to leave in a vehicle; to take somebody away in a vehicle

[kadioguy]

drive away
phrasal verb

drive away | drive somebody/something away
to leave in a vehicle; to take somebody away in a vehicle

We heard him drive away.
Someone drove the car away in the night.
She got into the car and drove away.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/drive-away?q=drive+away
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How about "by" or "with"?

a. to leave in a vehicle; to take somebody away in a vehicle
b. to leave by a vehicle; to take somebody away by a vehicle
c. to leave with a vehicle; to take somebody away with a vehicle

I think (a) means to leave when in a vehicle, (b) to leave by means of a vehicle, and (c) can mean either (a) or (b). So all three work. What do you think?

 

[Tarheel]

If you want to emphasize that the vehicle supplied the power, I guess you could use by. As for with, I'm not sure what point you'd be making.

 

[Barque]

What's the purpose of your question?

I don't see a difference in meaning between (a) and (b). Also, "leave by a vehicle" isn't idiomatic.

Option (c) doesn't really mean either (a) or (b). You might use it in some specific contexts, for example to say you took someone else's car away. He owed me $1000. I went and asked him for it and he said he couldn't pay, so I left with his car instead.

 

[Tarheel]

The repo people came, and they drove away with my car.

 

[jutfrank]

How about "by" or "with"?

No.

 

[kadioguy]

drive away
phrasal verb

drive away | drive somebody/something away
to leave in a vehicle; to take somebody away in a vehicle

What came to mind was "by" when I saw this, like "go to school by bus". Now I notice that the article "a" should be omitted if this is the case, so "to leave by vehicle; to take somebody away by vehicle". Does that work?

[Edit: fixed a typo.]

 

[Tarheel]

What came to mind was "by" when I saw this, like "go to school by bus". Now I notice that the article "a" should be ommitted if this is the case, so "to leave by vehicle; to take somebody away by vehicle". Does that work?

We already covered that. When you drive away you leave and go somewhere else.

 

[kadioguy]

We already covered that. When you drive away you leave and go somewhere else.

So you think that "to leave by [no "a" here] vehicle; to take somebody away by [no "a" here] vehicle" can also work as follows. Is that right?

If you want to emphasize that the vehicle supplied the power, I guess you could use by.

[Update]
A friend told me, "Yes, by vehicle would work, especially in a dictionary where you usually try to condense the word count. Outside of a dictionary, I would only really expect to hear by with a specific vehicle like by bus or by train, otherwise the way they wrote it there is more natural."

 

[Barque]

I would only really expect to hear by with a specific vehicle like by bus or by train,

Yes.