low miles why?

[nostatic]

old_skul's thread concerning mileage seems to indicate two broad categories of cars: low miles garage queens that get taken out and driven occasionally, and road warriors that log serious miles.

For those with GQs, why that choice? I get itchy when I don't drive my car for a day, much less an entire week. Is it like chocolate (a treat every so often keeps it a treat), or insurance/fear of damage, or ?

Just curious. Then again it might just relate to personality. I don't really "collect" anything, so maybe it's more along those lines?

[stomachmonkey]

You got me. There will always be two types of enthusiasts. I am in the drive it every day camp.

Have a business associate with an 86 930, 10k original miles. Don't get it.

To each his own.

Scott

[RANDY P]

Good question -

Was gonna insist on calling it a garage queen, was gonna keep in stored in winter and all that foo foo stuff -

Wound up driving 10K since 7/21/02 to present - all through the NW rainy season. . Try to avoid driving in rain, but it really depends on how hard - up I feel at the moment. You get more scuffs and scratches in the winter -
Don't understand where it all comes from - seems like all I do with is go to work and back (55-60 hrs. / wk 50 mile commute round trip, 5 days a week) have two working cars and I don't have a social life, but the mileage just seems to rack up. This is the only car I actually enjoy driving.

rjp

[MarkY]

I drive my car for pleasure. It is a third car in a two driver family. I rarely drive the 911 to work because it is 12 miles with a lot of stop and go traffic. Plus, I get some comments that I can do without when people at work see me in my 911. I don't drive it to grocery stores and rarely to a mall. I do however, drive it when my wife and I go out for the evening. I average about 4k miles per year and it is pure pleasure.

In addition, I live in Arizona. A black on black 911 in 115 degrees isn't real comfortable. So the P-car only comes out at night from about June to September.

I didn't get mine to put up on a shelf and look at. I got it to drive...and to occasionally taste the oil.

[nostatic]

Mark, did you also get the custom color change kit? I like the last yellow iteration...

[masraum]

Mine had about 110K when I bought it about 2.5yr ago. I've avged about 15K per year. I actually sometimes wish I could drive it more. When I bought it it had a couple of door dings and plenty of rock chips, now it has more door dings and rock chips, but washed it still looks good, and I don't freak about parking it out.

I don't know how those other guys do it. Shoot, last time I checked I was getting about 18 mpg on a 25 mile work commute in moderate traffic with plenty of downshifting and passing, I don't baby her, she runs great and basically only needs gas and oil.

[marc weintraub]

My 73"S" is a garage queen, but not by my choice. When I first got the car, I spent most of my time, workwise, traveling around the world and the car just sat. When I got remarried, I had three Porsches and the 73"S" was rarely driven. Then the prices of the original early "S" cars started going up and this car just ended up sitting. In going through my records, this car has never covered more than 1000 miles in any given year and it was not registered for at least 10. To add insult to injury, the car did less than 500 miles over the last three years (in each year) and it is no longer registered, having been put into dry storage last September. Not sure when it will go back on the road again. I have no need to drive as a person that lives in Manhattan. Everything is mass transit and potholes with their own zipcodes.

I suspect I will put her back on the road when we move out of the city and have a real need for a car. Until then, it will remain garaged and safe from the potholes and my lead foot.

All The Best,

Marc

[cowtown]

Well, I haven't put many miles on my '75 because it doesn't have an engine installed. Does that count?

But I have managed to average 12-13K per year on my '88 Targa, even though it's a weekend driver. I guess that puts me in the "road warriors" camp.

It feels soooo good to drive the 911 on a Saturday morning after having endured five days of carpooling in a '91 Jeep Cherokee....

[juanbenae]

my sc was a GQ before i owned it and i have just played along. i drive 80 miles round trip each day to work on freeways that cause a great deal of paint and windshield damage. then if i do get it to the office its the door dings from the students at a continuing education facility. so to this point i have 400 miles a week, dings and dents front and side, and a boring freeway drive.

i dont/wont even drive my truck to work unless it rains really hard or the cargo area is required. its the civic comuter, at about 25+miles to the gallon ($2.10 per these days), never washed since the day i bought it used, spit, blow snot, litter, dog carrier, just basically a ride/trash receptor.

the fact that the 911 only comes out on the weekends makes for when it is out its very special. not special like a kid in a helmet on a short bus, but a ride with the only destination being fun. a couple of my friends have mountian road worthy cars, a 964, an audi quattro, a m3 bmw and the fact that they drive them every day makes it common place. they are why do i want to go drive this weekend, ive been driving all week? but its been in traffic, the store, the childerns to school and such. its like sleeping with the same woman every night, it becomes common place nothing special. but that bang you have when you've been away from her for a while is waaaay better, for me any way.

[Don Plumley]

It's not a GC in the sense that when I drive it, I drive it - but it is a 3rd car for my pleasure use. And I don't commute. I use it to pick up my son from school once in a while ("Cool, you brought the Porsche"), run errands where there is a big parking lot, take things to Fedex (great on/off ramps to the local office), and sometimes rip over Newport Coast Road and down PCH to Laguna when I need to clear out the cobwebs. I AX it about 4x per year, would like to do that more.

In addition to driving it, I enjoy working on it - not that it's really needed much. But the annual oil change, odds and ends are great garage therapy. While I'd rather not wreck it, it is a car, and if it get's banged up, it will get fixed or I'll get another one. Material objects are quite replaceable.

[Don Plumley]

Originally posted by k911sc
not special like a kid in a helmet on a short bus, but a ride with the only destination being fun.
<...snip...>
that bang you have when you've been away from her for a while is waaaay better, for me any way.

LOL!!!

[Harlan Chinn]

I don't understand GQs, I have several friends with both F-cars and P-cars. It's a shame that our fellow owners don't or won't enjoy their cars, heck they're cars not museum or shrine pieces. My friends and I drive our cars like they like to be driven then we'll have a detailing party afterwards. We commute to work in our cars but I hate to be in too much stop and go on the floating bridges here, the left calf gets way too much excercise. There's nothing like the sound of the exhaust flowing through the SSI's, gurgles of the oil flowing through the oil coolers and the faint scent of burnt oil and leather. It's time to go for a drive now....

[jester911]

My car had low mileage when I bought it. It only had 64,000 on it about 3 years ago. I work in construction so I have to have a pickup for work. I drive my car evenings and weekends and I am not concerned with the mileage.

I think most people that have the lower mileage cars are like me.
They have it as a second or third car and it is strictly for fun.
When I set out to buy it I looked for a low mileage car and I think a lot of others here did the same.

It seems the higher mileage cars are owned by people who have had them long time or they just were able to get a p-car at a cheaper price.

Nostatic, I think you bought one that had less miles than most so you seem to fit in the first catagory.

Just an observation.

[masraum]

Amen brother Chinn!!

[masraum]

PS It's not getting old or common place for me at all. Shoot, I'm just really getting to know her, finding her various sweet spots, so to speak.

[Big Ed]

I don't think many readers of this board would fit into the true GQ category, if you care about the cars enough to hang out here you probably drive them a lot too (unless like Marc you are in an unfavorable locale).

After the very long New England winter, I couldn't wait to get the new 930 out on the roads. But they are still sandy and wet, so I decided to take the 86 Targa for a jaunt (it's mechanically strong but the body is rough, so what the hey?). After a couple hours out on the roads, I started thinking "Why sell it? Prices are so soft, you might as well keep this for a daily driver and save the 930 for weekends!"

Don't tell my wife, but I think that's what I'm gonna do.

[nostatic]

Originally posted by jester911
Nostatic, I think you bought one that had less miles than most so you seem to fit in the first catagory.

Buy low, sell high

Originally posted by nostatic
Mark, did you also get the custom color change kit? I like the last yellow iteration...

Shockanawe.

[Huey58]

Here in Michigan in the winter the good guys at the road
commission put tons and tons of road salt and sand on the
roads. Not too many people I know like to run their car through
the "Road Sand Blaster" not to mention the rust cancer that eats cars.
I try to make up for it in the summer but I still only put 5-6000 miles
a year on my car!!!