FD as a daily driver?

[elford_tim]

Well, I\'ve been thinking (dangerous passtime, I know) - I\'ve currently got two cars (the FC vert and a Honda CRX I use as a station car) and put a deposit down on an FD in the One True Colour[1]. Now I think that three cars maybe slightly OTT for a single person household :Giggle, not to mention that I\'ve got parking problems and spend too much time fiddleing with them at the moment.

So I was wondering what people here think about using an FD as a daily driver (6/8 mile roundtrip to the train station every day in the winter, taking the bike to work in summer so that\'s not relevant). If I didn\'t use the FD as a daily driver I\'d be looking at ~300 quid/year insurance, as a daily driver this would shoot up to ~800 but I\'d save the additional costs from running the CRX (tax, insurance, additional maintenance plus mods) so it would probably work out flat, but I could free up what little capital I\'ve got tied up in the CRX.

My main worry is that while I know I can get the engine up to operating temperature on the way to the station I\'m not sure how much the regular short trips would affect the overall lifespan of the engine? Anybody got a handle on this?

[1] Black, of course.

[KJ_MC]

As far as I\'m aware, an FD does need a good longish journey from time to time just to clear it throat, so to speak. Running any car on very short distances on a regular basis doesn\'t really do it much good. If anything your battery will suffer the most! I\'d imagine you have a fairly decent alarm that is constantly draining the battery and the short distances doesn\'t give it much chance to charge itself up again.

On the money side of things, If I was paying that money on insurance, I\'d have about three cars! lol

[royal]

If you\'ve got the opportunity to keep a daily drive I\'d most definately keep it. It\'ll work out cheaper and less problematic in the long run. Owning cars like an FD as a daily drive that you rely on is fraught with stresses. After trying both ways I would now do whatever I can to run a daily drive rather than any high performance car every day. Even if it was a £100 banger its worth it IMO. I\'m sure it would pay for itself very quickly.

Dave

[J4P RX]

I work 5 miles from my house and have used it daily for years with no problems.

My main concern about your post is I wouldnt like parking it every day at the station car park!

[royal]

Apart from what you can\'t see inside the engine as its getting started and stopped every 5 miles for many years,.....;-) Driving a rex such short distance isn\'t really justified if you can get a cheap sacrificial banger instead. Obviously practicalities such as parking space often make this impossible, something I\'m having problems with at the moment having moved into a house with only space for two cars and both me and the missus have daily drives for work.

[Kron]

Are you sure you\'re going to be happy leaving your FD at the train station car park each day for however many hours at a time?

[elford_tim]

Well, the problem with cheap (or not so cheap) sacrificial bangers is that you\'ll either get the crappiest car on earth and don\'t invest any money in it - which gets a bit old for me by now as I\'ve been doing this for a long time- or you\'ll end up with another car you have to maintain, which costs both time and money. And time especially is a problem for me as I spend too much time commuting, so everything gets crammed into the weekends.

Once we\'re getting into the realm of having the banger serviced professionally it ceases to be a way of saving money. Basically, I would at least have a nice banger that\'ll make a few MOTs with reasonable care, hence the CRX. But then I\'m suddenly looking at a grand\'s worth of car plus a few hundred on maintenance, parts, ICE and all that. And all of a sudden there\'s me thinking - heck, that\'s almost an engine rebuild right there.

I take the point regarding the station car park although there are a bunch of nice cars there (a few RX-8s, at least one Integra Type-R and a bunch of expensive Mercs and BMWs) and I haven\'t noticed any problems there yet. But that\'s probably because I\'m using one of the carparks for the Eurostar terminal in Ashford (which have barriers and CCTV all over the place) and not the regular station car park. If I had to leave it in the latter I wouldn\'t even think about this.

What got me started on this is that I know how often I use the FC - not very, actually. It was bought as a classic car and I don\'t really use it for short journeys anyway, but in the end this means that I\'m driving it 2-3 times a month. If I buy an FD and drive both the FC and FD once or twice a month the money would be better off in the savings account :rollin. Actually I\'m beginning to think that by the time the FD is run in, I\'ll be back on the bike again anyway and then I can see if I really need the CRX as well...

But nevertheless, keep \'em coming as I\'m really interested in hearing from people who are using FDs as commuter cars.

Oh, and KJ_MC - the cheap inswearance hits you shortly before you need a Zimmer frame and start wearing a hat while driving . Which is a polite way of saying that I\'m likely to be a tad older than you, but not necessarily any wiser.

[KJ_MC]

Oh, and KJ_MC - the cheap inswearance hits you shortly before you need a Zimmer frame and start wearing a hat while driving . Which is a polite way of saying that I\'m likely to be a tad older than you, but not necessarily any wiser.

ha ha:rollin

I suppose that is one very good benefit of being around on this planet a little longer. he he

I can\'t really justify buying a runaround because I dont really think it will save me money in the long run, I pay 2k insurance on the FD as it is:2Mad , so buying a second car an insuring it would completely exceed my budget. I\'m just very worried about how I\'m going to get to work if it snows!:o

[Hayward North]

I ran my FD for 12 months 11 miles to work 6 days a week with no probs and i had no intention of perchasing a banger, but here i am with £300 worth of fiesta diesel not wanting to put unnessasary miles on my beloved FD that i have spent so much time and money on.

If you dont now you will l8tr.

[FLAT4MATT]

I run mine as a daily car, normally to 20-30 miles a day with the occasional long distance run (went to Aberdeen in it earlier in the year).

As for reliability, as far as i\'m concerned it\'s more reliable than any £100 banger would be! Only times I\'ve had issues were when my clutch slave cylinder sheared the bolt. This was down it only having one bolt fitted intead of two so in my view I can\'t really hold that against the car... And when i went to the USA for two weeks the battery went flat so I ended up flooding it when i tried to start it. Again this wasn\'t really the fault of the car (although it was a bugger to de-flood it)

I absolutley love driving it every day, I\'m constantly smilin!

Only complaints are the fuel bill and thats its rediculously difficult to obey the speed limit.

[FLAT4MATT]

I ran my FD for 12 months 11 miles to work 6 days a week with no probs and i had no intention of perchasing a banger, but here i am with £300 worth of fiesta diesel not wanting to put unnessasary miles on my beloved FD that i have spent so much time and money on.

If you dont now you will l8tr.

Know what you mean but the more i spend on mine the more i want to make the most of it every day

[elford_tim]

I run mine as a daily car, normally to 20-30 miles a day with the occasional long distance run (went to Aberdeen in it earlier in the year).

TBH with that kind of distance I wouldn\'t be worried. My main issue is that the sensible roundtrip to the train station is a lot shorter and as we know, no engines do like plenty of short trips and that\'s before we go anywhere near "ours are more fragile than others".

[adib]

i run mine work and back only 3 miles, for 2 years now iv had no prob

[Martiny]

As far as I\'m aware, an FD does need a good longish journey from time to time just to clear it throat, so to speak. Running any car on very short distances on a regular basis doesn\'t really do it much good. If anything your battery will suffer the most! I\'d imagine you have a fairly decent alarm that is constantly draining the battery and the short distances doesn\'t give it much chance to charge itself up again.

On the money side of things, If I was paying that money on insurance, I\'d have about three cars! lol

I agree on the battery thingy, maybe.

But can someone please tell me scientific or technical details of exactly what harm it does to a car to be used like this?

[666FLO]

I had a battery problem but I just bought a new one, and the car has be spot on since then.  I run my car every day to work, its only a 5-10 min drive and it runs fine and no had any problems. Take it for a 20 min drive and take it up to the red line at least once a week though to give it claer out plus I love doing that and hearing my car beep then pop with a flame.. :L!!