We have two vehicles; a little Mazda and a T5 camper.

Due to changing work locations, me and her now walk or cycle to work and they hardly ever get used (the Mazda for example has done 3000 miles in 12 months and the camper will probably do about the same).

Miles that are driven are either a weekly-ish bomb to pick up a takeaway in the Mazda, monthly-ish 15 minutes to the tip in the camper and fortnightly-ish longer 30min+ runs in one or the other.

Is there anything I should be aware of, look out for, be careful of doing/not doing when it comes to having vehicles that spend most of their life sitting on the drive?

Make up wheel covers to protect the brakes from splash and the tyres from UV. Charge the batteries once a month (without disconnecting them).

is it not worth just selling the Mazda? Then you wouldn’t need to worry about low miles, you’d save on tax+insurance yak yak yak, and depending on what it’s worth you might even make enough money from it to fund a nice few weeks in the camper 🙂

We keep a spare car at our Edinburgh house and it doesn’t get much use. Definitely worth trying to turn it over regularly and even a short spin is useful. If the car does sit for long periods without use then it might be worth leaving it in gear with the handbrake off.

As it happens my wife is up in Edinburgh and using our spare car and has just called to let me know the exhaust has fallen off. No idea yet if that’s just normal wear and tear (we’ve had that car for nearly 10 years and I can’t recall when the exhaust was last replaced) or related to the neglect it gets.

is it not worth just selling the Mazda?

The Mazda’s worth about a grand, tops, and costs about £150 a year to insure, so probably not really. Plus, if one of them is going to be killed off by rare use and short trips, I’d rather it was that then the camper.

Sell the camper?

Sell the camper?

See if you can alternately take each for a run every week or so would be my advice. The rubber bits (hoses, tyres, seals) benefit from being used regularly, as in getting it all up to working temps, or they go hard and brittle.

I’ve had multiple cars that were used sporadically in the past and the only stuff I ever did to them was to keep the batteries topped up (removed if storing for 3 weeks or more) and rotate the tyres (prevents a flat spot developing) if they were standing for more than a month.

At one point I had a winter and summer car with the other one being stored in a garage on wheel stands with a trickle charger attached and a window open to stop it getting musty inside. Once a month I’d run the engine for a bit to stop anything seizing, more applicable to the winter cars as they were bangers.

See if you can alternately take each for a run every week or so would be my advice.

And what counts as ‘a run’?

Sell them both and use hire cars. Works for me, cheaper, no maintenance to worry about and I get to drive a new car each time I need one. £35 for a weekend hire if you shop around a bit.

Long enough to get the exhaust system hot enough that there’s no condensation in the silencers or cat.

Enough to get them up to full working temperature, a few miles to get the lubrication moving well usually. Not just the engine oil but the transmission, bearings and heat up the exhaust system.

Torch them both and claim the insurance

I’d have the hubcaps off that one.

Binners dude, like that V dud is totally slammed man!