I know the over-inflating tire debate has gone back and forth and I don't want to resurrect it (please), but wanted to mention it as a prelude to my question.
The question is, when one does something different than the norm are there unexpected consequences?
In the case of the tires, some argue that overinflation decreases the life of the tire and causes it to handle worse, yet, others argue that handling improves.
The specific question I have is, are there any other unintended consequences?
For example, I've always heard that if you let a car sit unused for a long stretch, the condensation that builds up in the muffler just sits there (and never burns off) and eventually rots the unit. So, one would be better off giving a car regular exercise, to heat up the muffler and cause the moisture to evaporate.
Well, if that's true (and I'm not an expert, so I don't know) what about the hybrids stingy use of the ICE?
Let's assume that one drives the car regularly, but due to the fact that the ICE isn't on long enough for any stretch of time, will the accumulated condensation ever get heated away?
Will the exhaust systems for the hybrids start to resemble cars that are little used? I know the ICE has to warm up and it goes on and off, but is it on long enough to warm up the exhaust system?
Are there any other unintended consequences with a type of car, whose system is rewriting many of the rules that were written over the last 100 years, or so?

 

When it comes to mufflers the problem is not as much with car not being driven at all, but with car driven short distances, where burning gas creates acids which are not evaporated due to short running time and muffler never getting hot. Those acids are the main culprit of quick muffler rusting. Since TCH is designed for low emissions, it will keep engine running whenever the cat converter drops bellow operating temperature, which should keep muffler warm as well, therefore muffler rusting will be affected much more by how long your average trips are than by hybrid design of the drive train.
As far as tires go, most of the problems are created by underinflated tires, not overinflated and as long as you keep them inflated at or bellow maximum pressure , everything should be fine. Since tires loose pressure over time no matter what and very few people check them on regular basis, overinflating has additional benefit that there is less chance of tire having too low pressure due to owner not checking it on regular basis.
I know I didn't check tires since the weather turn cold, back in November, with normal 32 PSI setting they would be around 28-26 PSI by now, but since I started with 36 PSI, I bet they won't be bellow 30-32.