Much has been said about modern cars and long-term storage. You can pull out a classic Beetle out of a barn after 30 years, hook up a battery and it will run. Or you can store a modern car over the winter and nothing works three months later.

I have a 1998 ML 320 with 170,000 miles that runs like a charm. Just this week I replaced it with a newer Mercedes. At a value of about $2500 it is not really worth selling it. So I am considering changing all the fluids, over-inflating the tires, disconnecting the battery and storing it in the back of my garage.

The big question is, will it start and run a year from now? Or does long-term storage cause any issues on this car? Should I rather keep my $800 Saturn (where everything is manual) and put that in long-term storage?

Thanks for any help.

Andy

 

Great question. I wonder what you have decided.

I'd say it would probably be ok if you stated it up and let it run every now and then.