We are recent retired full timers and are debating whether to keep 2 vehicles or just keep 1.

What do others do?

So far, we mainly use only 1 vehicle. The cost savings are tempting, and we are thinking if there is an occasion where we need 2, we could rent or use a family vehicle when we are near them. We do know the truck is a little more challenging in small parking lots.

But, want to know what other retirees do?

We're about 18 mths out but our plan is to sell my car and reduce to one. We're planning on getting a TT and trading hubby's F-250 for a new F-250/350 (depending on TT). Although I prefer the idea of a fifth-wheel, hubby hits his head going up the steps on all we've seen. (6'7" is a challenge). Class A's are beautiful but there are lot's of con's. Insuring two motors for one.

We've full timed for 8 years. At about the 3 yr point, we were getting reluctant to go do all the sight seeking we wanted to because of added wear and tear on the truck and the cost of diesel fuel. We were putting 25K miles per year on the truck (towing about 8K miles and sightseeing/trips to the store/living for another 17K miles per year). We made the decision to buy a Prius and have not regretted it. We trade off between driving the truck/5th wheel and driving the Prius when we move from campground to campground (we relocate about 15 times a year). But once we arrive, we've got the Prius and 50mpg to do all the sight seeing/trips to the store/living we want. Now the Prius has 75K miles and the truck has only added about 20K miles. The Prius will be a lot cheaper to replace in another 3 or 4 years than replacing the truck. Of course the Prius works out really well financially because of it's high mpg. A lower mileage car may not. But it's also just nicer to drive around in a car than a 1-ton truck. Your mileage may vary.

Lance

Ford 350, 40ft 5th wheel, Red Prius

We are not on the road yet, but the decision for us will be purely economic.... up to a point. We haven't got a good handle yet on our potential "touring" mileage yet but if we were to use Lance's 17,000 as a base line(which seems like a reasonable amount of miles for touring), and 16MPH for a truck (to use a conservative number) and 40MPG for a second car (again a conservative number) and using 2.75 gallon for fuel ( a real wild card guess with gas at 2.54 and diesel at 2.79 here in SW Chicagoland) we come up with fuel savings of $1750.  If you use Lance's 50MPG Prius number and your 20MPG truck number that would drop to $1400. As you can see, the difference in mileage ratings play a big role in the savings. Can you cover your other operating costs with that amount? Extra insurance might cost you 600, assuming you pay cash for the car you will not have associated finance costs, but you'll still have depreciation and even a conservative estimate would be $2000 in the first year. Plates & emission certs could cost you 150. Maintenance should more less be a wash from reduced costs on the truck vs added for the second vehicle, so nothing there. So what do we have 600+2000+150=2750 less 1750 = 1000 dollar real expense per year. Mind you this is a crude calculation. Is roughly $80 per month in costs enough to justify the additional mobility and flexibility? To each his or her own. The higher the number of miles driven the better the value and the easier it is to justify it. You can plug in your own estimates for everything and come up with your own number. Anecdotally, Howard and Linda have two vehicles and they admit it does cost them more, but it suits their lifestyle goals and so it is worth it to them according to his blog posts. Howard may chime on this to either confirm or disprove  this thesis. We like some of the things they are able to do with a second vehicle, so who knows, we may decide it's for us too. We have room in our budget plan to do it... everything is still on the table.

One other factor to consider is the cost of the money to buy the car. If you pay cash(usually the best choice) you'll lose the potential return on the invested $18,000 or so on a new Prius (a guess) so at a conservative 6% return (think fat dividend paying stocks like Chevron or AT&T or Altria) that's roughly $1,100 per year you could have otherwise have had. If you finance, you'll incur those charges so either way there's a hit to your total economic picture. Still worth it? YMMV as the say.

As to having to walk further in parking lots, unless you have mobility problems this should not be an issue, after all you're retired... what's the rush? Just sayin....

FWIW, Brian

Let me just add, that if I were doing it all over again......I'd go for the nicest, affordable, toy hauler 5th wheel I could find in the 40 to 42ft range, and put a little smart car or fiat in the garage. Then we could ride together, could buy a beefed up truck to haul the extra load, and avoid some of the issues that toads cause. Of course I've never used a toy hauler, so there are probably new, unknown to me, issues with the this plan. Again, your mileage may vary.

Lance

Jack and others go the Volvo with a Smart car on the back in front of the hitch.

I have met motorhome couples that drive separately to have two runaround vehicles. Sometimes the motorhome tows an enclosed trailer with the toys, which often includes a sports car.

There have been a few times over 12 years of fulltiming it would have been nice to have a second vehicle. But, we have made do and we have been OK.

We are new full-timers and asked the same question on this forum and of the Escapees group prior to launching. The answers ranged much like those here. It was suggested to us that, since we already had the small car and it was paid for, go ahead and try it for the first year or so and see how it goes. So far, it's been mostly positive. A couple of our stops have included visiting with family and LOTS of driving around; I'm sure having the small car saved us quite a bit in fuel costs during those times, but I'm not sure that these savings would offset the extra costs of owning and operating the car and "driving double" on moving days.

The small car is much easier to maneuver and park in congested urban areas (such as downtown Baltimore where we visited my brother-in-law recently). Another use we have found is to park the rig at the entrance to a campground and use the small car to scout spaces we would like. If you like to bike long trails (or kayak, for that matter), it's very handy to be able to pre-position one vehicle at the end of the trail so you can get home. The main "con" either of us can come up with is not being able to ride together on moving days. We enjoy conversations, listening to audio books together, etc. That being said, we keep our travel days short which minimizes the time we have to drive separately. We'll see if we still feel the same at the end of our first year.

Rob

We are full timers and retired so there are no work issues.  We have a Powerhouse Coach (super 8) and tow a trailer which holds a Smart Car.  If we ever need more than one vehicle we would use a taxi if available.  Our first Rv we were only part timers and did not tow a car.  We would rent a car when in an area for a week or so.  At that time rving was more of a vacation where it is a lifestyle now.

Depends. On the one hand, 1 registration and insurance is cheaper but you have to drive the truck everywhere. Having 2 means you don't have to do that.

From a practical standpoint…assuming you tow say 12,000 miles a year and do 25,000 miles a year on the car (12,000 while following the towing rig and another 13,000 seeing stuff)…at least for us the better mileage in the car pretty much balances out the insurance/registration. For us the number came out to be a little cheaper with the truck but it was something like 50/month total…and not having to drive the truck everywhere is certainly worth it to us. So we have the 450 (soon to be replaced by a 5500HD/hauler bed) and a Mazda 6. Connie likes to get her 'alone time' in the car while we're moving.

All that said…we did not take the car with us on our trip to Alaska last summer as it's about 17,000 miles from Fort Myers there and back…we left i with the kids for 4 months. We're also not taking it to the Canadian Maritimes this year…since we didn't want to have to pay for 2 vehicles on the ferry to Newfoundland and back. Next summer we'll be back to our normal 2 vehicle lifestyle. Parking lots are bigger in Alaska as there are a lot of trucks up there. I'm sure that we'll find some of the back roads in Newfoundland would be better in the car than the truck…but we'll make do since another ferry ticket is another $500 or so.

I think you'll find that money wise it turns out to be not all that more expensive either way…so it's a lifestyle/convenience/less wear and tear on the truck/not having to maneuver the truck through tight parking lots sort of thing.

Most Class A folks have a separate vehicle…although I do know a few that have the rig and a bike. Even when you're retired there are still occasions when wifey needs to go one place and hubby needs to go another direction and while you can work around that most of the time when you're talking appointments sometimes you have to take what you can get.

When our Mazda (165K miles so far) dies…we'll replace it but won't feel like we have to do it right away…we'll take our time and find what we want rather than get one just to have one.