With the purchase of a smaller, more reliable car, I now ponder whether it might be cheaper to have two small cars instead of a small car and a Van. My wife and I have this discussion regularly, and I am still curious to know whether cost wise it might be cheaper to drive two Corolla-sized cars and rent when a van is needed.
I guess the parameters you need to look at are:
- How much did the two cost together? I am assuming I would buy another used Corolla-like vehicle, so the two small cars win here (over Van + small car), except my Van is paid for right now, so the numbers for me are a bit different.
- Maintenance costs and this is where I may end up driving my van to my mechanic and see if he’ll trade it in for one of his used cars. I have a lemon of a van, which, if I hadn’t had a long-term warranty, would have been a MASSIVE drain on my finances. This is the biggest problem. If I had a more reliable van (say a Honda or a Toyota), I might not be thinking this.
- Day-to-day running expenses are where two small cars win, especially with these high gas prices.
- Insurance for the two small cars would also be cheaper than Van + Small Car.
- The big question is if I had two small(er) cars, how many times would I “need” to have a Van or a larger vehicle, and how many times would I rent a car for this reason?
- Trips to Grandparents
- Some basketball trips
A very perplexing question, that I am mulling over and would welcome opinions from my loyal and intelligent readers.
I’m in a similar situation. I have an older model/low miles corolla and a slightly newer/low miles sienna minivan. The van fuel mileage is half that of the corolla and the cost of buying one is almost twice that of the corolla.
But, the crash ratings on the sienna are far better which is why we use the van to cart our little one around.
More expensive, you bet, but I would forever regret saving a few dollars by having two small cars and getting into a severe accident.
It’s totally a personal decision, I know, but we’ll be hanging onto the van for longer. If anything, if we wanted to save money we’d get rid of the corolla and only use the van.
Just thought I’d share our thinking. Keep up the great posts!
Cheers,
Gwaine