Car won't be used for 3 months

joho

Hi all,


My mum can't drive her car for 3 months (because of hip replacement op) so she is planning on keeping it taxed, but uninsured, on her drive till she can drive it. I think this is okay, but wanted another adult to confirm this for me. ;-)


Thanks
Jo

newbie1980

the one thing i would be worried about is whats the car worth and if vanalised or stolen can she afford another one

ellie99

If she's not insuring the car, she'll have to SORN it.

It's either not insured AND not taxed, or insured AND taxed nowadays.

If there's any value in the car, probably safer to keep it insured.

joho

Thank you both. Glad I asked!

leosayer

Invest £30 or so in a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up.

Otherwise you may end up having to spent £100+ for a new one.

Linton

We are often away for 3 months. Our policy is to disconnect the batteries of both (his and hers) our cars. The problem is that modern cars have computers running continuously even when the ignition is turned off. Therefore there is the danger of flattening the batteries which causes much hassle and could knacker them.

We dont like the idea of running a mains trickle charger unattended for 3 months even if we had somewhere dry to keep the cars sufficiently near a power socket, which we dont. The solar powered chargers which plug into the cigarette lighter are a better idea which I have used in the past. However some modern cars (including our current ones) disconnect the cigarette lighter when the ignition is turned off.

So disconnecting the batteries is about the best of a bad set of choices. The only problem we have found is that with my car there are two computers keeping track of mileage, miles per gallon etc, one for the current journey and one long term. The long term computer lost its data (didnt affect the odometer) and also reset the miles to next service figure. Not a major problem.

ratrace

leosayer wrote: »

Invest £30 or so in a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up.

Otherwise you may end up having to spent £100+ for a new one.

Nope not true im afriad

All you have to do op is disconnect the + &- terminals (black lead) & (red lead) and leave it, this will stop any power going to the car id say before you do this make sure you have the radio code handy or she will not be able to use the cd player due to the battery being disconnected (loses the code from its memory)

Also what i recommend is that she still insures the car (fire & theft) but wont need to tax it, as she wont be driving to further prevent any hoodys joy riding in it, id say invest in a steering lock also

hope this helps

getmore4less

If getting a charger get a proper one that does maintenance cycles not a trickle.

CTEK do good ones and there are good copies in Aldi/Lidl occationaly

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ctek+battery+charger

jimjames

joho wrote: »

Hi all,


My mum can't drive her car for 3 months (because of hip replacement op) so she is planning on keeping it taxed, but uninsured, on her drive till she can drive it. I think this is okay, but wanted another adult to confirm this for me. ;-)


Thanks
Jo

Depending on car it might be better to get it SORNd as there seems no point paying tax if you're not using it on the road.