month on month off sorn?

[kingswood]

looking on line but can find a straight forward answer - prob because its a stupid money wasting problem but you know how it is :-)

ive an Golf R32 thats £60 a mnth tax. I d about 300 miles a mnth. tops. even less in winter. its mainly a weekend can but need it every now and again when the misses needs her car.

ive acquired a decent bow 1 series and thinking of sorning the golf this winter and using the bwm. I know cars dont stand well and every now and again in winter we mite get a dry day where I want to run the golf up the coast.

so im thinking of sorning it for maybe a mnth or 2 at a time. so sorn it oct then maybe run it nov as ive a weeks leave. then dec and jan sorn, out in feb to keep it moving then march and April sorn until the spring?

is this doable please?

[paul_c123]

kingswood said:

need it every now and again when the misses needs her car.

Do you need it every now and again, now that you have the BMW?

If not, then its perfectly doable. You'd be wise to align your use of the car with each calendar month though. And the car will be fine left for a month, personally I'd start and run the engine every couple of weeks at least though.

[outnumbered]

Watch out for insurance as some companies won't automatically cover a SORNd vehicle.

[Jamescrs]

I do something similar with my R53 mini because the road tax is £40 a month and I barely use it it can be done online fairly easily, as said stick to calendar months and watch your dates carefully because they will bill a whole month if you are a day late putting it on SORN and slip into another month.

My Mini is mainly a track car but I keep it road legal so after my next track day in September it will be locked up for the winter, it’s always fine in my garage on a trickle charger.

[E-bmw]

kingswood said:

looking on line but can find a straight forward answer - prob because its a stupid money wasting problem but you know how it is :-)

ive an Golf R32 thats £60 a mnth tax. I d about 300 miles a mnth. tops. even less in winter. its mainly a weekend can but need it every now and again when the misses needs her car.

ive acquired a decent bow 1 series and thinking of sorning the golf this winter and using the bwm. I know cars dont stand well and every now and again in winter we mite get a dry day where I want to run the golf up the coast.

so im thinking of sorning it for maybe a mnth or 2 at a time. so sorn it oct then maybe run it nov as ive a weeks leave. then dec and jan sorn, out in feb to keep it moving then march and April sorn until the spring?

is this doable please?

Firstly, of course it is doable, but your insurance may be an issue as many companies automatically un-insure a SORN'd car, so 6 months at a time may be MUCH easier, pretty much any modern car will be fine in a garage for 6 months with the battery kept in good condition.

Secondly, if £60 a month is an issue why buy the car?

[kingswood]

cheers for all the replies.

the £60 tax inst an issue financially - 25mpg stings too - but more principle!

reading the replies Im think sorn the golf for the full winter. switch the insurance onto the bow and leave it sorn and uninsured on the drive/garage.

thanks again

[vaud]

kingswood said:

cheers for all the replies.

the £60 tax inst an issue financially - 25mpg stings too - but more principle!

reading the replies Im think sorn the golf for the full winter. switch the insurance onto the bow and leave it sorn and uninsured on the drive/garage.

thanks again

You can get Laid Up Cover for SORNd cars.

[Heaveho]

kingswood said:

looking on line but can find a straight forward answer - prob because its a stupid money wasting problem but you know how it is :-)

ive an Golf R32 thats £60 a mnth tax. I d about 300 miles a mnth. tops. even less in winter. its mainly a weekend can but need it every now and again when the misses needs her car.

ive acquired a decent bow 1 series and thinking of sorning the golf this winter and using the bwm. I know cars dont stand well and every now and again in winter we mite get a dry day where I want to run the golf up the coast.

so im thinking of sorning it for maybe a mnth or 2 at a time. so sorn it oct then maybe run it nov as ive a weeks leave. then dec and jan sorn, out in feb to keep it moving then march and April sorn until the spring?

is this doable please?

You can more or less do what you like as far as SORN is concerned. You have to wait a week between putting a car on SORN and taking it back off again.

I regularly leave cars in the garage on trickle charge for extremely long periods of time, depending either on where I am in the world, or more recently illness. 3 years in the case of my Evo and MR2, 2 years with the Porsche. Been doing this for 20 years on and off with the Evo. The biggest issue for extended storage is leaving them with decent fuel in, so Shell 99, as it holds it's RON longer than anything else. My cars just start and run without issue, even after those periods of time, so a few months somewhere dry won't damage them.

I wouldn't be starting them unless you're actually ready to use them, you do more harm than good doing that if you don't drive them to get the oil up to temp. It just throws fuel down the bores and washes the oil off otherwise.