One of the rules most car enthusiasts seem to live by is that cars must be driven. If they are not driven, then these cars must be sold to someone who will drive them. A lot of other enthusiasts, including myself and people like Derek Bieri of Vice Grip Garage, don’t live by this rule. Some enthusiasts will allow their cars to sit for years at a time before they even touch them again, let alone start them. Still, everyone has their limit. What’s the longest you will let a car sit without starting it?
Over the weekend, I watched another classic Vice Grip Garage revival. There’s just something about watching a guy bring some old iron back to life that makes for the perfect finish to the workweek. Sure, Derek’s videos have now become longer than a Monday, but they’re still a pleasure to watch, and I learn some classic car wrenching hacks along the way. It was through VGG that I learned about automatic gas siphons!
Anyway, last week’s revival was a 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air. Check the video out!
This car was different because instead of flying off to some distant part of the United States or beyond, Derek saved this car from his own property. Most of the cars that Derek saves end up sitting on his property. At last count, he had well over 100 cars just sitting along tree lines. Some of these cars end up sitting for so long that sometimes they need to be re-rescued to be driven again. Derek also receives some vehicles in non-running condition, and then they sit on his property for an unknown amount of time before he gets around to saving them.
This got me thinking. Derek’s example is extreme since rescuing an old car every week has been his business forever now. But what about the typical enthusiast? How long are they willing to let cars sit?
Admittedly, I have been the enemy of the “cars must be driven” crowd. There have been times when I let cars sit for six months or even longer between drives. There are cars I only take out of the garage when I’m taking my wife on dates on a sunny day in the summer. My Japanese Kei cars and the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI often fit that bill. There are cars I drive only when I want to feel the experience of driving a new car again, without having to buy a new car. That’s my 2016 Smart Fortwo, which has just under 6,000 miles.
Some vehicles aren’t as lucky. I have let vehicles sit for two years or longer because they were broken, or they were illegal to drive. Remember, my 2005 Genuine Stella sat for six years under my care before I got it running.
I’m not the only one. My elderly neighbor spends more time looking at his El Camino than driving it. He readily admits that it actually sucks to drive, but he sure likes looking at it. So he enjoys it as more of an art piece than a car. I totally get that.
Here’s where I turn things to you. What’s the longest you will let a car sit? What’s the longest you have let a car sit? It can be for any reason, be it that you have a million cars, your cars are broken, or that you just hate how your car drives, but love how it looks.
Top graphic image:Â depositphotos.com
My midget normally sits from about mid September to about the beginning of May but I will go out on nicer days uncover it and fire it up. From May to mid September I daily it though.
One month is the absolute maximum for me. I prefer once every week or once every two weeks. My daily ’03 GLI starts up Mon-Fri for work, as it has ever since I bought it in 2006. My new ’25 GLI starts up every Sat-Sun for sure and a few evenings during the week. I don’t take that car to work–we have assigned parking, and the person who parks beside me unloads her gear onto my car before loading it into a bag and doesn’t understand why I have a problem with it. My ’02 Eurovan is the one that gets started once every week or two, up to a month max. It’s slowish, not especially fun compared to my other cars (not bad for a van though), and gets poor gas mileage, plus it drives best if you let it warm up for 2-3 minutes until the SAI pump finishes its business. I don’t have time for that on the daily. I drive it if it’s raining but my other cars are clean, I drive it to move large objects/dogs, and to music festivals/camping trips. But mostly I have to remind myself to take it for a spin. Seals dry out when cars don’t run, and gas can get old and cause issues. Might as well drive ’em some. If I had a good garage for wintering, I’d winter all three of my cars. I’d still start them once a month, but then… What would I drive?
Months sure, why not?
Far too long, I’m sure.
I try and run and drive all of my cars at least monthly. Weird stuff sort of pops up if you let them sit. My poor Grand Marquis has been very rarely driven over the past few years, and has now developed a strange low speed vibration in gear. Didn’t do it before!
My record is 8ish years with my ’77 Cherokee. Something killed it when I was a poor dumb college student, so it sat at my dads house for years. Revived it 2 years ago (with much better mechanical understanding), and is now undergoing a slow, painful restoration.
I have a 1995 truck that mostly stays in the garage, it hauls trash and kayaks and misc stuff as needed. If I don’t need it for 2 weeks I drive it somewhere anyway just to keep it running. Occasionally it may go up to a month in the winter.
Same as my ’95 truck. Doesn’t help that it’s a big block, so my incentive to run it as few miles as possible is pretty high!
A week generally. Have a 2011 C6 Convertible that mostly gets taken out on weekends. But if I’m going to miss a weekend I will toss my NOCO on it and keep the battery topped off as these cars are notorious battery suckers. In the winter I can still drive it here, but with the top up.
Will – 3 months-ish?
Have – maybe about 9 years. Miata sat for one reason or another, interior did get flooded, ecu had some rust from being submerged in water. Old 9yr old gas, but that thing did start up and once I ran through the old gas and to new stuff it ran fine. I’m throwing about 9 PSI of boost at it as a track car.
Winter.
During the summer, not much more than a week. But when winter shows up, the summer car sits in the garage for 4 – 5 months. I generally don’t start it all winter, but it’s a Miata so I’m fairly certain that it’ll start right up when spring arrives.
If possible, I wouldn’t let a car sit for more than a month. This summer we spent most of the time indoors with a newborn and my Camaro’s battery struggled to start it when I finally got to leave the house, and the E46 that I was caring for wouldn’t crank over at all.
As I work overseas, and still have a house and car in the US. I keep my Z4 in the garage with the battery disconnected and on a set of old rims and tires to try to preserve the PS4Ss I have for it. The longest it sat was from October 2019 to summer of 2023. I was afraid to start it so had it towed to a shop to look it over, pull out the old gas and general maintenance before reviving it. Typically it sits except for one month each summer.
I’ve owned that car since 2009, and am not sure what to do now that we are a family of 3, I’ll be using it even less, but I like it too much to sell it off.
One week
Dealing with this now. My car has been in the body shop for nine weeks as of today. Parts issue, it has been a nightmare with insurance company and everything else. I doubt they are periodically starting it while waiting on the last part.
This is my record for not starting my car.
Well, I’m pretty sure the Yugo needs a fuel pump (thanks, ethanol), so it hasn’t run in two years, not by my choice. It was laid up for about 18 months once before so I wonder if it’s just mad at me this time. I assume it will start up just fine once I get a pump into it, but Yugo FI pumps aren’t exactly available at the corner store…
I suspect the Ducati needs a fuel pump as well (thanks ethanol again), which will be its second in about 7 years. So that’s going to be fun as well. After my daughter was born it sat for five years (young family stuff), but I would start it every so often just to keep it happy. It’s been sitting now for about a year, so yeah…
Everything else that runs I try to get out for a ride/drive at least once every 10 days during riding months. It keeps everyone happy. You can try a year or two without exercise and maybe get away with it but old cars really don’t like all this alcohol.
It’s been 23 years and counting since dad removed a functional 350 from a 69 Corvette and put in a 427 that still hasn’t been completely hooked up. So, uh, can I get back to ya? 🙂
I drive my Lotus Seven all year round. If it sits all the gaskets dry out and it drips oil. Driving it regularly blows out the rear main seal, and it drips oil. So, basically, the only time it sits is when it’s getting a new rear main seal and resealing.
Thankfully we have a large indoor parking lot so I try to drive my car (1960 FIAT 500D) every two weeks or so all year round. I was advised not to drive short distances, so at the very least bring it up to temperature, make sure the battery is charged, and go through all the gears (although it’s tough to bring it up to 4th).
The only member of my restraining order (that’s the collective term) of vans that gets frequent timed bootups is the Mitsu, with its aging and no longer that well sealed fuel system. I think there is a minor crack or leak at the upper fuel filler neck, which is not a hose that exists in buyable form. Anyways, I try to go somewhere with it at least once a month and put some fresh fuel in each time.
The diesel piles are diesel, and so will happily sit around forever as long as I hit them with a big enough battery charger the night before. I mean, hell, even the vans I dragged out of a forest that Ran When Parked in 2004 fired up after some encouragement.
Just drove my big truck to do a completely pointless job (delivering notices of a water shutoff for a job tomorrow) just because I realized it’s been a month or so since I had a real “big truck job.” It may end up sitting another month while I drive the car or mini truck, or I might get called to haul 5 yards of gravel on Wednesday…
My old XJ sat for 9 months on my driveway due to DMV issues. When I got around to getting that resolved and replaced the battery it fired right up like I had driven it the day before.
a month. If I can’t find a reason to use my toys at least once a month, I shouldn’t have them.
I own three cars and a motorcycle, and I probably only travel a couple thousand miles per year total lately. So obviously, I don’t drive all of them regularly… my ‘daily’ (an ’89 Volvo 240 wagon) gets driven a couple times a week, but the others vary from less often to much less often. However, I do have trickle chargers on the sitting cars (all but the 240) and run them for a bit at least monthly.
I plan to sell the motorcycle (a Suzuki Vanvan 200 w/only about 1,500 miles on it) as soon as I get around to dusting it and taking some photos.
About a month.
We have a friend’s car in the driveway waiting for her return from England (she is a dual-citizen). MB, very nice. When she settles back here it will likely be in North Carolina, and wife and I might get to drive it across country for her.
Until then, though, once a month I’ll start it up.
There are only four vehicles in my household; I like to make sure each is driven at least once per week. The only things that prevent this are vacation (a roughly two week span, only once per year) and severe weather (two of the four will not be exposed to road salt unless it’s a dire emergency).