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All for one or one for all?

  • One "do-everything" vehicle.

    Votes: 20 18.0%
  • Two or more vehicles for different purposes.

    Votes: 91 82.0%

What's your philosophy: Have one do-it-all vehicle or multiple "specialized" ones?

6K views 127 replies 88 participants last post by  adrew 
#1 ·
Given a choice (and if I had the space), I think having the everyday commuter and the occasional fun car would be ideal.

What works for you?



 
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#69 ·
Motorcycle for good weather
Car for miserable weather
 
#70 ·
I like the 'one tool, one purpose' philosophy for cars (and some other things) despite being the far less efficient way of using resources. One daily driver that is exceptionally good at tackling daily duties, and one weekend vehicle that is solely focused on driving pleasure and nothing else.

Also, it adds variety. :thumbup:



And this too.
 
#71 ·
1 "transportation appliance" which happens to also be a pickup truck so it's my DD and if I gotta haul crap from home depot or target or whatever...

1 "fun car" which at the moment is a Porsche Cayman. Kept in the garage and enjoyed on "spirited" backroad drives on the weekend and the occasional C&C, and it even and has reasonable cargo room for weekend trips with the lady...
 
#72 · (Edited)
One do it all isn't possible. The closest car is probably an Audi Allroad, VW Alltrack, VW Golf R Wagon, VW Tiguan, or Porsche Cayenne. Even they suffer drawbacks.

Eos VR6-Daily, not very moddable for cheap, easy to keep "stock"
Mk7-Project, future racecar, was my daily, but there comes a point when modifying you run a risk of the car not being ready for work the next day. Looking at you clutch and big brakes :laugh:
Mk1-Fun classic car for shows and pleasure drives

My parents always had a total of 4 or more:
Dad's Daily
Mom's Daily
Vintage Car
Project Car
Towing vehicle

I think if single 3-4 cars is the right number:
Tow/Haul vehicle - This could also be your daily depending on your commute length or needs.
Daily
Fun/Project Car
Vintage Car

Married 4-6 pending if she's a car enthusiast:
Tow/Haul vehicle - This could also be your daily depending on your commute length or needs.
His Daily
Her Daily
Fun/Project Car
Vintage Car
Fun/Project/Vintage car for her - optional
 
#73 ·
we balanced kid friendly practicality with fun:

My Daily: R53 mini
Her Daily/Family duties: Mazda 5 GT (manual! woot woot!)
Fun/project car: classic mini

Current plan is to replace the R53 with a Golf R or Clubman JCW to add kid carrying utility while maintaining 'fun' equation.
 
#74 ·
Both ends of this equation have their merit. It can be hard how to choose. My current situation is i had to drop down to 1x car. Have a 16" FiST. Tempted to keep it as my DD, and then get a C6 vette as my toy. But i am also leaning towards getting a new WRX (trading in the FiST) and that way have one awd sedan as my DD, and then dunno. Been wanting to pick up a WJ Grand Cherokee as well, would love one as my winter/truck (02" was the last year for those).
 
#75 · (Edited)
I love to have cars that can do a whole lot, maybe not all. I daily-drove my TT for 6 years and it hauled plenty for 2 people, could drive through any weather with a rear sway and AWD controller, and was reliable until recently (a resto is coming within a year). Still, I love the Outback because its got plenty of room, it'll drive through just about anything with the drivetrain and lift, and yet it drives like a sporty midsize sedan. I'd love something hardcore and RWD and also an honest-to-god expedition type of truck, but only if I kept the TT and XT. I like cars with the ability to cover a lot of bases while also being basically efficient about it, so as much as I want a Wrangler or whatever that wouldn't cut it for daily-driving. Our Soul follows the same logic since its roomy, cheap to operate, and is good-looking while also being a practical, tall hatch.
 
#76 ·
Recently switched from several "jack of all trades" hot hatches in a row to a 2 car system for me. Camry for getting from point a to point b, Miata for fun drives.
 
#78 ·
For those of you with multiple cars, where the **** are you putting them? Seems to me that 3 is the absolute limit to store practically and one of those is inevitably taken up by the SO. I can't get the equation right. Currently in a Golf R with a Miata as a track toy.

I'm very seriously considering buying a shop/barn/man pad to try and fix this problem. Also opens up the possibility of a supermoto, dirtbike, and other toys...
 
#84 ·
I'm getting rid of all my stuff (2 cars and a bike) and replacing them with a single car for this reason. I'm tired of having one car rotting outside and the bike be mostly inaccessible behind the other car.

We've a small 2-car garage (2 subcompacts fit nicely, anything more is a stretch) and the 2nd bay is reserved for the other half's mazda3. My other car is parked on the street.

What I've decided is I'm going to get a small cheap fun car for myself (MR2) and we'll just take her car on the rare occasion that we need cargo space... until we can afford a house with a 3+ car garage/shop space, which will be a long time.
 
#80 ·
We have a 2014 Sonic Sedan and 2007 Silverado Classic Crew Cab.

The only time the Sonic leaves the driveway is if she's driving it to school or work, anytime we go somewhere together it's in the truck. It's comfortable, has tons of room in the cab, and does truck stuff. So what if the gas mileage is hell, it's better than being cramped in that little car.

We tow a couple boats every weekend, constantly fill the bed with random things, etc. It's really nice having a comfortable truck around. If we were going to have one vehicle it certainly wouldn't be the car.

For what it's worth, I pull 15-17MPG in town and nearly 20-21 on the highway. Last trip to Dallas which was 450 miles we averaged 18.6MPG and never went below 85MPH once we hit interstate. Actually once we hit Texas on I30 west it was pretty much 90-95MPH. I'll say that's totally acceptable for a full size truck.
 
#81 ·
I went from having specialized vehicles to one 'decent at most things but not great at anything' vehicle and have no ragrets...

In all honesty I think the true 'philosophy' of this question depends on the lifestyle situation of any given person. Currently I have an allotment of time/space/money for one vehicle and have found that the(10 year old yet brand new) VW Tiguan is a great vehicle for me: Decent handling, decent allroad-ability and decent utility.


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#82 ·
We have 3...

Miata
Alltrack
Yukon XL

The Yukon and Miata take the same spot in the quiver. The Miata is summer fun and the Yukon gets parked, the Yukon is our "hauler" in the winter when we go on long ski trips. The Alltrack is our year round daily driver. The Miata will probably get replaced with a Z3 or TT and eventually the Yukon will get replaced by a Sprinter 4x4. There is not "one" car that can replace these three.
 
#83 ·
My Philosophy

- Have an every-day-life car. Sedan, 5 door hatchback or wagon only. Must be at least 10 years old (years can go back a little more depending on mileage and maintenance). Must have under 90k miles when first purchased. Must be manual, must really like the car, must be able to work on it myself, must have aftermarket support. This is to be used for everything I need to drive around for. Must be good on gas.
Current choice - Mazda3 2.0l I live in a city, so I don't really care for an extra fast car for every day driving, but also don't want anything slow.

- Have a car that I use on the track and spirited drives.
Current choice - nothing
Future choice - first generation Roadster

That's all I need. If I need something to haul a bunch of stuff, I'll just rent a van or a truck.
 
#95 ·
My 2002 WRX wagon was just about perfect for having one car. I don't need a race car and I don't need to tow a boat, but something fun with the ability to throw a bike in the back was enough for me.

If I had two cars, one would be some sort of high MPG, low maintenance Japanese sport wagon (still must be somewhat fun to drive) and the other would be something like a Morgan Three Wheeler, Lotus Exige, or similar. That is, when I have money and storage space for that scenario...
 
#100 ·
I'll also add that it helps that my wife and I don't keep to the concept that certain cars "belong" to certain people in our house. I'll refer to the Mazda3 is "hers" because her name is on the title (and she bought it before we got married), but we'll use cars based on who needs what. I'm perfectly fine with her driving "my" truck or M3 (again, vehicles that I bought that are titled to me) and she LOVED driving my Miata and WRX - even though she only drove that last one a handful of times. She has yet to drive the M3, but that's her doing as I'd be perfectly happy with her driving it around.
 
#101 ·
Revisiting this:

Between doing the two-car thing for a couple of years now -- currently with the Tucson as the commuter-mobile/thing hauler and the GTI as the fun-to-drive option.

It seems to work well for me though I still get thoughts in my head of "you could get one really nice thing in place of these two good things". Splitting the driving between them kind of mitigates the wear and maintenance costs somewhat on both of them, though.

I'll probably stay on the two-car track. I think want a PHEV of some kind as a DD from here on out, though. Good thing choices are expanding there.
 
#106 ·
I'm sticking with the multi-car option and plan on doing so for a LONG time.

Between doing the two-car thing for a couple of years now -- currently with the Tucson as the commuter-mobile/thing hauler and the GTI as the fun-to-drive option.
I think if you're going to continue with the 2 car path, you can get them farther apart than a GTI and a Tucson. GTI is still a great do-everything car, so it's sportiness is compromised.
 
#102 ·
LOL, I replied to this when my wife and I were doing a combined 50k+ miles a year. My, how things have changed.

However, my fleet approach has not. Thinking of my fleet as a Venn diagram, I have vehicles that serve distinct needs, but can overlap with others.

Right now we have:
-Camry - family vehicle, wife's primary car
-F150 - truck, backup family vehicle, 4WD for bad weather needs
-Mk4 Golf - my daily driver, basically only need it fulfills is that it gets better mileage than the truck.

Ideally, my fleet would look like this:
-Wife's car / family vehicle --> handles her needs plus serving as the family trip vehicle. Sees most of our mileage and is typically our most efficient option. Camry is our long-haul choice for this role but I see us moving toward a PHEV or BEV in the future, since we would still have ICE backups.
-Pickup truck --> tow my car trailer, handle household chores/needs, provide 4WD option for bad weather trips. As with the Camry, the F-150 is the long-hauler for this role.
-My car --> something smaller than the family car, better mileage than the truck, can handle long trips, must be fun to drive. I have something like a Mk7/Mk8 GTI in mind for when I get rid of the Mk4
 
#103 ·
I basically have 1.1 cars (plus my wife’s), a Jeep I use for 98% of tasks, and a sports car I drive on occasion when I want.

If I were to move to just one car, it would have to be fairly spectacular. Given I have kids to transport, I could be happy with some form of 911, but I don’t know there’s any other single car solution I’d take over my current situation. I guess I could do one of those 3-seat McLarens :)
 
#105 ·
Old thread is old, but interestingly from a slightly different time. My needs haven't changed much, but many people's needs certainly have.

For me I like an efficient commuter, something fun for the weekend, and I also finally have a pickup for chores/backup vehicle. My efficient commuter could be more fun (and more efficient), but it serves the purpose. I wouldn't want to daily my truck as even though it's a smaller/older truck it still only gets 16 mpg. The Fit gets about double that (but should do better), and the Beetle would probably be about 25 if I drove it consistently and measured it.
 
#112 ·
In the past I've typically preferred a 2-car solution and in a perfect world I would always own at least 2. But, now that I WFH (probably permanently) I barely drive one car and my 4Runner does everything I need pretty well, so it's hard to justify owning more than that. Of course, I'm conflicted because saving more money and not worrying about parking and garage space would be great, but the thought of not searching for/experiencing/tinkering with other cars makes me a little sad.
 
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