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)
Spaced out registering one of the cars. It’s been over 30 days so the state wants $100 late fee in addition to the $63. Bullshit! Parked it behind the garage for a while.
I’m not driving my ’66 Thunderbird because it’s not road legal yet (salvage title), and I’m not driving my 1990 Miata because it’s friggin’ HOT out, yo. The whole PNW is in a heat wave right now and breaking records, and it’s making cars in general unfun.
My air conditioning doesn’t really work, the car’s parked outside all day so even with a sunshade helping a little it’s still an oven when I get in, and the roof latches get so hot that I burn my fingers on them if I try to put the top down and get some airflow. And then the steering wheel burns the crap out of my legs.
If I want to drive the Miata now, I have to wrap a pink towel I use for cleaning the car around my hand to undo the latches and then drape said towel over my legs to prevent burns, hoping no truck guys look down and mock me for appearing to wear a dress.
So… At this point I just borrow my dad’s car whenever possible. It’s not nearly as fun to drive, but the A/C works. When I have a garage bay cleaned out for my car, then I’ll drive it more regularly again. Right now it’s just too darn hot, to the point of being painful to drive.
I remember in my ’03 Mustang I used to have, the convertible latches were metak (in a black leather interior…) During the heat, I kept oven mitts in the glove box so I could immediately put the top down without burning my hands.
I feel you, man. Fortunately the towel seems to be a decent enough heat barrier for now. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was right, a towel really is the most useful and versatile thing to have with you at all times…
Don’t forget to bring a towel!
(Wanna get high?)
Bummer, those are R12 systems. Of course you might take this as an opportunity to convert to R134…
Yeah, the fact that I’d have to replace the entire A/C system when I’m already trying to save up for my other car’s repairs is why I’m living without A/C right now. So for the foreseeable future, I’ll just make do driving with the top or windows down.
Would you need to replace the system? If the pump works and if your system isn’t clogged it might just be a matter of evacuating the system, replacing the seals, valves and lubricant with R134 compatible ones and refilling with R134. Seals and valves, lubricant and R134 are cheap, AutoZone loans out the tools you’d need and YouTube has the instructional videos.
At the moment we just finished dinner and I am having a glass of wine. I’m going nowhere.
In general, I live in a small town that’s extremely walkable, so I forego the car a lot.
Same here. Got a tall glass of beer and 6 cars that really are not needed as it takes 10 minutes to walk from one end of town to the other. Glad to here people still walk. Was in a small town in nebraska a while back and went for a stroll to cure boredom. Guy stoped and asked if I needed a ride and I declined. He thought it was suspicious & called the state patrol.
It’s a twenty minute walk from my condo to the water, passing many good restaurants and shops along the way.
https://visitdunedinfl.com/
Nice! Definitely going to plan a vacation there. Always wanted to visit that part of Florida!
One car, 17 Acura RDX. Insurance tracker says I’ve driven 168 miles in two weeks. Maybe 5000 miles a year. Wife reluctantly agrees it’s comfortable enough.
Because I spend 3-4 weeks on the road at a time driving a Kenworth T-680.
The joys of being a truck driver.
When I do come home though,both cars get a decent workout. 86 mile commute one way from where I park my truck to home(the Elantra sees plenty of use going back and forth between the home and the truck). The Fiat comes out of the garage to play on weekends when I feel like terrorizing parts of Central Massachusetts and New Hampshire (glory to the Kancamagus Highway).
I may be looking at a Nissan Frontier King Cab to get through the winter.
I’d like to drive the convertible soon. I bought a replacement radiator, which had a slow leak, and my dad ended up replacing it while I was traveling (thanks, Dad!). Now it’s time to wash it and cruise up the coast.
I don’t want to even look at it, the interior sliding door handle fell off the last time I drove it home and I can’t even be bothered to look for it. I locked my wife’s bike to it so she can get it out the garage door easier. It should move in 2 weeks, for a camping trip. I’ll hate driving it without a/c, power steering or a working radio. It’s unsafe and intolerable to drive. It should be for sale but my wife loves it and I usually smile for at least half the time I’m driving it, the little subaru motor I put in screams and it’s the greatest camping vehicle ever built.
I can’t drive my Mustang 6MT because I just had my left hip totally replaced 8 months after the right side. I’m 33. Picked up an auto Volvo 740 T wagon to drive in the meantime. It’s a wonderful second vehicle, and I’m not working while recovering, so short local trips for groceries and doctor/PT appointments are all I do currently.
Wow, that’s young for new hips. Good luck with your recovery.
Thanks Cap. The good news is, recovery is quicker when you’re younger. I hope to be driving it again locally about three months post surgery.
I just don’t have a reason to. I WFH most of the time so I’m only putting a few hundred miles on in a month and that’s rare for that to even happen.
But when I do it’s top down all the way and enjoying some light cruising. Otherwise my car is pretty much a garage queen haha.
We’re driving our daily drivers, but we’re not driving the vintage cars as much because it’s too damn hot!
1 – Post-pandemic I work from home 3-4 days a week.
2 – Raising kids has a way of eating up your free time.
This changed greatly for me post-pandemic. Before the pandemic I commuted every day. After the pandemic, only twice a day AND my employer moved to an office only 4 miles from home. I’m now doing oil changes based on time instead of mileage.
That said, I have 3 street vehicles and I try to drive them all at least once every couple of weeks. I firmly believe that sitting dormant for long periods is not good for cars.
I drive my cars daily but right now I’m waiting to finish fixing up the mower engine I exploded last week to then move on to fixing the brakes and rear axle seals on the 62 Austin Healey Sprite. Also the e36 M3 is getting driven sparingly as it’s on its autocross tires for a couple more weeks. No sense running those tires on the road. Currently the Jeep Comanche is running most of the daily duties.
I pretty much only drive when I’m out showing houses, going to the gym, meeting friends for dinner/drinks and running errands on the way back from any of those.
When your German Luxury Depreciation & Maintenance has turned over 119K, you tend to be fine with minimizing the mileage….
…now excuse me while I schedule a B Service for next week.
I’m not driving my car because I’m working right now.
Because our nice, long, 4-car driveway is currently occupied by large stacks of lumber, a port-a-potty, and a chain link fence. We have just enough room to put one car in the driveway, and rather than leave one out on the street all day and night, we’ve put the M240i into a public storage place and are using my wife’s Accord. :-(.
The re-model is expected to go until the end of the year or thereabouts, so I get the car out every couple of weeks just to keep the battery alive.
Because I just got back from work and it’s rush hour.
I just got back from driving it?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I prefer to bicycle, walk, or take the bus. Better for me, cheaper, no hassle with parking, and better for the environment. Also my car that I use about once a week when in the US is on a different continent right now.
You’re going to love the piece I have in the pipeline then…
The dd Volvo is being driven regularly, including a 2000 mile tour of New Mexico and back to the DFW area. The M3 is dying of neglect. It’s like the surface of the sun in Dallas and driving a convertible with the top up is sacrilege, but too hot to drive with it down, and the S60 is up 125ish hp on it, so it’s not like I’m missing out on the power either.
Just gotta do it.
I don’t drive/bike as much anymore because I’ve been WFH since march 2020.
I love not having to commute to work, but I really miss being able to ride my bike as much as I used to.
So why can’t you use the commute time as bike time?
that’s the thing, I did use my commute time as bike time, I don’t have a commute anymore. my total time on the road in general has plummeted.
That time went somewhere. Unless your being paid overtime for those commute hours why not take them back from work and hop on the bike?
Or maybe do both with a stationary bike?
yes I work overtime, but the time that I would have been commuting, it doesn’t make sense to take the motorcycle out just to be in traffic.
I’m trying to limit driving to work to twice a week, other than that it’s my bike and the CTA. I did go about 11 weeks without driving to work at all, and I used to do it only ~4 times a year until my office moved. When I do drive to work, it’s nearly always the JSW. “bad” driving is one of the things I have it for.
So I tend to interpret this question as really asking, “why don’t you drive the interesting cars?” As much as I can, I do; I took the Saab on our July 4th holiday in Michigan, and I’ll take the 911 to Road America for the Brian Redman this weekend. But I own six cars and time is finite. I haven’t driven the SE-R in ages because it’s at the garage a couple of miles from home; I haven’t driven the Fiat in years because, while the body and paint restoration is done and it runs and drives, it needs a pile of age-related maintenance before it’s save to drive on the street again. I haven’t driven the BMW in months because it’s been down for a heater control valve and a few related while-I’m-in-there jobs. I’m finally almost ready to get that back on the road and my goal (I’ve learned that I need a goal to have a reasonable hope of getting anything done) is to drive it to Pittsburgh for the PVGP in August.
The daily driver sits a lot because I don’t commute so I can go several days without driving, but we road tripped in June and going away this weekend.
The pickup sits because I reserve it for truck stuff, and because it gets bad gas mileage, although it was better last week. It’s also leaving the county for the first time in two years in a few weeks.
The motorcycle is parked mostly because I’m recovering from a stroke and promised not to ride until after my 6 month follow-up. Also it’s blazing hot and less fun to ride at the moment. It’s time will come
Oh the Civic gets it’s daily driver duties in regularly, but I haven’t been to the track with it in almost three years. Just don’t have the disposable income for open track days, or the time to volunteer to get one free session a season.
Even though Miata Is Always The Answer, I happen to live in Texas. June through August is too damn hot. Swamp ass comes on quick in these months. My GTI gets a lot more daily use in the summer