I live at 4000 ft elevation in the mountains of North Carolina and have a year 2000 Outback Legacy Subaru station wagon that I love. My husband has accepted a job overseas, and we will be leaving the country in February to be gone for two years. When we come back I expect to not have alot of spare money to buy a good vehicle, and would love to have my same old Subaru to drive again. Is there a way to safely store a vehicle in our garage for two years so that it can be expected to be in good running condition upon return? I have heard from one mechanic that you can leave all the fluids in except run it totally out of gas, and it should be ok. Others have told me that a car sitting idle for a year will be ruined. What do you recommend?
It will not be ruined by sitting for 2 years. The biggest threats to a car from storage are fuel and gasket/rubber component deterioration. The car would actually be better off if you let somebody drive it occasionally. A good long drive, 50 miles or so, every couple weeks would be great. If you have to store it, a temperature controlled environment is vastly superior. A friend of mine stored a car in a garage for 3 years with a full tank of gas. After 3 years we went and started it right up like it had ran the day before, with the old gas…
There are hundreds of car storage threads here, read some of them and go with your gut.
While I don’t disagree with Kebadaih, I am not sure I really agree.
Consider a few things. If the car is going to be driven a good distance as Kebadaih recommended (starting it and letting it idle would be bad) It will be worse than not being driven at all.
If you, nor anyone else will be driving your car, you can usually drop a all or part of your auto insurance.
Contact your insurance agent and ask about this. It could save you quite a lot. Talk to them about coverage if you are going to be driving rental or leased cars where you will be living.