How should I take care of my car if I don't drive often?
Thanks to covid, everyone in my household works and attends school from home. I only ever drive the car to pick up groceries. Since March, I only drive an average of 5 miles a week! The low mileage is saving some money on insurance, but is my car getting damaged this way? I take care to idle it a little longer than usual before driving, but that's all the TLC it gets.
Answers ( 1 )
Take it for a spin once a week, whether you need to or not, if only to recharge the battery. I let my car sit for a month until I needed to drive it the other day, and the battery was too weak to start it. Fortunately I was able to jump-start it and drive it into town; now it's fine (for the time being).
Another good reason to take it out for a drive occasionally is that oil and gas and junk slowly oxidize or congeal, leaving a film that is no longer "slippery". Your car is not entirely unlike your body: how perky do you feel after a week in bed? Take your car for a "jog" now and then.
Soon you'll have an electric car and it won't care as much about getting a regular workout.
Later, you won't own a car at all; you'll just summon the nearest self-driving EV to take you where you need to go.