If you watch any live/real-time television . . . Hey! Stop laughing! There are, too, people who still do that! No, I’m serious. They really do! OK, OK. You keep laughing. I’m just gonna move on now.
Anyway, as I was saying, if you watch any live/real-time live television you’ll see what are called “commercials.” A surprising number seem to push pills for men who, shall we say, have trouble standing to attention. A similarly disproportionate number hawk beverages that’ll make you stay awake all day. Or get you drunk. Or make you want to visit a beach.
Motörhead
But another category I think takes the cake for most number of commercials: automobiles. If we were to judge society by the types of commercials it airs, then I’d say that Americans love vehicles only slightly more (or less?) than their own children.
Not me. I’m not at all a car guy. Or a truck guy. Are these vehicles convenient? Yes? Do we have one? Yes. Do I care much about it or how fancy or “high-performing” it is? Uuuuuh, no. And this has been financially helpful.
Monkeywrents
Between renting and borrowing cars, I happen to have driven several different types of vehicles. I’ve learned some valuable things along the way.
When I need to rent a car, I almost always ask for the smallest one available that seats four (the number of my family members). My objective: low price, high gas mileage, and just enough room for everyone to sit comfortably and luggage to be snugly tucked away.
To me, this all seems reasonable. I have reason to believe that I’m in the minority.
For one thing, when I get to the rental counter and the person staffing it sees that I’ve reserved an economy-size — or, if I was feeling really wild thought I needed more space for whatever reason, a compact-size — car, he or she almost always asks if I’d like something bigger. In part, they’re trying to upsell me. My inner capitalist appreciates that. But they’re also asking because they can’t believe that a family of four could possibly want — or even fit into — such a miniscule vehicle. My answer (said with equal parts contrarian delight and extreme annoyance that someone thinks I made a mistake or am genuinely ignorant (or both)), is a firm “no.”
What often follows is an “are you sure?” Or a litany of reasons why the car I have reserved — which, mind you, the rental company is renting out — is subpar and why a bigger car is superior. It’s here where my annoyance level rises to the point where I have to actually catch myself not to be too rude.
These unpleasantries out of the way, this more often than not comes next: Well, as it turns out, we don’t have an economy size car in the lot right now. Instead we have [insert name of large sedan, SUV, or or other large vehicle]. But you won’t need to pay extra for that.” To which I say, now even more annoyed, “I’d really like the smallest or most fuel-efficient car available.” After a mini-version of the initial pas de deux, I may get my amended wish: a compact instead of an economy. Not the end of the world. But not what I wanted.
Drive time
The one (I guess?) benefit to renting a car that I didn’t want is that I’ve had the opportunity to see if any particular car struck my fancy as one to buy. None has.
A few times I was “involuntarily upgraded” to a minivan. Good lord! I don’t like them as a matter of principle. But after driving one, I question the sanity of anyone who has one. Let’s put aside the bad gas mileage and ridiculous amount of room. It’s a bad vehicle because it sucks to drive. Ridiculously large turning radius? Yep! Can’t see what’s behind the vehicle? Check! Lousy pick up? You betcha!
I’ve also driven Mitsubishis, Kias, and Suzukis (all of which go 0 to 60 in . . . eventually), Fiats (Would you like to see what’s in your blind spot? I bet you would! But this car has so much metal and so little glass that that won’t be possible), and Fords (the company’s tagline ought to be: The epitome of “meh.”), among other cars that did not impress me.
I’ve also gotten to drive “higher-end” cars, too. Among them a Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, and Jaguar. Are those cars pretty (note, I would never buy a car because it is pretty)? Maaayyybe? Are they lousy drives? In the case of Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar, 100%. Both drive like small tanks. And the gas mileage? If I owned a vehicle made by either of those brands’, I’d plow what little extra money I had left over after buying it into oil and gas company stocks.
The Cadillac drove well enough. But I recall the steering wheel being so loose that the first time I drove the car, I thought it’d spin around like the wheel in the gameshow Wheel of Fortune. It came close.
Vehicular man’s laughter
As for the cars I’ve owned — the largest being a mid-size sedan — there have been four. All used. None with an outrageous purchase price. They’ve included a Geo, Hondas, and currently, a Toyota.
I love the Toyota. It’s a smooth drive, and the car has been and hopefully will remain (knock on wood) reliable and more than comfortable for our needs. The gas mileage could be better tho. The Hondas have been OK. One was reliable, but no-frills and an average drive. The other was something of a lemon. Yes, there are Hondas that are lemons.
But my favorite of the bunch was the Geo. Purchase price: quite reasonable. Mileage: quite good. How it drove: well enough. However, the best things about that car were: (1) it was small and fit into super-small street parking spots, and (2) it was such a dumb and unremarkable car that no one wanted to steal it, and I cared even less about how the thing looked than I normally do. Unless the thing was structurally damaged, I was not about to repair any dents or minor damage.
One and done
Ideally, I’d not need a car at all. After all, not only don’t I care one whit about them, but they’re money-suckers to boot. What with the purchase price and fees, insurance expenses, maintenance costs, license fees and such. Oh, and gas. The car ain’t going anywhere without that. All in, and including prorated vehicle costs, our annual vehicle costs are about $1,000–1,500/year.
Which brings me to this: we’re a one-car family. That’s been the case since 1999. Living in cities, our legs and bikes take us many places. Public transportation has filled in many of the rest of our transportation needs. We use our car when those other means aren’t practical.
If I put my mind to it, I probably could think of only about 10 times in more than 20 years when it would’ve been really helpful to have two vehicles. In many of those cases, we just borrowed someone else’s vehicle. Other times, we figured out another workaround. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect solution, but life went on.
Keep it simple, Simon
In short, our one-car-family status essentially hasn’t been an issue. This isn’t for everyone, I know. And if you live in the sticks a rural community, it becomes more difficult if yours is a multiperson household. But take it from me, if you can swing it, do it. In our experience, it adds more simplicity than complexity to life.
I’ll add this: we have in part designed our lives around being a one-car household, and our one-car-family status in part has dictated our lives. That’s a significant detail.
For example, when looking for jobs and schools, a major consideration has been ease of ability to get to and from the destination. That may sound worse than it should. But I can tell you, Dear Reader, it’s almost never been an issue. There may have been some opportunities we forewent. But they were never so great that we’d be willing to spend much more time commuting or have to get a second car to make it work.
Living in the city is another example. Like I said, in almost every instance, we’ve been able to get to most places we’ve needed to go by walking, biking, or using public transportation. Our one car has been the all-but-completely-efficient fallback.
If we had two vehicles, there’d be two possible scenarios: (1) we’d almost never drive it, and so would have spent/be spending a lot of money on something of little benefit to us; or (2) we’d have the second vehicle and actually drive it a lot even though we didn’t have to, and so have to spend even more on car maintenance, gas, traffic tickets, etc. Both scenarios would make us both poorer and, frankly, no happier.
I don’t begrudge anyone for loving cars/trucks and spending a lot of money on them. You do you, of course. But I think Americans are irrationally and goofily in love with these machines. And in many cases that they could benefit from some (apparently) contrarian thinking. My guess is that a lot of people could do with at least one less vehicle than they have, if not more, and realize no negative effect. And of those who have the right amount of vehicles for them, I’m guessing that many have vehicles too big and or expensive for their needs.
Maybe a rethink would do them — and their wallets and net worths — good.
And in the end . . .
Bottom line is that not being a car guy, being a one-car family, and not going overboard on the vehicles we’ve owned has been financially rewarding. Certainly in terms of our regular transportation expenses. But everywhere else, too, including car rentals.
And, hey! Stop laughing already for cryin’ out loud!
Hilarious and excellent points. Nearly every time I’ve rented a car, I’ve been completely baffled that people would pay for such disappointing machines. One time, Enterprise insisted that all they had were F-150s. I tried but turned around to return it after a few miles because I was confident I would kill a child if I didn’t.
I do actually have some appreciation for cars. Back in my speedier days, I had a Mini Cooper (which explains my disgust for big trucks) that I loved like a child. It was so much fun to drive, and if I had millions and millions in the bank I would buy another one in a heartbeat. But for now, they’re way too expensive to maintain. I think I also loved it because I had paid for it in cash, so I didn’t have a car payment to constantly remind me about how expensive it was. That’s not the case for the vast majority of cars on the road. They are almost all financed, with people shelling out hundreds and hundreds of dollars every single month. I would think that would get old right around when the new car smell wears off. Right? That’s $___ every single month that people don’t have for vacations, investing, or whatever else. Blows my mind.
Yeah, once I realized that one doesn’t HAVE TO finance the cost of a vehicle, I stopped doing that. I’m embarrassed that I had to LEARN that. Between trade-in money we get, buying relatively cheap used vehicles, and keeping our cars for many years, we at least keep our costs relatively low. Just how I like it. Next step — and I don’t know when I might go down this path yet — is exploring car sharing options and seeing if we’re wiling to do that and make our car a profit center.
Hey, you don’t like cars, that’s fine, but I do. In fact my wife and I share three of them between the two of us. One is a big SUV that can easily pull our boat or our trailered all terrain vehicle. The other two are sporty and more fun to drive. We buy our cars with cash, mostly new or moderately used and drive them forever. They don’t represent a significant part of our net worth. Neither does gasoline. It is not dissimilar to how a couple of my much wealthier friends look at their personal jets, to us cars are a very inexpensive convenience item, as their jets are to them. They are something you have to control your spending on if it impacts reaching your goals, but if they no longer represent a material cost in your life, then just get what you want without compromise. That’s true for any purchases.
Yep, I know for sure that I’m in the minority in this country as to cars. And I’m a firm believer that if something makes you happy, you can afford it, and no one gets hurt, go for it. For me personally, vehicles have never been my bag. So I’m happy to have just one, fairly modest car.