In 2019, I Drove My Boring Car The Most.

"ethan drives dumb cars" (helloroad) 01/05/2020 at 20:10 • Filed to: too many cars, nerding out, data collection

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Owning 8 cars sounds good in theory, but is almost entirely a bad idea. Not only is it tough to maintain a fleet of terrible old vehicles, I can only drive one at a time. Which means several of my cars didn’t move much in 2019. I ended up driving the boring one the most!

In the last couple years I’ve enjoyed the end-of-year driving summaries put together by fellow car hoarders enthusiasts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Their diligent collection of data throughout each year leads to some interesting realizations. Tyson keeps track of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for his multi-car fleet, and Jason !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (among other things) for each of his vehicles.

I’m not nearly as organized! However, I did !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for all of my cars, rental cars, borrowed cars, and press vehicles in 2019. Even with that small bit of data, I quickly realized that I need to drive my weird cars more, and my boring car less.

To be fair to the Prius, it’s been consistently delivering an average of 56mpg since we purchased it. Its primary usage is to cart our kid around, and I can’t quite easily fit a rear-facing car seat in my 944 Turbo. Excuses, excuses, I know!

I was quite surprised that I had only driven my favorite car, my ‘88 Chevrolet Nova Twin Cam, a mere 781 miles. It felt like more than that. Keeping track of yearly mileage totals was an easy exercise that I’ll likely continue in 2020, and hopefully I’ll next year see more than 0 miles on my ‘86 Stanza Wagon.

My 2019 mileage summary:

What did you drive most in 2019? In 2020 I may even keep track of costs per vehicle, even though that might make me cringe at the end of the year. On second thought, I’m just going to throw away every receipt.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:17

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Hold the fucking phone here — you own a Prizm GSi Liftback?!?!

ethan drives dumb cars > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/05/2020 at 20:18

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Haha yes. 1 of 237 GSi hatchbacks for 1991. I have actually owned two of them!

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:21

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All those Japanese cars and not a single Mazda? For shame...

I put about 5,000 miles on my one car this year, but that was due to a combination of a short (2.3 mile) commute to work and being out of commission for weeks at a time recovering from cancer and chemotherapy. I probably won’t be able to find another  job that close to home (I was just fired for taking too much PTO time), so mileage for 2020 will probably increase :(

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:21

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SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/05/2020 at 20:24

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Way to zero in on the HEADLINE!  Yes, he buried the lede...

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:26

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Wait. So you CARB/SMOG that many 1975-on cars?

‘Cause from where I sit (looking out over the beach in Santa Barbara...) the ONLY way to keep this up is to buy kraaapy cars from before 1975.

WRXforScience > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:30

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I’ve only got my BRZ, I put about 11k miles on it this year but over 3k miles on the track (30 trackdays). If you add in the drive to and from the tack, more than half of my miles in 2019 were track related (just over 6k miles out of 11k).

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/05/2020 at 20:37

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Hello, grandad!

Actually...at $2,500 and less than 150,000 km o n the 4A-FE with the manual box this  would be a good buy.

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/1993-Toyota-Corolla-CSi-Seca-Manual/SSE-AD-6451399?pageSource=details&id=SSE-AD-6451399

Khalbali > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:38

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Damn, I had a regular prizm liftback and that was rare enough....

ethan drives dumb cars > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 01/05/2020 at 20:51

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Haha!!!

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 20:56

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Hmm,

2012 Chevy C ruze: 10k ish

2002 Toyota Tundra TRD: 70ish?

2005 Volvo XC90 (fwd i5): 30ish?

2012 Ford Fusion: 40ish?

2014 Jeep Patriot (manual): .0 001

20 10ish Honda Civic coupe: .00 01

Wow, that is a pitiful list.

ethan drives dumb cars > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 01/05/2020 at 20:58

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The Nova and the Prizm are relatively easy to smog. Surprisingly the 740iL passed with flying colors. Liam is a LeMons race car, so no smog for that one. Stanza and Grand Prix are projects that aren’t currently registered. Smog will be very difficult for those. Fifth Avenue took 5 or 6 tries, and somehow it pa$$ed. It can be pretty tough to be a fan of 80s/90s cars in CA. Need those smog exemptions to shift to ‘85 instead of ‘75.

ethan drives dumb cars > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/05/2020 at 21:01

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What, were you were fired for recovering from cancer?? What the hell? I hope you are doing better!

I’ve only owned one Mazda , a ‘91 spec Miata race car. I keep meaning to buy another Mazda. Just hasn’t happened. Mazdaspeed3 is on my list!

SiennaMan > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 21:08

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It warms my heart to see Pontiac and Geo in the top ten of a list like this.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 21:08

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yeah, you raise a great point. I wonder if they’ll ever slide the “exemption date forward” to 1980 or ‘85?

Of course it’s probably Machts Nichts on that front, with a lot of boring cars out there between 1976 and the early 80s.

I assume you go RNO on the non-registered ones?  My system’s just been blown on my Non-Ops...

SiennaMan > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 01/05/2020 at 21:10

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It makes me feel good that I'm not the only one for whom the Prizm stood out in a good way.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 21:20

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I’ve probably done 25-30k miles in a 2018 Ram 1500 this year. Another 20k or so between a 2019 Silverado(ew), 2019 Colorado(almost as ew), and a 2018 Ram 3500(yes, good).

With my personal vehicles it’s something like 13k in my 2003 Z06, maybe 1500 in my 1995 4Runner, and less than 250 on my gone 2018 GTI. I put nearly 1500 miles on the 2018 Tiguan loaner I had though...

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 21:27

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I used up all of my FMLA time, and at the end of the year had a few non-related illnesses (cold, migraine) that caused me to exceed my available PTO balance, and for that I was terminated. I loved that job, and thought that was the place from which I'd retire, but policy is policy...

ethan drives dumb cars > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 01/05/2020 at 21:57

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There is a group trying to get it shifted to ‘ 83: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162183124714856/

Yep, PNO on the non-registered ones.

ethan drives dumb cars > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 01/05/2020 at 21:58

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That, my friend, is a shit ton of miles.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 22:10

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To be fair, the top listing is specifically for work. 

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ethan drives dumb cars 01/05/2020 at 22:12

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Nova, Scion and Prizm need more love! :)

In seriousness, I can understand why you drove the Prius the most....it is technically the best DD there, BUT, it still sucks that you drove it the most. :P

I only have one car (my 2009 Hyundai Accent hatchback), so I drove that the most, although I do drive my mom’s 2010 Accent sedan on occasion .

Humdrum carried me about 18,000km....so about 11,200 miles!