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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
My closest bus stop is 1.5 miles away and the bus runs every hour (or so they claim)
The city added some sort of public "uber" that you can hail and ride for I think $2 but it only works within city limits and my wife has many friends in the neighboring cities so it was useless if she wanted to meet them, and also sometimes it'd take more than an hour for a pick up
Do you ever run into issues with the bus taking a lot longer, and you not accounting for the extra time if your wife take the car? Where I live, 15-20 minute car rides are often 35-45 minute bus rides, and the bus comes half an hour.
Not really. I just leave at the time needed to get to work on time for whatever mode I'm using. It's about 8 miles, and before COVID it was usually quicker to cycle than sit in traffic. Now there's less traffic so cycling takes a bit longer than car, but not much. Bus is about the same as cycling.
I'm 57 and not hugely fit, but I can cycle 8 miles each way without any problem. Takes 30-35 minutes depending on wind direction.
I'd love to live in a place with workable public transport, but where I live it would add an hour to my commute each way; effectively an extra 10 hours a week at work
Right now I work a hybrid job and landed this job not long after totaling one of our vehicles in an unavoidable wildlife encounter. We ended up not buying a second car and I've been biking to stuff in town when I can (I live in a small town and various stuff frequently calls for running to other nearby towns for this or that) and it's been really nice only having one car to worry about, but with the kids starting school and my wife looking at going back to work, the time to get a second car might come sooner than later
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 🤷♂️
For snow, snow tires should be more than sufficient. That's what we do and it works fine for us here in Utah. No AWD, just decent tires.
We bought a second car when our first was born because our existing car (2-door coup w/ manual transmission) was a bit frustrating to load a car-seat into (we did it for a year though), and my SO couldn't drive stick. So we picked up a hybrid (the same one we drive today about 10 years later), and the stick became "mine" by default (commuter only), and the hybrid was "hers," at least for a couple of years until I was able to junk it because I was riding my bike to work every day. We stuck with a single car for another few years until #3 was born and I switched jobs (both in the same year, new job was more than twice as far), and the bike commute just wasn't happening.
And that's where we are today. My SO still feels some ownership over the hybrid, but it has largely become my commuter now. We'll probably swap the hybrid for an EV soon-ish and later exchange the minivan for something my SO likes to drive more once car seats aren't an issue. And when the kids leave the house, we'll go back down to one car (ideally none, but I don't think my SO would go for that).
Boutta seize the means of reproduction. Hammer that ass, and sickle those tiddies. Stand in a bread line to put a bun in the oven. It's OUR orgasm, comrade
We have two electric cars, a big one and a small one. The small one is “mine” and the big one is “his.” However, we both work from home so the only commute anymore is taking the kids to school. So, whenever possible, we take the little one because it’s more efficient by far. He doesn’t mind and thankfully it saves seat profiles, even if we always have to adjust the mirror.
We do the same, but opposite. We have a minivan and a smaller EV. The minivan is technically hers and the EV is mine, but it's really more what it's used for. If one of us is taking the kids somewhere (school, birthday parties, fun) we take the van. If we're running to the store, normal errands or just taking a single kid we'll use the EV.
It doesn't make sense for her to take the minivan to run to the store to pick up something small and it doesn't make sense for me to take the smaller car to bring the kids somewhere.
The day when they make that adjust to the profiles! In mine we found kind of a sweet spot for seating position with the mirror adjusted the same for both of us. Heights are close through.
Wouldn’t that be great? I think some fancy cars do it, but not ours. To be fair, it’s a small price to pay for giving gas companies and PG&E less money.
Same, but with a hybrid and a minivan. We use the hybrid whenever possible (~2x the gas efficiency, cheaper repairs, etc). It's not a big deal, and our adjusting process is completely manual (adjust seatbelt, seat, and mirrors) since we're very different heights.
I haven't done the math, but I imagine it saves hundreds every year on gas alone. We put something like 15k miles on the small car, and 5-10k miles on the big car.
I love my wife, she can't drive for shit though, nor does she respect vehicle maintenence, much less asthetic care.
Nope.
Also, she's literally told me she'd be afraid to drive my car precisely because I keep it so nice and she doesn't want to be responsible for fucking it up.
I fell into this trap. We have a nice, fancy, efficient EV that's my daily driver, and a larger, less efficient gas vehicle that doubles as the family car/road trip machine that she dailies. We work roughly the same distance from our offices, but on days when she has to go across town on an errand, she takes the EV. It makes sense to save gas and whatnot.
Rims are fucked. I think she's rubbed them on every available curb in a 25 mile radius. She doesn't care. Fuck me for wanting a nice car I guess.
Likewise mine. I bought an electric car to replace her Honda to save the poor Jazz from her gear changing technique
We have two cars, but the electric gets used most by a long way as electrons are much less costly than diesel
It's not that we grab whichever car, just we're not in America and don't need to travel by car all the time and whoever chooses a car second gets the Subaru
This is one thing I love about having old but reliable cars. Our bigger family car that my wife drives is banged up in so many ways but I can just ignore it. As long as the mirrors work I don’t have to worry about how many scratches are on the housing, and as long as the tires hold air it’s easier to ignore the wheels that look like somebody was practicing their angle grinder technique.
And then with my little commuter car, even though I like to park far away and I don’t drive into shit, I still don’t have to worry about other people or keeping it looking clean, etc.
In general I find it liberating and good for the ol’ mental health to not obsess over superficial qualities of material possessions. So if I can make it easier to do that, it’s a win.
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.
Same. And the best car at hand is the EV one, 100pct of the time. Whoever goes out takes that car. In the off chance the second person need to go out at the same time, they take the older crappy car.
How else are you supposed to get to work? The bus takes 2 and a half hours and you will get there late and have to leave early. God I wish the bus was viable.
Where I live that's not even the problem any more, and not because it was fixed either. You have to leave early regardless to have time to get stuck in traffic, find the only parking spot is far away, then walk 10 min in the rain, then dry off for work.
This entire post will age poorly if we ever transition out of this incredibly self-indulgent and wasteful period of human civilization.
We should have walkable neighborhoods, mass transit of gleaming efficiency, bike lanes as priority, we should be encouraging socializing and creating spaces for people to gather that aren't profit-driven, but with plans to create comfort and recreation to better the people and foster a sense of belonging to a community. It's absurd we all live in places with lots of people but have no sense of belonging to a community. This goes against literally millions of years of our own evolutionary history. We NEED community to function and have healthy minds.
I mean, it's not likely to happen. But maybe when the next great apocalyptic event happens the survivors can try to remake things with a little more planning. After the whole period of darkness and cannibalism of course.
We should have walkable neighborhoods, mass transit of gleaming efficiency, bike lanes as priority, we should be encouraging socializing and creating spaces for people to gather that aren't profit-driven, but with plans to create comfort and recreation to better the people and foster a sense of belonging to a community.
Not everyone wants to be packed like sardines. That's the beauty of individualism. You might think this sounds like some sort of utopia, but to me this sounds like hell.
Wow what a couple of freaks. I bet they probably even sleep in the same bed. Who tf does stuff like that. This is the biggest scandal that has ever been posted on lemmy.
We have two cars and they are both kinda mine. He bike commutes and way prefers it. I work two hours away though and have always driven more. So generally I take the van if I’m going to be at work for a few days, I’ve got it camperized, or the bmw if it’s a there and back, or other trips like that. Since I’m gone for a few days at a time he still needs a car for some errands, otherwise we’d just have the van. I do all the organizing for service work and cleaning, and general car stuff as well.
There are wealthy families usually from over seas. 3 brothers will buy a mansion together they will all live there with their wives, they all help each other and they buy 2 regular cars and a luxury car that they all share. They look at us Americans like we are crazy and I gotta say they kinda have a point.
I have witnessed this with indian american families and south american families here in the US. They live together and the thought of not living with their siblings and parents is foreign to them. One wife deal and in the US, yes they can drive the cars.
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.
My dad worked nights and Mom was a SAHM who also did some freelance stuff from home. They basically had a first come/first served system, and honestly didn't have many conflicts so the second car (usually the one they've had longer) was rarely used. That was perfect when I started driving in high school, because I could usually use that car (even if it was a few years older than I was)
My brother talked them into buying a used Mitsubishi Eclipse back when it was still kinda cool (an '03 model purchased in 2007?). Mom ended up really liking that car and it's not really practical for the handyman stuff my dad does in his retirement, so now they have assigned cars.
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.
We have a 2-car garage and both cars fit side-by-side. We both prefer driving the smaller car, so that gets the majority of the usage. We used to have a singe car, but since I took a job too far away to bike to, we had to get a second car.
So for me, I think it's weird to have cars specific to an individual, I have always seen cars as a tool that you use when you need it, and you pick the best tool for the current job. I would love to drop back down to a single car, but I'm not ready to leave my job yet.
If one of us going somewhere with the little 'uns, then the "family car" with the nicer booster seats gets taken by whoever it is that has them. Whoever is getting the peace and quiet, drives the little runabout.
I usually take the little car, and it surprises me sometimes when I jump into the family car and I've got another 50bhp under my right foot.
My GF wants to learn stick, but I just replaced the clutch and don't want her to shred it. Plus my car tends to flood if I stall it more than three times much so the sessions will be... short.
I'd love to find a manual transmission truck for her to practice on but those are getting fewer and fewer.
Lol, my wife and I happily drive whichever car, unless there's a specific reason we need to take a specific car. Equally we definitely have cars we think of as "ours"
ok one or both partners hate cars. Neither can survive without a car if the other one doesn't have a car. That is a colossal failure, but we'll move on.
Not with lots of miles per week and young kids. So many food wrappers and other random kid droppings... I just deep cleaned it 6 months ago and its basically back where it was 7 months ago
We have one (volvo xc90 with 3rd row seats) that is for going places with our kids, and another (a nicer/newer mercedes e350) that is the adults only car. I think the Volvo is technically in my name, the Benz in my wife's but I'd have to check to see if I didn't reverse those.
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.