Car or Motorcycle?

[VisionaryMom]

I know, I know. Here's the skinny: DH needs a new car. His works okay for a couple of months, and then we have to get it fixed. Right now it's been down for 4 weeks. We had budgeted for other things, and since we've had 2 repairs to the car in the past 6 months, we agreed that we'd get by on one car until necessary to do otherwise.

I am going out of state next week, and DH is kind of panicking about not having a car. He works 2 miles from our house, but he doesn't want to cycle there. (I have no idea, but we've been over this issue enough that I know I'm not going to win it.)

So he called for a tow truck, which will be free through our mechanic. We think it may be the fuel pump, which will be $700-800 at the low end. I'm so done with this car, but DH is holding onto it for some reason I just don't get.

We have started saving for him to buy a new car, but we don't even have enough for a decent down payment yet. At least I don't think so. I've never bought a car with payments. We've paid cash for our cars in the past.

DH really wants to get a motorcycle. He said it about a year ago in a joking way, but I've realized in the past 2 months that he's serious. He wants a motorcycle. He said he can get one used here for $1,000-$1,500. Now he thinks perhaps we should just not get his car fixed (assuming it's the fuel pump), and buy the motorcycle.

I viewed the bike as a "maybe someday" kind of thing. Actually, not be overly morbid, but my father, who's a biker, is terminally ill. I know that when he dies, my dad has 2 Harleys that we'll have to do something with. My brother may want one of them, but I figured DH could drive the other. Just to be clear, I'm not sitting around waiting for my dad to die so DH can have his bike. It was just what I figured would happen.

Anyway, should we look at just buying a bike? The benefit is that gas would be cheaper. Insurance would be higher, though. If it doesn't break down all the time, it would be cheaper, and DH likely could fix many of its problems anyway. OTOH, I don't want the kids riding on it, so it wouldn't help us in terms of getting everyone to various places.

The other side is that we could go ahead & get DH a car. What is a standard down payment percentage for a car? We'd end up with payments, though.

[lunarlady]

I lived with just a motorcycle for several years (pre kids) and in my experience the insurance was much, much less than the car insurance. Mostly because you simply cannot do very much damage with a bike, so the collision is very low. Of course, my motorcycle was only $1500, so maybe that's a part of it. Low replacement value. My morbid DH said it was because in any accident severe enough for the insurance to pay out big, you wouldn't be around to collect. (Thanks dear). My bike never gave me any issues, but then it was a small bike (250) so not very pricy to start out and well taken care of.

I think it is a good compromise as long as you still have a car for family transport. It solves the issue and puts off buying a car until you have more in savings.

Downpayments on cars vary quite a bit based on your credit. If you have good credit, you can "sign and drive" with no down payment at all. My credit is decent, and I had to put $2000 down on my $32000 car. (Yes, we make a big payment each month). My DH put $10,000 down on a $18000 car, and the payments on that are much more reasonable. The interest rates change a bit too based on the level of your downpayment, so you may want to look at that too.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by lunarlady

I lived with just a motorcycle for several years (pre kids) and in my experience the insurance was much, much less than the car insurance. Mostly because you simply cannot do very much damage with a bike, so the collision is very low. Of course, my motorcycle was only $1500, so maybe that's a part of it. Low replacement value. My morbid DH said it was because in any accident severe enough for the insurance to pay out big, you wouldn't be around to collect. (Thanks dear).

Really? DH will be happy to hear that. He's been on CL looking today for bikes.

Originally Posted by lunarlady

My bike never gave me any issues, but then it was a small bike (250) so not very pricy to start out and well taken care of.

Yes, whatever he gets now won't be a big one. He's really just looking for something to get to work and back on - maybe the occasional ride over to a friend's house. The bike my dad rides more is a Fat Boy, and DH always says that's much more than what he'd want. I think we could convince my dad to let us have his smaller bike - a Softail that's a few years old. Of course, we'd have to drive down and get it, but it's definitely in good shape.

Originally Posted by lunarlady

I think it is a good compromise as long as you still have a car for family transport. It solves the issue and puts off buying a car until you have more in savings.

Yeah, I think this is what we're going to do. Our mechanic is going to call back tomorrow. His initial observation was that the whole fuel line/pump system will need to be replaced.

DH's car isn't reliable (obviously) for out-of-town travel now. He literally drives his car to work and back, and that's all. Right now I'm working at home. The kids have a summer activity one day a week, and I drive that day and do any errands. DH has the car the rest of the time, but once school starts, we will need to do something different.

[Tizzy]

I disagree about the insurance aspect.
Even with a spotless record and 9+yrs of being insured, DH's insurance on his very basic, older 500cc (higher cc means higher insurance) motorcycle was $1000. The policy for our car is $800.
Where we live, the motorcycle is only good to drive at the most 7 but usually 5 months of the year. DH could justify the cost when he was using it to commute to work and school, but once we had kids and he was working locally (or needed to take his tools with him which would not fit on the bike ) it just wasn't worth it.

I would definitely run insurance rates by your insurance rep. first to see if it's actually cheaper in your area or not.

What about renting a car occasionally instead of buying a 2nd one for situations like you going out of state?

[MommaLura]

Not sure about insurance, but parts and repair are insane for my dh's motorcycle. We just went about 2 months without it because the clutch went out and it took forever for the part to ship from the manufacturer. After all was said and done it cost just shy of $1000 I should note this motorcycle is just over a year old, very disappointing.

So, my vote is thorough research into the cost of parts, especially buying one used.

[GardenStream]

It really depends on the bike. I had a 250cc bike and DH has had a 1500cc, and 750cc in the time we have been married. My bike and insurance were really cheap and the gas mileage was excellent. The 750cc bike was cheap for insurance, but the gas mileage was equal to my CRV and DH could only ride it about 60% of the time.

DH is an engineer and loves his graphs & charts, so he ran a spread sheet with insurance, maintenance costs and gas mileage. After 1 year he decided to get rid of the bike as it wasn't cost effective for us.

What area are you in? Can your DH ride the bike year round? Is you DH willing to ride in the cold and rain? Are you OK with giving up your car when your DH doesn't want to ride the bike?

[VisionaryMom]

The ones he's considering right now are 600-750cc. Parts will be the question as he will do as much of the maintenance himself as possible.

We live in the upper South. He should be able to ride it 9-10 months a year. He went about 18 months without driving his car at one point. The kids were little then, so it was a bit easier if he just took the car to work. I probably will walk DS to school next year, but one of us will have to drive DD to her preschool 2 days a week. He could do that & then go to work, but he'd also have to pick her up if he drove those days.

In general, I don't need the car during the day. I can walk to most things I need. I wouldn't want to go all week without a car, but I can if needed for 2-3 days.

As for when I'm traveling, he makes it okay. We usually go grocery shopping for him before I leave. He can walk to 2 grocery stores if he needs small things. Plus we have a rolling cart that we use for going shopping so he doesn't have to carry everything. I think it's more the idea of being "stranded" than an actuality. Our house is on the way to work for most of his friends, so he usually can hitch a ride to and from work without any problems even. Plus, as I keep telling him, he wanted to get a *nice* bicycle that's just sitting there ready to ride.

[HikeMama]

I don't have any advice really, I was so glad to find this post today because we are going through something similar with my husband and I needed to feel better about our decision. In fact, I went on here for specifically this reason. For his commute, a motorcycle or scooter makes more sense than a bicycle, and for financial reasons, makes more sense than a car. We will use my car when anyone needs to go out in the evening or pick anything up from the store, his will only be to get to work and back. Safety precautions will be of utmost importance of course, and we are glad that there are short, back routes to his work. I think a lower CC bike is all you or I really need and our quotes for insurance have been lower than for our cars. If it's not a fancy bike and you have some general mechanical knowledge, they also cost a lot less to run and maintain. We live in PA and when the roads are maintained and they use proper protective clothing, we see many commuters use their bikes all year. My concerns about not having the car in inclement weather are also about my daughter being in preschool. She'll be five days a week next year and we'll have to drive her and pick her up. I think we will be able to come up with some kind of solution when the time comes, though and I am optimistic that this will be the best solution to our dilemma, at least for the time being. Thanks again for posting this. It helped me out.

[Doodlebugsmom]

We just got our yearly bill for DH's motorcycle insurance. It's $185 for the year. (The insurance company is Dairyland. They do lots of motorcycle insurance.) MUCH cheaper than our car insurance. His bike isn't big (it's a Triumph Bonneville T-100). It's a 2004 model which he got brand new. I'll just go ahead and say it: He did not have to pay for the bike. He publishes motorcycle magazines and did an ad trade for it. So, financially it has been a great deal. Never had anything other than routine maintenance, which hasn't been costly at all. It gets about 50 mpg, so it's a very efficient commuter vehicle.

ETA: The engine is actually about 850cc. Larger than I thought! It is a sport-bike, though. The body just isn't very big.

[rhiandmoi]

What is his experience level on motorcycles? That would be my biggest deciding factor between being ok with using a bike as an everyday transportation, and getting one to ride as a hobby. If he is not experienced riding in all kinds of situations - not to be morbid but I would look into the cost of a disability insurance plan and a casualty policy for injuries. If he breaks his arm or leg and can't work for 2 months or more would you be covered? Everyone that I know that has a motorcycle has had at least one bad dump where they got hurt enough not to work for at least a little while.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by rhiandmoi 

What is his experience level on motorcycles? That would be my biggest deciding factor between being ok with using a bike as an everyday transportation, and getting one to ride as a hobby. If he is not experienced riding in all kinds of situations - not to be morbid but I would look into the cost of a disability insurance plan and a casualty policy for injuries. If he breaks his arm or leg and can't work for 2 months or more would you be covered? Everyone that I know that has a motorcycle has had at least one bad dump where they got hurt enough not to work for at least a little while.

My dad's a biker, and I'd say very few of his friends have been on disability because of bikes. He did have 1 friend who died in a crash that would've likely been prevented with a helmet. Other than that, though, they've been okay. Still I know that they're dangerous. I just feel confident that DH would spend time learning to ride well. And if he did get hurt, then we're adequately insured just because we're both super-cautious about that kind of thing.

What we decided, though, was that I didn't want the inconvenience that would come with having the only car (always being the one to get the kids everywhere, get groceries, etc.). That wouldn't be better for me than him not having a car except that he'd drive himself to work in the mornings. He's decided to get a Jeep Wrangler instead. It still allows him that fun feel but is a bit more practical. If my dad leaves him one of his bikes, then he'll be ecstatic. Otherwise, he'll probably wait a couple of years for it.