My partner just got a job that's very close to home (1.7 miles). She basically uses her car (2011 Honda Civic 1.8L L4 automatic with 81000-ish miles) for commuting and not much else. I know that repeated short trips aren't the best for cars, so I'm was thinking about encouraging her to take the bus more often to reduce the number of short trips put on her car. But then I thought that sitting in our parking garage for half the week might not be much better for it.
I might see if she wants to swap vehicles once or twice a week, just to give hers a little time on the highway (my commute is still pretty short at 7.5 miles, but at least it has a few miles at highway speeds).
Are there any other maintenance changes I should consider for her car that's hardly ever driven more than 2 miles at a time?
I would not let a car sit. Cars are supposed to be used to go from point A to point B. If that car is barely driven, I would recommend selling that car.
I would rather have the car driven a little than left to sit. I make sure my wife's car, that doesn't get driven much, is thoroughly warmed up to operating temperature every day whether it's driven or not. This keeps the top end lubricated. This doesn't change my maintenance schedule since I am OCD when it comes to taking care of our vehicles anyway.
The solution is to drive it more, not less. Take it out for a proper trip every week or two.
