Short Drive

Hello all! I am curious what others do when a short drive is in order such as picking something up at the local market etc. Do you just drive around for 15+ minutes to properly warm the car up or do you just make the drive and try to keep such excursions to a minimum? Cheers! A PS or do you avoid the issue and drive the significant others car?

I�ve got my regular/daily/work car (�08 VW Passat wagon) and the 996�The Passat generally gets the short trips (especially when time constrained) - if time isn�t a factor and I don�t have to throw a bunch of stuff in the car, the 911/996 gets the call - with plenty of additional mileage of course!😃

Perhaps the answer is revealed by examining the need to warm up the engine. To bake off any moisture in the oil? Seems like that isn't required for every trip. If you take periodic longer drives this problem should be taken care of. We live in a drier climate, I never worry about this problem. To prepare (warm up) the engine so it can more readily handle higher revs? Not a problem if you keep the revs low during the short drive. Is it also to warm up the trans fluid? May apply mostly to the Tiptronic. Unfortunately I can't recall the ATF routing in the 996. On my 968, the ATF was routed through a side of the radiator specifically to help it warm up faster. I could also detect a difference in the auto shifting behavior when it was cold vs warmed up. My shortest trip to the nearest set of stores is about 10 minutes. So that is at least 20 minutes of running time. Everywhere else is at least 1/2 an hour. So I don't worry much about this. I do have another car to use, but don't select it to overcome the warming-up issue. What other reason are there?

Cayenne Se. Gets about 7-10 mile round trip on full charge.😎

Short trips are almost always in the wife's minivan. I couldn't care less if it's engine is fully warmed up or not, it's a disposable vehicle. The 996 almost never gets used for trips shorter than 10-12 miles. Most trips in the 996 are 30-50 miles at least.

My 996 is my daily and will be for the foreseeable future, so short drives are a necessity. I just treat it like I would any other car. I keep the RPMs low and drive it easy on these short drives. I don't let idle at all either. I start it up and leave immediately and shut it down right when I get to my destination. My average drive right now is less than 2 miles and 5-10 minutes each way. I wouldn't stress to much about this, just be smart and treat it like you would any other car.

But once it's up to temp, you gotta take it from 4k to 6.5k RPMs a few times with a little bit of heavy braking. Keeps it honest and functioning properly. Don't forget to give the front end a shake or two to make sure the suspension and chassis are tight. Guess you may need longer than a quick 10 min short trip...

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I agree with this. Don't stress over short trips. Ever since I retired (5 years ago) and the pandemic hit, I make one trip to the grocery store a week. It is not a long run, car gets warmed up okay. The rest of the time the car is in the garage and on a battery tender. 99 C2 w/147K miles. Always at the ready and always a great drive. Just maintain the car and do the 5K oil/filter change.

Try to make one of these shorter trips long enough to get it up to temp. Take the extra 5 mins at least weekly. And you�re probably going to want to change your oil a lot more often with these short trips. Maybe twice a year.

Today my wife came back from tennis and said to me,"...sweetheart, the Boxster is down to 1/4 tank, could you please take her and gas up?.." Heh, heh...."certainly" I answered. Nearest Mobil is about 6 miles away. So I drove directly there, and logged fifty miles including a 10 mile jaunt on the interstate where she touched 110 indicated running away from a playful Bimmer. This Boxster is a hell of a car. I've said it before that there is no way my 996 4S beats this Boxster to 60, or maybe even 90.

If I must make a short trip and want to take her out, I let my 996 Cab with tip warm up some before heading out, then keep RPMs low till it reaches full operating temp. She gets a couple revs then just to keep her honest. Otherwise, it�s all about the sporty cruise.

As far as moisture build up is concerned, you can do all the short trips you want ,if you take it for a "long cruise" at least once a month.. I will strongly advise against doing weeks and weeks of short drives followed immediately by high performance driving...

My 996 is my "toy" so I kind of drive it when I feel like it and so to answer your question - if I feel like taking it to buy some eggs I'm gonna take it to go buy some eggs and I'm not going to consider the long-term implications of my irresponsible trip. I figure if this thing can get me to LA in 3 hours it can get eggs.

Thanks eveyone! I appreciate the input! A

+1 for the "Don't sweat it too much but don't make a habit of it" camp. As a relatively new owner I tried to figure this out for myself as well. The reason to avoid short trips is to not build up a lot of un-burnt fuel in the oil that will wash down the cylinders. I like to take it to the gym and store on the weekends but those are only 2-5 miles each way. What I do if I have the time is just take the long way around. That makes it at least a 10 mile trip. I try to get the coolant up to 180 at least and I figure I've done my duty. The thing is, I also take a lot of long trips with it too so the fuel will get burnt that way. I think the issue is that a lot of people would keep in in their garage all week, take it on a 3 mile trip to the store once or twice on the weekend, put it away, wash rinse, repeat. They'd take it to their Porsche dealer when it hit 10K miles every 3 years and have the oil changed & eventually start wondering what that tapping noise is.