traveling miles

[santonio03]

Curious question. How come that when people who stay traveling and always on the go car outlast some of the cares that barely get driven

[willwren]

I can't understand what you're asking, but you aren't posting pictures of your car, so I'll move this from Your Ride to General Chat where we can sort out the specifics of your question.

[00Beast]

Because those people take care of their cars. Fix what is needed, and make sure it's getting what it needs. When a car sits, not only can mice, etc get into it, but forces of nature work against it, and after a while it's just not worth getting it all fixed at once.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Highway miles at fairly steady speeds are easy on a car. It also warms up everything and lubricates everywhere. So the mechanical things spend time easily pushing a car at low load, not working too hard. It takes a low number of horsepower to keep a car at 60 mph. IIRC it's less than 20. Plus the transmission is locked up in 4th gear. It's not burning a lot of clutch material to keep going.

If a car's used to do a mainly-highway commute with little to no traffic every day, it'll last a long time with routine maintenance.

If a car sits, it's out of sight and out of mind. Work slacks off, stuff does not get done.

My car sat for years. I've had to do a lot of work on it to keep it going as the problems that arose from sitting are still being found, 2.5 years and almost 60k miles after I got it.

[willwren]

My 93 SSEi sat in storage for 5 years before I got it, and was plagued with issues, mostly electrical. Windows and door locks too.


I worked in aviation for a few years, and the general rule of thumb was the planes we flew daily had less problems over the month than a plan that sat for a week or two.

[2000Silverbullet]

I didn't drive my Bonne all week. Got into it the other day and the battery was flat dead...........for no apparant reason. Nothing was left on and the battery is only a year old. Charged it up and it's fine now.

But on the whole even tho I don't drive it much it is problem free.

Same thing applies to the Bird. I only drive it once a week and it sits all winter. Probably why the brake booster failed three times in two years.