as our main vehicle whenever we go somewhere together. Then we plan to have a 2nd car, where maybe this is a "gently used" car that is available whenever two cars are needed. Or perhaps this car is new, but a small economy car like a Smart car, Honda Fit, etc....something where a lack of comfort is not a major issue for short trips, etc. This reduces cost on the 2nd car considerably.

As I said, this is very reliant on your lifestyle, whether you have grandkids to carry around, the layout/topography of your city (an underpowered 2nd car would not be good in a mountainous city), hobbies you have (I have a woodworking hobby and need to carry lumber often), etc.

 

[superdave]

We moved from suburbia to a more urban neighbourhood 3 years ago. Both kids left home within the last year. Last spring I sold one of our two cars ( 2007 VW GTi ) which I felt was going to be a maintenance challange going forward. I had planned on replacing it, but its been 10 months since I sold it, and I havn't missed it much at all. At the end of the day, I have an extra $17,000 in the retirement war chest.

However, we could have never have done this had we lived in the old house in the burbs.

 

[W2R]

I didn't downsize, I upsized! Well, maybe not in number of vehicles, but I traded my Solara in on a Venza, which is a much larger vehicle.

It's wonderful to have all that space in the back, and the bigger engine has so much get up and go! Vrrooom, vrooom.... I don't think I have ever dared "floor it" yet.