New job and impact of longer commute on cars
 

I'm taking a new job that is ~25 miles from home. This is a big change for me. My current job (started 2 years ago) is 13 miles away but I've been working from home since mid-March. Before that, I spent 12 years at a place 4 miles from home. Before that job (my first job) I spent 6 years at a job 25 miles away, but it was all backroads (50 minutes. Long, but nice country roads.)

Anyway, the new drive is 95% hwy, and thanks to COVID, at least for now they are bound to be fast miles. When I ordered the M3, I was fully expecting to spend many more years at the 4-mile away job.

I hesitate to put all those miles (~11k just for driving to work) on the M3. Of course, naturally, by virtue of winter (where the Miata is my beater) and wanting to change things up, the M3 may not really see more than 8k worth of commuting miles.

But:

1) Should I care that the M3 just went from a 5k mile a year car to a 10k mile a year car? (resale, tires, maintenance, wear & tear, etc.)
2) The Miata is pushing 100k miles and is not a great hwy car. Should I just drive it as much as I can bear it and deal with its wear and tear? Should I sell it in favor of something more practical & better in the winter? Like an VW alltrack or a Golf hatch?

I think I could make it work with a 2:1 M3:Miata split.

Thoughts?

Why do you care about the number of miles you put on the M3? Presumably you bought it to drive it, right? It's not like it's some collector car, or particularly fragile or unreliable (in theory).

How long is your wife's commute? Can you swap cars back and forth?

10,000 miles a year on a car is still quite low. Just drive the M3

Yeah, I don't mind driving it. But perhaps there is a point where it doesn't make as much sense to put as many miles.

Wife's commute is zero right now. When she did drive, it was 4 miles to the train station. It's likely that post COVID, she may only go in 3 times a week or so.

Yeah, 10k miles I have no problem with. One year I put 25k miles on the ZHP. That was crazy.

The bigger question is the 2nd one pertaining to the Miata.

may I direct you to plaz' 115,000+ mile 1M?

It'll cost you more to put extra miles on an additional car than just drive what you have.

If you want to swap the Miata for something else because you're tired of it, sure. Or maybe you want a winter car that's better than the M3.

I have a 22 mile each way commute, and own the "nicer" cars I have because I want to enjoy that hour +/ day I spend in them. I was daily driving my 1er and now am splitting tht time between the 1er and the 911. Having a nice car to drive makes going to work more pleasant and gives you time to unwind from the stress of the day on the way home. The M3 seems like the perfect daily driver for that.

This will sound way harsher than I mean it to, but if you're more concerned about cost of resale or maintenance on a car then you are about driving it, you shouldn't have it in the first place.

Drive the m3, and get a 2nd set of all season or snow tires to extend the winter use. When you find your 981, ditch the miata and drive that.
On really bad winter days tag team with your wife with the Land Rover.

To me, the opportunity to drive one of my cars is a solution looking for a problem.