[Miata] Storing a Car

[Charles R. Beavers]

When I was in the Navy (single) and we went to sea for months at a time, the
Nav use to set up a storage area with a local storage company (like Bekins
or Nationwide, one of the big outfits).  They have facilities for long term
auto storage.  Even used to drain the gas tank and disconnect the battery.
Then they'd charge the battery, change the oil, and refill the gas tank or
whatever you wanted when you were due to come back in.  Of course, it's been
a few years since I needed that kind of service, so I'm not up to date on
the particulars, but if I were you, I'd contact one of the big
moving/storage companies to see what they suggest.  There's bound to be
someone who does this kind of thing.  Come to think of it, did you do a
search on the web?

 

Rich Beavers

'00 Silver

'96 Montego

 

-----Original Message-----
From: miata-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:miata-bounces at realbig.com] On Behalf
Of Dillon
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 02:46 PM
To: MiataBigList
Subject: [Miata] Storing a Car

 

Howdy guys,

I mentioned a while back a possibility that I would be going to Melbourne.
Well, I'm exploring the idea a bit further.  

If I were to leave, for 4-18 months, I'd have to figure out what to do with
my car.  Assume that I am moving out of my apartment and have no place of my
own to store it.  The car is currently in Seattle, and I do not have any
friends of family with secure storage where I could leave the car. 

I have two thoughts.

1) I could drive the car back to Illinois and leave it with my family.  I'm
not a big fan of this idea as the car would have to be outside.  The best I
could do is put a fabric cover over it, and I'm worried about the finish. 

2) I could store the car in Seattle.  I'm concerned about this however as
many self-storage places are pretty shady operations.  I'd be worried about
someone breaking in and stealing my car / stuff.  It might be a long time
before I even noticed something had happened.  My other concern is that
these places are known to cut the padlock and auction off everything inside
if there are any payment issues.  Not that I plan to shirk my payments or
anything, but imagine if a bank transfer was missed one month, or the
bookkeepers at the storage unit made a mistake. 

So ... what do people do when they need to store a vehicle?  I really don't
want to sell the car.  I'm quite attached to it, and I might not t have the
time to try and sell it before leaving.

Thoughts? 

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