Caring for Your Unused Car

• Whether you drive a new or an old car, eventually its battery will die if you don’t drive it.
• If you want to avoid a dead battery, you should start your car once a week and run it for about 5-10 minutes.
• If you have a garage, be sure to open the door when running your car — or better yet, take it for a short drive for your brakes’ sake.

Like with your battery, you may expect your brakes to be fine if you aren’t driving. But in regions like ours that get snowy in the winter and humid in the summer, rotors can start to rust if they’re allowed to sit. This is especially true if you park outside.

While this layer of rust is microscopic, it will eventually do real damage, but driving and applying your brakes will wear it away. Trying to take a short drive every week or so should wear that film of rust away and keep your rotors in decent shape.

Your Tires Could Go Flat

You have two worries with your tires if you aren’t driving:

• You are less likely to notice a leak, so your tire(s) could go flat and leave you changing a tire the next time you try to drive.
• Your tire could get a flat spot from sitting in one place too long — they look like a circle, but the part that touches the road does get flat. Taking a short drive every week or so can help with this.