Point is, harsh winters, at least New York level winters, will not really hurt a car... at least over a ten year period. Didn't hurt mine.


OK so your the exception and a lucky person. You also dont fear nicks and rocks...EXCELLENT!

Life is short... enjoy your horsepower while you can! Keep you car on the road and drive it! [/QUOTE]

Life may be shorter if you drive the Vette in Albany NY during the winter.

 

This is my 3rd Corvette in the past 15 years - previously had a '71 and then a '67. I have never used my cars as daily drivers but I have always driven them year round - even here in the central PA where we get something called SNOW. You simply need to choose your days on the road. It's very good for the car and a lot less work than all the prep. I only drive about 2,000 - 3,000 well spaced miles per year. I have always bought my cars with the intention to drive them and enjoy them. Get it out and drive it!!

 

I am thinking that maybe MA has harsher winters than Long Island.

All I know is that my old Monte Carlo was in showroom condition when I got rid of it... 100k miles and ten New York winters. I still have access to the car... next time I see it I'll crawl underneath and take a closer look. But last time I was under it, I did not see any "damage". Some surface rust here and there... surely... but not damage.

Some of my old beater cars (from the `70's) would indeed start rusting after 5 years or so.... around the bottoms of the fenders, etc... and that was back when I did not make much of an effort to hose the cars in the winter. Seems that newer cars don't corrode as quick. I'm sure anything will corrode when explosed to salt, but if you try to clean it off whenever possible, it should help.

I never hose down a dry car in the winter. I'll hose it down after returning from a wet slushy salty ride where the car is already soaking wet... which is often the case when the roads are covered with snow / salt... so I just soak the car some more with fresh clean water... then put it away.

I'm not trying to say that taking your C6 out in severe winter conditions is the best thing to do. If and when conditions look real bad, I do keep my C6 inside. However, unless one lives in real serious backwoods snow country, I don't think it's necessary to put the car AWAY for the whole winter. There are plenty of winter days where you can take the car out and enjoy it without damaging it... even if there IS a bit of salt / sand on the road.

To each his own. If you want your car to be in concours show winning perfect showroom condition 20 years from now, then indeed do not drive it in salty conditions. My personal attitude... I may not even be around in 20 years... I do expect to get at least 10 years out of any car though, and I always do... even if it does have a small bit of surface rust underneath.

Every time I take the C6 out, it is an incredible thrill... I can't see depriving myself of that for 4 or 5 months out of each year. Doesn't seem to make much sense. The car cost too much to just let it sit and collect dust. When the car sits untouched, it's just depreciating away without any benefit to the owner... very wasteful.

Bottom line, there's a good chance that you will NOT have your C6 forever... so the more miles you put on it now, the better. Enjoy it! Thats what it's for!

When I was younger and not so wise, I had an old car that I really loved. Back then I was overly neurotic about the car, to the point where I almost did not want to drive it at all. I waxed it once a week, I cleaned it more than I drove it , etc. I thought I'd keep it forever. Guess where that car is now? It's dead and buried! I was a fool and I regret not DRIVING it more while I had it. I learned my lesson. What a jack-a$$ I was .

All this talk makes me want to go take out my C6 right now... I just might do it. Seize the moment

 

Just a note on long term storage.... Sea Foam is far superior to Stabil. (but maybe a little harder to find)

 

I winterize mine with studded snow tires

 

Dunlop Winter Sport M3's

 

You want a REAL NY WINTER winter come up to where I live! They use so much salt & sand up here that I MUST wait at least 3 weeks after the snow is gone and a couple major rains before I take my good cars out of the garage.
We got lots more snow & freezing rain in our area and I will bet our temps are much colder than Long Island We saw -27F below last winter & sub zerros a lot. Got to admit though it makes the OUTSIDE hot tub real nice

 

I was born and raised in Buffalo (and suburbs of) and have lived the past 12 years in southwestern CT and, while our (same as north shore LI) winters pale in comparison to upstate and western NY, the roads are still strewn with salt and sand: two materials I do not want finding their way into parts of my vehicle which are poorly accessible to cleaning.

Even if you do hose the car's undercarriage, you can't get it completely clean, and dissolved salt and residual grit remain.

I won't even go into the utter lack of ability of many drivers to deal with a little frozen precipitation on the roads with the resultant increased risk of involving my car in an MVA.

 

nuff said...