I have 13 GT, fully paid off and I intend to keep her.

I purchased her used in Sept 2014 with 34500 miles. In that time she is now at 59900 miles. For the past 2 months i've stored the car concerned with driving too many miles in such a short space of time.

I am not worried about reliability, I have the ford esp until 125k.

Ive been riding my motorcycle or scooter to work and I am sick of random weather raining on me.

I unsuspended my insurance today.

I guess i'm looking for acceptance that the car was ment to be driven. I just dont like seeing the miles go up you know.

 

Only you can make that decision...

I have a car that I've stored for 10 years trying to keep the miles down. It's an 04 and it has 25k. I don't think it was worth it. Looking back I think I'd rather have had the driving experience because things get old and break even if you don't run it.

Now if you have something that's museum worthy and you keep the miles under 1000, that's a different story.

 

The way I look at it, I bought the car I have because I enjoy cars and I enjoy driving them. Doesn't really matter where I drive to, it's the journey involved in the driving that I enjoy. I would bet that one of the reasons you bought your car in the first place was because of the enjoyment you had while driving it.....so I would say keep enjoying it and keep that feeling !! l

Life's to short to finish our journey safe, sound and composed.....I would rather arrive at the end out of breath and with a smile on my face and be able to say "wow, what a ride" !!!

 

I made a conscience decision when I bought my '14 GT 'Vert in May 2014 that it would never be driven in wet weather or on snowy/salted roads. I haven't strayed from the mission.....living in NJ makes sticking to that decision very easy. I'm not preserving it for collector value because that's never going to happen. I'm treating it this way for longevity. In 10 years I want folks to say that it still looks like a new car.

But even though I have just 12K miles on the clock, I still drive it as much as possible when weather conditions permit and will continue to do so. If I lived in a more temperate climate there's no doubt it'd be my daily driver and racking up miles.

IMHO cars like ours should be driven as often as possible.

 

My 2000 GT was 14 years old when I traded her in and she only had 62k on the clock. Still though, things broke and I ran into old car syndrome. Like TripleBlack I never drive in snow or even when there is salt on the ground. I never took her out in the rain either only because I like top down driving so what's the point?

My 2014 only has 2k on it but this summer I plan on adding some miles. My problem is I don't have a garage and my car goes in the driveway. Mustang always first then my wife's car and maybe my daily driver if there's no room on the street. A lot of times I just don't feel like being a car jockey to go out on a joyride.

Next house in a couple of years I hope to eliminate several of those problems. You can guess what problems I'm talking about.

 

I agree with what has been said here. Enjoy your car. When it comes to most things, I'd rather have amazing memories than money. A car is generally a horrible investment. It is meant to bring joy.

 

Between student loans, child support, double taxes, and crazy exes.. I leaned a long time ago that my mustang is one of my greatest pleasures in life.

Rain, snow, or shine: I drive it. Tomorrow is not a promise.

 

Yes, both of these x100!

The car is engineered to be a daily driver and does great at it. I'm almost to 98k on my '11 and she looks good, runs strong and has had little to no problems yet. Drive it man. Enjoy it. Gas could be $15/gallon someday when we all are driving electrics.

 

Kyle, this is an excellent point. Drive the heck out of your V8 while gas is $2 a gallon. Maybe consider cutting back later if the price of gas starts to affect your lifestyle.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone it is just what I needed and some very good points.

I'll be driving her today for the first time in 2 months.

 

48K miles in 46 months on my '13. 11K with the supercharger.

 

My Mustang is my daily driver too, I just past 2 years of ownership on May 14, it is just under 16K, it would have way more miles, but my commute is only about 27 miles combined a day. It's taken a beating around NYC, but I drive it all year long, even through 2 blizzards, and hopefully plan to do a road trip with it down to Florida this summer. My Stang is my coffee in the morning, and some joy after a long day of work.

 

I have low miles on Marilyn not because I "want" to, purposely. I have low miles on her because I don't drive her that much, mostly due to weather and time. I rarely drive her to work, if at all anymore - the douches parked over there are enough to make me cringe. Pair that with the weather we've been having here, she gets maybe a couple hundred miles a month tops.

 

I work at a high school and even though I have a good spot I still found marks on my 2000. I'd love to take it to work once in a while but no way. Even if I drove it my commute is about a mile.

 

The worst thing you can do to a car is to let it sit. Generally, if you want to generate random unreliability and failure modes, that is about the best way to do it. Drive the car daily and it'll return good service, other than usual wear items like tires and brakes. It ain't a Bugatti Aerolith, it's a Mustang, drive the hell out of it.

 

59k is not a lot. I bought my 11 in 2012 with 900 or so miles on it. currently sitting at 61k with almost 20k miles with a supercharger. Drive the car man. Car's these days are more reliable as long as you take care of them. You paid off this car for it to just sit there and depreciate. Either sell it or drive the **** out of it but man up and make the choice yourself.

 

Good thread and some great responses...I like the way you guys think.

The problem with really loving a car is that many of us end up in the same spot as the OP...fretting over "using it up." I really wish that I could just let go and drive it everywhere.

My 2011 has 28,000 miles...I only drive it when I "want to" as I have my old Jeep to take the brunt of my painful commute. The Mustang seldom gets driven when it's raining, never-ever driven in the snow or when there's salt on the roads. I also avoid driving it when I don't know for certain that I'll have a safe (door ding free) parking spot.

I love my Mustang (and my old Dart Sport) and they're really important parts of how I find happiness. Is that pathetic?

I'm really happy to see these responses in this thread...I'm really on the same page with pretty much everything that has been said concerning "life being too short." I just don't know if I can apply this to myself.

 

LOL Mike... couldn't agree with you more. Only difference, mine doesn't get rain at all, even clouds

 

That's because you live in frickin' Iowa!

We had an opportunity to move to Iowa twice in recent years for considerably more money. We turned it down both times, in large part due to other reasons, but the weather also played a role. Couldn't stand living somewhere that I HAD to garage the Shelby for any length of time.

Regarding driving it, no it's not a 15k miles/year car, but it's over 17k at under four years of ownership, and I both drive it on the street and track it. Driving it is more entertaining than sitting in front of the tv. More than going to a movie. More than surfing the net. I pull it out and drive it to relieve stress, to hear it, to row the gears, to put a smile on my face, there are all kinds of reasons to drive a car like these. Looking at it in the garage is not like driving it on an on-ramp in 2nd at 70mph.

 

Before my Mustang, I had a sporty Japanese car that I had this dilemma with too. I bought it new in 1992. I loved the driving experience but with my commute (80km a day) I thought would kill it quick.

Getting a 2nd car was out of the question, so I kept it and maintained it well. I had people thinking it was an almost new car even though I took it to 320,000 kms from 1992 - 2015. I waxed it once a year without fail, kept it clean and tidy, and maintained it. I had the enjoyment of many road trips, going from a single dude still living at home to a married guy with now a teenage daughter.

Both my wife and daughter misted up when it was finally hauled away on a flatbed -- it needed a computer and a fuel pump. And the computer "blow up" fried a lot of other electrical components -- to repair it was cost-prohibitive and the parts after so many years were nearly non-existent. And it was time and enough money to get this car, the car I always wanted.

My take on it? Don't be a curator for a museum piece for the next owner to enjoy - get out there and enjoy it and make some memories.