(G) Short drives - bad for the engine?

im doing 4 short drives a day at the moment where the engine is only on for 5 minutes tops.Is this going to cause any short or long term damage to the engine?

Short drives are not good for any car, maybe electric cars are the exception. Exhaust gasses condense in the silencer and pipe leading to early corrosion failure for starters, economy is never best, and as the drives dont fully warm up the motor oil wash is a risk as the mixture can be rich almost all the way every time. Take it for a good long drive a couple of times a week.

buy a push bike

most common failure your probably going to get is a flat battery as the alternator wont have chance to put the charge back from starting

you will go through exhausts and batteries like there is no tomorrow. As suggested take it for a good blast at least a couple of times a week. Seeing as the trips are only 5 minutes by car is it not worth walking or buying a push bike?

Yeah I think it takes 15 miles of driving to charge the battery up after starting the car up once, so I'd say give it a 30 miles drive every so often.