DX-MAN

My '94 Dodge Colt is, sadly, in terrible condition....

Five-plus years in the junkyard will do that.

Nigal

I drive every day. 60,000 miles a year. I have Nissan Cube that I've had for 6 months now with 25,000 miles on it.

RI_Swamp_Yankee

I need to work 3 sundays a month... and that's 50 miles from where I live. During the week, I take the train, and bike into the station, but the trains don't run a regular schedule on Sunday.

ItsJustMe

There are two cars that rarely get driven here. I'd get rid of one of them but it's probably going to my college-age daughter eventually. I try to remember to drive each of them at least once every couple of weeks, but they don't get driven enough to keep the batteries charged, so I have to toss the charger on them both about once every couple of months.

They're both at about 3000 to 4000 miles after a year, so I suppose I should change the oil soon. It'd be silly to change the oil after 3-4 months when that only equates to 1000 miles.

You DO want to be sure to keep the engine running for at least an hour or so once a month - otherwise you wind up with a lot of water in the oil and that rusts things and leads to oil breakdown and foaming.

Luckily I still think I'm a pretty good driver. Honestly it kind of scares me riding with other people now; most drivers are friggin maniacs, IMO, including members of my family. There were people I refused to ride with before I started cycling; now I wouldn't even want to share a roadway with them.

mickey85

I've got an '03 taurus that unfortunately seems to be inextricably linked to my life...

At the moment, I'm living 90 miles away from my girlfriend, so at least 4 times a month, I make that trek to see her, not to mention that once I DO move back, I might end up having to work 30 miles from my house, and even if I do work in town, it'd be in a job where I would have to use my own car to travel at least 10 weeks of the year...

Yeah, it's got 90,000 miles on it.

sm1960

My wife drives a suburban (beast), when the first one is off to college next year we may sell it (great ride for long vacation trips). I have a 2003 jetta wagon my kids share, and a acura tl that my wife drives (instead of the beast) when I ride the bike in. Suburban stays parked most of the spring thru fall.

BassNotBass

As much as it bothers me we still have two cars... a '93 Volvo wagon (+230K miles) and '83 Benz diesel (+335K miles). Unfortunately there are times that my wife needs a car when transporting her booth and works to shows/festivals/galleries and I need a car for transporting my amps and gear. But because of the band thing I drive about once a week for a total of 18miles. I really can't wait to get rid of one of the cars.

genec

One thing you may not have considered is that your car ages whether you drive it or not. Warranties are usually both time and distance limited... "5 years or 50,000 miles;" oil is "3 months or 3000 miles." Certain seals need to be moved and "washed" with fluids to remain viable. The sun continues to do damage (unless you garage the vehicle).

I was quite dismayed to find the tires on my old truck had aged, rather than worn.

It really doesn't pay to keep a motor vehicle around if you don't drive it.

One thing you might consider is trying to get RV insurance for your little used vehicle. I found that by driving some really low mileage, it was possible to get lower cost insurance coverage for my truck (which we use primarily for camping in Baja anyway).

brotherj

I have three cars and 5 driving age people in the family. Even with my cycling to work 90% of the time (sometimes I have off campus meetings) there is still a bunch of jockeying for the prefered car. Best thing is that if the kids drive a car they have to bring it back with gas. I haven't bought gas in "my" car for six months.

ItsJustMe

I'm trying to clear a spot in the garage to put at least one of my unused vehicles. The van rarely gets driven, but we do need it - to haul large stuff, to tow the utility trailer when I'm getting large loads, and to go on vacation with. But most of the year it just sits.

QNSplanner

My fiancée and I share a 2004 Civic that we bought last year. We agreed that it would not be used "in-town." It gets us out of the city to visit family, vacation, and the rare occasional errand. In case you were wondering, it is possible to put 8-foot lumber in a Civic with the trunk closed. The rest of the time, the car sits in a garage. This keeps it from looking like a "New York City car" with scratches all over the rims and bumpers and little dents everywhere. Despite limited local use, we still managed to put 10,000mi on it since last April.

Grim

I started Commuting May 08 just before fuel went through the roof. It was about health not cost. My DD was a between a 454 powered suburban or a 4cyl 4Runner that my wife has stolen from me. That Suburban stayed parked till winter when it was hovering around the $4 a gallon mark. LOL
Sold the Burb last fall and replaced it with a 4cyl Super charged Toyota Previa. Love it because a bike fits in it without taking a wheel off. I becaem a little more of a fair weather rider. We had an unusually cold winter for us and recorder breaking rain.

My Mom takes the cake so far. Dec 2001 she bought herself a new 02 Toyota Rav 4. She is retired and everything she could possibly need is within a 5 mile radius. The car just rolled 22,000 miles.

I am a car nut and if you have a car that sits here is some things in regards to maintenance.

1 The Engine block, transmission, differential will form condisation inside it. It collects in the oil. Starting and letting it idle to "charge the battery" actually makes the problem worse.
2 The battery takes more then idling for 10 minutes to charge. At idle many cars are barely charging and may not recoup the energy used to start it little lone achieve a full charge.
3 The oil never gets hot enough to get the moisture to vaporize and get sucked out through the PCV.
4 The transmission and differential never get stirred up. Differentials and Manuals oil by slinging the oil off the gears at the bottom that are actually in the oils. No movement then that never happens.
5 Idle shaft seals will eventually stick to the shaft and tear or burn up.
6 Fuel goes stale and will eventually start causing fuel problems.

Best thing to do is a couple times a month take the car to go do your grocery shopping ACROSS town. You want to get about 30 minutes of driving so that everythign comes up to full temp. Try to drive it enough that it needs at least a half a tank of fuel every 3 months to keep the fuel mostly fresh.

The Fuel tank should be left full when possible. The more airspace in the tank the more condensation and rust will form in the tank. Very important in the winter when you have big swings in temperature especially if the car is stored outside.

Coolant has chemicals in it to prevent electrolysis between the Aluminum and steel parts. That chemical tends to fail after about 5 years. No mater the miles it would be wise to drain and refill to restore those chemicals.

Brake fluid absorbed moisture from the air. This lowers the boiling point and can lead to brake fade or a complete loss of brakes. It becomes acidic and can eat the brakes system seals and lines from the inside out. Most people need new brakes about every 2 years. it is recommended that the brakes be bleed when doing a brake job as much to get freash fluid in as to remove any air. I woudl have the brakes bleed ever 2-3 years just as a preventative measure even if the pads still have plenty of life.

Tires and concrete are a bad combination. A car that is not driven may have the section of the tire that is on the concrete be leached and dried out and could lead to a blow out. Rubber deteriorates over time and that deterioration is accelerated by sunlight. Tires have date codes on them and there has been legislation introduced that tires over 7 years of age be replaced (it hasn't passed).

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...=&oq=&gs_rfai=


More involved then you though huh?

JPprivate

Thanks Grim. This is very informative and helpful!!

Guess, best thing for me would be to ask my wife to drive my car instead of hers a few times a week.

AdamDZ

Yup. Thanks indeed. I'll make it a point to drive at least once a week in Winter. Now it'll be less of a problem as we'll be driving out of town pretty much every weekend doing at least 100 miles. That also confirms what the Mazda shop told me after replacing those oxygen sensors (also a spark plug and a coil): that unused car can can develop problems with fuel/ignition systems. Yup, they told me to actually drive it - not to just run the engine - at least once a week till it gets hot.

EKW in DC

I've got an old 1994 Plymouth Sundance I inherited after returning from Peace Corps several years ago. It didn't get much use before I started riding my bike to work, since I rode metro then. I'd say on average I drive it one to two times a week now at most. My wife has a newer car tha tgets better mileage that we use for longer trips, and since her A/C works we tend to use hers in the warmer months almost exclusively. Most of my trips are of the short 10-15 minute one way variety, and most of them I'd take by bike if I didn't feel like I needed to run the engine at least once a week when possible. I never start it and just idle it... I always try and drive someplace (store, recycling, etc.) to keep it from just sitting around.

I've given up on the 3-6 month oil change at this point... 3-6 months generally only equals a few hundred miles at best. I put a LOT more miles on my bike than my car. I change my oil annually now, and even that's not usually 3,000 miles anymore.

By contrast, I expect to do 3,000 miles commuting by bike this year, plus a couple lightly loaded weekend camping tours and other weekend rides...

scoatw

We went from a two car family to a one car family.

Praxis

Some interesting things I've noted about the car for a regular bicycle commuter:

1. I cannot justify buying a new car. It's just going to depreciate *way* *way* faster than I can drive it. My current ride leaks oil, but a new car would just sit there and metaphorically drip money on the driveway.

2. Reliability of my car is less important. Yeah--it's gotta handle sitting around not being driven for longer periods, but what I mean is that if you assume that mechanical problems happen as a function of the miles you drive, then the less you drive the less likely you're going to break something/wear it out.

3. Gas mileage is not important to me in a car I rarely drive.

(The cool thing is, because of 1), 2), and 3) there is a whole universe of cheap cars out there perfect for us. Oh, and insurance and registration is dirt cheap because the cars are older).

4. For the person who mentioned driving their truck some 300 mi/year or so--consider renting. I've done the math for both car rental and taxi service. Unfortunately I don't remember it, but it was something like a few months of work commutes via taxi/rental was the crossover point where car payments were cheaper than renting/taxi. In any case, if you strictly need a truck sometimes, rent one. Or do what we do and get a trailer hitch and just rent a trailer--way cheaper and less hassle than renting a car.

5. In addition to older cars being more ideal for the above reasons, it's a lot easier to put up with shortcomings of a car you rarely drive. I suppose that's the general case to the above stuff. Speedometer doesn't work? Upholstery ripped? Loud and uncomfortable? Well, you hardly drive it so who cares?

arch2wheel

I've got a 97 forerunner almost at 200k miles (expect at least another 50K out of it). Its been paid off for over five years. I use it occasionally when I have to bring oversized stuff to work and back or to drop the kids off at school. I spend about $20 every 2 weeks on gas. I always used to get the oil changed every three months but I've still got 2k miles to go before I need to bring it in even though its three months past due.

That aside. I occasionally take notice that everyone (at least where I live) I see on the road drives new cars. Maybe one in every 20 (30?) cars I see will be more than 3-5 years old. Its very rare that I see another older than 10. Upon reading these posts I realize why that is. So next time I see an older vehicle on the road I'll wave at my fellow commuter and hope next time we cross paths it will be in the bike lane.

TFS Jake

Every month, take your car on a 1 hour or longer trip. Get ALL of the drivetrain warm, you need to "boil" out all the water that is sitting. Change your oil on the time or miles, whichever comes first. You probably want to cover it to keep it from getting tons of crap on it if you don't drive it often. Put Stabil in the gas tank if you aren't going to drive it for a while, and then run it for about 30 minutes to get it in all parts of the engine. There are tons of other things you can do, depending on how long you plan on leaving it sitting. Do NOT do the "I'll start it and let it run for 5 minutes every week." That's probably the worst thing you can do.


EDIT: Grim pretty much said what I said...lol...just took a little longer to say it.

Grim

I'm not known for my brief posts.

RogerB

Exactly. I've got my eyes out for a mid-80's Alfa. The bike would become the reliable daily driver to accompany the "toy" weekend car.

ItsJustMe

I have owned a few new cars, and I'm done with buying new cars. IMO, if you can AT ALL handle maintenance on a car, buying new is a total sucker move. I've got a friend who has been driving $500 cars for 15 years now, and they work fine for him. I don't think he pays any more in maintenance than he would for a newer but out of warranty car, and its SURE AS HELL not worth buying a new car just to get the warranty. It's pretty easy to buy $500 to $1000 cars that still get 25 MPG or better and run fine.

devianb

I don't have a car now, but when I did I would drive it every other day and ride the bike when it was warm and sunny out.

BroadSTPhilly

This is me. I suck at driving now because I drive like a cyclist.

Consularrider

+1, although in 21 years of marriage we have been a two car family for only two years, and even then we only drove one of them. We currently have a 2001 PT Cruiser that is about to pass the 40,000 mile mark. I try to remember to get the oil changed before we go on our annual midwestern trip every summer.