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Busso V6 engined cars, how little use is enough?

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  duemila 
#1 ·
As per the topic, how infrequently can you use a Busso without running into serious maintenance issues?

Some suggestions on regular cars say you'll be okay if you use a car for a decent run every two weeks.

Whilst I'm likely selling mine at some point in the mid term future I've toyed with keeping it in the garage and using it as little as possible whilst I put the miles and beatings on a lesser car.

My garage isn't attached to my house so I can't hook up any sort of trickle charger kit to it. Whilst part of me would only tax it for 6 months and use it during summer I've a feeling it won't like it very much.

Any experiences would be appreciated!
 
#2 ·
I went 4 weeks without even starting my busso. It started up and drove fine with no problems I could detect after that time. I only use mine now once a week. With perhaps a good sustained motorway drive every month. Personally I would not want to leave it unused for much more than a month.

Clearly cars do not like to just sit unused. But, equally a car that is often used, but used for very short periods isn't particularly good for it either. Having a car idle for 15 minutes every couple of weeks is probably not too bad, but not particularly good as well. It would be better to go for an hour or so long drive of mixed speeds. Just so all the fluids and everything gets right up to temperature. Condensation removed from the engine etc.

Solenoids and things like that can become stuck if unused for some time. I don't know if the Busso has too many things like that. Other things like fuel tank sender gauge floats could become stuck with extended periods of no use. Brakes etc, but generally those sorts of things need quite some time to seize and be exposed to the elements.

I'm not sure why not just give the car a good drive once every two or three weeks. Unless you don't like driving in the winter, because salt I can only guess. And that the savings in tax and insurance may be significant if you have it off the road for 6 months.

I would still keep up with the maintenance schedule. Oil/filter every year, brake fluid 2 years etc.

Not sure really what serious maintenance issues would be classed as. Rubber parts degrade over time, regardless of use. Engine is unlikely to seize.
 
#3 ·
I've settled on using mine every two weeks max and trying to avoid rainy days. Seems fine so far but then again why wouldn't it be I guess as that's the low side of regular use.

Still need to tax and insure it all year round to use it but that's one small benefit of being a bit older. The Busso is less to insure than it's road tax due to the low mileage and my age!
 
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