<p>My son is using his mom’s old car to get to work this summer. Once he goes to school, however, the car stays here taking up driveway space. Anyone have any ideas re storage? Car has 190K on it and still runs well, but I don’t want to spend a lot of $ storing it - have a very tight budget, what with his school loans, the cost of propane, the mortgage, etc. Thanks</p>
<p>If you expect him to be able to use it during breaks, you need to start it once in a while, at least for short local trips.
We always liked having a spare car around to use when one of ours went into the shop for something.</p>
<p>Keep it, sell it to another college student, or give it to a charitable organization.</p>
<p>You probably have to keep insurance on it as well and depending on where you live this can be a considerable expense for a car that is not in use.</p>
<p>You can donate it to us. We need another car…lol</p>
<p>We had this decision forced on us last summer. When S was home from college, it was handy to have the 160,000 mile car as a spare, until the brakes went out - fortuneately when H was driving. (The car had been well maintained and had no evidence of “problems” - the vehicle developed a brake line leak.) </p>
<p>We wouldn’t consider selling it in that condition and didn’t want to put repair money in, so we donated it to charity. The tax deduction was more than I would have sold the car for and the saving in insurance was more than I required in monetary compensation.</p>
<p>There have been a few times since donating when that extra car would have made things easier for us - but I’m more than willing to trade occassional inconvenience for the risk of someone being standed again by a suddenly unreliable, unsafe car.</p>
<p>We’ve discussed the possibility of selling or giving the car to one of his friends, but are torn because we would want him to have something to drive when he’s home on break and next summer. There’s also the option of getting him a hoopdie (see urbandictionary.com for definition) for the short term. If we do decide to keep his present car, what’s the best way to store it for several months at a time (and no, we won’t be going the put-it-up-on-blocks-in-the-front-yard route)?</p>
<p>Call your insurance company and explain the situation. We did that and saved a bundle on our daughter’s car since she was over 100 miles away at college and not driving except during breaks.</p>
<p>If your son wants to continue using the car when he’s home on vacations and for the summer, then he should play some part in solving storage problem. Perhaps you have friends/neighbors/acquaintances with an unused garage bay or a large driveway or barn? If so, what can your son barter in return for a parking spot … babysitting? painting? yard work? wood-stacking? I don’t mean that the poor kid should feel indentured for the entire summer just so that he can give the ol’ jalopy a spin or two when he’s not at college, but I do feel that at least some of the burden should fall on him.</p>
<p>County fairgrounds often have large buildings where they store things like campers and boats during the winter months. Perhaps your county of a neighboring county has a big “shed” area where you could keep the car during the winter. If our D is coming home next summer, we will need to find a place to put her car during the winter. If she will be away next summer, we plan to get rid of her clunker - it is taking up too much room in our driveway.</p>
<p>We kept our d’s klunker and advised the insurance co that she would be away at school. I know insurance policies in Southern Ca are a little skewed, but we found out that if we kept the klunker our insurance for three cars would be $500 a year LESS than if we got rid of it and just insured our two cars. They are making the assumption that we would spend some of our weekly drive time in a car that was essentially worthless. Strange, but true.</p>
<p>We have an “extra” car here. We keep it in the driveway. It gets driven once a week by one of us (the parents). Then it’s here when the kidlets come home from college. I wouldn’t spend a nickel to store a car. Plus, as others have noted…you really do need to drive these things on a somewhat regular basis.</p>
<p>Yes do drive it regularly! We ended up with a very funny family story about the dead battery and the alarm system and the neighbors… but it wasn’t funny at the time.
If you can drive around it, it will probably be cheaper to keep it so that it’s there for vacation employment. We found the insurance was cheaper to keep the clunker rather than put the kid on mom’s new Subaru.</p>
<p>Cheapest way to do it is for you to store it, even though it takes up room. Unless of course a friend or family menber can store it for you. Only you and the student can decide if the convenience of a car rarely used is more important than the convenience of the storage room created by selling it. If you keep it, call on your insurance agent and explain situation. Some agents have “wiggle room” on a car used so infrequently by a college student and can offer a reduced rate.</p>