Car Storage

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

We have two 3 year old cars that we bought new here in Taiwan, a mazda and a toyota, both with relatively low mileage. We are leaving Taiwan for 18 months but will be returning. I’m trying to figure out if we are better off selling the cars and buying new ones when we come back, or storing them for 18 months.

If we store them, does anyone have ideas as to how or where to store them? I’d have to think we’d need to have them started once in a while, I’ve never tried leaving a car for that long without driving it.

In regards to selling them, I don’t know if its better, given depreciation, to just sell them rather than have them sit around for 18 months. I kinda lean toward selling one and keeping one.

Any thoughts?

2

[quote=“tayster”]We have two 3 year old cars that we bought new here in Taiwan, a mazda and a toyota, both with relatively low mileage. We are leaving Taiwan for 18 months but will be returning. I’m trying to figure out if we are better off selling the cars and buying new ones when we come back, or storing them for 18 months.

If we store them, does anyone have ideas as to how or where to store them? I’d have to think we’d need to have them started once in a while, I’ve never tried leaving a car for that long without driving it.

In regards to selling them, I don’t know if its better, given depreciation, to just sell them rather than have them sit around for 18 months. I kinda lean toward selling one and keeping one.

Any thoughts?[/quote]

LoL 2 3-Year old vehicles, and your really going to consider selling them and then coming back after 18 months , and purchase new or pre-owned vehicles ? I have been overseas for about 2 and a half years, and I left my E320 in my moms garage back in LA . Of course, I registered it on park and used pretty much all the gas , but it will still hurt the car. Point is , I don’t know if your rich, but average people can’t afford cars in Taiwan , let alone two pretty new cars . So if money isn’t a issue for you at all, sell it . But if you want to save money, but have some headache, then save your two cars by putting them in a parking garage, or rent parking spots, they usually are 1000+ a month for parking spots . Now Taiwanese weather really hurts cars, so you better store them indoors , to protect them longer. have someone start your car up every month or so, but also, you shouldn’t leave gas sitting in the tank, so they probably would have to drive out and fill some gas into it or you lend someone your car to use for the time being. That is the headache. As your thought , selling one while keeping one sounds it would take a whole lot of burden off your shoulders because keeping one car in Taiwan is a pain in the ass already , let alone two. So if you have to rent two parking spots ( indoor ) it would cost probably almost 10K a month for 18 months , which relatively will cost you less than 200,000NT . New cars are what… 800,000+ ? So it comes down to how much of a headache you want, how much money you want to save .You should calculate the expenses and then make a selection from their , because we can all give you idiotic responses and then when you end up doing it, you might regret it.

3

Getting rid of one car at minimum sounds very sensible. Half the headache gone. If you change your plans again you can then sell the other one.

4

Dunno if you’d consider it, but you might be able to set up some kind of lease-then-release deal with someone you trust?

Assuming there’s someone you trust.

Come to think on’t, not sure there’s anyone I trust. :ponder:

5

[quote=“tayster”]We have two 3 year old cars that we bought new here in Taiwan, a mazda and a toyota, both with relatively low mileage. We are leaving Taiwan for 18 months but will be returning. I’m trying to figure out if we are better off selling the cars and buying new ones when we come back, or storing them for 18 months.

If we store them, does anyone have ideas as to how or where to store them? I’d have to think we’d need to have them started once in a while, I’ve never tried leaving a car for that long without driving it.

In regards to selling them, I don’t know if its better, given depreciation, to just sell them rather than have them sit around for 18 months. I kinda lean toward selling one and keeping one.

Any thoughts?[/quote]

Quite a decision. If it were me I’d consider if I’m going to still use the vehicles when I return or whether I may have different needs by that time.

In terms of long term storage, a few locals have tried one trick in particular. Parking the car in an underground lot long term then turning up and claim they lost their parking card. There is typically a fine of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and then they let the car out again. Obviously you don’t want to park in a place with cameras though.
There are also long term parking lots close to Taoyuen airport which are reasonably priced.

The depreciation and then extra cost of re-purchasing vehicles when you return is likely quite high and so I wouldn’t recommend it based on costs alone.

6

You could try finding a couple people who would pay you a bit of money to take care of the vehicles when you’re gone. I mean drive them as if it’s theirs, regular use. They’d pay all expenses, parking, maintenance, and of course you could charge them a flat fee for the milage they use. It shouldn’t be too hard to calculate a reasonable fee based on expected depreciation. If you don’t want to do that, I’d just sell them both and deal with getting vehicles when you return.

7

For that length of time you will either need someone taking the car for a short drive every few weeks or you will need to disconnect the battery and drain fluids, this will ensure that you will minimise corrosion/condensing of solids that would occur over that length of time.
You may of course choose not to do so and the cars will be fine, up to you really… :slight_smile:

8

I would sell them if I were you. They would need driving regularly, not just starting the engine. Otherwise you potentially face repairs to the brakes, suspension, and tyres as well. Remember Taiwan is very humid, so you may get mould forming inside. All this depends somewhat on the quality of your storage facility of course.
You’ll probably lose some money selling / buying cars, but when you return, your 3 year old cars will be 4.5 years old, so will inevitably have lost some value anyhow, perhaps less than you lose via the replacement process, and it will give you more flexibility should your plans change.