Underdriven?

[Rick Lee]

My girlfriend's '96 328i convt. only has 21k miles on it. The car looks new everywhere. I know it's unhealthy for Porsches to sit or be underdriven. What's this sort of mileage like for a Bimmer. I tell her she should get her money's worth of enjoyment out of the car and drive, drive, drive. She really only wants to take it back and forth to work in stop and go, hour-long, DC-area traffic. This can't be good for any car and certainly not too enjoyable in a 5 speed.

What the minimum acceptable yearly mileage for such a car? How often should I just take it out and blast a few laps around the Beltway?

[jenmcd]

Beavis

I wish we had only 21k on our car. My wife drive about 75 miles a day back and forth to work. IMHO it a waste not to drive it. Many of the cars I've seen at DE's have 100k plus on them. One guy had a 88 325 with 264K on the original engine.

Keith

[Rick Lee]

My '87 has 241k and is still going strong on the first engine. The second clutch is only 9k miles old. I'm trying to get my girlfriend to understand that these cars are bulletproof - and she got a very underdriven one to begin with. Guess she's too used to seeing me underneath my 911 on the weekends.

[Wayne 962]

Once a week, long-distance driving (highway speeds for about an hour) will help keep carbon from building up on the inside of the engine. Especially with todays less-than-high-quality fuels, you need to make sure that you don't torture the car in stop-and-go...

-Wayne