Are short journeys bad for cars?

I'm contemplating getting a car however, my concern is that a lot of journeys will be fairly short i.e no more than an hour or two with potential a lot of start and stopping (london). Anyone know a fair bit about cars that can advise me on the implications of doing mainly short journeys?

A lot of stopping and starting will cause wear and tear on the car of course, but that's all part of the parcel, just means you might have to spend a bit more on maintenance. Millions of people own cars and do "town driving" daily whilst hardly using motorways.

An 'hour or two' isn't a 'short journey'. A short journey is popping down to the shops and back - a five-minute journey, as old people tend to do. The problem with these sort of journeys is that the engine never properly reaches its operating temperature and premature wear is caused (the greatest wear is caused in the engine when it's first started and run, when it's cold).

Your question isn't really an issue because of this. The stop-start stuff - that's just London driving. If it were a problem, then there wouldn't be any cars on the road within the M25 because they would have all suffered the same problems.

If you're worried about wear and tear, then make sure you change the oil every 8,000-10,000 miles (and ignore 'extended service' intervals of 20,000 miles) and keep up with the maintenance schedule. Also, don't 'warm the car up' by idling it in the winter, but just drive straight off, but obviously don't drive it harshly whilst it's still cold.

I'm contemplating getting a car however, my concern is that a lot of journeys will be fairly short i.e no more than an hour or two with potential a lot of start and stopping (london). Anyone know a fair bit about cars that can advise me on the implications of doing mainly short journeys?