Multiple vehicles
 

From reading the CL good buy's thread, seems like quite of few of you guys own multiple cars.

Those of you guys with your own families and with multiple vehicles, ie: your daily and your toy car, how do you make it work?

My daily is a 08 Mazdapseed3, wife drives a 07 CRV and we have 1 kid, who's less than 2 yrs old. I'm looking at buying a new daily commuter, something more family orientated because putting my kid in/out of my speed3 is a pain in the ass. Driving around in city stop and go traffic with a HD clutch in a car that rattles and shakes (stiffer motor/trans mounts) is getting old, like me. I'm finding myself wishing for something that had an automatic, comfortable seats and with the rising price of gas, better fuel economy on regular. Both cars are 10yrs old so it's probably time to get something newer/reliable/safer.

Part of me would like to part out the speed3 and sell it, but I'd also like to consider keeping it since I've put a lot of money and work into it. It's still fun to drive (when not stuck in traffic), makes around 340hp @ the wheels and still gets around 12L/100km.
The car is paid off and probably isn't worth that much, as we know we never get back what $$$ we put into the car. It's worth more to me than what I could sell it for. My new daily would be something boring like a CX-5/CRV/RAV4, so it would be nice to keep around a manual transmission fun car.

I live in a condo with 2 parking spots. I figure I could park the speed3 and the new car in the parkade and make the wife park her car on the street. (Yeah I know, good luck with that).

So those of you guys with a daily and toy car, please share your experiences.
ie: hassles/costs of getting storage insurance/3-6 month full insurance, constant nagging from wife to get rid of the extra car, etc.

Thanks

We got 3 cars for 2 people in my family and i would say if you had a single detached house, its not a big deal. If you were in a condo then its quite a bit harder. I park my expensive car in the garage, and we leave the other 2 cars outside in the driveway.

Yes insurance is insane, but thats BC. pay to play. If you can downsize to fewer cars the better. My daily is paid for by the company and all the associated gas/mileage. So technically i guess we only have 2 cars in the family.

In the condo, we had 3 cars, 2 people. I rented a seperate garage/workshop for the datsun and had two spots under the condo for our daily vehicles. I’d rather not add up what all that ends up costing.

Now I recently moved and have a tandem garage, the Datsun gets the deep end of the garage where their is room to work. Wifey gets the other dry garage spot if she so chooses and I get the driveway or street.

All three cars are insured year round. I’m on the fence with putting modified collectors on the Datsun but I’m cautious and their policy on paint blemishes has me a little concerned. As for the wife nagging about the car. Sadly I think she thinks the car has priority over her. Maybe it’s because the car was their before the ring.

Honestly though. My daily is a 14 year old Acura. It’s cheap to insure and it’s paid off. The Datsun may get money dumped into it, but it’s paid off and cheap to insure. If I didn’t have the fun car I’d be wanting a new vehicle which would cost 2x as much in insurance and car payments each month. I’m calling it even. Wifey has a brand new vehicle, comfortable and most importantly it’s safe.

Reading the post below reminded me I also store my trailer at home too. Use to lean it against the wall in the underground, now it eats up tons of shop space. But my dream of driving to the track/auto x with a set of track tires is still strong. So it stays... oh and i need a way to move engines and furniture around. If there is a will there is a way lol.

My wife and I did the 3 cars, 2 spots in a townhouse complex. I have one car for summer and one for winter, so during the winter I parked the summer car and her car in the parkade, and my winter car on the street. Then, in the summer I would park my summer and winter car in the parkade and she would park on the street.

We have 3 cars for the 2 people that can drive at our place, but we live in a single detatched house.

Might be farfetched but if you know someone that would be willing to rent space to you, it would be a cheaper option than renting a separate storage locker.

Friends that use their garage to store crap and not their cars are used to parking on the street, if they're willing to rent you their garage in exchange for hauling away their crap would be a win for everyone.

Is it a possibility to keep the Speed3 and store it for a while? If you put so much love and effort into your car I would suggest asking a friend or family member to let them store your car long term if you don't need the money to put towards the new car. That way if you ever decide you do want to drive your Speed3 again it is still around.

When I moved out here I found myself full of regret. I built my car for many years, put thousands of hours into it but it was highly modified and bringing it over from AB while aircare existed and knowing all I would have is a condo parking stall caused me to sell. 3 months later they did away with aircare and I cried inside knowing I could still be driving it. A friend in AB originally suggested I store it until my situation changed. I should have taken his advice. You never know where you will be in the future and if you still really like your car but feel maybe it is time for a change I suggest storing the car for a while, find something new and if you decide you want your Speed3 again you can revisit it and pull it out of storage.

I'm in a similar situation as many others have already posted -- 3 cars between me and the wifey, and we live in an apartment building with 2 parking stalls. In the past when I still had my high mileage DD beater, it was my fun car and the wifey's taking up the parking stalls, and I simply left the beater out on the street. Some days I get lucky and can park the beater right in front of my building. Other times I run into shxt luck, and I have to park her as far as 2 blocks away from home.

Since picking up a newer DD, I have mostly been renting an additional stall from one of the residents in the unit. I was initially paying $30/month for the spot, but have slowly increased that to ~$35/month now. When I originally started looking, a greedy bastard wanted $65, citing their friends were getting as much as $80/month for their spot elsewhere. I politely told them no.

As far as keeping costs in check, my high mileage beater only used to cost me $800+ a year to insure for liability only. With the newer daily, that has risen to $1500+ now, and it is stinging my wallet quite a bit. The fun car is only insured for 7 - 9 months a year, and gets parked the rest of the time. I can't remember how much insurance is for it this year (over a 9 month period) -- it is either $1200+ or ~$1600.

The wifey is absolutely fantastic, and rarely ever gives me any pressure on my car stuff. With the way life is heading though, I am totally feeling the pressure myself to downsize back to a single practical car for myself, and the missus will keep hers. If ICBC rates continue to climb, this would probably happen sooner rather than later. FailFish

5 cars for 2 people :facepalm:

It's a slippery slope... all of a sudden you need a car FOR everything as opposed to a car that can do everything.

For the sake of your financial future keep the number of vehicles to a minimum.

^
pfffft. Financial future?! This is RS. We're all supermodel dating, hypercar driving, stock manipulating alpha males with huge dongs.
We don't need no stinking retirement!

:victory::victory::victory:

:troll:


haha, really though... I have my truck, my modern day hot rod, my 67' hot rod, and the wife has her SUV. Three are insured year round, while the 67' only sees the spring and summer months. It gets expensive to insure the vehicles. I enjoy the maintenance aspect, and I have a ton of space to store the vehicles so that's not a concern. I have two barn cars too. It's a really nice barn though, so not too bad.

Pretty much my only issue is the cost of insurance. Our Toyotas are expensive to insure, and the G8 must have been driven solely by idiots, because it costs a small fortune every year.


So very true. It's the life in BC. Sure, you could move to Saskatchatoon. It's a lot cheaper, but I don't want to live there.

Lucky guy having the company pay for your car though. That would be nice.

We're at 4 cars for 2 - condo life sucks. I have a spot, rent a second spot wife car on street. 4th car at grandmas house.

At some point this becomes a hobby - no different that a golfer paying green fees or a skier buying lift passes. It's much easier to swallow the costs when I look at it through that lens.

Just park one car on the street. That's how I do it. Unless you can rent a spot in your building.

I insure for the year, then cancel around end of Oct. The other 2 are insured year round. Cancelling and putting storage insurance isn't that bad. Just drop off the plate and buy storage. Doesn't take long. I think it's about $30/month. Only downfall is you lose the plate. So if you have a good plate you like, you either need to keep full insurance on it to keep the plate or just forego it. I don't think a plate is worth $1000. So I just get rid of the plate.

I still live with my parents, we have a driveway that fits two cars (technically three but I'd be blocking off my parents car) and we are at four currently. (Two for myself, one for my brother and one for my parents.)

I never drive my Accord, therefore it sits in our covered car port with storage insurance. I used to rent a friends spot for it in his Apartment, will be going back to that soon so I can keep my other car in the car port and only my brother's on the street.

Right now, my brother and I keep our other cars on the street - Hassle with this, I have gone through a hit and run claim. It's always a concern for me despite being a dead neighborhood street.

2017 RDX - commuter
2016 Civic - commuter

2002 S2000 - insured only for 6 months a year.


..and picking up a pre-owned 07 TL TYPE S in next few weeks.

If you have a plate you like, you don't have to give that up and can still avoid paying insurance for the full 12 months. ICBC allows us to insure our cars for anywhere between 3 - 12 months at a time. When you insure for less than a full year, you pay an extra "short term insurance surcharge", and I think that is only around $30. The rest of your fees are all prorated. This is how I insure my fun car.

When insurance runs out, you don't have to do anything. Then when the following year comes around again, you can continue to use the same plate you did before, and just re-insure the car. It is what I've been doing since I like my (generic) plate.

If you have 5 cars, fleet insurance! :troll:

I have 3 vehicles, a crx that's got plenty of work done as a summer toy, xterra that is the weekend mountain vehicle and a tsx as a cheap, decently powerful commuter/road trip car.

We keep the tsx and xterra insured year round Becuase the cost savings on fuel just driving the tsx instead of the xterra will pay for the insurance. It's nice to have a backup vehicle ready to go and the crx is parking insured in the driveway while I work on it. I havnt come up with a plan for when I'm going to drive the crx, maybe swap insurance with the tsx or something. Really wish we had an Alberta like insurance system for multiple vehicles

Let me know if you want to part with the waffles

At one point we had:
*2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee
*2005 Toyota Matrix
2000 Jeep Cherokee
1992 Jeep YJ
*1992 Toyota Celica GTS
*1991 Toyota Celica GTFour RC
1987 Mazda RX7

and my dirtbike in the garage. The GTFour was at a shop getting worked on but the rest were at home. The driveway was packed and shuffling stuff around was a nightmare. Now we're down to the 4 with the * but I'm trying to get it down to 3 soon.

be thankful your parents are giving you a spot! When I lived at home i considered a fun car and tried asking for the whole 2-car garage (we have a carport and plenty of street parking) and was told to beat sand lol

was asked why I want an older honda than the one i already drive :okay:

The GF and I have 3 cars (2 x DD, 1 x summer fixer upper) 3 bikes (Grom, race bike & Scooter) and live in a Condo with 2 parking spots. Currently I don't have a DD as my last one broke but i'm searching for a new one very soon.

The MG luckily is stored in my moms garage which allows me to work on it although I haven't touched this winter season and needs a bit of fixing. My mom loves the look of the MG since it reminds her of old James Bond movies.

My DD, scooter and my GF's Jeep is stored in the condo but where we live its pay parking on the street, except weekends. So we cant really own another car.

I park my Grom and race bike up the street at my GF's parents house which is a 5min drive up hill from our condo. I would park the grom at the condo, but i'm very paranoid of it getting stolen, so I rather keep it in a locked garage vs. easy access from a condo.

I also just bought a 6ft trailer to haul the race bike and for motorcycle road trips since my Van just died, but I haven't told the GF's parents that I want to keep it at their place.. Wish me luck.. LOL

I'm very fortunate that my family lets me park their vehicles at their places or else I wouldn't know what to do with myself.. I love cars and bikes, but don't have a lot of space for them, I'm not a fan of condo living but its all we can afford right now. So we will have to make due.

First world problems yo. I'm sure there are people who would love to own even 1 car. My buddy is married, has three kids, and they get by with a Toyota Echo. I'm not even sure how the hell they do it with all the kids and the stuff required.

2015 Genesis 5.0 as my daily, I have a MR2 Turbo sitting at my parents garage
and I just bought them a Hyundai Ioniq because I didn't want them to drive a 10 year old Mazda 6. Seriously considering dumping the Toyota though, it's been garaged since 2011 and the last time I drove it around was 2016.

we're at 5 cars, 3 motorbikes and 1 tractor between 2 drivers in my house. My daughter just turned 16 so here comes car #6 :okay:

No parking woes, I live in the sticks and have a barn to park off season toys.

OP: I didn't have multiple cars when my kids were 2, your financial situation may be different than mine was back then. What about getting a newish (2015+) BMW 328xi or Volvo V60 wagon, they would run you a similar cost to a new CRV/Rav4 while not crushing your driving soul? Then you get practicality and at least some driving enjoyment from your 1 car?

One driver in my house, four insured and licensed cars. Two unlicensed project cars.

...definitely not living in a condo.

Though, when I was renting a townhouse I still had three to four vehicles (total) with one in a storage unit.

How do you make it work? Depends on what your priorities are.

-Dave

I'm sitting at 4 cars + 1 bike right now...

94 Toyota MR2 Turbo (not insured this winter)
68 Ford Mustang (haven't driven it in years, just photographed it for modified collector's plates though)
04 Lexus IS300 (daily / wife's car since it's automatic)
99 Ford SVT Contour (winter beater)
07 Kawasaki KLX250SF camping dirtbike

I only insure 2 cars year-round... the bike gets 6 months... storage insurance is cheap on the Mustang, only $30 per year. It's usually parked at a condo building in Tsawwassen that caters to collector car owners.