How many of you keep a "backup vehicle"?

[nybirdman]

We had three vehicles with two drivers;when I was working it made a lot sense not to drive my full size four wheel drive 100+miles a day to work.After retirement the third vehicle was sold.I have a new truck and it will only gets about 5,000 miles a year;my wife still works but only puts about 10,000 a year on a vehicle.

 

[dragoneggs]

Just me and 25 vehicles insured... most are antique/collector policy. Guess I could say I have 24 backups... I did drive the Model A for about a week straight once... the weather was perfect and my truck needed a heater core so I just parked it for a few days.

Very cool. Now those are backups I could go for!

 

[TomSeller]

Every vehicle I keep will "backup", and go forward.

 

[JDgreen227]

Just me and 25 vehicles insured... most are antique/collector policy.

Guess I could say I have 24 backups...

I did drive the Model A for about a week straight once... the weather was perfect and my truck needed a heater core so I just parked it for a few days.

OP here...go ahead and hijack the thread...I am wondering how anybody can afford insurance for 24 backup vehicles, let alone store them...tell us what you have. My brother has a restored '30 A Tudor he keeps trying to sell me...but I don't have room.

 

[ultrarunner]

Just paid my annual insurance premium for 22 of the antiques... full coverage, stated value and no deductible... $1200 for the year... been with the same company about 35 years back when I just had one Model A.

To put this in perspective... I pay $1200 just to insure my 2002 235 iT daily driver BMW and with my two old chevrolet trucks on that policy it comes to just under $1900 here in California... never had a citation so far so good driver helps...

My oldest is 1905 Oldsmobile Curved Dash followed by several brass Model T's, and assortment of Model A Fords including 4 Roadsters and my Pickup followed by the 1933 American Austin and 1937 Morris and 1938 American Bantam... 1950 Plymouth 1957 Ford, 1959 Rambler, 1962 Corvette, 62 VW, 1967 Fleetwood, several Mustangs/Cougars with a few Plymouths in the mix and a 1973 VW Thing and 75 Triumph Spitfire... plus can't forget the Samurai!

Yes... I am addicted

The caveat with the collector policy is the cars must be substantially stock, must not be driven as a daily driver so you have to own another car or have a company car and clean driving record.... and generally 25 years old... which means my 1985 service truck and soon my 91 Silverado would qualify based on age but not usage...

Biggest issue with a seldom used backup vehicle is keeping the batteries up... I've got a lot of battery tenders!!!

Doubtful it will ever happen... my dream since a teenager was to have a large shop/barn to house all of them... came darn close two years ago and now with California Real Estate prices up 50 to 70% in two years... I'm afraid that ship has sailed permanently...

Thought about moving to Washington and just the relocating the cars would be a costly and bureaucratic nightmare... after 2 vehicles the State would want sales/use tax on present value!... even if I had owned it for 35 years.

 

[Mace Canute]

When I was still working I had a company vehicle besides my own vehicle so if mine was out of action for any short length of time I was always able to get back and forth to work and the grocery store was within walking distance. If I absolutely had to drive somewhere my plan was to use the company vehicle but as it turned out I only had to once for a short hop of under half a mile. After I retired that wasn't an option and almost 3 years went by before a 2006 Nissan X Trail came my way. It had under 20,200 kms on it when I bought it in January 2012. My 1994 Chevy 4x4 3/4 ton is my daily driver year round but I license the Nissan for 6 months out of the year and drive it just during nice weather, not even when it rains or when the roads are wet after a rain. I am much more comfortable having a vehicle I really like sitting parked on my driveway just in case I get in an accident and have my daily driver taken out of circulation for an extended period of time or wrote off. The absolute last thing I would want to do is have to hunt for another vehicle and be on foot until I found one, most likely I would end up buying whatever I could find and have to sell it later when I did find the "right" vehicle. Who needs that hassle?

 

[skylarkguy]

We have 2 drivers and 3 main cars. Wife's daily driver is a 91 honda crx. About 235k gets 40 mpg. My 94 toyota pickup just rolled 200k. And we have a 93 toyota corolla with about 245k on the odo. That one is an under maintained turd so mostly a back up. My dually chevy dump only gets used on days i want to dump something. We are about to add a 1978 ford 8000 flatbed/dump to the fleet. Sharing it with my bil. Insurance indeed seems to be going up. I'm nearly legally a farm so as many as possible will be farm plated.

 

[schmism]

We have had a third (or more) vehicle in our family for the past 10 years. We had made use of of said "backup" as backup at least once a year. I try to drive it once a month to keep it reliable.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

My wife's Prius is my backup vehicle to my truck.

 

[JDgreen227]

We have had a third (or more) vehicle in our family for the past 10 years. We had made use of of said "backup" as backup at least once a year. I try to drive it once a month to keep it reliable.

I use my Saturn at least every other week and it gets an oil and filter change every fall despite the low miles I put on it a year (about 2000) Mace Canute makes an EXCELLENT point in his post about having a backup vehicle he likes in case his daily driver is out of circulation. And I don't want to go thru the headache of renting a car or the expense of having to pay for insurance coverage for rentals. Back in '79 I sold my car to a private party and went shopping for a new vehicle using a rental...one experience was enough !!!