Leaving car for 4 months.

[AL1]

I was wondering if anyone had left their car sat for 4 months or so before? I'm away next year, and have two options...

1) SORN the car, leave it sat in a private car park (free to use below my apartment). My insurance is about £1,400 a year, so this would 'save' me about £460 on insurance. There's no plugs in the car park so wouldn't be able to trickle charge, so presumably the battery would be dead when I returned. Also if it was SORNed, and not insured, if someone drove Ito it, or a car next to it caught on fire, I'd be screwed I imagine?

2) Insure a friend, and ask them to take it out for 40 mins once a month or so. Car stays insured, and hopefully friend doesn't drive it into a tree.

Any other options people can think of?

[cj10jeeper]

Couple of things you can do:

Take the battery off and have it on a smart charger in someone's garage to keep it in good condition. Disconnected and left on the car alone it would also be fine

If you cancel the insurance you may save some (less than you expect, based upon how insurance refunds work), but as you indicate won't be covered unless the car park is your property and may be covered by contents (you'd need to check carefully).
Better is to get laid up insurance. Call your insurer to discuss. I would not leave it in an open park without cover as you risk 000's if stolen or damaged for a small saving

[gasgas]

how about renting it out while you are away

[JurassicF]

I really would not cancel your insurance.
For what you save with insurance companies cancellation policies, the risk is far too great.
You come back after your trip, the cars gone....your out of pocket big time. You can SORN and still keep your insurance active.
Charge your battery up and then just disconnect, should be fine. A nice car cover...sorted.

[markjord]

Couple of things you can do:

Take the battery off and have it on a smart charger in someone's garage to keep it in good condition. Disconnected and left on the car alone it would also be fine

If you cancel the insurance you may save some (less than you expect, based upon how insurance refunds work), but as you indicate won't be covered unless the car park is your property and may be covered by contents (you'd need to check carefully).
Better is to get laid up insurance. Call your insurer to discuss. I would not leave it in an open park without cover as you risk 000's if stolen or damaged for a small saving

Do you have to disconnect the battery? I always left it connected while the trickle charger was on my M3.

[cj10jeeper]

Couple of things you can do:

Take the battery off and have it on a smart charger in someone's garage to keep it in good condition. Disconnected and left on the car alone it would also be fine

If you cancel the insurance you may save some (less than you expect, based upon how insurance refunds work), but as you indicate won't be covered unless the car park is your property and may be covered by contents (you'd need to check carefully).
Better is to get laid up insurance. Call your insurer to discuss. I would not leave it in an open park without cover as you risk 000's if stolen or damaged for a small saving

Do you have to disconnect the battery? I always left it connected while the trickle charger was on my M3.

My suggestion was as OP has no electricity where the car is parked, so either disconnect to prevent any drain, or take battery somewhere if he wants to keep it on a charger

I too leave the battery connected when using the CTEK

[chicb]

Use a storage facility for cars while you are away. The car will insured by them & it will be looked after. When you return, it will be good to go, battery up to scratch & all fluids checked. Do not just leave it in a car park as it will soon be obvious by anyone who regularly passes it that it has been sitting for a while. It would be easy to lift it onto a flatbed & drive away as people will assume its off to a garage for some work. Do not cancel the insurance if leaving it in the car park, you may save a couple of hundred but loose many thousands if its gone

[PhilB]

One thing I hadn’t considered was bored teenagers who like to hang out in the car park... :@

I've had to edit your original photo Al, due to the obscene language and drawings.
I think people can still get the idea of what was done though.

[Nick]

Lucky it will wash off, look at that gold Porsche which was spray painted...

[DaddyDarren]

Really tickled me that Phil