Drive a well maintained car without breaking the bank

Having a well-maintained vehicle brings a peace of mind. Keeping up on maintenance can sometimes feel like you have a hole in the bottom of your bank account. Most people say that cars are a poor investment. I am going to give you some tools to help you make your car or truck less of a poor investment.

Every car is different in that they all require maintenance, but the level of each vehicle can be a little different than others. Cars running 400-500 mile races get their engines torn down and rebuilt after each race. A commuter car doesn’t need that level of maintenance every 500 miles and we’re all glad about that.

Maintenance levels and costs differ between cars depending on their size, usage, miles, and even type of driving. Bigger vehicles sometimes take more maintenance than smaller vehicles. Vehicles towing or hauling heavy loads require more expensive maintenance. Smaller vehicles can cost less to maintain.

Vehicles that have higher miles will tend to require a larger amount of maintenance. Their maintenance can be more expensive than vehicles with low miles. The exception is that if a vehicle has had all of it’s required maintenance done on time yet has high miles it may not require extra or costly maintenance. The type of driving you do directly affects the amount of maintenance required. Driving with all gas or all brakes will shorten your maintenance schedules. Lots of short trips cause more wear and tear on a vehicle whereas longer trips are easier on a vehicle.

You should research your vehicle to find out what the maintenance schedule is. Knowing your maintenance schedule for your type of vehicle will help you out in many ways.

-Everyone knows that budgeting can be difficult already. Any help you can get with making the budget easier is a good thing.

-Knowing the scheduling of your next service gives you a chance to put money aside. You can put money aside a little at a time so that the service cost can be spread over a longer timeframe. This makes less of an impact on your funds.

-When you have mapped out required services on a calendar along with your scheduled vacations or business trips you can see if there is a conflict and either move your service earlier or push it back if possible

-If you don’t do this you may remember in the middle of an important trip that a service is due. This can cause stress since you may not know any reputable shops that you could take it to if the service is very time sensitive. This could also cause stress if you aren’t sure that your vehicle will make it all the way through the trip without breaking down.

-Most of the long trips you take with your vehicle are planned. Occasionally life happens and you have to pack up and quickly head out of town. If you know that your vehicle is up to date on all it’s services then you can confidently jump in your vehicle and take that emergency trip without added stress.

-Not every spontaneous or unscheduled trip is a long one. Sometimes it’s just a quick trip across town to get some groceries or to take a sick kid to the doctor’s office.

-You rely on your vehicle to take you where you need to go at the drop of a hat. That could be to your job. That could be to a job interview. It could be to take your kids for one of their sports activities or to see their grandparents.

Knowing the maintenance schedule for your vehicle is the first step toward driving a well-maintained vehicle without breaking the bank.

Keeping up with preventative maintenance will give you peace of mind that your vehicle is ready to serve you when you most need it.

Map out when to have these services done once you know what preventative maintenance is required. This will give you a feeling of control over the state of your vehicle. Not knowing the schedule for your maintenance can make you feel apprehensive about relying on your vehicle.

When you completely ignore your vehicles required service you put your vehicles long term reliability at risk. When the reliability of your vehicle is at risk you introduce many factors that can affect your everyday life. Simple things like taking your kid to the doctor or making it to that job interview in a timely manner can have a wrench thrown in them. Most car issues won’t ruin your life if you are proactive and keep up with the required preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance can help you to know that when you most need your vehicle it will be there to serve you well.

Have you ever said this? “Why do I get a laundry list of things that need to be done to my car every time I take it in for service?” When you know the required maintenance schedule for your vehicle and you have been keeping up with that required maintenance you won’t be surprised when you take your vehicle in for a routine maintenance by a list of other recommended service items. You will have the knowledge of what basic services your vehicle needs. I will cover this in depth in a future blog post.

With the knowledge of what your vehicle needs you will be able to avoid some of the unnecessary “services” or scams that some shops will try to sell you.

Knowing what and when your vehicle needs particular services can help you to not purchase services that aren”t required yet. Recently someone asked me if their 5 year old vehicle needed the power steering system and the brake system flushed at 30,000 miles. In this case both of these services are severely premature. If the vehicle has seen some very harsh conditions or has been used to do a lot of towing it could need it. Even then it would probably not need it. When you know what your vehicle will need then it’s easier for you to know what it doesn’t need.

You can still do some maintenance on your car even in this day and age of high tech cars. Lights (interior and exterior), tire pressure,

windshield wipers, battery maintenance, checking fluids and even changing some of them. You can learn to do these things and more. Sometimes you’ll need to get a little dirty. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that you can get from keeping your car reliable will be worth it.

Knowing that you have a vehicle that is ready to take on any task that you need is great. Knowing it will carry your family safely to and from activities for years to come is a peaceful feeling. Knowing that you don’t have to break the bank to get this feeling is reassuring.

All in all a well maintained vehicle will be able to serve you for many years to come. Keeping it well maintained also helps it to keep it’s value. Well maintained vehicles will bring higher values when you go to sell them. Therefore they end up not being such a poor investment.

Get your free Car Care and Maintenance schedule. With it you can start tracking the maintenance your car needs. Then you can make a plan to get and keep your car maintained and reliable.