multiple cars per household?

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Library_IT_guy@reddit

1 per adult, and in rural areas kids getting one is also common when they're 16, though they usually drive an old beat up piece of junk (which we love anyway because wheels = freedom and independence).

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Fenifula@reddit

Oh heck yeah. Usually one car for everyone over 16, plus a few extras for vacations. I even have one neighbor who has their whole back lawn filled with vehicles. Some of them probably don't work. Another neighbor has two garages, one two-car and one three-car. One of my next-door neighbors has a two-bedroom house and four vehicles regularly parked outside, with some of those people sleeping in the basement.

Our household has two people and no cars, so we're weird.

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yozaner1324@reddit

My wife and I are a one car household, but growing up we had 3 (one for each adult). If you live in a rural or even suburban area, there is no way to get anywhere without a car and people are often going to places that are not close to each other, so carpooling isn't necessary practical. So if your household has two working adults, they may need two cars.

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Whats-Ur-Pointe@reddit

We live in a car dependent area , very little public transit that isn’t easily accessible . Both my husband & I have cars and our son has a 20 yr old Camry he drives to get to work.

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A_j_ru@reddit

2 cars is pretty common per house hold. 1 for each adult.

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the-quibbler@reddit

In more affluent areas, 1 car per licensed driver is common, or 1 per plus an additional "fun car" which is driven infrequently.

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TheScrote1@reddit

My buddy has a beat up old full sized pickup he uses just for pickup stuff in addition to a car for him and a car for his wife

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Cranks_No_Start@reddit

I have a pickup I’ve had for 18 years and a car my wife has a Jeep.

At one point we had 5 cars.

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Bright_Ices@reddit

My dad has a whole fleet of broken down vehicles. My parents are lucky if two of them are running at the same time. One of the more reliable ones requires frequent exogenous battery charges, despite getting a new battery.

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Cranks_No_Start@reddit

Mine all worked I was a mechanic forever so I hen they broke I fixed them asap and rather permitting.

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the-quibbler@reddit

"Work truck" is also common in certain subcultures.

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TheScrote1@reddit

I feel like a see more people that just daily drive their “work truck” though

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Wonderful-Comment314@reddit

Not if you dont own it yourself

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Ramius117@reddit

Do people who don't own their work trucks store them at home?

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the-quibbler@reddit

Not all trucks are work trucks. Truck as primary vehicle is a real culture.

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TheScrote1@reddit

Sure but even people that mostly just drive their truck cause it’s cool occasionally do stuff that actually requires a truck.

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the-quibbler@reddit

Sure, but that's not a work truck. A work truck generally describes a truck dedicated to a productive function that isn't your daily driver.

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xkcx123@reddit

Even then there are many people that have f150 and f250’s and have never hauled anything a day in their lives.

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Apathetic_Asparagus@reddit

PNW, a work truck here is usually owned by the driver's employer (usually a trade, like electrician, plumber, etc), often with tool boxes built into the truck bed. The employee is often allowed to drive the work truck home at night, usually so they can go straight from home to a job site if they get an emergency call.

A truck owned for occasional yard/house projects isn't called a work truck here. Some people might call it a farm truck though, especially if it's old and beat up.

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ncroofer@reddit

Not to nitpick but the work truck is more likely to be the “daily driver”. Just by nature of working mon-Friday.

I’d say work truck is usually more likely to be a base model truck that is dirty and beat up. Vs a top of line trim model with heated seats, nice modifications, etc

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Bright_Ices@reddit

Or sometimes just what we have. Friends who moved out of the country sold us their mid-size truck (definitely not “a work truck,” but we do some truck things with it because it’s useful that way) for a bargain, way below what we’d have to spend for a car. It’s the only vehicle we have, so we drive it. My spouse prefers to bike to work.

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Twzl@reddit

And in others, a driveway queen.

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JoeInMD@reddit

Is your buddy Steve? Because I even have a key to Steve's pickup!

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TheScrote1@reddit

No Jake is his name and he’s a firefighter

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Dangerous-Variation@reddit

But is he wearing khakis?

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TheScrote1@reddit

No but his insurance agent does

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Dangerous-Variation@reddit

Thanks for making me feel slightly less old! 😂

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Roborana@reddit

Gotta have something to haul stuff!

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TheScrote1@reddit

I got a Tacoma but it has a cap on it so limits me a bit with what I can haul as I have no desire to take it on and off

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zgirl88@reddit

This is me. Lexus for my long work drive every day, old full size pickup truck for truck stuff on the weekends. I also have an MG project car that will eventually be my "fun car". Just one person in my household!

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Gloomy-Albatross-843@reddit

My guy is the same. I drive a truck instead of a car.

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sanedragon@reddit

We have a 3rd car. When my old car got totalled, my husband's buddy sold us his barely used but older RAV4 for 1k. Even though I was eventually able to replace my car through insurance, we have kept the RAV4 because it was basically a free car. It's come in very handy when one of the primary vehicles needs a repair! We'll eventually give it to my son when he starts driving since his school is far away.

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xaxiomatikx@reddit

I’m a bit of an outlier because I like working on cars as a hobby. We live in a semi-rural suburb, so have space. Before my oldest got his license, we had 5 cars for 2 drivers in the household. 1 is an old SUV I keep around for hauling people/stuff, 2 are project cars where 1 of them isn’t registered. When my oldest got his license we bought a 6th car for him to drive. Now my middle son is about to get his license, so we will be adding a 7th. My oldest is in college so his car isn’t at the house for much of the year.

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lizerlfunk@reddit

My cousin’s husband is like this and she had to put a limit on the number of cars he was allowed to have lol. (I think mostly because of driveway space, and I don’t think it was serious… but I’m like why does one person need FOUR cars.)

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achambers64@reddit

Because

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the-quibbler@reddit

Are you my father-in-law?

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lifeofGuacmole@reddit

Most of my neighbors have 1 car for every driver, plus 1 fun car. Something sporty or fast. I do not. I have my suv, he has his truck.

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MTB_Mike_@reddit

Yeah this is common as well. My neighbor (husband, wife, middle school aged kid) has a car, Truck, work truck he takes home, 50's project truck he is restoring, and a restored Chevelle for weekends. I only have 2 cars but if I had a bit more room I would get a beater truck.

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lifeofGuacmole@reddit

If I had fun money I’d find a nice convertible for driving in the mountains. There’s something so magical about winding roads with the top down.

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aracauna@reddit

It's also common in rural areas that aren't affluent. When school is 15 miles away, and so is the grocery store and everything else, and the closest public transit is over 100 miles away, those cars are important. The truly poor wouldn't, but you'll see a family living in a trailer have 3 or 4 cars if they have driving aged kids. At least one of them may be 20 years old, but it's a functioning car. My dad actually saved me his truck when I was 12.

Also, a lot of it isn't buying new cars. For example, my car in high school was a GMC S-15 that my dad kept when he bought a new truck a few years before I turned 16. The truck had been paid off for years so it was just carrying minimum insurance. Lots of those extra vehicles are beaters that they bought cheap or were their old car they just didn't trade in the next time they bought a car.

I've had a 3rd car for most of my adult life. By the time I was 26, we were living in one of those very rural areas, so I had my Prius, my wife has her Ford Escort station wagon and we had a hand-me-down pickup truck that we used to haul off our garbage (no curbside trash pickup in the county) and other dirty jobs.

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BlackberryHelpful676@reddit

I think owning multiple cars that are driven infrequently occurs at both ends of that horseshoe graph.

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ZozicGaming@reddit

Nor is this an american thing its a pretty standard thing anywhere in the developed world.

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missmeatloafthief@reddit

Plus a car for each teenager who drives, or sometimes one car shared between sibling teenagers

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FiendishCurry@reddit

We have 3 cars in my house for 4 adult drivers. My neighbor owns 7 vehicles for 4 drivers. And my other neighbor has 5 cars, one for each adult. So yeah, really common. It's actually become a big problem in our neighborhood because multi generational families have multiple cars that don't all fit in their driveway and so they are filling up the road and making it hard to drive thrift.

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layyla4real@reddit

It is common for each driver to have his or her own vehicle. Sometimes they own more if a specialty vehicle is required.

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GrayEagle825@reddit

Five cars at my house. One for me, one for my wife, and one for each of my three kids still living at home.

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Shineenoona@reddit

The average middle class household will at least have 2 cars. 1 for each parent. Once their kids reach driving age they might get a vehicle for the kids. Lots of families the beginner car gets handed down or shared based on the kids age difference( high incidents with high insurance makes each kid cars sometimes hard) then some families also have a vehicle specifically for work. That vehicle varies on which industry you work.. pickup trucks being prevalent

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Big-Aioli8125@reddit

my neighbors have a car for their dog. this isn't a joke

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GhostNappa101@reddit

Unless you happen to live in a place with good public transit and is walkable, which is rare, a car per adult is basically mandatory. Over my life we've often had an old beater van or truck we use for grunt work. Insurance and maintenance for a barely driven paid off vehicle isn't too costly.

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Odd-Guarantee-6152@reddit

Most families have a car for each adult. Most don’t have a spare pick up truck

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etchedchampion@reddit

The spare pickups are pretty common if you live in rural areas.

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djsuperfly@reddit

Less than 15% of the US population lives somewhere "rural," and of that, certainly spare trucks don't hit 100%.

So, yeah, overall we are talking edge cases here.

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Hawk13424@reddit

I live in a Texes suburb. All 2-5 acre lots. We all have spare trucks.

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-worryaboutyourself-@reddit

Or haul a camper. That’s why we have a spare pickup. Huh I’ve never called it a spare before. It’s kinda funny.

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YoshiandAims@reddit

This. Grew up rural, work pickup, property pick up, pretty common. They aren't necessarily bright shiny new pick ups, but it's definately a thing in rural PA if you've got property, farms, livestock, or do farm work/assistance.

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lizerlfunk@reddit

My grandparents used to have a pickup truck for the sole purpose of driving the trash to the dump, because in their rural area there was no garbage pickup. I learned to drive a stick shift in that truck, and it was as old as I was.

Having a pickup truck on hand would actually be INCREDIBLY helpful, even living in a city like I do, but I don’t think it’s something I’m likely to ever do.

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YoshiandAims@reddit

Oh I know! I'm alone, and I had to finance a tiny inconvenient little city car... over my "country vehicle" How nice it was to have the beat up pickup to manage stuff in life. If my suv couldn't handle it, grandpa's errand truck took care of it. Furniture, Deer, the dump, towing, home depot, animals, towing, donating stuff, yard work, buying an appliance (delivery isn't really an easy or affordable thing out here, I had to move back.) Not to mention plowing in the winter, handing the muddy seasons... I miss that old pickup. Lesser extent my Jeep liberty.

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lizerlfunk@reddit

My previous car was a Hyundai Elantra, which was DEEPLY inconvenient. I now have a Honda CRV hybrid, which is at least long enough to fit an 8 foot long piece of lumber in. But if I’m buying anything longer than 8 feet, I have to pay for delivery, which really sucks. I have zero desire to have a truck as a daily driver, and they’re obscenely expensive if they’re even a little bit new. But a 20 year old truck that I can just put liability insurance on and only drive to and from Lowe’s would be great - not a priority right now though.

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PlanMagnet38@reddit

Yeah, I thought my husband was crazy for wanting a pickup truck in addition to our personal cars, but he was right! For the $2k we spent of the beater truck, we’ve saved a ton in delivery fees or rental fees over the years getting mulch, gravel, fill dirt, lumber, and other building materials (not to mention getting used stuff off Craigslist or FB Marketplace).

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Prior-Soil@reddit

So is a spare car if you have to drive a long ways to work.

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Grreatdog@reddit

This. I had an 80 mile round trip every day for 35 years. My wife didn't commute. When I wore out a car she got a new one and then I drove her old one into the dirt.

But later in life we also got an ancient pickup that was my sometimes work truck and all the time backup for when my car was in the shop. I still have it in retirement just because it's handy.

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Red_Sox0905@reddit

In the next year or so I'll get a new car and we'll have 3 as I'm keeping the current car to drive to work since it's 55 miles round trip.

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tacosandsunscreen@reddit

Yep. Very convenient to have a backup for when one needs to go in the shop or randomly won’t start one morning or has a flat tire or something.

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Next_Ad_4165@reddit

Yeah, we have a spare pickup. It’s old, the ac doesn’t work, the windows don’t go down, and we live where it is HOT 9+ months of the year. But it’s great for grabbing hay, or toting tools around the property. It’s great when you’re doing some grubby work, cause it doesn’t matter if you’re dirty or sweaty.

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El_Guap@reddit

Or a Polaris or golf cart on some areas.

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AppropriateAmoeba406@reddit

Jeep for the beach is a very common 2nd car in my area.

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smokingcrater@reddit

Very common where i'm at. Got a spare SUV, usually either used for road trips or towing.

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I_amnotanonion@reddit

Yep. Wife has a car, I have a car, we have an old pickup that’s a spare vehicle/farm vehicle

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Punchasheep@reddit

My in laws live in the country. They've had a spare beater truck for decades in addition to their less gas guzzling cars.

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LawnJerk@reddit

Spare pickups were more common back when you could get a smaller and lesser equipped one fairly inexpensively. Regulations made smaller pickups have to meet car emissions standards and it killed that whole product, and had the unintended effect of encouraging larger pickups and SUVs which are regulated differently.

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jesusmansuperpowers@reddit

We have the spare pickup truck but it’s a ‘93 with 350k miles.

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Odd-Guarantee-6152@reddit

Toyota? My dad has a ‘92 that still sees some action!

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minicpst@reddit

I was thinking that my family doesn’t have a spare pick up, but then I remembered my ex does (he’s still family).

We haven’t got a title or anything. It’s a 1971 Ford that barely runs, and it came with the house we bought (that’s in the middle of national forest land, not accessible by road, and so most people don’t keep their registration current because the park rangers don’t care. So no title isn’t a big deal).

We also have a couple of 20 year old vehicles there to use.

Then my ex has his daily, his fun, and his motorcycle. I think he’s probably got a car with his other apartment in a different city (he’s my ex, I don’t need to ask him this, but I think it’s true). His husband has his car. Our teen has their car.

So I think my ex is responsible for likely nine vehicles.

Our daughter and son in law each have a car.

I don’t have a car, nor does my bonus teen. I have epilepsy and don’t drive, and bonus teen hasn’t gotten a license.

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PvtDipwad@reddit

One per each driver usually. Commuting is huge in the USA, especially in big cities like Los Angeles or out in the middle of nowhere with little public transit. We had one car per parent in my family and ended up getting old cars passed down to the kids from family members. I got my first car from my brother, he got that same car from our aunt.

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no_clever_names@reddit

Absolutely normal. I live in a somewhat rural area with a 50 mile commute, so I have a daily driver, and old pickup for truck duties, and a project/fun car. My wife has a van as well.

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No_Individual_672@reddit

If you don’t live in a major city, there is virtually no public transportation. Yes, most households have at least two cars, even if only one parent is working outside the home.

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Mistriever@reddit

My wife and I both have our own vehicles and our oldest has her own car as well. I expect both of my older two boys will have their own cars by the end of the year as well.

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Aude-of-Bayeux@reddit

I really don’t understand why people buy these expensive gas guzzling pick up trucks, just to drive to work and drive back home. Americans seem to equate their car with their status as a person way too much.

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MinimalSix@reddit

We have 5 drivers and 7 cars. Of those only 2 were bought new, the rest were used from friends or family for better than market value. The two cars we don't use were both my parents old cars before they got new ones. Both looking to offload, but they have over 200k miles each, and some issues that need fixed, so not the easiest to find a buyer.

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molten_dragon@reddit

It's extremely common for each adult in the household to have their own car.

It's not as common, but still fairly common for people to have a car they only use sometimes as well. Maybe a "fun" car, maybe a project car, maybe a truck they use occasionally, etc.

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Furdinand@reddit

I can't find it, but years ago I read a Slate essay where the writer went "car free" and ended up using the money he saved to buy a sports car that he used on the weekends.

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TheScrote1@reddit

And every once in a while you meet a dude just super into cars that has like 4 of them. I know a nurse like this. Older single guy that just loves cars and car culture… funnily enough also a big cyclist

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molten_dragon@reddit

My father-in-law owned 14 cars when he died. Only 3 of them actually ran though.

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BoopleSnoot921@reddit

2 cars is the norm. More if you have teens at home who drive.

Rural homes might have more, like a truck or two for the farm.

City residents might not have any. Everything is more walkable and public transport is the better, more efficient option.

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GrapeFrothiness@reddit

I'm a single dude with three trucks lol. One is a 14 that's more reliable and the other two are from the 90s cause I like "mini trucks".

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tinfoilhattie@reddit

There is commonly 1 vehicle per driving adult in the household if it can be afforded. Sometimes in rural areas or for blue collar workers, there will be an additional work vehicle or specific purpose vehicle if needed.

Some people also have project cars, hobby cars, or classic cars either for restoration or collection, but that's less common and would mostly be people specifically into cars as a hobby of some sort.

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LateModelMillennial@reddit

Most families I know have 2 cars per household. However, I know some families without cars, and I know some families with 10+. In fact, there is a town close to where I live with a population of 70ish, but there are over 100 cars (some torn down and inoperable, most still driveable).

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Zadojla@reddit

We had a car per adult, plus a car for our daughter when she went off to college. She took that with her when she left. When we retired, we had a summer car and a winter car. When it became clear the second car was superfluous, we just kept the winter car.

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Prize_Ambassador_356@reddit

One car for each adult/parent is pretty universal. In wealthier areas one car for each licensed driver (ie high school kids who have their license)

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Apart_Insect_8859@reddit

We've always had more cars than people in my family

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Adjective-Noun123456@reddit

A better metric is cars per driver rather than cars per household. 1 for everyone with a job, and maybe 1 shared between teenagers if mom and dad can't afford to get another vehicle and make theirs a hand me down, or if it's a large family.

It's also not unusual for folks to have an additional fun vehicle.

When my fiancée moved in, we briefly had 4 cars split between 2 adults. My truck, her truck, my Miata, and my dearly departed beater truck.

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Ooga78@reddit

3 cars for 2 adults, 1 16 year old and paying $12,000/yr car insurance thanks to accident, brand new EV and new driver 😭. US is NOT pedestrian friendly, unless in a big city. We are big city adjacent.

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Maximum_Dweeb4473@reddit

Yes; my parents each had a car and my sister and I had cars also. I’m getting flashbacks to the 2000s tradition of moving cars out of the way for each other (or being lazy and just telling them to take your car instead).

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Hamblin113@reddit

An interesting thing in rural areas families who do not make a lot of money may have multiple vehicles. A vehicle is almost mandatory to get to work in many parts of the country. An old vehicle may have more value as a backup, rather than to sell it. If one breaks down can drive another until there is money to fix it. There can be a family car, a commuter car, dad’s truck, teenagers vehicle. People may have a wood truck, they may heat with wood and use it to go cut and carry it. May also double as the vehicle used to carry things to the dump.

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give_me_goats@reddit

We live in a (fairly) affluent neighborhood in the South and have only had one working car for a couple of years now. My husband’s 2004 Infiniti needs more work than we can afford, but for whatever reason it’s just rotting in our driveway. Our neighborhood is also centrally located and very walkable, I don’t currently have a job, and my husband works remotely. The lack of a second vehicle is rarely an issue; we mainly have to figure things out when the kids’ activities overlap.

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divinerebel@reddit

Growing up, my mom had a car, my dad had a car and a work truck, my grandparents each had a car (we all lived together). My older brother had a car at 16, I got a car at 16, and then my little brother got my car when I moved across the country. So, 7 people, 8 vehicles.

Now it's just me and my husband, and we each have one car.

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Suspicious_Code_6315@reddit

My mom and dad had one each, and my dad had a work car (cop). We lived in a small town. Now we live in the city and have one car between us both. I’m the only one who works outside of the house though, and we get only 1 parking spot with our condo.

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lil_ninja78@reddit

I have two cars and a truck.

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EmploymentEmpty5871@reddit

Yeppers, 2 of us, 5 cars, a truck, 2 motorcycles, and the lawnmower in the garage.

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lithomangcc@reddit

If both drive to work they need two cars or even if one spouse does the other might need it for errands when they get home.

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tiggipi@reddit

My husband and I both have our own car. Back when my dad was able to drive, my parents had two cars as well. My grandparents each had their own car. My in-laws had a car each til my MIL passed.

Pretty standard.

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avicia@reddit

we often have a little more land around our houses so when a car isn't reliable enough to drive every day sometimes we don't get rid of it right away, especially if there's about to be young drivers, or there's someone who likes to work on cars in the family. Sometimes just because selling it takes some effort. Used car values have increased in the last few years so it's not as common as it used to be, because we can get a bit more money selling it than we could before. Registration fees have also increased in many states making having old cars hanging around not as attractive as it was - but minimal insurance on a old car that's paid for it still not very expensive in most places.

In my extended family it's a car per adult and we do have a spare among several of us for when someone's car breaks down or needs to go in for maintenance - most people don't have much leave from work or a transit alternative to get to work so an unexpected car breakdown can get you fired from your job. Ours is an older very small hybrid so we use it for long trips on driving into the city because easy to park.

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AtheneSchmidt@reddit

My household always had at least 1 car per licenced driver. They were all over a decade old (usually 2 actually,) and we usually had an extra for driving when one of the other cars was in the shop (a lot) but we all had cars to drive daily. For a while the spare was an ancient truck, so we hit that stereotype, too.

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deadlyvices@reddit

I have two cars, a company truck, and 4 motorcycles. Three of the bikes and one of the cars are paid off. Looking at downsizing though, because I don't have time to drive/ride them regularly and it's not good for them to just sit.

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Responsible-View-804@reddit

We have 3 cars between two people

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Goodlife1988@reddit

We have two cars, one for me and one for my husband. When our kids were in High School and then College, we were a four car household.

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ghost_suburbia@reddit

3 cars plus a motorcycle for 2 adults in my household. One of the cars is a classic convertible muscle car, good for summer weekend drives and car shows.

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BlueSkyMourning@reddit

In the US our country is very large and only the biggest cities have metro systems. For the rest of us, it's up to us to figure out how to get around. I live in a rural area. My choice was a new Nissan Sentra because it is gas conservative. It's a relatively low cost compared to other vehicles yet it has a sporty look. If my husband was still living, we'd definitely have a vehicle for him too.

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Sea_Breakfast828@reddit

Yes it is true, US is very car dependent and there will be multiple cars per household.

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Punchasheep@reddit

I remember even in high school, I thought it was bonkers that some kids got new cars. They were also the kids who seemed to get into wrecks more often. I feel like they were less careful because mom and dad would pay to fix it. I was terrified to wreck my beater because I knew if I couldn't afford to pay to fix it, I was shit out of luck and would have to convince a friend to take me to school.

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Such_Detective_6709@reddit

Yep, got a hand me down at 15, passed my driving test in it. It’s absolutely crazy to me that the next day I started driving myself to school and just…that’s been life since. America is very car dependent, for sure.

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Lower_Kick268@reddit

Teens usually have their own cars wdym? Literally everyone in HS had a car

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Cardassia@reddit

In the urban Midwest it seems to be increasingly common for teens to not have a car, or not have a license at all. Source: work in records at an urban Midwestern community college.

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Lower_Kick268@reddit

Not here in rural SJ, if you don't have a car you're the odd one out

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Cardassia@reddit

I grew up in very rural Northern Michigan, and my experience was the same as yours. But not so much here in the city. To be honest, I’m not sure whether this is a new phenomenon here or not, but there are tons of high schoolers and young adults who cannot drive, here.

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Cyndagon@reddit

This is a lie. Maybe 1/6th of my senior class had their own cars.

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imlikleymistaken@reddit

I would wager that most freshman in your highschool did not have a car. So your statement cannot be true.

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Sea_Breakfast828@reddit

I got a brain fart, I was thinking about NEW cars.

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RockShowSparky@reddit

Oh, well, I’m in my 40’s now and still haven’t had one of those lol.

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JoeInMD@reddit

My daughter has her own car. So do all of her friends. Same was true of me and my friends when I was a teen. What part of the US are you in where this isn't the norm?

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Sea_Breakfast828@reddit

I got a brain fart, I was thinking about NEW cars.

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JoeInMD@reddit

Ok, yeah, most teens don't get new cars.

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Mr_Kittlesworth@reddit

Just not worth it. I trust my kids, but there’s a very elevated chance of accidents/damage with new drivers.

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lizerlfunk@reddit

Teen car ownership seems to be really location and SES dependent. Only about 25% of 16 year olds in the US have a driver’s license. The typical teen driver in the US is now getting their license closer to age 18.

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RockShowSparky@reddit

We all had our own cars by 16-17. They were all beaters that cost like $1000 but they were ours.

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Sea_Breakfast828@reddit

I got a brain fart, I was thinking about NEW cars.

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Lower_Kick268@reddit

Same but bump it up to 5k since I graduated HS in 2024. Everyone had beaters, a lot of the people I went to HS with just drove shitty rusty farm trucks

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NeverRarelySometimes@reddit

Each adult with a job or school needs a commuting vehicle. My disabled son needs an accessible van, which is enormous - it's usually sitting at home, waiting for him to need to go somewhere. So, yes, we have 4 vehicles for 3 drivers. Which of us should be forced to sit at home instead of going to work or school?

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Original-Area6961@reddit

I have 3 cars and a truck, but my truck is for truck stuff(hauling trailers, hunting and cruising forest roads).

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TheDadThatGrills@reddit

Yes, it's common for households to have two cars- one for each parent. Two cars + an extra pickup truck sounds like some ridiculous nonsense foreigners say about Americans. These people surely exist, but not in any statistically significant amount.

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giny33@reddit

Idk man it’s not uncommon to have a weekend car and people commute with pickup trucks all the time.

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Western_End_2223@reddit

That depends on where you live. In the Northeast metro areas, non-commercial pickups aren't that common.

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BearsLoveToulouse@reddit

Exactly. I am in NJ and not rural, when I mention my father in law has a pick up truck I get a lot of weird looks. Especially since many people know he has a white collar job that is high paying. He does a lot of home repairs and such so it is handy to have. BUT realistically it isn’t necessary for him to have.

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Crafty-Shape2743@reddit

I have to say, depending on where you live.

It isn’t uncommon in more rural areas of my area to have 2 cars and a beat up pickup for hauling firewood or throwing a ratty camper on the back for hunting or fishing trips. If you did a survey around the more rural parts of upper Michigan, you might be surprised at how many households have a set up like this.

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Discount_Plumber@reddit

Even in the lower peninsula in farming areas it's pretty common. Daily drivers for each parent and a farm truck.

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captainstormy@reddit

I mean, my mother has a CRV for a daily driver, plus an old pickup for yard work and housing stuff. It's not uncommon by any means.

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Vast_Lemon7906@reddit

Is having an extra pickup truck nonsense? I like having my cheap pickup truck for moving stuff, getting materials for home improvement stuff etc. I also have my own daily driving car.

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Will_White@reddit

Yeah one reasonably fuel efficient car for commuting per adult and one reasonably cheap truck for doing truck stuff with is the norm in much of rural America, suburbanites will tend to make the truck one of their commuters but it's alot more practical to spend less on two and have better economy for the majority of the time then to have a big expensive inefficient minivan grafted to too short of a bed.

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Sudden_Childhood_484@reddit

Dude what? Im also from Michigan, and find it hard to believe that you don’t know multiple people with a summer convertible or a truck for hauling their trailer. Have you heard of the Woodward dream cruise? Most of those cars are not daily drivers and it sees like 40,000 vehicles.

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MycologistFast4306@reddit

It isn’t uncommon to replace a vehicle and keep it for whatever purpose it can serve, IF it isn’t required for a lot of miles, IF you can afford not trading it in. For example, my parents have rural property they devote a lot of time to and things that need to be hauled. They have an old but functional truck for that purpose. We will have three cars in our household soon, one will be a hand-me-down for our teen to meet her obligations once she gets her license. As far as the teen goes, she’s required to be a lot of places as she grows into adulthood and two working parents with younger children. Giving her a modest car at no purchase cost makes sense because right now she has no transportation beyond what we can provide her.

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Overall_Occasion_175@reddit

That's absolutely super common. Or one of the cars is nice and new and the 3rd is the "winter beater", aka an old beat up car that you don't mind getting rusted out. Sometimes this is the same truck. My household currently has 3 cars but only because one is on its last legs and we haven't sold it yet

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icouldofhadaV8@reddit

We have our nice car(2016) and our beater(2002). We do hope to be able to find a cheap, and I mean cheap, beater truck for hauling stuff when we need too.

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igotplans2@reddit

You obviously don't live in the rural South or Midwest.

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NotTurtleEnough@reddit

In Oklahoma having three older vehicles rather than two newer ones is very common.

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o93mink@reddit

That doesn’t seem very uncommon to me. Lots of people have a “hobby car” of some sort

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Crash217@reddit

The “old hunting truck”, a project vehicle or a garage full of motorcycles is not unusual either.

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QueenAlpaca@reddit

1 per driver is normal. I live in a HCOL area and it’s not unusual to see rental houses to have 6+ cars.

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bluepanic21@reddit

Yeah usually one car per licensed adult

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Narrow-Durian4837@reddit

If a household has multiple people who have places they need to go regularly (jobs, school, etc.), and, as is the case in many parts of the U.S., there isn't public transportation readily available to those places, then multiple cars is almost a necessaity.

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AncientGuy1950@reddit

Sure. My wife has her car, and I have a project vehicle that I play with and drive. Before we were empty nesters, there were times when we had 3 or 4 cars, with one short period of time after my eldest got divorced when we had 5 cars in the garage and driveway

getting in and out took coordination.

To be clear, my wife and I only ever owned two cars at a time. When each kid came of age to drive, they could either uses one of ours when we didn't need them, or buy, insure, and maintain their own.

I taught all three of the kids how to change oil, and other simple tasks like changing a tire, and once my daughter started dating, I abused three or four young men for not knowing how to change a tire before teaching them how. No dads among them. One of them said 'but mom always calls Triple A'.

The rites of manhood have changed.

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CSAKnight@reddit

We have two cars right now, mine and my wife’s. We’re about to get another for our daughter who will be getting her license this year. They’re not new or expensive though.

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mobiuscycle@reddit

Rural area fully dependent on personal vehicles — one car per licensed driver in our household, so 4.

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OlderThanIvEverBeen@reddit

2 adults 3 vehicles here. Nice to have a spare just in case.

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Certain-Ad-4531@reddit

We live in a rural area and have two cars: one is electric for local driving/light hauling like groceries, and the other is a compact SUV for longer road trips and for pulling a flatbed trailer for hauling anything from garden supplies (mulch, compost, etc) to furniture to construction/home maintenance materials. These days, we don't drive the gas-powered SUV much.

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DisobedientFox@reddit

When my sister and I still lived at home and were old enough to drive, we each had our owns cars and my parents each had their own cars, so 4 total. You HAVE to have a car to get around here in the states. Public transport will take 2 hours longer than driving, if there's even a bus route that gets you close to where you need to be. The time it takes a European to cross 3 small countries is my normal everyday commute to work, and a lot of people have much longer commutes. The country is just too ginormous lol

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sadisticamichaels@reddit

Hell at one time my mother had a van, my father had a truck, my father had a work truck, I had a truck, my brother had a truck, we had a project 4x4 truck.

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Punchasheep@reddit

We had one car when my kid was a preschooler. It worked out because my husband and I were both working from home. But other than that, we have to have two cars. Before when we both worked out of the home, there were no public transit options for either of us. Now, we need two because I work from home, but have to pick the kid up from school while my husband is working. I don't like living in a country so reliant on cars, but it's just the reality of our situation. Our town only has a shitty bus service that doesn't have a lot of accessible stops as far as public transit goes, and it's suicide to ride a bike on most roads.

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SarahCF30@reddit

We have three for three adults. We all work different hours in different directions and public transportation suuuuuuuucks. And streets aren’t safe enough to bike - besides getting to work all sweaty. Plus freedom to come and as wanted/needed. As long as we can afford to, why not?

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Few_Weight4334@reddit

My household has 4 cars. My parents each have one (a minivan and a large SUV), my brother and I share one (a smaller SUV), and then my dad has a classic car (‘66 mustang) that is for fun.

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Dizyupthegirl@reddit

My dad has 5 vehicles (truck, jeep, sporty car, muscle car, and a Harley motorcycle…and an ATV). My mom has a Jeep. I just have 1 Jeep. My brother has 2 trucks and a four wheeler. I grew up with a dad who’s a mechanic and loves vehicles so it’s the norm for me.

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Bottdavid@reddit

Yes very common. My older neighbors to my left each have their own car, I have a car plus my wife has her own and we have an old truck we keep for random uses. My neighbor on the other side has 3 motorcycles, his own truck, his wife has a car and their daughter who just started driving has her own car.

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nikkinj@reddit

We have 4

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HarlequinKOTF@reddit

Growing up we had 2 when my parents still lived together. After they divorced, 1 per person at their houses.

Each adult worker generally needs a car to get to their job unless the scheduling is reallt well done.

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Similar_Ad2094@reddit

I have a work vehicle, my own car that's rarely used and my wife has a car. Which it's a Fiat so she drives my car once a year while hers gets major work done on it lol.

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Pitiful_Lion7082@reddit

My parents, in their two person household, have 3 cars. 2 years ago it was 4. We're a household with two drivers, two vehicles. One for commuting to work, one for the family. I know many families with a single vehicle.

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Traveler_AZ@reddit

It is fun when more than one breaks down and you also need to lend one to you out of home kid who's car has also broken down.

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thegurlearl@reddit

I grew up working on cars with my dad, I have 3. My brother has 5, he does racing called auto cross and 1 he bought so our dad can race too. My dad has 3, one hes been building for the last year and my mom has 1.

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la-anah@reddit

Every adult that has a job generally needs their own car to get to work.

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Eranov@reddit

Why? Is the country so lagging behind in infrastrctural development that you can't take a bus or use your bicycle?

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Loving-mom-128@reddit

1 per licensed driver, plus a work truck, and a truck to pull the travel trailer. At least where I grew up.

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blindside1@reddit

We have 2 cars, one for each parent and a pickup truck that irregularly used, mostly for picking up lumber, trips to the dump, or camping.

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New_Cover_1954@reddit

We have 5 cars: one per driver

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RupesSax@reddit

My parents and I have one car each. My younger brother is wheelchair bound, so we have a 4th vehicle for his needs

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kae0603@reddit

It is very common to have multiple cars.

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Champsterdam@reddit

We lived in Chicago in a single family home area with tons of kids. Most people had one car per household but a few people we were friends with had two. We had a car and twin children, but we only drove a few times a week. Walked kids to daycare and school, grocery store was a block away. Took the train into work downtown. Before the kids we lived closer to the lake in a more dense area and I didn’t bother with a car there for 13 years. It was actually so nice not to have to mess with one.

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QuailDifficult8470@reddit

Most people in the US don’t have easy access to public transportation and need to drive to and from work (as well as the grocery store, etc). So it’s common for each adult in the family to have a car. I have two college aged kids and when they’re both home we have 4 cars in the driveway.

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LangokiAgain@reddit

Yeah we have two drivers and three cars. It's mostly a result of inheriting cars that older relatives don't want. I'll have another driver in the house in a few years, so it will even out.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

There are five cars at my household: four are mine, one is my girlfriend's.

Mine are:

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air
1979 AMC Spirit
1988 BMW 535i
2013 Chevrolet Tahoe

My girlfriend's:

2023 Prius

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Steelcity213@reddit

Yep its necessary since typically both parents have to work plus often times have to be at different things at the same time.

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Stuffed-Bear412@reddit

Sometimes. I had a car, my two teens each had their own, and I had a spare I was going to sell. Every last damn one of them was white.

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Awkward_Macaron6222@reddit

I live in a city. We have one car, but we don’t use it much. My spouse walks to work or takes the subway. I work from home. My kid didn’t learn to drive until the weekend before going to college.

She now has a car, but she doesn’t live at home anymore.

When I was growing up, we always had at least two cars. One for my father to drive to work and one for my mother to drive to work. We usually had a third vehicle to use on my father’s days off, but the vehicle varied depending on where we lived. We had a pickup when we lived in a desert and wanted to be able to drive off road. We had a boat when we lived on an island.

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lespelerins@reddit

At our house there is mom and dad plus 4 kids, all driving different directions. So for awhile we had a truck and 4 cars. We’re down to 3 now.

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Dave_A480@reddit

The norm is a minimum of 2 cars per household.
Often 3 if there are kids over 16, or there's a pickup truck that is only used for pickup-trucky things not daily driving.

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FewRecognition1788@reddit

We make do with the adults sharing a car and the teens sharing a car, because fortunately out workplaces are a 10 minute city drive apart, and the teens attend the same school, but work is 20 minutes (by expressway) in one direction from home, and school is 20 minutes the opposite direction.

At rush hour, it can take over an hour to get from work to school.

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Dave_A480@reddit

Yeah, some people do that...

But a lot more families are like mine - I'm a techie (So, Seattle - that's where the industry is - and 'work until it's fixed' flexible salaried schedule), my wife is an Occupational Therapist (so, anywhere local that has a nursing home, therapy clinic, or K-12 schools - and a fixed hourly schedule)....

If we both wanted to work, and both had to commute (I presently don't - remote 5 days is amazing) there is no way to get by on a single car between the two of us.....

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FewRecognition1788@reddit

Right, I think that's more usual. I was pointing out that our situation works because of our lucky geography.

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Araxanna@reddit

It’s just me and my dad now, but yes we each have a vehicle.

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pokematic@reddit

Yep, pretty common for 1 car per adult. Most households are 2 income and most jobs are not within walking/biking distance and/or public transit sucks, so each adult needs one to get to work.

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washtucna@reddit

Usually one car per licensed driver. So often there will be one for Mon, one for Dad, and if there are children over the age of 16, one for him/her, too.

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zazor701@reddit

In my house, everyone with a driver's license ended up with a car. When both my brother and I got our licenses (we're 4 years apart), that just meant we got our parent's cars and it was an excuse for our parents to buy new cars

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unbroken_cycle@reddit

Two daily drivers and and older pickup truck for renovation work that we do near constantly

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I_AmNoJedi@reddit

Yes, our lack of good public transportation, and how spread out everything is, makes it pretty necessary for each adult to have their own car in most places in the US. My husband and I have totally different schedules, so sharing one car would never work for us. And we don't even have kids.

People can get by without a car much more easily if they live in cities where everything is walkable, but so much of the US is rural or suburban and is so spread out. People might live an hour's drive or more from where they work, and have no train or bus so they need their own car.

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Fun-Yellow-6576@reddit

One vehicle per driving age adult is very common. We actually have and additional vehicles (Jeep) for off roading.

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WalnutTree80@reddit

1 car per adult and often 1 car each for teen drivers.

We are a 2 person household and we have an SUV and a truck.

When I was growing up (middle Gen Xer) my mom had a small car for driving to work, my dad had a commercial truck because he worked in construction, I had a small car after I started driving, and we had a larger family car.

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HighFiveKoala@reddit

Where I am in Southern California, most families I know have a car for each person

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MGaCici@reddit

Yes. Many households have several cars. We have 3. Thankfully they are paid for. My brother has 8 or 9. He loves cars and buys them for fun instead of functionality. He is looking to sell the vette though. It makes his back hurt. If the economy was more secure I would consider buying a new car. It's good to have extras in case someone in the family has an issue.

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ChronicLegHole@reddit

We are a 2 driver household with 2 very cheap old cars, 2 vintage mopeds, 3 vintage motorcycles, 1 modern motorcycle, and one never ending project motorcycle lol.

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OrganizationSouth481@reddit

Cars are a necessity for most of us. Most of our non-city areas don’t have public transportation and are not walkable/ bike able.

How would both parents get to work if they shared 1 car? Assuming different schedules/ different jobs. A third vehicle to lessen the mileage or for hauling jobs is also not uncommon. Something my household has talked about getting once our primary vehicles are paid off.

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KrazySunshine@reddit

My husband and I each had are own cars, no pickup truck though, no need for it. I don’t know anyone who has a pickup truck

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long-breadstick@reddit

I don't think that i represent the majority of Americans but i live in a house with my girlfriend and we have 5 cars between us. I have a daily driver a 1971 project car and a utility truck for work. My girlfriend has a daily driver and a big van for camping.

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GlobalTapeHead@reddit

Yes. I have 2 cars. My wife has a car. Each of my kids have a car. Then we have a truck for hauling stuff around. We have 6 cars at our house. It’s the American way.

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elphaba00@reddit

We live in a rural area. I commute to work; my husband works in town, but he uses his vehicle for hauling things for his job. Our 20-year-old's college is two hours away; he keeps a car on campus for driving around and coming back home. When he's home, he's also basically an Uber for his sister. His 2017 car is the newest model, so it's not like we're driving the newest and the greatest. But everything is paid off and works.

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FLOHTX@reddit

Wife and I - SUV for her. I have an Audi S4 for daily stuff. Truck is for work so only drive it for work things.

No kids. No reason I can't get rid of the Audi, but I just like it, plus manual transmission means racecar.

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Askfreud@reddit

Yes, most people have one car per adult, plus maybe a special “weekend car” they drive only occasionally. In my neighborhood most households have 1 SUV per adult, and then maybe a Corvette or Lamborghini in the garage for occasional trips, not everyday driving.

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Clean-Fisherman-4601@reddit

Only affluent people have multiple cars. The less affluent might have one decent car and a hoopty for the second driver.

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spandexcatsuit@reddit

Everyone around here has at least one car per licensed driver. I’m rural so they may also have a plow truck and or broken down vehicles

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Former_Travel2839@reddit

Yes. Imused to 1+ vehicle per a driver.

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Ok_Jackfruit2612@reddit

I would say it's common for households to have one car per adult driver. If there are teenage children in the home who are driving age, they may have their own car or may have to share with parents.

I would say it's uncommon to have a collection of working cars or to have extra cars just for fun. Not unheard of but much more likely in the upper classes.

It's also pretty common to have broken down cars parked permanently in your drive way while you are saving up to get it fixed.

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rojoshow13@reddit

I feel anxiety if I don't own 2 or 3 vehicles. Because when 1 breaks, I like to have a backup.

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Mobius3through7@reddit

Wife and I have 2 cars and 2 aircraft.

Brother is up to like 17 snowmobiles, well over 10 cars, some motorcycles, andjch more besides.

So it really varies greatly. Most people don't collect them, those that do collect a lot...

...I will absolutely be adding more aircraft to the fleet in the future.

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pippintook24@reddit

there are multiple houses in my neighborhood that have more than one vehicle. one per adult ( up to 4 adults), work van, broken down car that they've been "fixing up" for years.

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Dangerous-Variation@reddit

Yes, we have multiple cars per household. Most have one for mom, one for dad and occasionally there will be one or two for any kids of driving age, but that depends on if the household can afford the car insurance rates for teenagers. They are brutal.

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mombot-in-the-woods@reddit

We have one pickup truck that we cannot fit our entire family in at once (it has 5 seats but there are 6 of us) and one minivan that we can all ride in together. The minivan we drive for school commute and most days the pickup truck just sits in the driveway because my husband takes public transit to work.

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kipkiphoray@reddit

You need to understand that the wealthiest people in this country have ensured that this country is VERY car dependent. Public transport sucks here, even cities with an alright bus schedule pale in comparison to other countries' public transport. Just look at a map of our passenger rails. So most adults have a car. Teens might get a car when they start driving (they might save up to buy their own, get a hand me down / cheap one gifted, or if they're well off they might get a new car gifted to them. It's very common for older teens to drive themselves to school. A spare vehicle or work truck is more common in rural areas. Or maybe you have a recreation vehicle - like a truck to go mudding.

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thesturdygerman@reddit

It depends on the family situation. If both adults need to drive to work, each would need a car.

When my kids were in school they shared a car, my husband took the bus to work and i had a car for everything else.

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Vast-Combination4046@reddit

We have 3. A compact SUV (bronco sport, aka boxy focus) a Subaru ascent (SUV/minivan) and a sports car that was paid off before I had kids.

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norahsharpe@reddit

true where u/miffybo ?

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Icy-Arm-2194@reddit

It all depends on where you live. If its one of thr larger cities with reliable public transportation, no. You might have one car or none at all. My parents just have one car between the two of them. Growing up there were 2 cars. Even when my brothers and I started driving there was only the 2 shared and things got figured out. My husband and I each have a car. A relative had a car for her ans her husband, a car in their name for her mom to use babysitting, another car for I forget what, a project car and 2 motorcycles. They got told if they had one more vehicle they would have to register as a used car lot. I doubt that was true but, someone told them that.

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Cute_Treacle630@reddit

Super family dependent, my husband is a mechanic so we probably have more than the average. We have my car, the dog car/his small commuter, the truck, a fun car each, dirtbikes each and a motorcycle as well. Plus often 1-2 project cars we flip for cash

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yeetmeintotheoven@reddit

In my house we have four cars and two adults. Two are our company vehicles and then we each have our own personal car.

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Defiant_Finger4011@reddit

I love the different opinions here and it really shows how different urban, suburban and rural households manage vehicles. Not to mention financial status. Depending on the region, state and even down to county and city also makes a difference.

I don’t think we can as a country can come to a consensus on what’s “normal” even on Reddit.

All of these answers are going to be strictly anecdotal and possibly biased.

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Fit_Club_3042@reddit

I, myself have 3.

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Senior_Performer_387@reddit

Most adults have their own vehicle, especially of both work. Some make it work with one car but most adults need their own vehicle unless you live in a really walkable city with good public transportation.

Extra trucks are usually for people in rural areas or if you like inherited a working vehicle from a deceased relative.

My mom had my brother's dad's truck parked on her property for years because she couldn't bring herself to get rid of it. It was the last thing he bought before he died. A green pickup that he named Marvin because he loved Marvin the Martian. I don't think my brother even wants it and I don't think it even runs and my mom is gone but i think it might still he there

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Gonna_do_this_again@reddit

I've got 3 myself but I'm a hobbyist

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dr_stre@reddit

One car per adult is normal.

Once kids get to be driving age it’s not uncommon for them to have an older vehicle for themselves (if you can time it right the parent gives them their exiting vehicle and buys a new one).

It’s much less common, but certainly not “rare” for there to be more cars than driving age people in the household. Often the extra car will be something that either has more utility, like a pickup, or a nicer sports car that they don’t want to daily drive.

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Turbulent_Bullfrog87@reddit

My dad has more than 1 “spare pickup truck” but he’s a farmer & uses all of them with varying regularity.

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IDCouch@reddit

4 drivers and 5 vehicles. Once you have a pick up truck, you will always have a PU . They are incredibly useful.

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elphaba00@reddit

My father-in-law just had a bunch of work done on his late-90s Tundra (his "spare" car). I told my husband that it would probably be better off scrapped. He argued that the repairs are worth what the truck can handle for his dad and us.

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caryn1477@reddit

And you regret it if you get rid of it 😫

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evilr2@reddit

Unless you live in a dense city and then you partially regret having one because you're the person everyone asks when they need help moving.

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Familiar-Ad-1965@reddit

Yes. I live in a very rural area—16 miles to nearest town. Town or village not a city. But I commute to city 60 miles away, daily. My vehicle is a pickup truck.

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grahsam@reddit

My wife and I both have cars, I have a classic car in my garage, and both of my kids had cars when they were in their 20s and still living at home.

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Weak_Firefighter_190@reddit

My wife and I share 2 cars. I usually drive the Jeep pickup and she drives SUV. My son got a car around the time he turned 17, and we have an Austin Healey Sprite as our old fun car that is usually just taking up space in the garage. We also have a motorcycle and a quad taking up space in the garage too, so most cars parked in driveway

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Wooden_Airport6331@reddit

2 cars is normal. A third car for work, fun, or a teen driver is not universal but not unusual. 4 or more cars would be very unusual.

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Tron_35@reddit

Its normal for there to be 1 car for each parent, and 1 for kids old enough to drive.

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Swimming_Nose4713@reddit

We have three: Tesla for me, Mazda CX30 for my wife, VW GTI for my daughter. No truck...but I live in an area where trucks as daily drivers are pretty much unheard of.

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jc8495@reddit

Us is very car dependent most adults need a car to get to work and in most two parent households both parents are working so there needs to be at least 2 to get them both to work. Depending on how affluent the area is, it’s also not uncommon that teenagers over 16 would have a car or share one with their siblings that’s separate to the parents cars. That’s what my family did

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finnbee2@reddit

We have two cars and a truck. The truck is seldom used. We are a retired couple in their 70s.

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SnarkFest2026@reddit

I have 2 SUV’s. One is bigger, and good for going off road, and great in snow and ice with the tires I have on it. I have a smaller SUV that gets really good gas mileage for day to day life. I live with my son and his wife… he has a big diesel truck, plus a trailer and an ORV, and frequently tows stuff for work or his friends. My daughter in law has a midsize sedan.

When I was a teenager back in the 80’s, my brother and I each had our own cars, as did both of my parents.

That said, where I grew up, (suburbs) public transportation wasn’t really useful. There was a bus stop 6 miles away, and the bus came through at 6am and 6 pm. Likewise where I live now, a little resort type town on the water, everyone drives.

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NIN10DOXD@reddit

Super common. Even working class households that are struggling often have more than one car if there is more than one adult.

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confusedrabbit247@reddit

one each for the parents, plus pick up truck

This is not accurate. 1 car for each adult maybe but not that and a pick up truck.

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lunaticmagnet@reddit

I have around 30 cars. I'm far from an average household though. Just a car guy with a love for $500 rotboxes.

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Jubilies@reddit

Have 3. Mine, my spouse, and my son’s. We live in an area where you need multiple cars.

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emptybagofdicks@reddit

Basically everyone that works needs a car to get to work. Public transportation is minimal outside of NYC.

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puskunk@reddit

Yep. One car for every adult here, plus one extra. Two street legal motorcycles.

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RicardoFrijoles@reddit

Pretty common, everyone with a job in a household needs to get to work somehow

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allaboutmojitos@reddit

At one time, we had 7. Four kids all of driving age plus two parents and we had an extra vehicle used for towing and if someone’s car was in the shop. A few of the kids were commuting to college and everyone had hobbies, sports, and jobs. It would have been a scheduling nightmare otherwise

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thirdeyefish@reddit

It is normal to have at least one car per adult. How this is divided depends on the family. There might be a commuter vehicles which focuses on fuel economy and a larger vehicle which can accommodate more goods and people. Or, especially in the case of newer families, cars retained from before the marriage. My partner and I both have our cars from before we were a couple, and if one became inoperable we would definitely replace it. I grew up in a semi-rural area and while we didn't have much money (like, really though) we were able to find a car that was given to me at 17 that I could use for myself. Part of that was that I had to use it to contribute to the family, like giving the little sister rides to and from school, getting groceries from time to time, and even giving mom rides to work or yielding the car when hers was out of commission. This deal still benefited me greatly, so I was very happy about it.

I did have to pay my own gas and insurance, but the alternative was walking to work and never leaving the house apart from work or school.

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MVolkJ1975@reddit

We have four, one for each of us.

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MageDA6@reddit

It depends on income level. Most people I knew growing up and as an adult only own one car for themselves or their whole family. The only people I knew that had more than one car were the well off people/families that my mother cleaned for.

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Western-Finding-368@reddit

Yes. Unless the adults in the home work at the same company with the exact same schedule, they each need a car to get to work. And once the kids are old enough to drive themselves to work and after school activities, they typically get their own cars. I grew up in a rural area, so most families also had a truck in addition to the cars.

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R1R1FyaNeg@reddit

One for each person driving in my parent's house plus a truck and a classic car that my dad enjoyed driving.

My house has a vehicle for my husband and I as daily driver's, a truck, and a Jeep my husband likes to work on.

Most married couples have at least a vehicle each.

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amandner@reddit

Larger family car, smaller sedan for commuting spouse. No truck payment here haha

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annagph@reddit

One car per person that can drive is what’s the norm for my community but most of the times it’s one per parent.

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JohnWa54@reddit

Wife and I are empty nesters. Rarely driven hotrod, split daily driven pickup or jeep for me, suv for her. Plus 2 motorcycles and boat...

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NickElso579@reddit

The pickup truck is generally just one of the daily use vehicles, it's a big problem here because people don't really have the skills to operate them safely.

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MezzanineSoprano@reddit

Many Americans live where there is inadequate or no public transportation so cars are necessary. Ride shares get expensive. Until recently, gas was less expensive here than in many other parts of the world.

Also, many residential areas are not close to stores and many neighborhoods don’t even have sidewalks.

When I lived in Europe, I could get around just fine without a car. Public transportation was inexpensive, ran on time & you could get just about anywhere using it.

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Plenty_Hippo2588@reddit

2 in mine. 3 if u include motorcycle

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she-dont-use-jellyyy@reddit

Most homes don't have two cars and a pickup truck. If someone drives a pickup truck, that's usually their primary vehicle.

But yes, we are a car-dependent culture. And teenagers do often have their own cars.

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JoeInMD@reddit

Old beater pickups are pretty common. There's 3 on my cul-de-sac alone. It's why I don't need to buy one, plenty here to borrow!

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she-dont-use-jellyyy@reddit

"Pretty common" isn't the same as most people owning them.

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JoeInMD@reddit

Well no, but OP'S part was that is common for multi car households. Their example included 1 car for each adult driver, or a car for a teen, or an old pickup. Of the 20 houses on my cul-de-sac, there are numerous houses in each of the categories, so yes, multi car households is most people.

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mrhanky518@reddit

Yes, 1 per adult usually. I also have a fun car for weekends. 1968 Camaro. Takes more maintenance and must be careful but shes a blast to drive.

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Lugbor@reddit

Each adult needs a car, and the high school kid usually has a cheap one to learn in and get to their job with.

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yiotaturtle@reddit

We used to have multiple cars and then we moved within biking distance of my husband's work and then his job switched to remote only.

Earlier in our marriage we lived in walking distance to my job so during that period we also had a single car.

We haven't had anyone working outside the home since 2020 but doctors are often on the other side of the city and it's just convenient.

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evilr2@reddit

I would say the average is one car per person of driving age in the household for the majority of the country. Some people have additional cars and others have adults that don't drive or drive sparingly and share cars. One car each person sounds about average.

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Foreign_Mobile_7399@reddit

My husband and I each have our own cars, that’s it. But growing up my family was upper middle class and we had a car for each parent, plus eventually a car for my sister and I each, and my dad had a truck as well for work and for plowing snow. This was in the 90s/00s. It seems insane to me now.

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Derwin0@reddit

We currently have 4, so yes.

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Athrynne@reddit

Depends what part of the country. Most people have 2 cars, but I live in the NYC suburbs and we only need and have one.

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Visual-Fig-4763@reddit

1 car per licensed driver is pretty common. Plus a pickup truck is not often true. Most people who have pickup trucks drive that as their main vehicle. Sometimes people have a fun car or project car too that isn’t their daily driver. And sometimes there is a car in the driveway that isn’t operable or not driven anymore but they just haven’t gotten around to doing anything with it.

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Vegetable-Pension-57@reddit

My uncle had a farm pick up and a go to town car

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Living_Fig_6386@reddit

It's not uncommon for there to be more than one car per household in suburban and rural areas (not common in cities), particularly if more than one person has a job, or one commutes and the other drives children about.

It would be far less common to have more cars than people that would be driving them simultaneously. Three cars in a two adult household, for instance, would be far less common. The exception may be if one of the vehicles is owned by the business that they work for. It may be that they have a business vehicle that they park at home that is only used for business purposes and a separate vehicle for personal use.

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lexicon951@reddit

As others have said one per adult (both adults have to drive to work around the same time going to two separate places). Kids will be dropped off at daycare by a parent or picked up at the bus stop for school. Same going home. Kids get their first car around age 16-18 between when they get their drivers license and when they go to college. It’s usually a beat up old car that some relative or friend of the family doesn’t want anymore, worth $2-5K (less than a motorcycle)

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Actual-Layer9701@reddit

We downsized from 2 cars to 1 car last year. We moved closer to kids schools and my work so my husband wasn’t driving at all. We do not have reliable or well thought out public transportation in my area. We’re looking at adding a moped as my work is only 3 miles from my home and I could use it almost year round. Then my husband would have regular access to a vehicle again.

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Apprehensive_Run6642@reddit

It’s because we have to drive everywhere so if one person‘s at work and the other person in a two person household needs to get somewhere they also need a car. Then when your kids are old enough to drive at 16 years old, they need a car too so they can get to work so that’s three cars. My wife and I have one car and one pickup truck and I drive the truck which also gets used for home projects, building supplies, plants, mulch, etc..

Most places in the US you need a car to do your daily tasks so everyone pretty much has one.

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762way@reddit

Pickup truck for me Jeep for my wife

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

We have about 10 vehicles. Some of those are my husband’s work vehicles though. He owns his own construction company.

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SabrinaFaire@reddit

If you live outside of a city or don't live in one with good public transport, one per adult is common. The US is BIG and it's hard to get around if you don't have a car.

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hyst808@reddit

My spouse and I each have an SUV and a fun sports car. Would love a truck but that's overkill. LOL

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TeamTurnus@reddit

Yah, folks usually drive to work so youll often have one per adult in the house

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dandelionblackberry@reddit

I live in a US city that had relatively good public transit for most of my life (it's gone downhill badly in the last decade). My wife and I shared a car and used transit to commute until about a year ago when the "back to the office " mandates started. We bought a second car believing my wife was about to transition from FT telework to working in a location more than 90 minutes away by public transit.

However, her work had no office space to place people in and no money to get it, so they have quietly abandoned the mandate and now we have a second car that we didn't actually need. It has been pretty convenient though.

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bloodectomy@reddit

Usually 1 car per adult, and then maybe an SUV or pickup for the occasional "we gotta move a lot of small things or some big things" run. A lot of times you can hire somebody to pick up or deliver loads but then you're beholden to somebody else's schedule. Having a utility vehicle lets you do that kind of thing on demand.

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ratrodder49@reddit

We’re probably not your average example. I have seven cars, five of which are able to be driven. One’s my daily and one is my wife’s daily, one’s for pulling a trailer, one is a family heirloom, and the fifth is for fun.

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Novel_Willingness721@reddit

When you live in a car centric area (most of the US) and both adults work, they typically each need a car to at least get to and from work.

In other parts of the world walking and biking are viable options and mass transit is MUCH better.

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Mac_A81@reddit

Most families have one for each adult because if both people work outside the home, they’d each need one. Some families with teenagers will have another vehicle for them but that just depends on the particular situation.

My husband has been driving my car lately because he needs a new vehicle. His is really old and not safe to drive much. We’ve been making do because I’m home all day for the most part. When I have an appointment or need to use it, he takes his but I don’t want him doing that too often because I don’t want anything to happen to him. He also has a big box truck that he uses for work but it’s stored at the warehouse so he needs a personal vehicle to get there.

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Choice-Marsupial-127@reddit

Typically one car per person, especially if everybody is working/attending school. My daughter and I shared my car for a while, but we recently got a third car so I wouldn’t be stuck when both cars were gone. You have to remember most of us live without any public transport.

When I was growing up in a family of five, we had five cars. Between school, sports, and after school jobs, we all needed to be able to drive ourselves.

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tinapanics@reddit

I live with 4 other adults and we all have our own car, so there are 5 cars parked out front just from household members, I will say a lot of people around where I live (small town) have junk cars parked in their yards as well haha

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tinapanics@reddit

To add on to the small town thing though, there is absolutely zero public transportation where I live. All 5 of us work in the next town over, which is about a 15-20 minute drive, no buses, no ubers will get you there. It would be about a 2.5 hour walk one way to get to my job which is the closest out of everyone else's, and most of that walk would be on a highway with zero sidewalks or safe places to walk. We also all work different schedules, so we all need our own cars!

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OneleggedPeter@reddit

My wife and I are both over 60yo., and have no one else in the house. Between the 2 of us, we have 5 vehicles: 2 Hyundais, 2 Jeeps, and a 1994 pickup with close to 400,000 miles (643737 km) on it. The truck is mainly used to go to the dump and back. The cars and Jeeps are all used, depending upon where we’re going, distance, traffic, etc.

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zmass126194@reddit

It’s one vehicle per licensed driver usually. Not unusual to have 4-5 cars per house. Each of the parents have 1 then a kid that’s 16, 18 and 20.

Gotta get to work.

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Ok-Energy-9785@reddit

It's not unheard of

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IMakeOkVideosOk@reddit

Each adult typically would have their own car. Plus children of driving age would often have one they could use, but it may be shared among all the kids.

Also it’s not crazy that someone would have another car whether it be a sports car or a truck, but that is not the majority of people but certainly common enough to not bat an eye at someone having an extra or 2.

But again the US is huge and what’s true somewhere may not be true elsewhere… but it’s fairly common in non large cities for every adult to have a car

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Darmok47@reddit

I remember finding it odd that my married friend doesn't have a his and hers seperate car. They have two cars but don't really care which car they use.

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Frecklefishpants@reddit

We don't have separate cars because we got an EV. Whoever is going the furthest takes it.

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Believe_In_Magic@reddit

Outside of some large cities, our public transportation system isn't great so cars are more essential in a lot of places, which means most adults needs one.

There are two people in my house, but we have four cars and two motorcycles (two of the cars we want to sell though). Most adults I know have their own car and some have more than one.

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AlternativeCraft8905@reddit

We have 3. Husbands truck, family SUV, and a nice car that we don’t use daily. It’s nice for if one vehicle breaks down we have an extra

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MannyBuzzard@reddit

I have a GMC Sierra, Honda CRV, and Chevrolet Corvette.

I drive the Sierra every day. My wife drives the CRV. I drive the corvette when I want.

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Automatic-Plate-8966@reddit

Yes. Right now it’s just me and my husband. I have a car and he has a motorcycle and a truck. Growing up, we had my moms car, my dads car, and my sister and I got cars when we got drivers licenses. My dad also had his corvette that he got in 1967. My dad was an airline pilot and we lived three hours from the closest airport he flew out of so he would drive to the airport and leave the car there until he was done with his trip. If we only had one car, we would have been screwed.

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Ok_Part6564@reddit

Very variable, and the reasons why vary. One per licensed adult is probably most common.

I've lived in cities where most didn't have any cars. I have a neighbor who fixes up old cars, so has a bunch in his driveway, but they aren't for personal use. Some have a broken car that they hope to fix up someday. I know families where multiple licenced adults shared cars, one 2 adults 1 car, one with 4 adults and 3 cars. Both those families live in suburban areas where there is stuff that isn't totally unwalkable.

I only knew one person with the one car for each adult plus a pick up truck for bad weather and hauling stuff situation. They were a fairly wealthy semi rural family. It is not the norm.

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LankyJeep@reddit

I own a truck, my wife has a commuter car, I’m likely going to pick up a beater at some point to avoid putting miles on the truck. it’s not uncommon for people to have a car per person in a household. Some folks even have more cars than houses

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TheDuckFarm@reddit

Yes. We have our daily drivers for each driver and then some weekend toys, a Jeep and a sports car.

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FireflyTango@reddit

Sometimes if a car is paid off but very old, people don't trade it in--they just hold on to it as a work vehicle or whatever. Maybe they'll hold on to it for their kids to drive in a couple of years when they're of age.

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Dudeus-Maximus@reddit

That’s pretty common. We have 2 and a tractor. About to add a third because my wife needs something with good mileage.

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rebekahr19@reddit

Norm is 1 per adult but my partner and I share 1 car and use bike/bus.

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78723@reddit

Parents don’t want to drive their kids to/from before/after school practices and events. So, one car per parent and one for each kid 16+ is common.

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borisdidnothingwrong@reddit

I know people that run the gamut.

My household is one car for each of us because we've both got commuter jobs.

My sister in law has 4 licensed drivers and 3 cars, because her husband doesn't like to drive.

I've known two guys with multiple DUIs who couldn't afford insurance. One owns a dozen vehicles that he can't drive, but he likes to wrench on them. The other rides a bicycle in good weather. Both use Uber predominately.

I know a woman who drives a Subaru for all weather reliability, and owns a sweet old pickup that she's slowly restoring.

My folks have a parking lot. Mom just got a new car, but still has her old car. My younger brother lives with them with his two adult kids. Bro is driving mom's old car, neice is driving bro's car, nephew had his own car. They have a backup car/hauling pickup truck. Step-dad has a non-working car and his daily driver. My twin has his old pickup and Subaru parked there, both non working and can't be kept at his place due to HOA rules. That's 9 vehicles, 3 of which are broken.

My next door neighbor has 3 cars, two trucks, 9 motorcycles, 2 Four-Wheelers, and a bass boat. Only one truck runs. He is legally blind and relies on his granddaughter for transportation. She has her own minivan.

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dangleicious13@reddit

My parents always had 2 cars. When I turned 16, they got a new one and let me drive an old one, so we had 3. When I went to college, they got me a used car and passed the old car to my younger sister. So we had 4 cars at the time. I now live alone at 38 and only have 1 car.

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Frecklefishpants@reddit

This isn't just an American thing. Canada is the same. We have three people living in our house and three cars. My husband and I share a newer EV, but also kept his older car (a 2016) for us to use when we do need two cars. I drove it to yoga twice this week while he was at further away work meetings in the EV. My stepdaughter is 20 and drives my old car (a 2015). She goes to university 5 hours away so uses it to get back and forth. She also works full time during the summer months and there is no public transit or other option for her to get to and from work.

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Educational_Horse469@reddit

We have 4 cars. Two parents, two young adult children still living at home when not away at college. One car per licensed driver. Public transportation where we live is almost nonexistent. What there is isn’t safe.

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captainstormy@reddit

One car households are pretty rare.

One car per adult is the minimum normal. Teens with a license will often have a car too. Some people have extra cars for fun too.

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Royal_Mewtwo@reddit

I’m early 30s M with a wife, baby, and pets. I have 3 cars: a 2000s truck, a 2010s car, and a 2020s minivan. The reason for the minivan is obvious, and I have no compelling reason to sell the others. As a single guy, I still had a car and a truck. I can afford it, and each vehicle has its use… when a car is in the shop, I’m pretty much unaffected.

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bachintheforest@reddit

I think most don’t have a separate pickup truck, but a lot of people instead do drive pickup trucks as their primary vehicle. A lot of the time it’s for show but there are of course plenty who genuinely use it for doing work. My dad was always in construction of some kind so he always drove a pickup and actually used it to carry/haul/tow stuff. When I was a kid my mom drove a station wagon and that was the car we’d use when we all went places together. They both had places to go during the day so they had their own vehicles. My own partner and I have individual cars now too and any other couples/households I know are the same.

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misskellycupcake@reddit

Most of the country has no public transportation

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TieDye_Raptor@reddit

Two cars is pretty common if there are two adults living there. In my case, my husband and I have one car that works, and another that doesn't work anymore.

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KonaKumo@reddit

For middle class ...yes. 1 per driver and then a fun car/truck

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rileyoneill@reddit

My area, Riverside CA, averages like 2.7 cars per household. In some major cities it can be significantly lower. San Francisco is like .75 cars per household.

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Eccentric-Elf@reddit

Yes. If you have kids then they might share a car if they can drive. It’s hard to only have one car if you live in an area with no public transportation or parents/adult kids have their own schedules. I live in a city with zero public transportation and can only get to work by my own car. Most garages that I know of can hold two cars.

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nope-its@reddit

Yes - every household I’ve been in has always been one car per driver (even 16 year olds).

Neighborhood I’m in as an adult is the same.

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SirTwitchALot@reddit

The kids usually get a beater though unless the family is rich

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SnakeBatter@reddit

Yup. The reason I had a car at 16 is because my granddad passed the year before, and left me his old pickup from the 80s.

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vashtachordata@reddit

My husband and I each have 1 car, and we just bought a (cheap) car for our oldest who is turning 16 at the end of summer.

My husband and I frequently have to be different places at the same time. Next year my son will be one taking a course at a different high school and has to provide his own transportation. He needs a car. Not to mention I can’t wait to stop driving him to 6 am morning practices and getting home from evening practices at 9pm. Him driving is going to be life changing for me.

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Character_South1196@reddit

We have 3 cars - one for each licensed driver. 2 of them are nearly 15 years old, the newest is 3 years old. we "hand them down" when a new car is purchased. I despise having a car payment and will drive them into the ground.

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GardenWitchMom@reddit

We have four cars.

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PersonalBrowser@reddit

It completely depends on the locality, but yes, the average person in suburban and rural environments will have 1 car per person that can drive. In the city, people have way less cars and rely on public transit more, but owning a car is still common.

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New_Sun6390@reddit

Our "collection" of cars is a hatchback for me, pickup for partner, who makes frequent trips to home depot or boat supply place. The pickup is also handy for transporting camping/sports gear.

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Mamapalooza@reddit

Please remember 2 things: public transportation barely exists outside of cities like NY, Chicago, and Boston. The bus system where I live would have me on a bus 3.5 hours a day to get to my job at one of the largest companies in the center of town. It's 12 minutes by car.

We don't have sidewalks in a lot of places and the streets are deadly, made for cars. Cycling is dangerous and most places do not have bike lanes. My town has random bike lanes that have no connection or plan.

We have 2 adults in my house and 1 car, but we go to the same location every day. Many families have one adult driving 45 minutes one way, and another adult driving 30 minutes another way. Work is 8 am to 5 p.m., but schools get out at 3 p.m.

Nothing makes sense here.

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c4ctus@reddit

We've got two. A daily driver and a 1973 beetle that doesn't run.

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No_Discipline5218@reddit

Depends on where you live. Many in larger cities have no cars. Many in rural areas have more cars than drivers.

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chalciecat@reddit

Every person in my family has a vehicle of their own 🙃 and my dad has two, a big ass Ram for pulling his camper and an old Honda for daily travel. I think he also has a motorcycle lol. We are all adults and need separate transportation for work though

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Rock-Wall-999@reddit

Depends on the neighborhood, city, suburbs, or rural, and further, availability of public transportation.

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cschoonmaker@reddit

1 household, 3 adults, and 4 registered vehicles in my driveway.

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2pnt0@reddit

Very common to have two.

Used to be a sedan plus a van, but now it's usually just two SUVs.

Then when kids turn 16 they might get one (my brother and each got older cars from our parents, and they upgraded to new cars). So when my brother was home from college and I was in high school, we had 4 cars, one per driver.

Some couples will only have one, especially with the rise of work from home, or if they are in a more urban area.

Some people manage to be car free, but not a ton.

Having more cars than drivers is not all that common. Wealthier people with a weekend car, car enthusiasts might. But it's also more frequent in rural areas where like you mentioned, they might have a truck that is more duty focused.

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Both_Painter_9186@reddit

Outside of major cities- almost everyone old enough to drive has a car. Almost.

Most households will have as many cars as drivers, more or less. Some might get by with fewer. Some might have extra vehicles like fun sports cars, motorcycles, camper vans, etc. Some people depending on climate might have a nicer new car, and then switch to an old beater Jeep or Truck for winter. I have one friend who has a nice Cadillac but drives an older Honda to work every day.

Personally theirs two drivers in our household and 3 cars. Live in a suburb of a major city. Really only need 2 cars. Could survive on 1 if we planned it out better and were able to swing carpooling, but it would be a major pain in the ass.

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CraftFamiliar5243@reddit

For a while we had 6 adults and 6 cars in one household. 7 if you count my BIL's project car in the garage. It didn't run tho.

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Secret-Support-2727@reddit

One car per adult is the most common. Otherwise how would you both get to work each day? If only one works, how would their partner go out to grocery shop, buy food, do errands?

For most of the country, a car is needed in order to leave your house. If you don’t have one, you’re stuck at home all day. Most people don’t want to be unable to leave their house.

So most families have one car for each licensed driver in the house. It’s possible that people have 2-3 cars with a daily and a “fun” car but what you described with the driveway full of cars is almost certainly just one per person in the house. A fun car is usually very obvious with it being a sports car, off roader, or a track day beater.

Public transportation for the vast majority of the USA simply doesn’t exist, and walking is not an option when the nearest store is 4 miles away and it’s 100f with 90% humidity, and no sidewalks.

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zerstoren@reddit

Husband and I each have a vehicle, and we have a backup car. Neither of us can go without being able to drive if our primary vehicle breaks down. We also have a teenager with a learners permit and the backup car is what she drives for practice.

All our vehicles were bought used and we paid cash, so no monthly payments.

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Knox_the_Boxer@reddit

Two cars is very common and if the house has teenagers, there will likely be more. In years past it was not uncommon for there to be three just for two people- one daily driver for each person and a weekend leisure car or sports car. We have two and my husband has a Harley Davidson.

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Ok-Equivalent8260@reddit

Yes, one for each adult and one per teen driver

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jillieboobean@reddit

4 in my house and everyone that is of age to drive has a car. 3 cars.

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SimplySuzie3881@reddit

4 drivers 6 cars. 2 are work trucks so they don’t count really.

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rosey830@reddit

I have lived in suburban and rural areas. In those areas you are pretty dependent on needing to drive everywhere. In a family that means that both adults need their own cars for getting to work, the store, transporting kids, etc. My family currently has two commuter vehicles for every day and a larger pickup truck for legit pickup needs.

Having a single family car, or no car at all, usually requires living in a more urban setting with access to public transportation. And even then traffic will tell you that people still love their cars in America.

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aerial04530@reddit

The daily driver and the fun car have entered the chat.

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wildeberry1@reddit

Ours is a multi-generation household, and we have four. Mine midsize SUV (the only one with enough seats if we all go somewhere together—I’ve considered downsizing but having no car loan is nice), adult son’s compact SUV which he’s considering replacing with an electric, daughter-in-law’s elderly hybrid (rarely driven as she takes the bus to work), and adult daughter’s compact SUV (inherited from her dad). Other adult daughter and teen/preteen kids don’t drive.

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snickelbetches@reddit

We have three. Two adults and a driving teen

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Apprehensive-Cat-421@reddit

We have one car per adult, and it's sadly necessary to live here. I wish I could walk out bike to work. (And get a better job with a liveable wage.)

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johnnybluejeans@reddit

I live in an affluent area and it’s common to have one car per adult plus a car for any licensed children. Some people also have a “train station” car that is less nice that they use to park at the train station while commuting to the city for work.

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Charming_Bobcat_2613@reddit

Typically one for each adult and then a beater for kids who just learned how to drive.

Some people like collecting cars and have the income to do so. And some of them are gorgeous vintage cars, sports cars, rare models, etc.

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Ok_Classic_1968@reddit

Every household I know personally has more than one. I own 3 and we also have my husbands work car so 4 total. In our case, it’s partly just my aversion to selling cars, but also they serve different functions. I have one that I keep because it’s ‘fun’, one that I bought because it’s more practical/spacious, and one that is sort of an enthusiast vehicle but I need to fix it to sell- just haven’t gotten around to it.

Most of my neighbors have an extra vehicle or two, usually a pickup, for when they need it for work or big projects, or a collector car of some sort.

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No-Setting9690@reddit

I have a muscle car, SUV, Minivan, Large truck, motorcyle and mini at my house. Some bought for my son.

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figuringthingsout__@reddit

My parents have a crossover/SUV, and a pickup truck. Yes, they live in the country, and they use the pickup truck. I see so many people in cities who buy pickup trucks just to show off.

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Important_Chef_4717@reddit

Yeah. Our situation is absolutely vile 🥀 We have 3 teenagers at home full time and 2 in college/trade school (home on weekends for both).

We have anywhere from 8 to 11 vehicles parked. We specifically bought our house because it’s at the end of the cul de sac so our driveway is 4x longer and wraps around to the side of our house. Our garage only fits 3 cars and everyone else is on the driveway.

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No-Profession422@reddit

Have 3. One for each of us. Then we have our roadtrip/camping vehicle. 2005, 2009, 2017.

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Individual_Check_442@reddit

It’s very common for middle class couples to have two cars, they both have their own job they need to drive to etc. when the kid is old enough to drive when they get their own car just kinda depends on a lot of things

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shakelcus@reddit

I have a minivan, my husband has a Volkswagen Golf and a pickup. The pickup is used for his work.

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lezzerlee@reddit

Depends on your area.

Where I live currently, in a large city, having no car is extremely common. 1 car is common. 2 cars is rare. More than 2 is even more rare.

Where I grew up, in suburbia, 1 car per adult was the most common. If you were middle or upper middle class, 1 car per licensed driver was also normal (so 2 adults with 2 teenagers above age 16 might have 4 cars).

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kritter4life@reddit

1 for each driving age person plus my work truck. So 5 at my house.

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concrete_isnt_cement@reddit

I have two cars in my driveway. A personal car that I own, and a work-issued pickup truck that I use for work

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splorp_evilbastard@reddit

Yes. We have 2 cars. My parents have 2 cars. One of my sister's families has 3, the other 4. Basically, one for each licensed driver in the house.

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belacanehh@reddit

In many parts of North America, public transport is not widely available, and the landscape is very spread out.

Vehicles are usually required. Each adult works in different places, so 1 car each. With a 2 door car for funsies.

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animepuppyluvr@reddit

My mom, my dad, and my stepdad always had their own cars, but we could borrow my mom's car as needed. When my brother and I turned 17/16, we got my dad's old car and he got himself a new car. As adults, we now both have our own cars as well.

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Adorable-Growth-6551@reddit

Yes

We farm, so we have the family vehicle, a work pickup, and a pickup for towing

Even just growing up, both parents had a vehicle, mom drove the family vehicle, Dad his work pickup, then my brother and i started driving, so 4 vehicles total

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hankbbeckett@reddit

Yep I live out in the country and it's pretty normal to have 2+... A smaller, efficient car/small SUV/minivan to drive to town, a truck for big supply runs, firewood, general truck stuff. That's what you pay to register/insure. Beyond that it's pretty standard to have some local-only no paperwork beaters, project cars, old vehicle you replaced but isn't worth selling and still runs...

I live in a 120sq cabin, have pretty irregular employment, but have a three(technically) running vehicles and a couple bikes😂

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marenamoo@reddit

When the kids were over 18 and in college we had five cars. Kids had work and school and we had work and errands. The kids cars were all old hand me down cars and big for safety. That was many years ago when cars and insurance were more affordable. Now we have two cars but one is a 2010 and the other a 2016.

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

About 1 in 3 US households have 2 cars per Census Bureau data, and also about 1 in 3 have 1 car. The remainder of households have no cars or more than 2

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Outlaw_Josie_Snails@reddit

is it true one household often has multiple cars?

Yes, sometimes. It depends on the individual family or persons.

wondering what all those cars are for?

They are for transportation: driving to work, errands, leisure, etc.

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Available-Cod2355@reddit

This is hilarious. I have an EV and a diesel pick up truck - I live alone. Gotta love the white collar weekday and blue collar weekend in the USA

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LadyDenofMeade@reddit

My car, husband's car, then the work truck.

Plan to drive them all until the road salt eats the frames.

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Rayzah2007@reddit

I have 7 cars lol. I’m an outlier for sure but it’s common to have at least 2

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Far-Drawing-4444@reddit

I car per driver is pretty common. Extra vehicles is really only among rich people, car enthusiasts, and occasionally rural areas where a "field truck" or winter beater is used.

If the cars are all new, it's rich people. If there are one or more cars up on blocks, under tarps, or parked on the lawn, it's usually a low to middle class enthusiast. If it looks like its held together by duct tape and optimism, probably a farm truck/winter beater.

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OldBlueKat@reddit

It’s more common outside of urban cores. It’s almost standard in suburbia.

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wangus_angus@reddit

Most places in the US are not walkable and have little or no public transportation, so yeah, it's super common for each adult in a family to have their own car.

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HermioneMarch@reddit

Every adult in the house needs a car unless you live in a place with public transportation.

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TheOneWhoBoops@reddit

2 for our house. One for me and one for my wife. Neighbors have like fucking 8-9 though and it drives me crazy. They take up ALL the space on our cul-de-sac

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Dizzy_Description812@reddit

The three of us have 3 cars. I used to have an additional pickup truck.

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ChemistRemote7182@reddit

Very common. I have two cars personally, but for much of America individual car ownership is common and often necessary.

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ZealousidealAnt111@reddit

Definitely varies. Not everyone can afford it, or they might not live in an area where you can store it or even need it.

Personally I know many people who have an extra truck or a sports car on the side. But I would not consider that to be the norm

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Positive-Froyo-1732@reddit

When my daughter still lived at home, we each had a car. I kept her car for 2 years after she moved to a different state, until I got tired of the additional expense/maintenance of having a spare.

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Guy2700@reddit

Yeah. Both parents need to go to work…

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ArsenalinAlabama3428@reddit

If you want to get around in 95% of the US, you need a car. If it’s financially feasible, every adult in the US outside of a couple areas is going to have their own car.

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latin220@reddit

In my area it’s one car per each adult and a spare car for vacations and travel. That’s common in New England at least in my area.

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jtfjtf@reddit

Yes, usually 2 cars for a married couple with each of them working. If they have kids the kid may get a car during high school.

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NBKiller69@reddit

Can't speak for everybody, but I've got 3: A daily cummuter, a sports car for fun, and a larger one for hauling. Unmarried, no kids

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StaizeH@reddit

We have 5 cars and I drive the pickup truck. Public transportation is pretty non-existent. The driveway fits 4 cars and somebody parks on the street. If we have people over, we run out of space to fit cars pretty quick.

Houses in my neighborhood have anywhere from 3-6 cars per house

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TiredAndTiredOfIt@reddit

Generally, as public transport SUCKS here, employed adults have a car each for commuting to and from work. Many households also have a truck for towing/hauling/side business.

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Bastyra2016@reddit

I have three vehicles. One I bought in 1988 clearly paid for. It costs me $25 per year for the tag and a minimal surcharge for insurance (you can only drive one car at a time). Then I have a very impractical tiny convertible I bought last year-always wanted one-6 speed fun to drive but too small for some of my friends to ride in. And I have a truck which is my daily driver. I hauled my trash to the dump yesterday and Monday I’ll use it and a trailer to pick up lattice I need to install under the front porch. It’s normal where I live (rural area) for adults with jobs to have a car-so in a two person household two cars is normal. It wouldn’t be considered out of the ordinary to have an extra vehicle -maybe a motorcycle or another specialized vehicle.

In terms of kids-1980s I got my first car in high school. It cost $500 and was a piece of junk. My sister didn’t get a car. By the time she could drive my folks had bought a new vehicle and kept their old one for her (and me) to drive. Cars and insurance are a lot more expensive now and a lot of my middle class friends don’t have a car specifically for their kids. Plus a lot of kids don’t even bother getting a license until their 20s when they get out of school and start working full time somewhere. Uber gets expensive.

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bugga2024@reddit

Typically it's one for each adult/working person. Mostly because car pooling isn't always easy. When I was a teen, I got a car (parents bought it and I paid them back) so I could drive to school and work without needing a parent's vehicle. When I was working after college, I worked extended hours. Luckily my then live in boyfriend now husband did too so we carpooled during covid when gas prices were high. We're a one car house now, but I have to take him to work everyday if I want the have the vehicle at home with me and our 1.5 year old. Once the car is paid off, we'll likely get another vehicle to have two again so that I don't have to drive him to and from work once our second baby is born later this year.

Side note: a lot of people own pickups but don't actually NEED it. Many could get away with a SUV or renting a truck every now and then instead.

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Upper_Bodybuilder124@reddit

My wife and i have had three cars most of our 35 years together. We usually had one nicer car (hers) and two less nice so we had a spare. One of those was always a truck. We currently have two trucks - one fairly new and one 24 years old. The old one isn't worth much so we just kept it when i bought a nice new truck.

This setup is surprisingly common among our friends. I was always willing to drive the older cars that were less reliable and have one nicer car to avoid payments. Having two older ones gives you a spare when one is in the shop.

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Ponchyan@reddit

For most of the U.S. outside of major city centers, a car is not a luxury, it is a requirement for living. So, yes, typically one car for each adult in the household. Also, just as you don’t throw out one pair of shoes each time you buy a new pair, you might hang on to your old, paid off, car just because you bought a new one. Many people will keep an old car for their teenage children who will soon start driving.

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Phoenix_Court@reddit

One car per parent is common, especially since in most households both parents work. In affluent neighborhoods you may see one car per licensed driver. You may also see work vehicles, hobby vehicles (is they restore cars for a hobby) etc.

But I think on average most families only own 2 cars.

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pikkdogs@reddit

A vehicle for everyone over 16 is fairly common. With a vehicle for everyone over 18 being fairly mandatory.

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Will_White@reddit

Yeah commonly it's a nicer car for each driving adult and in rural areas, it's common to have a work truck too that was either "the nice truck" 2 or 3 trucks ago or was bought for a couple cases of beer and a handshake.

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secrerofficeninja@reddit

Typically 1 car per adult.

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Optimal_Shirt6637@reddit

Yup. One car per person of driving age. My neighbor has a multigenerational household and they have 5 cars.

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pianodude01@reddit

My household has 6 vehicles.

My parents both have 1 each My sister has 1 I have 3

(My dad hates me for it)

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DontH8DaPlaya@reddit

Most of America is not big cities. Most people in America have their own car. So if you have 5 people living in a house you will generally have 5 cars.

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mekoRascal@reddit

I have 2, a daily driver and a weekend project.

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zoppaTheDim@reddit

Two car families have been pretty common since both parents started working. I’d say the “golden age” of teens driving may have passed as there are now (in a lot of places) financial hurdles for teens to get their licenses. Most young adults, if still at home will have a car as well. It tends to be the first purchase people aim for when working, and you often need one to work.

As for “plus a pickup truck”, I’d say this is a rarity unless the truck is a work truck. Less common than a classic car which is rarely driven.

I’d say most common is a beater, an unreliable car being held onto to drive it into the ground.

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

Yup. Growing up my parents always had 2 cars. Both of them needed to be able to drive to work, drive me to school/extracurricular activities, go grocery shopping, etc.

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Benchod12077@reddit

Yes I have 5

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Traditional_Trust418@reddit

Yeah, well, we have multiple people in the household. At my parents house when we still had a lot of kids living at home we'd all line our cars up at the end of the driveway in the yard. But my parents lived on 2.5 acre lot at the time. There was room for cars

There is a lot of room in our country. Everything is spread out so everyone needs a car if they don't want to be stuck at home bored all the time. But unless you live in a big city or in an apartment complex, you typically have room to store multiple cars on your own land

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JNorJT@reddit

2

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Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit

My mom always had two cars. One for in town, one for long distance driving. My dad had his truck. When I was old enough to drive, I got to drive the in town car while Mom took the other one.

Most people I grew up with had two cars. You could pretty much get a decent junker for less than $500, and pull parts for it from local car pick-a-part places. Most of us did that when we started driving.

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Kushali@reddit

1 car per licensed adult is pretty standard. In my area one vehicle is often AWD or 4WD since skiing, hiking, and other outdoor pursuits are extremely popular.

I drive to work most days (even though its < 5 mi) because the public transit option takes 45-60 minutes, biking and walking would be longer AND there are huge hills.

My husband drives less often (works from home, but both cars are used at least once a week), and we are very occasionally drivers by American standards. We put less than 10k miles on our vehicles a year.

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nebraskajone@reddit

One per adult is common

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ehunke@reddit

Depends where you live and honestly comes down to needs. If people live in the city and can use transit its one thing, but, if mom has a job and dad has a job their kid still has to get to school and probably their after school job you can't do that with one car.

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Budsygus@reddit

We currently have three. Commuter car, minivan for family hauling, and our old minivan that's junk and we just haven't had it hauled away.

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_iusuallydont_@reddit

Yes, having multiple cars per household is common. My parents have 3 cars. It’s just them. When I lived with my partner we both had cars.

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DougChristiansen@reddit

I drive one way, wife the other, and eldest kid still another way. Passenger rail is only reasonable here in denser city areas and to specific locations. It could not feasibly get people to most locations.

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log0n@reddit

One car per working resident, because unless more than one member of the household happens to work at the same location, with the same schedule, life becomes significantly more difficult even if you do have good public transportation in your area, which most do not.

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shecky444@reddit

It is normal for each working adult to have a car. Also wanted to add that our tax structure makes business owners seek out deductions, especially small business owners. So some folks who have a side business, or run their own trade business, may have a “work” vehicle. You aren’t supposed to use your work deductions for personal use so having just a work truck would look bad on taxes, so you keep a cheap beater car around for weekend errands but mostly use the truck during the week.

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shadowpavement@reddit

Where I live it’s not uncommon for a truck capable of plowing snow to be part of the reason to have multiple vehicles.

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molotovzav@reddit

One car let adult is norm. Where I live, it's one car per licensed driver. And then if you're talking boomers with more money than sense 3 -4 cars just for two elderly people who shouldn't even be driving.

In the rural areas right outside my city it's common for them to have a regular car for going into the city and a pickup for what a pickup is needed for. I live in a place where the city outskirts already start to have the pickups because people like their horses and stuff. My own neighborhood is like suburban where people used to not be, so we have a lot of pick ups and a lot of horses and an orchard.

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Mountain_Usual521@reddit

Yes. We have three. I don't personally know anyone with less than 2.

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lunchtops@reddit

We recently had to go down to 1 car (two adults no kids). 90% of the time it’s fine, but the other 10% of the time is really rough. Public transportation in our area exists but it isn’t very reliable so my options are leave 2 hours early or risk being at least an hour late to work.

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Haunting_Quantity_26@reddit

I feel like non-Americans fail to realize not having a car is a big deal in the States. If each adult doesn’t have a car, only one can work. I get Americans seem to love having a bunch of cars but without a car in most places means living a life of struggle.

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malibuklw@reddit

The only people I know with a spare pick up are farmers with really old pick ups

It’s not uncommon for multi-generational households to have multiple cars, and for families with older teens to have an extra in addition to the parent’s cars.

My son will be of driving age next year and we’re contemplating not trading in our 14 year old car when we replace it and keeping it for my son because it’s worth very little at this point

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blipsman@reddit

One car per adult driver is standard. Even teens have their own. Some people might also have a truck for towing a camper or boat, a convertible for weekend fun. Multiple cars in driveways is likely because garage is full of bikes, gym equipment, storage so they keep all their cars in the driveway.

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darksideofmypoon@reddit

We do but that’s because we can’t part with any of our cars. For all intents and purposes, me and my husband share one car but we have 2 cars with 280k and 300k miles on them (1995 and 2000) that mostly sit on our property.

But yes, one of them is a pickup and we do use it for hauling stuff every now and then. 😂

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KBpopRocks@reddit

My partner and I both work a 20 minute drive in different directions, we wouldn’t be able to live with just one car between us.

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worstnameIeverheard@reddit

We are a one car family, and it feels very rare among the people I know.

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R_Mitchell@reddit

My dad pays for or outright owns:

My moms suburban. His Porsche 911 (through his company). His 67 Chevelle (LS3 swapped). His 2020 rubicon wrangler (paid off through the company as well). Our family RV (39 foot class A, gas not diesel). My sisters Volkswagen SUV, and my other sisters Jeep grand Cherokee. He did also pay off my brothers Chevy Colorado for him too.

At any point in time there could be 4-8 vehicles that he paid for at his house.

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MessoGesso@reddit

It's not rare to have additional hobby vehicles, such as motorcycles, or a camper, or some off road ATVs just for weekend and summer fun. These would count as vehicles in statistics for vehicles per household, but they're often just toys

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browneyedgirl1683@reddit

It depends on your region. I grew up in a residential part of Brooklyn, and you really only had two cars if they were both needed for work. In fact, a lot of my friends haven't even learned to drive.

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AdOutside1612@reddit

I’ve had partners who are gear heads (hobbyist mechanics) who tinker with cars, taking parts from one to use in another. Then, the number of cars MIGHT indicate how many drivers live in a house. The US is not a place where someone without a car has a lot of freedom. The vehicle is the freedom many of us enjoy. As soon as a parent can afford to get their kid some independence, many opt to buy the car.

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isittimefordinner@reddit

We have 2 drivers and 4 vehicles.

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DocStromKilwell@reddit

What do you expect me to do? Walk 30 miles to work? (We have no public transit)

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Ob1wonshinobi@reddit

One vehicle per adult is pretty standard for the most part. Unless you live in a major city you pretty much need a car. The extra pickup truck is a bit of an exaggeration, yes some people do but it is more common for the truck to just be one of the daily drivers not an extra vehicle just laying around. There is a big car culture in the U.S as well so many people have a project or fun car in addition to their daily drivers.

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Adh1434@reddit

I live in the Detroit area, there is no real public transportation so if you wanna go anywhere, it’s gonna be by a car.

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Ok-Task5336@reddit

My wife and I have 5 Toyota trucks and SUVs. I build Toyota 4x4 trucks as a hobby and use them for work and backcountry camping. Having 5 is not the norm, but one per driver is pretty normal.

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ParadoxicalFrog@reddit

Most adults with a license have their own vehicle, unless they live in one of the few places with good public transit. It's the only way to get around.

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SP92216@reddit

Collection? Yes. Depends where you live. Some houses in walkable cities for example don’t even have parking spaces. Only street parking. In the south where there is more room you can have as many cars as you want, but also there are rules to prevent people from accumulating junk on the street although that doesn’t always stop people.

Also you should always pays registration and insurance but you could realistically drive a car one month and another one the next and just make sure you are legal, registered and insured every time.

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ComesInAnOldBox@reddit

Multiple vehicles per household is pretty common, yes. I have my daily driver, my other half doesn't work but she has her own vehicle, as well. My roomie that lives in the basement has his car, our current houseguest in the spare bedroom has his own car, and I've got a beat-to-shit, 20-year old pick-up for trips to the dump or hardware store (I paid it off 15 years ago, no reason to get rid of it).

One of the reasons it isn't uncommon for a lot of households (we're talking owners, not renters) is because once a vehicle is paid off, there's no reason to get rid of it. If you've got the space, you might as well keep it. For some people that means driving it until it isn't worth fixing. For others, they still get something more modern/safer/better fuel economy but keep the old one around for emergencies. In my case, both of us have our cars paid off, and the truck was paid off long ago. There's no reason for us to replace any of them at this time, so we still have them.

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SnooSquirrels4991@reddit

I float around 10.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

Yup, one for each adult and quite often each child that can drive as well. We had 4 cars when I was a kid.

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Awesomethan6@reddit

Pretty much 1 car per adult but of course some people have just 1 and some have 4 but usually 2 if it’s a single family home with a couple there. Even in the parts of the US that have public transportation infrastructure, most people still use cars and many are willing to travel far distances for that work that would not be feasible on public transit. I know a guy who lives in the northern Pennsylvania mountains who works in Philly and his wife works in New York City. That’s a pretty extreme example but if there’s two adults with two different jobs, they’re going to need 2 cars.

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aka_hopper@reddit

We can’t go places without cars. If people need to be different places at the same time, then of course you need more cars. Because cars depreciate so much in value, often an old car is just kept.

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SubieGal9@reddit

Yes, normal, but we don't have good public transportation, sidewalks everywhere, or high speed rail (sadly).

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millenz@reddit

If we could afford it, we’d love to have a truck for yard work and maintenance/large trash disposal or purchases (we have to drive stuff to the dump, donations, mulch/lumber, etc)

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kittenpantzen@reddit

One car per adult is normal unless you're fortunate enough to live somewhere with real public transit or unfortunate enough to have to timeshare a car without transit.

If there are children in the home who are old enough to drive, it varies a lot. If they have jobs, if the family is upper middle class or higher, if they are able to get a hand-me-down junker car from a relative, then it is far more likely that every driver in the house will have a car. If a parent stays at home and is there for available to play taxi, then it is less likely even if the finances are there. If there are a lot of teenagers in the house, sharing a car between them is also fairly common and a big point of contention between the siblings.

It is less common to have an additional vehicle for the adults like a pickup truck or weekend sports car. But, if one of the adults works a job where hauling capacity is needed, then having a pickup truck or van that is used primarily for work and then a car that is used for other times is pretty normal.

But, given how spread out and Suburban/rural a lot of America is, it is typical to have at least one vehicle per independent adult in the home.

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FarmMechanicKev@reddit

More like 1 suv for the wife and 1 truck for me. My daughter has an old beater and when my son was home he had a truck. But a spare pickup truck is laughable. I have a service truck that I also park in the yard but that’s work only and I don’t own it

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ChanFry@reddit

Just looking up and down my street: Yes, there are about two vehicles per household, sometimes three or four. (Fewer than half are cars; most are SUVs and pickups.)

It's kind of required, since there's no other way to get to work or shopping. (No public transportation, very little within walking distance, and almost nowhere safe to ride a bike.)

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SenseNo635@reddit

Our household has two drivers and three cars.

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Scav-STALKER@reddit

Minimum 1 vehicle per person of driving age IMO. A spare truck isn’t common except in more rural areas or among people that just like trucks or need one for activities such as towing for recreation.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

When I was growing up my each of my parents had a car and my sister had a car when she got her driver's license at age 16 or 17. I got my license at the same age but I never had a car at that age. I could have though, and so that would have been four.

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No_Network4228@reddit

I'm going to be this asshole, most but not all! I live in NYC and in my part of the country, it doesn't make sense to own a car; you rent one when you need it.

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NotTurtleEnough@reddit

Older couples often have 3. One regular car for each person, plus a MUCH older car for nostalgia.

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Similar_Corner8081@reddit

It's normal to have more than 1 car. We have 3 cars one is mine one is our daughters and one is her dads.

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bonificentjoyous@reddit

The answer is so different, person to person. (I own one car and could never afford more than one!)

There was a fantastic post on this topic a few days ago, with 1,600 responses across the spectrum of American experiences. You might be interested!

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GrimSpirit42@reddit

Me and my wife live alone now that our daughter got married.

My wife has her car. I have my pick-up truck. And I also have a Jeep for fun.

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Revolutionary-Tiger@reddit

I live with my parents as a family of 3 and we have a car for each individual (so 3 cars)

i’ve seen people with younger kids (way below driving age) but multiple cars parked in driveway/ garage. Wondering what all those cars are for? collection?

In regards to this, some people like driving cars 🤯. Parents are also allowed to have hobbies of their own if they can afford them 🤯. If you see a house where there are more cars than people. Chances are one of them is a "fun car" such as a mustang, Corvette, GR86. Etc usually only driven

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Aggressive_Power_471@reddit

We have 3: 2 newer and 1 old one (2001) in case one of the cars is in the shop or we have to wait a few pay periods to get it fixed. My in-laws often bought used cars that would occassionally break down, so they always had a spare and my husband carried that with him.

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TiFist@reddit

Yes of course. I've been a single adult with 2 cars on purpose. Each for different uses. Currently married and 3 in the household (one for each driver.)

Everyone gets a car to their tastes and needs.

This is less common in highly urban cities where parking is at a premium, but that's not how all Americans live.

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WizeAdz@reddit

Every working adult needs their own car in the USA, though this is relaxed somewhat for people who work from home.

Having an old beater pickup truck for hauling large objects is common, but a lot of people prefer to have a newer truck as their do-everything-expensively vehicle. Nobody likes to ask for (or buy) help.

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Blaizefed@reddit

One thing to bear in mind is that it’s much cheaper to keep a spare car around here compared to most of Europe. We do not have road tax, and the safety inspections, while they vary quite a bit from one state to another, are ALL considerably easier to pass than what’s common in Europe (I say this having worked as an inspector both sides of the pond).

Point being, just having a car sit un used in rural England can cost you £3-4k a year between the MOT, the road tax, and the insurance. In rural America it’s about 1/10th that cost. It’s just the insurance.

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eagleblue44@reddit

Growing up, my parents both had a car then one car my brother and I had to share. We didn't have to share all that much as by the time I needed to drive myself around, he was in college. He eventually got the car after I left for college but I was able to use my parents cars when I was home for breaks.

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Ginger630@reddit

It depends on the cars and how many drivers live in the house. We have two - one for my husband and one for me. Our kids are too young for cars. My neighbor has one for himself, his wife, his teenager, and a work truck that he takes to work everyday.

Some people have hobby cars they’re working on. Or a sporty car kept in the garage for nice days.

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TheOwlMarble@reddit

Much of the US is quite rural or suburban, so there's not a lot of places where mass transit makes sense. As a result, you need a car to get around. In general, adults and teenagers with jobs will each have a car.

Not too many people collect cars (it's an expensive hobby, after all), but some people will have special case vehicles for work or travel.

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kaatie80@reddit

we had only one car (a minivan for a young family of 5 plus a big dog) for a while. it was mostly okay because my husband worked from home so we rarely both needed the car at the same time. but when we did need it, it'd be an issue. my grandparents then passed away and my mom gave me their car. we rarely use it but it's very handy when we do need to.

some people have a getting around town car, a kid-transporting car, and/or a hauling vehicle. some people just like to have cool cars. but i think the vast majority of people have something between one car per household and one car per adult.

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DiscontentDonut@reddit

Depends on the amount of money they make. My sister and her partner each have their own cars. My partner and I have a single car. We make less money, but we also drive a lot less and won't be having kids. They expect to start having kids soon. They'll both need separate vehicles.

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RickyRagnarok@reddit

We do in fact have two mid size suvs and a pick up truck for two adults and a toddler.

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VirtualTotal8468@reddit

Is very common for households to have multiple vehicles so that each adult family member can travel independently. Some will also have vehicles for teenagers once they are of age for a license, again, so they can be independent getting to and from school, work, recreational activities.

Public transit is not available and/or fairly limited in a lot of places and walking is not really an option unless you’re in a city and live neat all the places you need to be.

Some people collect cars, but the majority of situations it’s not for collectibility, it’s just for practicality to support the families needs.

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CheesE4Every1@reddit

I've got two Outbacks. A 2010 and a 2019. I'm looking into getting a kei truck or a shitty little Suzuki or a trike.

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Antitenant@reddit

2 is probably standard just because people commute separately to work, have places they need to go, and may have had the car before they moved in together. Whether or not they have more will really depend on their household needs and wants.

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caryn1477@reddit

Very common. I have a car, my husband has a car, my daughter has a car. This is the norm for pretty much every family I know.

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PilesOfRavioli@reddit

This is most common in suburban and rural areas.

Many people in the major cities have fewer (and often zero) cars per household.

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brak-0666@reddit

There are three adults living in my house, and we each have our own car. No extras or spare trucks.

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EatLard@reddit

One for each adult, and one for the oldest kid so she can drive herself to school. Pretty normal where public transportation is useless.

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MrLongWalk@reddit

One for each parent to drive, children will often have one if they’re of driving age.

People won’t just have cars for kids below driving age or a pickup on the side unless they use it for work.

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Ok-Walk-8040@reddit

The amount of cars a family has is proportional to the age of the children and also where they live. It is very common for a family to have 2 cars in the suburbs. If it's a family in a large city with public transportation, they may just have 1 car.

If it's a family in the suburbs with a teen driver, they may have 3 cars. The teen will drive a hand-me-down from the parents or the parents will buy a used old car for them to drive.

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Physical_Cod_8329@reddit

Yup. Everyone of driving age typically needs access to a vehicle.

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sparklestronaut@reddit

Outside of big cities with good public transportation (which are very few of the big cities anyway)-It is very common to have a car for each adult, but if they have a pickup truck, this is usually one of the 2 vehicles. Due to our size and lack of available public transportation options, in general the US is very dependent on cars.

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Okokokok1995@reddit

2 or more cars are pretty common. Even teens 16-18 often have them

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AZJHawk@reddit

We have four cars. Mine, wife’s, and two of our kids who are driving age. One is in college, so his car is only at home over the summer. The other is in high school and drives himself and our youngest to and from school and activities.

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Goodbykyle@reddit

Husband & I have 6 vehicles (they all run & are registered) between us….not counting ORV & trailers yike! My front of house looks like a car lot.

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Informal_Persimmon7@reddit

It really depends where the US you're talking about. Some of the big cities have public transportation like trains where less vehicles might be needed if needed at all. But if you're in the burbs or rural America, yeah you're going to need more than one vehicle and it would be more common for teens to drive once they are of appropriate age.

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sageamericanidiot@reddit

It's very common. It's also very common to only have one car and share it. We have 3. My husband drives to work in a 20 year old Toyota. I pick up and transport kids and drive a newer hybrid SUV. We have a jeep that we take camping and outdoor excursions. It's a gas guzzler so it's strictly a recreational vehicle.

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CK1277@reddit

Sometimes you need a bigger truck if you use it to haul a camper or if you need it for work, but they’re gas guzzlers so sometimes people also own more fuel efficient cars for every day use.

Sometimes you end up with a vehicle and you might not need it right away, but it’s worth hanging onto because you’ll get less for it than you’d pay to replace it.

Sometimes people have fun cars (sports cars or project cars) and they’re not good for everyday driving.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

I have 3-4 at any given time.

Have had as many as 6 at once.

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bulletPoint@reddit

Yes. Very common. We have three cars, but we are two adults and two toddlers. A large sedan, a large SUV, and a midsize sedan.

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JohnLuckPikard@reddit

My wife and I, and one teenager. We each have our own.

I also have a weekender in the garage, and my daily sits outside.

I also have a motorcycle, and a 1992 ford piece of shit rust bucket ranger.

That gets used when a truck is needed.

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JoeMorgue@reddit

In America you really have to think of it as "car per person" instead of "car per household."

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Jcamp9000@reddit

Yes it’s common to have 2 cars for 2 adults, more if there are others of driving age

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Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit

Some people have a lot of extra cars, because they like them. It's not common. Most houses have one for each adult and maybe one or more for each teenager who's old enough to drive.

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BelleMakaiHawaii@reddit

We have one car, but plan an electric car soon

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BlazingSunflowerland@reddit

Our household has three cars. I drive one, my husband drives one and our adult daughter drives one. There is no public transportation here so we either drive ourselves or we stay at home.

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Outrageous_Glove_796@reddit

We have two vehicles. I need mine for commuting, and while I'm at work dad drives himself and mom to things when possible.

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Background-Passion50@reddit

Yes my wife has one car but, I have three. My daily commuter and my two toys. But, I bought all 4 LMAO.

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funsk8mom@reddit

6 of us, 5 cars (and a motorcycle). We do not have public transportation here and nothing is within walking distance

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Elivagara@reddit

Very normal. My husband and I each have a car, and someday when my daughter is old enough to drive (16, provided she's responsible) we'll most likely help her get one as well.

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WarsawWarHero@reddit

Usually one per parent, sometimes they’ll also have a work vehicle. Two cars + a truck is not common, but not unheard of.

People also use the garage for storage and keep all cars outside

Some folks have a daily then a toy like a motorcycle or mustang or the like

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Least_Bat1259@reddit

I have 2 cars myself. Because if one is broken in the shop I still can get to work.

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whatisakafka@reddit

Yes, one per adult is common, and teenagers sometimes get their own cars when they get their license (this is less common)

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madogvelkor@reddit

Yes, outside of cities at least. It's pretty normal for each adult to have their own car. And often teenagers who can drive too. Some people may have additional cars or motorcycles for recreation or utility.

Though since COVID and remote/hybrid work became more common I've know more people to downsize to just one car.

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Wild_Ticket1413@reddit

It's pretty common for every driver in a household to have their own vehicle.

And some folks will have a sports car for fun, a truck for work around the property, etc, depending on their personal life and their interests.

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languagelover17@reddit

Every adult needs one in most places besides big cities without public transportation. My husband and I both work and both need one.

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thatsaniner@reddit

Definitely depends. I have family in suburbs who have a car per person. My family of three lives in a large city and has one car.

We mostly take public transportation but not all cities and few suburbs have access to reliable trains and buses.

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Joliet-Jake@reddit

Yes. We have four vehicles with three drivers in my household. One each for me, my wife, and my daughter, and a truck that is a spare/utility vehicle.

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potterna@reddit

A lot of households have one car per adult. Some have more if one of their cars should not be driven during the winter, or some other circumstances.

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yonaiker-joestrella@reddit

Where I'm from it's common since are towns aren't walkable and we effectively don't have public transport.

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StinkyLittleBird@reddit

Growing up each of my parents had a car because their schedules would overlap. My dad worked 5AM-4PM at different sites all over Los Angeles. My mom worked at a store but was taking care of the kids (I had cancer when I was little so it was a lot of taking me to the hospital and taking my brother to school). One car wouldn’t work because public transport couldn’t take my dad where he needed to go and I was immunocompromised so mom couldn’t take me with her.

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Affectionate_Big8239@reddit

There isn’t really any sort of useful public transportation where I live so yes, we have one car per adult. One of those also happens to be a small pickup truck because we do a lot of construction projects and needed the hauling capacity.

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Brennisth@reddit

Frequently one per adult, plus a "work" truck or "fun" car. For example, my boss (middle management) has a truck for when he wants to do yardwork / carpentry projects and get things from the store, as well as a Corvette for his fun driving. His wife has a standard sedan. Each of their kids has a car.