There was an article awhile back about how often a car needs to be driven. Can’t find it now. My mother has two cars which she rotates driving every so often. Click and Clack addressed this before, I believe. She wants to know how often and for what length of time they should run to keep them in good shape. Mostly she is just taking short trips around town, not very many trips of more than twenty minutes or so. Anyone have a link to the article or advice.
She should try to use each car at least once every two or three weeks, and drive each at least long enough to fully warm up the engine and drive train. 20-30 minutes is pretty good. Starting the engine without driving the car is not good. It’s better to just let the car sit.
Short trips around town are not the best thing for a car. If mom could take the cars out on the highway once in a while the cars would benefit greatly.
Why does mom have two cars if this is the only driving she does? She could save some money by selling one of the cars.
Driving a car doesn’t keep it in good shape. In fact, it wears them out. Unused cars deteriorate no faster than cars that are driven every day. Actually, they hold up much better…
The BATTERIES installed in Mom’s cars should be charged for 1/2 to 1 hour per month to maintain them. This can be accomplished by driving the car or connecting a maintenance type charger. Your Mom obviously does not need two cars. Time to sell or otherwise dispose of one of them…