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Comment by heleninboodler | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, if a mechanic told me having the battery die in 3 days was normal, I'd stop going to that mechanic.

I did that for the exact same problem on the same model car earlier this year, but gave up after trying a few places that all said the same thing (including the dealer). Glad to see this post though… now I know I’m not the crazy one.

I would expect a _good_ car (no maintenance issues, new gas, newer battery) to go at least a couple months without being driven and not have any issues upon starting it up.

The average car in average condition should go around a month without being driven. Anything less than that either means a battery nearing the end of its life, not getting charged, or a parasitic draw somewhere.

We have a 10 year old Honda Odyssey that we keep just for long road trips and it has gone 3-4 months without being driven with no issues. I usually do try to fire it up every 1-2 months just to make sure the battery gets a charge and to avoid long term storage issues around oil and belts and other parts that degrade.

I would also make sure to use a fuel stabilizer like Pri-G, gasoline in a gas tank, depending on your climate can degrade pretty fast.

Thanks, that's good advice. Luckily we've burned a tank or so every road trip (every few months) but I was wondering about that and whether it was good for gas to sit so long.

I park up my hilux for a year at a time, sometimes, and it Just Starts. Sure, it’ll take three attempts with a cold, damp engine and a sluggish battery, but it has yet to let me down.

The Nokia 3310 of motor vehicles.

Had one of those, too, and used to hide it in a pint of Guinness for a laugh. Dropped it in the sea a few times. Accidentally melted it slightly in a small housefire. It lived on after I moved on to a t68i as an SMS gateway for my home server for my one-man proto-Twitter.

All those cars at long term parking that wont start!

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