This World Isn’t Made For Folks Like Me
Regular readers of this blog know that I ride my bikes more miles than I drive. I’m currently on a 4-year streak of meeting that mark, although 2023 might see it end. Car ownership is ridiculously expensive and driving is sedentary and dangerous.
Moreover, since the Washington D.C. region has some of the worst traffic in the country, driving is miserable. Aggressive drivers are everywhere, tailgating you, cutting you off, laying on the horn, and flipping you the bird. All for simply trying to obey traffic laws.
My 2014 Outback has finally reached the 50k mark and I’ve been dealing with some maintenance issues. I got new tires last year, and got my rear brakes replaced.
Then a few weeks ago I failed my annual inspection. Reason? The mechanic showed me my rear brakes and rotors and said they were cooked. I literally had them replaced 16 months before.
So I took my vehicle back to the brake shop and they confirmed that my rear brakes needed to be redone, again. They had a whopping 8,000 miles on them.
Being Sedentary is Bad For Humans And Cars
The shop owner was very clear the brakes would be covered under warranty. Then the next thing he said was “You don’t drive much do you?” “No, as you can see by my odometer I ride my bikes more than I drive”, I replied. “That’s the problem”, he said.
So apparently when you let a vehicle sit for too long a coating of rust builds up on the brake pads a rotors. This is especially true in very humid regions and the D.C. region is as humid as it gets. Then the next time you drive that rust engages the first time you hit the brakes and wreaks havoc on the system, wearing the pads and rotors down fast.
With al of the amazing wonders we have in the modern world in 2023, we apparently can’t make brake pads a rotors that don’t rust.
This World Isn’t Made For Folks Like Me
I drive infrequently because it’s helped me achieve financial independence. It’s contributed to my health and sanity more than I could possibly describe. Driving less is good for the environment.
But vehicles, it appears, are made to be driven more. This world isn’t made for frugal and health-conscious folks like me.
Just as seemingly everything in our modern world is set up to make us fat and unhealthy, our vehicles are made to force you to drive them a lot, wasting money and not getting exercise.
When you try to do the right thing for your money or your health it seems the deck is often stacked against you.
I’m a pretty frugal guy who wants to leave a small footprint on the Earth. But modern life essentially forces me to consume more than I want, spend more, and do things that are incongruent with my values.
I Submit
So what am I to do? If I keep my current behaviors, where admittedly my vehicle will sometimes sit for more than a week without moving, I’ll just be facing another brake job in a year or two. And the next one might not be covered under warranty.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have to get in the damn thing and drive it more, as shitty and un-fun as that is. Granted, I don’t have to drive lots more miles, I just need to drive it and engage the brakes more often to prevent the rust from building up too much.
That solution might be something as silly as literally driving the car around the block once or twice a few times a week. I already know how idiotic I’m going to feel doing that.
Sure, let’s burn more fossil fuels for no reason other than to stop your brakes from rusting and dying early.
But alas, here we are. Welcome to modern life, it’s a silly affair.
Your turn readers – Have you ever faced this problem? If so please chime in, or better yet if you’re a mechanic and you have any alternate solutions I’m all ears!
When I got my first car after college, I used to drive a half hour or so to work; drive all over my city doing young adult things; and five hour drives home to visit family. I bought expensive long range/high mileage tires that would last
Every job & city thereafter I commuted less, though I still had road trips, and incorporated more train travel.
Then I hit a point that my tires failed way early due to rot from parking in the streets of Philadelphia in all sorts of weather and NOT driving enough… So no more super high mileage tires for me.
Now I’m in LA, which is all car culture, but have things set up so my miles are low/things are within a couple miles. Unfortunately biking isn’t a terribly safe option where I am but I can mix walking in.
Our modern US society & economy are generally incompatible with healthy lifestyles for humans or planet – bah humbug – silly affair indeed!
Cycling or sometimes even walking in L.A. can be risky, drivers there stop for no one. My last tires made it 50,000+ miles so hopefully my climate doesn’t lend itself to tire rot. Thanks for commenting Wendy!
dude, that’s a bummer! reading that pains me about as much as having to discard a perfectly reliable 2004 mazda 6 a few years ago. that car had about 75-80k miles over about 12 years but fixing the rusting undercarriage would have cost a fortune and might not have lasted as a fix.
just like you i asked our long time mechanic what we could do differently and just like your shop he said “not much.”
Those Mazdas have a rep for running forever, too bad about the rust. You guys with your snow up there, it probably wreaks havoc on the undersides of vehicles.
What about renting out your car on a platform like Turo? That way other people would be doing the silly trips for you and “maintaining” your car while you get compensated.
I would never feel comfortable doing that, just as I would never do Airbnb. I’m a private person and those types of sharing services aren’t for me
I was thinking the same thing recently. I’m currently in a position where I might want to change jobs, but sadly most of the jobs for my discipline (supply chain & logistics) are in Amsterdam. Which requires me to sit for an additional 15 minutes in the crowded livestock train, it will cost me €40 more a month – about €115 per month total (without including the metro if need be). However, if you compare it to cars, then you’ll first pay the insurance (mandatory in The Netherlands) of about €55 per month (picked a Volkswagen Tiguan for the example, randomly tbh) depending on the coverage etc. I pulled some stats from a website noting 6,32 liters for 100km, if you count 30 km 2 sides daily for 20 days per month, then it’ll be 1200km – 12*6,32*1,70 (diesel price) = €128.93. And that’s just for the trip to-and-fro work, no parking costs (and maintenance) added if applicable. Maybe you’re somewhat more flexible with a car, but in countries like the Netherlands public transit can take you pretty much everywhere (even though some people tend to think differently). Not to mention the rants from car owners about public transit, sometimes justified, but in most cases not. Especially when it comes to delays etc., that’s where most people have an opinion. I tend to compare it to sitting in traffic jams, the worst I can get is like a 15 minute delay (in most cases), while my colleagues driving in cars often get delays which are multiples of those 15 minutes and they appear more frequently (I’ve seen them arrive at 09:30 instead of 08:30 on some days).
I tend to think of cars as a luxury, except if you live in a region with poor public transit coverage. Where I live, I can get pretty much everywhere with a bike, I don’t need a car. The discussion reminds of the Renting vs Buying (Why Your House Is A Bad Investment) article from JL Collins. An article about why cars are a bad investment will probably garner the same response as well. I tend to think about cars in an accountancy way, they produce something, and that something is transport. However, once you buy a car you can immediately count in depreciation, which is not the case with renting or public transit. It’s the best investment if you prefer to lose money in the mid-term ;).
Spoken like a true European 🙂 But it’s all true. I’ve been to Amsterdam quite a few times and pretty much every country in Europe. With the exception of a few unique cases like Ireland, public transit in Europe is ubiquitous, fast, and easy to use. I wouldn’t always say it’s cheap, but owning a car isn’t either as you detail. America is a car-culture, mainly because of our sheer size but just as importantly because of how Americans value independence. They don’t want to be dependent on a bus or train schedule, they want freedom of movement any time, any place. I get that, but the associated costs – both money and just as importantly health – are immense. Thanks for the great comment!
Do they make an aftermarket ceramic brake set for your car. They’re usually more money and for performance reasons but I would think it’d also lower your rusting issue. That being said sitting will lead to many gremlins with the car not just brakes.
Note I mean carbon ceramic discs not ceramic pads
Thanks, I’ll have to look into those, since I’m not a car guy I wasn’t familiar.
That’s why I don’t even own a car. I wouldn’t like to take care of it and let it consume public space for most of its lifetime. If really necessary (happens once or twice a year), I just borrow a car or rent one. This way, every journey gets a real price tag and you think about it twice. Also you’ll always have a modern car that simply works.
That’s great, and you are saving soooo much money!
That’s very bizarre, I’ve had both cars sit for 2-3 weeks at a time and the brakes are just fine. Granted I don’t live in a very humid area. Perhaps a car cover, or different brand car/brakes would do the trick. Don’t give in to car culture! You’re an inspiration to many for biking as much as you do, and it’s in our control.
Yeah I’ve been reading about it and seems the humidity of your area is the key factor. D.C. was literally built on a swamp, and it’s mega-humid here.
The mechanic is full of it. If this was true, why did your first set last 42K miles???
My wife’s car had new brakes fail after 1 year and they told me a lot of stories before the shop guy admitted there had been a bad batch of rotors from their vendor in China. This seems more plausible to me.
I get the overall point of the post but the mechanic’s story doesn’t add up.
The bad rotor theory could possibly be true. I found a lot of info online about high humidity and rusting brakes from not driving enough, so there’s a phenomenon there. And the mechanic showed me the rust, it was clear. But…. if I got knock-off rotors or pads maybe they were more prone to rusting. As you said, my first set lasted long and I wasn’t driving much then either. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Yea, modern life is a silly affair and sets us up well to be fat and lazy. I guess you could always take an uber around town and rent a car for longer trips. Not sure it would be financially viable, but at least you can outsource the car maintenance to some other sot. The satisfaction of all of it may be worth paying a bit more for?
I need a car, mainly to go up to help take care of my Mom which is a bit of a drive and secondly I like getting out of town to do outdoor adventures. Once I’m clear of the DC region driving isn’t all that miserable
Oh, I have a very similar story:
We had a 1999 Mercedes, driving it maybe 3000 miles every year, when Covid hit. Obviously, for a few months we did not need it at all. We live in a urban area (Europe) where everything is walkable distance, the closest supermarket is literally in the same building complex. Between 2020-2021, the battery got down 3 times. Had to replace it every time and have the car completely reconfigured (it takes cca 20min, but can only be done in Mercedes-specialized places). I vividly remember the technician who took care of it telling us “this is a nice car, it is made to be driven, you have to drive it more!”.
For some time after that, we had a reminder every month in our calendar to check whether we had driven the car and if not, finding a reason to take it out and drive it to recharge the battery. Fortunately, we have an underground parking slot, so at least it was protected from the weather etc.
All these stories were in the end the reason why we got rid of it and bought a newer model.
Your story is more common as batteries do get some pull from the car even when it’s not running. Modern cars with all their damn computers and flashing red security lights do tax the battery some even when the car is off, so for long periods of time if the battery is not recharged by driving it can go dead. “Made to be driven”… sigh. I get it but man I wish it weren’t that way. Thanks for the great comment!
Hi –
My experience hosting on Turo versus Airbnb … turo is very private and has lots of restrictions in the owner’s control – even the meet up location is set by you. Screening people for their intended use is key to feeling comfy. And I also think if you don’t need/care for the money to offset the expense, it’s not worth the hassle. I feel I got lucky with lots of ease during drop offs and pickups. I never had people flake so it didn’t interfere with my daily life at the time.
My experience with car and environment problems …. Sometimes there are spots with better airflow or less humidity and my windshield doesn’t frost…Maybe a slight tweak in storage location or some sort of external buffer could help?
Thanks for detailing your experience with these services. And your point about what I call “microclimates” is a a great one. I could try parking it out in the street where the grass is further away as I suspect the dew on the grass every night might contribute. It’s worth a try. Thanks!
Wow, you really don’t drive much. I drive a few times per week and that’s enough to avoid the rust build up. That’s already much lower than average.
Maybe you can drive for Uber occasionally. Hahaha…
Driving for Uber in the DC region would be my version of torture!