[vbb]

Ok, admit it... some of you have garage queens.

There's a fine line between enjoying your car to the fullest and also wanting to keep it pristine. I think a lot of us share this contradiction. For some, this is their 3rd or 4th car, and they only put a couple thousand miles on it per year. For others, they work from home and just don't get out much. Still others drive the wheels off of their cars--a recent thread had a guy that went 41k miles in a single year--and are definitely winning the miles of smiles contest.

Me? I have a "garage queen" that i actually drive. I try to avoid bad weather, but am not completely obsessive about it. I also try to avoid very short trips where the oil and running temps don't get up, try to avoid roads and areas with ongoing construction, and am particular about my washing methods. I have eaten (dry foods like granola bars) in it, taken it to the hardware and grocery stores, commuted with the kids to practices and camps, and *gasp* even driven it in the rain. It's ceramic coated, but not PPF'd. It's an August '21 build with 13,700mi on it.

How are you using your car?

Here's a pic of mine taken this morning post quick wash in my garage after I got caught in the rain yesterday.

[bri1042]

My car is the furthest from a garage queen as you can get. The Frog is my only car. My SO has his 530e and I have my Frog. On non-work days we almost always take my car everywhere as he doesn't actually enjoying driving at all, and I generally wouldn't choose to drive the 530e. My M3's trunk is actually more usable due to the battery in the 530e and the reduction in trunk space.

I haven't put a huge number of miles on the car in the 2 years and 4 months that I've had it (14.5k), but that's due to working from home.

The only time I've chosen to not risk the car was during our brief PNW snow periods. I believe I could have gone where I needed to on my "winter" PS4 AS tires, but I just waited until the AWD 530e was available as much for ground clearance as anything else.

[Tethys]

Mine is 100% a garage queen third car that will get maybe 1200 miles a year.

[Murf]

March 21 build M3 Comp, 14k miles. I work from home so it's not a commuter car but it is driven daily and has made multiple trips to my kids colleges 5 hours away, Miami, the keys etc. Also ceramic coated and holding up pretty well. I used to stress over rock chips etc but you can't control that so really no reason to worry.

Why get a car like this if you aren't going to drive it.

[Race_Doc11]

Life is too short use it you never know what the future will bring.

[gemini.m3]

Mine is a garage queen by product of working from home. 22, I’ve had it for 13 months and it has 2700 miles. I’ve been making it more of a point to drive it lately, recently the oil light came on which I found funny given I don’t drive it but it’s been 8 months or so since break in

The car has full ppf, ceramic, and a windshield film. In my opinion it’s indistinguishable from a brand new car, maybe even in better shape when clean.

I started thinking about this as I contemplated a new build for LCI, guess we’ll see what that looks like but I hope to keep this one for good as the last fully ICE M3

[wtwo3]

Garage queen you say?

[hhkb]

I don’t have mine yet (Week 28 production) but it is replacing my Civic.

The M3 will see:

• 10k miles/year
• Rain like 6 months out of the year
• Annual ski trips so some snow
• Annual multi thousand mile road trips
• Hiking trips and camping in muddy conditions
• A hairy golden retriever that licks everything
• Autocross around 3-4x/year
• HPDE 2x/year

The car will not be babied. No PPF, no wraps, no rubber mats. Just a two bucket wash every few weeks.

[JDUNITNOW]

My car is sort of a garage queen and I do not drive in any inclement weather if I can help it. I have a 05 330I for my daily and when it rains and also a x5 for other duties like snow. Recently I had an apithany and sitting in my garage looking at my car. I thought about my monthly payments and all of the money I spent in mods and said this is a 100k wall art so I drive it to work everyday as long as weather permits. I still only have 12k miles and coming up on two years.

[pateke]

I have a G82 on order, with everything except carbon ceramic brakes and bucket seats (still thinking I might add bucket seats, but not sure).

Will be my second car ever, after getting my license last year. Got a M440 in April, but could not stand it being M-Lite. So I’ll sell it when the G82 arrives.

I’ll park it on the street, use it as a daily, wash it only when my wife complains about it, drive no matter what weather.

Being a watch geek I have watches worth more than the M4CX, which I used as daily beaters. The car will be treated the same way.

But have to admit, I really admire those who keep their cars and other stuff in pristine condition.

[GP_with_the_M3]

2023 M3 6speed. I bought it knowing I would use it when I felt like it, so mine is somewhat a garage queen. Working from home 3-4 days a week is partly to blame. A 2013 Camry is my daily, so from a knock around standpoint, the Camry is phenomenal. Sometimes it’s nice to turn my brain off & get where I’m going, without worrying too much about the road conditions, driveways & where I’m parking it.

Switching from the Camry to the M3 is a lot of fun though since they’re polar opposites. My son & wife poke fun at me when I confuse control locations between the two cars 😂

I will say though, when I do get the M3 out, I’m in it for hours. Currently has 1700 miles on it.

[wavyyyy]

I’ve been driving mine quite a bit. Picked it up March 28th of this year, have 5800 miles on it.

[Sarangp94]

5k miles in about 4 months. Daily driven throughout all seasons with a dedicated winter set of tires and ppf at high impact areas. Life is too short not to enjoy this goblin!

[chicagofan00]

Mine is mostly a garage queen due to the fact that I’ve been working from home full time since getting it and any of the daily driver duties I use it for (errands, kid drop off) are only a few miles round trip 99% of the time. I try as much as I can to keep it out of the rain, etc. but sometimes it is unavoidable if I can’t use the wife’s car that day. Ha!

However, starting in October mine will definitely be getting more miles and seeing more time outside as I’ll need to go into the office 3 days a week. Since I can’t stand when the car is dirty and I want to keep it as pristine as possible, I may start to look at getting something else because of the return to office. It is gonna drive me nuts seeing the car so dirty all the time since it will be outside getting covered in dust most of the week. I just don’t have as much time to wash it as I did when I first got it so it would be spending most of the time dusty/dirty. *sigh*

[Berzerker]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

Garage queen you say?

Attachment 3224282

Attachment 3224283

Curious, does Waze show up on the middle cluster if you use that instead or is it only Google maps?

[Shaneartistry]

Mine is my daily. No garage. Drive it 20 miles per day or so. Wash it with a foam cannon once or twice a week.

[Alvinmark12]

Mine is a garage queen. Only do 1500 miles a year.

[Needsdecaf]

I'm not a garage queen type of guy, or I'd put my 911 back into garage queen status and get something a bit cheaper as a daily.

I always hated having my cars sit in the garage while I was driving something inferior. Just my point in life where I don't have free time to fart about on the weekends taking a lot of pointless drives or cruises. I did, but always ended up feeling guilty if I did it too often with the family back at home. I've owned 2 911's in 7 years and only put 16,000 miles on them combined.

My G80 will be my daily and will see whatever the Houston weather throws at it. Except hail, as it will be garaged at home and at work.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Berzerker

Curious, does Waze show up on the middle cluster if you use that instead or is it only Google maps?

Only Google maps unfortunately... I reserve using waze for when I know I'll be driving a little faster than usual, but otherwise I'll just have it default to Google maps.

[KevinGS]

I try to avoid the rain…

…only because I try to avoid cleaning my car. Because my anal mind can never do a “half clean” (can’t just spray it off or just run it through a car wash), it’s always a full detail.

But I've never had a weekend car, though I've had "rainy day appliances” to use when it rains or the weather is bad, or when I need to shuttle more than one person. I never had a car only to be used on the weekends or special occasions, I just kept other vehicles for practical reasons.

However, now, with multiple ride-sharing apps which don't seem to be going anywhere and the advent of Turo, I'm no longer keeping a car simply for practicality. It'll be cheaper for me to simply rent a car (or use Uber/Lyft) when I need to drive multiple people around, or if a major storm is coming. Owning an SUV or sedan 365 days/year just to have it for when I need to move or haul people is no longer making fiscal sense with car payments, insurance fees, increased emissions regulations, etc.

And now I just drive my fun cars in the rain and clean them up afterward, and the 2-hour clean is just a ritual that I’ve come to appreciate. It’s my zen time.

So, I'm going all in...only fun cars for me from here on out. I'll rent the proverbial appliance when I need it (or I'll borrow from family or friends).

Thus, my only 2 current vehicles are a 145,000-mile E93 convertible which I covet (such a mood changer), which I drive all the time, and my 2021 BMW M4 with 55,000 miles, which I certainly drive all the time too. Both cars have been on several long trips, to Florida, to Chicago, to Tennessee, to St. Louis, from Maryland…multiple times.
And I work from home so most of these miles are either simple errand-running and/or mood-changing, fun drives.

When you love driving as I do, life is simply too short to drive an appliance unless you absolutely have to for a particular task (like needing to haul multiple people comfortably or need to carry a bunch of stuff). I’m sad I didn’t realize this sooner. So many wasted miles in appliances.

[barryc365]

Yea, total garage Queen with the dog and his hair and the kids (and their puke) all over it

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

Only Google maps unfortunately... I reserve using waze for when I know I'll be driving a little faster than usual, but otherwise I'll just have it default to Google maps.

So that's Google maps on your main display and mirrored on the gauges? And in the HUD? Fantastic! I thought it only did that for Apple Maps.