If you regularly commute through heavy traffic covering longer miles, buying a second car makes sense in your case. This will not only allow you to use either car daily, but the family members may also use one car behind you.
Buying a second car for commuting can be a good decision in some cases. In others, it may not make financial sense. It depends on a variety of factors, such as your current vehicle and how far your commute is.
Buying A Second Car For Commuting
In all of these cases, it really only makes sense to get a second commuter car if you are driving a significant amount of miles every week. Driving a large amount of miles daily, usually at least 50 to 100 miles round-trip, helps to build the financial case for getting a second vehicle.
If you decide to get a second car specifically for your commute, it should be one that gets great gas mileage. Newer electric vehicles can often get 40 miles per gallon or more. That is a lot better than a truck that gets 16 MPG.
As we can see, the more you drive, the more you save. Driving 100 miles per day increases your monthly savings to $225 and reduces your net impact to $175 per month for a second car. This is still an extra $175 per month that you would not have to pay if you only had one vehicle.
Often-times, this is not the case and a second vehicle will actually increase your costs. If you can, try to consolidate to one vehicle that will fit all of your needs. This will avoid having a second car payment and all the extra hidden expenses that can really add up.
Besides the gas-saving incentives, you may choose to use a second car for commuting for other reasons. This could include helping to reduce emissions, be able to carry more cargo, or avoiding mileage fees for leased vehicles.
Great point and there are a bunch of factors that will play into your final decision. The first step is to identify all the costs associated with getting a second car, including insurance, taxes, and maintenance. From there, you can compare to see what the cost would be if you only kept your truck. Try to estimate your costs for the next 1 to 3 years (or however long you think you would be driving both) to give you the best idea of long-term costs.
I created a quick spreadsheet to test my gut reaction. If your commute were 30 miles each way (60 round trip) and you bought a commuter car for $3,000 that gets 35 mpg, at current gas prices you might break even with the second car in about three years. But with only 30 miles round trip, after insurance, taxes, and maintenance, you would only be saving about $142 a year and it would take 21 years to break even on the second car!
Are you looking for a good commuting car that will take you comfortably to work and back home? If you're a commuter and spend a good chunk of your day behind the wheel, read on. Here's a very handy guide with all you need to know if you're in the market for a car to commute.
If maximum range is your biggest X-factor when buying a car, look for the LX. That has an EPA-estimated 589 miles of range. However, we suggest stepping up to the EX. It adds a hands-free tailgate, blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert, Safe Exit Warning, and many more interior upgrades. It also comes with all-wheel drive, which reduces total range to 521 miles. But we think the additional safety features and upgrades are worth the $3,700 cost and slightly lower range.
If you choose the EX, with a starting price of $31,110, you will get a well-equipped SUV that has all of the features you would want in a 5-passenger commuter car. However, commuters will be even happier with the Sport Hybrid, which increases combined fuel economy from 30 mpg to 40 mpg. And if most of your commuting is in traffic or around town, you could see fuel economy as high as 43 mpg.
Many drivers in the Seattle area want an All-Wheel Drive (AWD) vehicle for commuting during months of wintry weather, as they provide traction in slippery conditions. AWD does have a higher initial purchase price and reduced fuel economy over the same model without AWD. Determine if you need AWD or if your employer shuts down at the sign of a few flakes of snow.
I did the reverse, once I paid off my truck I bought a new car as a daily driver to stop racking up so many miles on truck and prolong its life. There are a lot of things to consider besides just gas because truck maintenance is way more expensive than car maintenance. Both regular maintenance like replacing fluid in differentials and transfer case, more expensive tires, etc and when something breaks. For me another big factor was trucks are stupidly expensive now so I want to prolong buying another one as long as I can.
X2!! I drive 50 to 60K on average with some years well above that. I ended up buying a corolla stripped model and put just about 300K on that car. That really helped getting the mileage off of the trucks in the short term. But never really recovered the cost. It was only the satisfaction of keeping my trucks off the road a few days a week
Often people may discard cycling as a viable option for longer distance travel. But electric bikes and networks of segregated cycle lanes are beginning to change what is possible in terms of commuting distance, says Leo Murray, director of innovation at climate change charity Possible (formerly 10:10 Climate Action).
For those continuing to use a car, choosing the most fuel-efficient model available can make a big difference. Transport emissions are still growing globally because of the growing appetite for SUVs over smaller vehicles, a trend which risks cancelling out the benefits switching to electric cars. A decade ago SUVs made up 17% of global yearly car sales, but now account for 39%. According to the International Energy Agency, this demand for larger cars was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions between 2010 and 2018.
As the speed of cars increases, so does the cost. When motorists drive faster to save time, the few seconds they may save will cost much more than that in the time needed to pay for the extra fuel, wear and tear on the car, and stress. Paradoxically, switching from the car to the bicycle will reduce the total time we spend on travel, as well as boosting our health directly through increased physical activity.
While there's no distinction between a pleasure and a commute car insurance policy, car usage can be a factor that affects your car insurance quote and rate. You'll be asked about your car's primary use when you get car insurance, and it's important to be honest when answering. If you use your car for both commuting and pleasure, answer "commuting" as your primary vehicle use when requesting a quote; this will allow you to be covered for both commuting and pleasure purposes.
If you use your car for commuting but don't drive far, consider usage-based car insurance. Your low mileage could help you access a lower rate. Note that other datapoints gathered through a UBI device, such as if you tend to brake hard, accelerate quickly, or drive during dangerous times of the day, could result in an increase to your rate instead of a decrease.
While there's no distinction between a pleasure and a commute car insurance policy, car usage can be a factor that affects your car insurance quote and rate. You'll be asked about your car's primary use when you get car insurance, and it's important to be honest when answering. If you use your car for both commuting and pleasure, answer \"commuting\" as your primary vehicle use when requesting a quote; this will allow you to be covered for both commuting and pleasure purposes.
In other words, a logical person should be willing to pay about $15,900 more for a house that is one mile closer to work, and $477,000 more for a house that is 30 miles closer to work. For a double-commuting couple, these numbers are $31,800 and $954,000.
Adapting the numbers for a $7.50 minimum wage earner, each mile of car commuting cuts $1.43 from your workday. If you drive 10 miles to go work a 5-hour shift at the Outback Steakhouse, your effective hourly wage is more like $5 per hour after subtracting car costs and adding drive time.
I sweat pretty easy myself too. One trick I found was to soak a t-shirt with water, wring it and wear it before whatever labour I had to do that would cause me to sweat. It even made it possible to work even in the 30 C (86 F) summer heat (not in the sun though).
Not sure if this would work for commuting to work (definitely need to change shirt somewhere, maybe a nearby fast food), but maybe something to try on a day off.
7 miles could take you less than 30 minutes on a bike (I used to average 26 mins for my 8-mile bike commute back in the day). And Boston has balmy summery winters compared to where I grew up and rode year-round. Even if you rule out the snowy and rainy days, you can still do well over half of your commuting by bike.
I had the same dilemma when I started my new job last month. I work 3 days a week at one site, and 2 days at another in a city full of angry/mindless commuters. Since I had to move for the job anyway, I ultimately decided to live 3 km away from the first work site, then car commute via back roads to the other. Soon I will look into finding a safe route to cyclocommute the 20 km to my second work site.
Great article. We moved to south Longmont earlier this year. Its about 1.3miles from my work. The commute is wonderful. A short ride is a wonderful way to start a day. Plus I get the benefit of smelling Oskar Blues in the morning.
My wife on the other hand still commutes 12miles to Lafayette. I guess half of us commuting is still better than both.
Ultimately, my goal is to retire early (at 45, 35 now) from rat race jobs, and then do casual/seasonal/part time work or self-employment that requires no vehicle commuting. Trying to talk wife into moving to cheaper area, becoming instantly mortgage free, and implementing this plan sooner!
There are some people who are totally batshit insane about commuting. In the financial industry in NYC, there are people who commute from Princeton, NJ and Greenwich, CT. Their daily commute is 2 hours EACH WAY. They drive to the train station, take the train into NYC, take the subway to near the office, and then walk into the office. Some of them take a ferry, which is even more expensive.
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