Yup, that’s how we do it. We have kids and two cars: minivan and hybrid sedan. The hybrid gets more than 2x the mileage vs the minivan, it’s smaller, and both of us prefer it, so it’s what we use 90% of the time. We take the minivan if we’re all going somewhere, or we both need to be somewhere at the same time. I’ll also take the minivan for cargo (hardware store, dump, furniture store, etc).
Before we had kids, we had one car. When we both needed to be somewhere at the same time, I’d take my bicycle or the bus, and my SO would take the car.
Each person having “their” car makes no sense to me, I see cars as tools in the toolbox, and we take the one that’s best suited to the task at hand.
That’s pretty much how we do it, but with a phev and an SUV. On days we both work she takes the phev, I the SUV. When one of us is going somewhere we take the phev. But if it’s snowing or we want to haul kayaks or load up heavy to go camping, the SUV.
The phev is "hers"and the SUV “mine”. But only vaguely 🤷♂️ we don’t actually care that much. But also it’s not a free for all. She would probably be a little miffed if I just randomly took the phev to work forcing her into the SUV. But if we talked about it first she’d probably be fine 🤷♂️
Clearly is not her brain doing the thinking for her. Maybe it’s the beer.
I ride my bike and my partner theirs, we aren’t savages.
Commendable. But many of us live where cars are the only practical way to get around. My wife and I both drive 30 minutes to get to work.
Oh boy. Fuck Cars is not going to be happy…
30 mins by car is 35-40 mins by bike where I live, because bikes aren’t affected by traffic.
Roads are 55mph here, seldom any traffic, so it’s more like 2 hours by bike. For us anyway.
Do you each randomly choose a bike every morning? That is really the point here.
She definitely has her car and I have mine. Mine’s over a decade old with over 100k miles, and hers is a year old. I think her car is really neat, but there’s a lot I don’t like about it. Too much tech, too many weird quirks in the systems, and it’s a little compact for my height. I’m glad she likes her car, but we definitely have assigned cars.
My wife and I do this. We both have broncos. What you would call “mine” is a 2 door mostly used for off-roading and I leave the top off a lot. Hers is the 4 door luxury version with all the fancy things.
We take whichever depending on the situation. We will take mine if it’s nice and we want the top off or we have to park in a shitty parking lot, being 2 door it’s much easier to navigate. We take hers for long trips since she has the radar cruise control and lane assist and much better gas mileage.
is that a thing?
My wife and I just have 3 very different vehicles and decide pragmatically who should take which that day if we’re going out at all.
My car has a clutch. My wife can’t drive it. It’s exhausting when something goes wrong with her car.
It really doesn’t take that much effort to learn
For someone with extremely high anxiety, yes it does. She’s like a chihuahua.
There are whole countries where virtually everybody has to learn manual, even anxious people.
They just don’t have the crutch of automatic gearboxes to fall back on.
Throw her on a hill and she’ll see that it’s way easier than she expects to find the catch. I’m also pretty high strung, generally speaking, and when I couldn’t get a hang of changing gears, the moment would devolve into sheer panic and make everything worse as I snubbed the engine with each attempt. And this was during parking lot practice with someone’s old car that they were planning on junking anyways, so no need for that level of stress whatsoever.
But then I was taken to a little incline where I could clearly /feel it/ for the first time and after that, I just “got it”.
I have extremely high anxiety and can attest that it took a lot of time and effort to master a stick shift. It’s definitely valid that your wife doesn’t want to go through that struggle.
I forced myself. My first car was a 1992 Pontiac with a manual transmission. I didn’t even know how to drive it off the lot haha. I just wanted the damn thing.
Depends on the person. I had an ex I spent about 4 hours in a parking lot trying to teach and she never got the take off down. I think some people are incapable of driving a standard.
Not that I’m condoning this, but, take the keys to the other car away, and give them a headstart and I bet they’d figure it out precisely one commute’s time away from their next shift at work.
I think part of the difficulty is people ‘learning’ to drive stick in a parking lot. That’s good for 30 minutes, but you won’t actually get a feel for it unless you properly drive around.
Honestly though, I think if someone is actually incapable of driving a manual transmission car, then they probably shouldn’t have a license in the first place, it shows such a lack of fine motor control that it brings in to question their ability to manage other aspects of driving.
I just can’t feel that point where the clutch engages/disengages so I keep stalling at take off or grinding the gears when shifting. Haven’t tried again in a decade.
You’re supposed to push the clutch fully to the floor when shifting. You should never grind gears unless you’re about to money shift or something.
That could be the problem. I was told to shift when I felt the clutch take the power off the engine, and then give it a little gas when I feel the gears remesh. It was also on a 30 year old Peterbilt 5/10 speed hi/lo truck with everything worn out, so probably not the best thing to learn on
Sold my Miata for this reason and I regret it every day.
I want Miata so bad. I drive a Honda fit.
I’ve yet to find anything in this world that is more zen or fun than driving a Miata on a winding country road with my dog in the passenger seat.
That’s a crime
I also regret your decision.
Insurance and ownership papers here generally require a primary owner here, at least on paper
Husband and wife in America can go on a vehicle as far as I know. Hell two unrelated people who both sign on the vehicle own it as far as I know.
I could never do this, my car is one the few sacred places that can be truly my own. I’m not even sure I can let someone else sit in the driver’s seat
That’s so foreign to me. For me, car is a tool to get from A to B, and I prefer to spend as little time in it as I can. I have a dedicated space at home (my home office, my desk, etc), and I protect that, but I don’t care at all about my car.
It’s so interesting to me how differently people see the same thing.
For me an office is so foreign, lol. Maybe it’s partly because my car has functionally been my home multiple times in my life. But there is also something so comfortably isolating about being able to lock myself in the car with some music where nobody can talk to me and the chaos of the world can be left in the rear view mirror for a bit.
I think everyone needs a space like that just for themselves, and needs to create it for sanity purposes. You’ve chosen your office and I the shitty little Civic Si sitting in the drive, and both are simultaneously boring tools and personal sanctuaries.
Yup, agreed. My “home office” is just the guest bedroom, and when we have guests, I move my desk to my bedroom (really quick since I have everything mounted to the desk). So if I need a moment to myself, I go in that room and lock the door. But most of the time, I just go to my bed and put my headphones on (big, sound-isolating cans), since if I’m in my “office,” I often think of work stuff.
When I’m at work and need some time, I don’t go to my car, I go for a short walk outside my building and find someplace secluded.
And that’s honestly always how I’ve been. When I got my first car, I didn’t have a cell phone, so sitting in my car was incredibly boring and I’d prefer to be almost anywhere else. I’d occasionally bring a book to read if I thought I’d be delayed or something, but even then, I’d usually prefer to sit on a bench or something outside. I have just never seen my car as a place I’d ever want to be, it’s just the thing I take to get somewhere I want or need to be.
I wonder if I’m just weird, or if it’s a younger generation thing, because I do see people hanging out in their cars somewhat often.
I don’t get it, what’s so special about this?
It’s just a reckless way to live and is frankly plunging our entire society into unabated chaos
The amount of cars: yes.
My wife and I each have our own cars, but they’re both in her name so she can drive whatever the fuck she wants.
So if they were both in your name she couldn’t?
I know that is not probably not what you are saying, but that is the implication of this argumentation
Not hard to put both vehicles in both names. I don’t think they are “arguing” anything, just stating a legal fact about marital property.
what’s next? joint bank accounts?
Women voting?
Dogs and cats, living together!
Delicious. (I’m in Ohio.)
Mass hysteria!
Cool video concept.
My partner and I have joint financial accounts, but it still would be weird to us to take whatever car.
Why? Is it weird to use whatever plate or fork? What about couch cushions? Umbrellas?
I see cars as tools, so there’s not “my car” and “their car,” but “the small car” (hybrid w/ great gas mileage) and “the big car” (minivan). Before we had kids, we only had one car, and if we needed to be in different places, I would ride my bike, walk, or take the bus. That almost never happened, and it wasn’t a big deal when it did.
Plates, forks, cushions, and umbrellas are not typically as personalized as a car.
And my argument is that cars should likewise not be personalized. They’re tools.
That’s just your opinion. To me, clothes are tools and there’s no reason to personalize - just wear black everything, that’s what I do. Other people don’t seem to share my opinion and that’s fine too.
Okay, but you started with “why?”, that’s the question I was answering.
No.
Not in my country!
(Seriously, though, Japan doesn’t do joint bank accounts).
You just like spend whatever dollars you find in there?!
Who wants.to adjust the seat and mirrors every time they drive?
My car does this automatically depending on the key fob used, or the smart phone that’s closest to the driver seat depending on which you are carrying. Seat, and mirrors.
They must be similar sizes.
That’s not a thing in modern cars.
Power seats and mirrors with multiple memory is still a luxury car feature and not mainstream like power windows.
The OP did not say what kind of cars they have. It is possible to have 2 cars with memory seats and mirrors. Now if only we could get memory rear view mirrors on the same cars as memory seats. Oh and seatbelt height adjustment memory.
Camera rear views allow this, common in a lot of trucks, they use the backup camera and feed it through a screen where the mirror is.
I wouldn’t call it a luxury car feature. In the US basically every car >30k has that. And most new cars cost >30k at this point. Basically every trim over base that’s like the first thing they add.
I had a Ford Focus rental car with power seats once.
When I bought a $50k US car in 2017, only the top trim had memory seats, and they penny pinched it off the top trim hybrid model so I couldn’t get them at any price.
My wife and I are about the same height so we don’t have to adjust our seats.
I’m quite a bit taller than my partner, but she has a big bum and I don’t and it nets out to us having the same seat position, just different seat back angle to accommodate our different arms
Same with my wife and I. Seat doesn’t move, only adjust rear mirror. The side mirrors are set up for her since it’s minimal adjustment for me, it’s not worth it unless I’m doing a long drive like 3+ hours
Maybe they just hit a button (1, 2)
As someone who used to work on other people’s cars, I think I’ve had my knees jammed into the dash way too many times to ever want this on one of my cars. Fuck that.
I can relate to this so much lol. I’m very tall and I remember getting into the Mercedes of a little old lady. The seat started moving forward while the steering wheel extended towards me. Felt like I was about to be featured on the hydraulic press channel.
Mercedes was the exact brand I was thinking of when I wrote that comment. For me it brings to mind the trash compactor scene from Star wars
You mean due to the risk of accidentally hitting a button that sets the seat to a short position while you drive?
Nope, I mean due to them being automatic when you start the car, and linked to the “driver comfort” profile stored in the key.
As soon as you start the car the seat starts cramming your knees into the dash if it happens to belong to a shorter person. And of course, there’s no sign in the car that the owner is short because the seat moves all the way back when you turn the car off.
/Rant (sorry, the real problem in my opinion is that there isn’t a resistance/safety sensor that stops the whole thing)
Uhh isn’t that why the keys, and some cars have a valet mode? Take the key out of the fob dude.
Yeah lemme just disassemble Karen’s custom leather key fob cover, lol.
The absolute panic when you put the keys in the ignition and the seat starts moving forward. You try to move it back before your knee slam into the dash, but the controls arent exactly where you thought
I wish those worked for all the mirrors too. At least mine won’t do that anyway
Don’t even need to hit it sometimes - the profile often goes with the key fob too.
Yeah but if they’re just grabbing keys that wouldn’t work, but hopefully would let them pick the profile when car starts
I guess if you have one set, but there are usually two that come with most cars. Probably whoever grabbed theit preferred car key first means the other grabs their key for the second car?
My wife and I happen to use the same seat position and wheel position, so we just have to adjust the rear view mirror and during the time of year when it’s really hot/cold maybe adjust the vents to how we each like. Takes like 5 seconds to adjust
It’s not a big deal. My SO and I are very different heights (like a foot/35cm), and it takes all of 10 seconds:
- slide seatbelt adjustor up/down
- move seat forward/backward
- adjust mirrors
We do it like 2-3x/week, and as the taller person, I’m totally capable of doing the adjustments while driving out of the neighborhood. It’s really a non-issue.
My wife and I are just the right height difference that the little flicky switch on the internal mirror will swap between the angles each of us need.
One day we got a car that has some auto light filtering for night driving and it doesn’t have the switch. Can’t wait to sell it.
You could just replace the mirror, it’s not normally that difficult to swap out
I don’t like the rest of the car either 😅
When I drive my girlfriend’s SUV, I have to stand outside of it and work the controls until I’ve got enough room to get in. It’s not awful, but does kind of suck on hot summer days when I just want to be in the air conditioning.
Our old (2006) minivan has an electronic adjustor, so I just hold that down while getting in (butt in seat, press button, swing legs). Our other car (2007 sedan) is even easier, since I just tap the adjustment bar under the seat and it slides back as I’m sitting on it (again, sideways). Then I adjust the shoulder seat-belt just before grabbing the belt to buckle, then I adjust the rear-view mirror while checking as I back up. It’s pretty smooth and routine.
Our AC takes a while to turn on anyway, so I don’t expect any AC until I’m at least a mile or so down the road. We park in the shade (garage at home and work), so I don’t need the AC anyway when setting out.
I just angle the back and slide the seat and i am good to go. It’s all analogue, quick and easy.
all my lives
Are you a cat?
I’d assumed they believe in reincarnation (or the boring typo explanation), but I like your reason better.
Are you not?
