Over 10,500 miles in the last year

[Pat Dilling]

I was looking at my little note book that I used to keep track of mileage, gas and costs on trips to the 2012 and 2013 International Meets and realized I have driven our 53 Studebaker 10,760 miles since July 2012. The majority of the miles were to the IMs, but there are a lot of shorter trips in there too. I can't say the miles were all trouble free, but they sure were fun. I definitely subscribe to the belief attributed to Steve Hudson at the 2013 banquet that "With a AAA card and a Visa card you can drive anywhere in a Studebaker." I might add a cell phone to that comment, and an SDC Member roster would be good to have too.

Not challenging anyone to top my mileage, but I am curious, how many miles are you driving your Studes?

PS, That is more miles than I put on my daily driver Chevy pick-up!

[Mike Van Veghten]

Sounds good Pat. That says you actually do drive your Stude.

While I'm on a motorcycle most days, My 2dr. Lark wagon..."is" my only car, my daily driver and I haven't really kept track of the milage. I do know that i've just over 95,000 miles since I bought it, and that's been about 11 or so years, so our milage is close.
My 54 wagon has mostly been used for shows so far, so it's milage hasn't grown much.

Get on that 54 of yours...mines comming along slowly, hope it to be my "driver" by the end of the year.

Mike

[jackb]

...you guys have the luxury of no salt conditions that we northern fellows deal with from year to year.....even tho I have every intention of driving 12 months/yr in my wagon, I doubt I will top 4K miles / year....good job boys...!

[Commander Eddie]

I only put about 400 to 500 miles per year on my '50 Commander, but the '61 Champ gets about 1,000 miles per month on it. Good going, Pat. May the brand never completely disappear from the nation's roads and highways!

[JimC]

Pat, you deserve a pat on the back!

While my Lark is my daily driver, it doesn't get a whole ton of miles, due to having a company vehicle we're required to use for anything involving the kids, and our minivan my wife insists on us using whenever we go on long trips, or if it's "too hot" for a car without A/C (according to her ) Still, in the last year I've managed to put almost 5,000 miles on it. Once I work out some carb issues with the help of another guy here on the forums, I'll probably try taking it on it's first "long" (more than an hour or so) drive since I took ownership.

The most fun for me are people's reactions to the car. The other day I was cruising down the interstate, and a couple in a truck pulled up beside me and were waving at me and mouthing "cool car". Two days ago I was getting gas, and a guy who I gathered from his hat was a Vietnam vet came up to me, and we had a good talk about his favorite Studebakers, and the bulletnose he had from the early 60's up into the 70's. Then of course there are the folks at car shows (or even on the streets) who will stop to take a picture of the car even though something worth several times as much is parked next to me. (The best is the Mercedes convertible owner who works at the bank across from our campus. he came out of the parking garage across from where I was waiting, and was totally checking out my under-$6000 Lark from the seat of his over-$80,000 Mercedes!)

No matter which way you cut it, it's fun to drive, and worth every dollar that gets put into keeping her in good shape.

Also, I used to track mileage with a little notebook, but then I found this cool app for my phone called acar - http://www.zonewalker.com/acar. If anyone out there is a smartphone user, it's amazing. It tracks about anything you could want, from where you buy your gas and what your fuel economy is doing, to service logs. It can even track multiple cars. The free version has piles of great stuff. I purchased the (inexpensive) paid version mostly to support the creators, but I also got a bunch of cool features for doing so, like graphs and charts, widgets for my home screen, and the ability to share my stats. If you're a car guy who is also a tech guy, it's a must-have.

[JimC]

...you guys have the luxury of no salt conditions that we northern fellows deal with from year to year.....even tho I have every intention of driving 12 months/yr in my wagon, I doubt I will top 4K miles / year....good job boys...!

In the winters here, our roads are white from salt. I tend to avoid driving the roads when salted, though the square mile campus I live on uses sand, not salt, so I can usually get away with driving on campus in the winter.

Next season I want to fix the rust on my car, repaint the exterior, and do some of that truck bed liner stuff on the underbody. I think with a little prep work i can make the car a lot safer to take out when there's a little snow on our salty roads.

[COMMANDERPINK1]

Good to see you are one who puts the DRIVE in Studebakers Drivers Club even though your car looks good enough to be a trailer queen. I only got several thousand miles on my car last year between the two. As with some members having a summer and winter home My red 66 is a summer car and the multi colored 66 I drive all year round and love plowing though snow with it in the winter. This year I just don't seem to find the time to get the red one out and I really missed bringing it Colorado City this year due to other commitments I made while there. Thumbs Up Pat! Tom

[Captain Billy]

We put on 1900 miles to Kentucky, heading out to The Ocean Bay Chapter meet on Thursday-1000 miles, then to the Atlantic Zone meet in September- that will be another 1000 miles, we have and will attend a bunch of local shows which should total up another thousand....should hit the 5000 mile mark by seasons end...then it'll be time to put the snow tires on.

[SN-60]

Almost 11K!!...Good for You!!...Driving these Studes is really what it's all about....summer and winter..I put about 9K on My Avanti.....And really enjoy every mile!

[plwindish]

Iv'e put just over 15,000 miles on my 76 Avanti II I purchased in January 2011. Its been driven to the 2011 AOAI meet in Gettysburg, 2012 SDC and AOAI meet in South Bend and this year's meet in Colorado Springs.