As car enthusiasts, we love to collect cars, fawn over them, and even wash them sometimes. But most of all, we love driving them. And yet, more than the average person, we might find ourselves not driving our pride and joy instead. That’s my question to you—why aren’t you driving your car?
Of course, this can happen for all sorts of reasons. Number one is usually because your car is broken. If you’re a gearhead, you might have bought some stupid BMW that’s ruined your life, or an old wreck in need of some restoration. If your car’s out of service, I feel you, fam. I get that you wanna be back behind the wheel.
Alternatively, gas prices could be getting you down. They’re not exactly cheap these days, and it’s worse if you’re running a car on premium. Sure, you could save money with a Costco membership, but who has time to wait in line? Well, Adrian, apparently, but not the rest of us.
Or perhaps… perhaps you don’t feel the need to drive. Maybe you’ve given up on hitting the drive-thru at In & Out, and you’re cooking instead. Or you’ve… switched to public transport?! Or maybe you’ve just got nowhere to go. Lately, I’m finding myself in the latter category.
Sometimes, though, I like it when I can drive, but I don’t have to. I particularly enjoy road trips with the boys, when I get to chill out in the passenger seat of my own ride. Or even the rear bench! It’s cool seeing your own car from a different perspective, you know? You get to feel what it’s like to be a passenger in your own sweet whip.
In any case, those are all the vague reasons I could possibly come up with. Now give me yours. Why aren’t you driving your car at the moment? Inquiring minds, well… they’d like to know.
Image credits: Lewin Day (I’m in the photos, duh)
This is not a concept I am familiar with
Be glad about that (Smiling but crying emoji here)
I’ve had my brother-in-law bring his 68 cougar to my house so I can drive it every week or so to keep it up. He’s rarely home and never drives it, but doesn’t want to sell. It’s been in family since he bought it in high school back in ’83. Plain Jane survivor but has a torquey 302, green w/ aluminum slots. Drives very similar to my 1st car, ’77 302 ford maverick (the car not trucklette :))…based on same platform.
Because within a block I have 3 different L lines, 4 different bus routes, a grocery store, target, many small shops, etc. I also live 4 miles from work. If I were to take the train it takes 20-25 minutes to get there, if I were to bike it would take me 30-40 minutes, but when I drive it’s generally 60-70 minutes. If I try to go anywhere by car, I spend 20 minutes traveling either a mile west or east before I can get to a road that may average 30mph. I only use my cars if I need to travel more than 15 miles as a general rule, which last happened in the middle of May.
I used to put 15k miles on a year. Much of that was my commute to work, but I also would go for fun drives too. Now, I moved to an area (Chicago’s northern suburbs) that isn’t fun to drive, all straight line roads in the suburbs, so taking the car out for a short ride isn’t something I do frequently. When I lived in Maine or NJ there were twisty roads that were exciting to drive. Here, I can stop light drag race and that’s just about it unless I want to set aside half a day to drive to somewhere fun.
That said, during the summer months I’ll take the K5 out sometimes with the top down and find an excuse to go somewhere. It doesn’t have to be a windy road to have fun in that, just good weather and tire noise from 40 inch mud tires as I go down main street.
Working from home destroyed things for me. It used to be that I drove a different car or motorcycle to work every day just because I could. It also kept batteries up, tires rotating, fluids flowing, and all of that jazz.
The transition to working from home changed everything. Now I never need to leave home for anything unless it’s either stocking up on provisions, seeing a doctor, or having fun. We usually take Sheryl’s car on grocery runs, so that leaves my vehicles running only for fun or for appointments.
Because of this, I’m now changing fluids and tires based on time rather than mileage. I also now have battery tenders to keep things topped up because I no longer have a daily commute for that.
On the plus side, my absurdly low fleet mileage has been working wonders for insurance costs.
It’s funny how a single change in circumstances can have such big effects!
I have gotten to the point where owning multiple vehicles (and various pieces of gasoline-powered yard equipment) just doesn’t feel like it’s worth the time and effort it takes for all the maintenance. I have been slowly replacing everything with electrically-powered equivalents. The fact that I’m also not polluting the air anywhere near as much as I used to is an added bonus, especially because pollution from yard equipment basically goes straight into the operator’s lungs.
Why am I not driving my car?
It’s on another continent 9,228 miles away
I don’t drive my pickup often. It runs, but I don’t need it much. I’ll throw some stuff in the bed and take folks to the river this weekend, probably. Triple digit weather demands river time.
The Al Green river or The Talking Heads river? I’m convinced they are different.
I have one car I’m still adding mods to, so I think I’m doing okay.
Bigger question I suppose might be why I sold my old van, but it wasn’t gonna work out with what it was costing to maintain.
Question does not compute…..cars are only bought to be driven in my house.
Whoa…how big is your house?!
If you crash, while driving inside your own house, is it covered by home owners insurance, or by car insurance?
Trick question: Neither. The insurance agents will find a way to screw you no matter what.
I have spent a day trying to think of a witty comeback to this, and I can’t. I yield to your superior dad-joking, sir.
Hey, if you’d have been say 3wiperB, it’d been a lot less funny, but since you own both a big-ass truck and a sports car with a big-ass truck engine, the mental visuals are arresting!
I’ve never driven a car in a house!
During the week when I need to go into the client office, I try to take public transit. There is no joy to be had driving downtown, and I’d rather not pay for parking down there either.
Other than that? My Autobianchi A112 is my daily driver and it somehow even makes boring errands fun.
I live in an European capital and unless going away somewhere in the weekend / holidays, no driving.
It’s the reason why it has only done a bit over 5,000km in about 8 months…
I have the Polestar 2 in the shop waiting for a new wheel to arrive after damaging it. I have a loaner (Another Polestar 2) that is not the performance model, and it has cloth seats instead of the fake vegan leather. My god this thing is a dream to drive, more comfy and more efficient too. I chose the wrong package lol
My three are (currently) operational and see at least 50 miles a week. But the older two (32 years and 29 years) reguarly are down for weeks at a time for upgrades/repairs so I get the frustration there.
My DD 92x runs and drives. My run errands beater Nissan 720 runs and drives. But the rest are broken. I will hopefully have the Travelall street legal in a few months (full on restomod chassis swap). But then my S13, my 510 wagon, my quad cab 720, and my Datsun Roadster will still all need love. And thats only if I manage to avoid buying anything else in the interim (Pretty sure I will buy something else in the interim.
Three of them need repair, one of which has no drivetrain right now, another one needs a transmission, and the one needs some suspension related repairs but still comes out sometimes to play in the storage unit lot. But the other five get driven as often as possible on nice days when I’ve got the time, even though driving the daily in my case really doesn’t feel like a punishment, I enjoy being able to switch it up.
I love riding my motorcycle, but it’s just too hot here (east coast). Even in my summer gear, when it’s like this, it’s like fanning yourself with hot, sticky air. So she sadly sits in the garage.
This week has been so hot that commuting on my motorcycle has been like standing in front of a massive hair dryer. Even at 80mph, the wind is HOT. Throw on a riding jacket and I’ve sweated through my clothes both ways every day, even at 6:30am. But I’ve committed myself to riding every day I possibly can. Even in the blazing heat, it’s still better than driving.
I hate that. It’s like that blast of heat you get when opening an oven. Anyone that excuses high temps because of a low humidity clearly does not ride a motorcycle.
I used to ride with a leather jacket on my first bike in Florida so I understand the pain. The type of bike definitely makes a huge difference when stuck in traffic too. On my electric bike it’s easy breezy, but on my V-twin KTM I am constantly looking down double checking that my legs are not actually on fire, but just feel that way.
I have a parallel twin Suzuki, and while I enjoy the pleasant warmth in the winter, I do the same thing in the summer….”OMG is the engine on fire?!”
It’s motorcycle season in the PNW baby!
Oh rub it in you lucky bastard. 😉
At this moment, I am driving my desk chair.
That and having to do all that ‘adulting’ stuff for my family and now includes the parentals.
Everything I have plated, I drive on as regular a basis as I can. It’s good for them, and keeps them happy. So if they’re not being driven, something is wrong.
The 924 will start and idle, poorly. Will not accept throttle without bogging. Don’t know why.
The Yugo will start and run, but will not idle without holding throttle. Don”t know why.
The Ducati will not start at all. It started in early June, then quit. That’s been the last time it ran. Don’t know why.
Unfortunately all of these require specialists, which means $$$. Enough of which I don’t have to fix all three at once, unfortunately. Which is very frustrating. I want to drive my stuff, and it sucks.
If you’re still using the original k-jetronic injection system in the 924 you can do a bolt-on with a modern EFI system; from lurking in fora for some time I’ve heard it’s a great improvement.
Yugo might need a carb clean/rebuild to deal with gummed up needles from ethanol-poisoned fuel, or there might be an intake or exhaust leak. A lean condition at idle is often an unexpected addition of air.
Ducatis are Ducatis, and I wish you the best of luck.
The 924 still has the original K-Jetronic. It was running great, I had it detailed, I took some nice photos of it down by the lake. The next time I tried to take it out it barely started and it’s been running crappy ever since. So I suspect it’s something stupid, related to the engine bay cleaning, but I know just enough about K-Jetronic to really mess things up.
The Yugo is actually fuel injected, one of the late Plus models. So yeah, that’s gonna be fun.
The Ducati is maddening. Also injected. I love it, but it definitely keeps the relationship interesting.
I hope it is something as simple-to-fix as a slightly-undone harness plug. I’ve recently gone through my old motorcycles and cleaned all the connections, adding no-ox-id to them all and it’s helped… though i’m still dealing with a slightly-fritzy neutral light on one of them.
Oh man, a fuel-injected Yugo. I got nothing for this one. Pardon my presumption!
As for the bike: we all have those relationships in our lives. May they be constrained to slightly cantankerous vehicles.
Still check spark. No spark, probably no injector pulse. Also, low voltage in the battery will give the same result.
Oh, dear. The 924 may be as simple as vacuum leaks. A bit worse is the control pressure regulator. More bad would be a fuel distributor. The Yugo is probably a dirty idle jet. Guessing the Duck is not bevel drive, so check spark and call back.
On the Yugo, the genius hack is swap two spark plug wires to the wrong plugs (note which is supposed to go where) and fire it up. The barking back through the carb will usually dislodge the junk plugging the jet. Put the wires back to the proper plugs and things may be corrected.
The Yugo was running fine it seemed until I cleared out a blockage in the crankcase vent that was causing oil to come out the dipstick. So I don’t know if what I did messed with things or what. But as I stated below, it’s fuel injected, and unfortunately there’s not a lot of us EFI Yugo guys around. I do suspect vacuum though.
We (my mechanic and I) have already done a fuel distributor. I haven’t messed with the warm-up regulator yet. But read my answer below also, I’m inclined to believe a vacuum leak there also. No idea where to start.
Upper 90 degree heat limits vehicle choice somewhat so I am driving the BMW 2002 and NA Miata (both with AC). And my first Gen Tundra that needs 200 miles before inspection to clear its check engine light.
I’m riding my air-cooled motorcycle today and making a very specific point of choosing routes that allow me to keep moving.
bought a new (to me) EV. waiting for it to be shipped across the country
It’s waiting for parts that should be coming in on Monday
I have the correct number of vehicles for my needs, so I use them all. Sometimes one of them needs some work, and so it will be set aside for as long as it takes to do the job, but usually I plan ahead and get all the parts I need before taking anything apart (that last part is a lie I’m TERRIBLE about not doing three autozone runs in as many hours because I’m a dumbass).
The other day I was driving to the grocery store and put on my blinker into autozone out of habit.
Every time. Sometimes I take it as a sign and walk in to buy more washer fluid or brakleen.
And that look from the autoparts clerk on your third return trip in a couple of hours. They’re probably thinking they gave you the wrong parts. Nope.
I went and bought a pair of new H7 bulbs for my car the other day, thinking it would be fun to change out the headlights I’d been complaining about (and aim them whilst I was at it). I got home and pulled the headlight and found out it takes two H7s per side. I wasn’t going to put the car back together just to pull everything again — especially given the fact that I was having an issue with the hood catch that has since been resolved once that part came in — so I went and grabbed the Vespa and made my second Autozone run to get the other two. The clerk must have thought: “Wasn’t he just here? Did he already break those bulbs?”
WFH. I put less than 5k miles on it last year.
BTW Lewin, when are we gonna get more content of your sweet TT?
Tangentially, something soon…
…as you might guess by this piece, though, I uh… I haven’t been driving it… >____>
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m driving mine.