Please welcome guest contributor, Jason Greenhalgh, as he shares ideas on keeping your auto maintenance costs down (this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.).
Owning a car means paying for fuel, insurance, servicing, and repairs. And, all of it can get pretty expensive, especially if you use your car on a regular basis. However, there are many ways to keep your auto maintenance costs as low as possible while keeping your car in great shape.
Here are five ideas for keeping auto maintenance costs at a minimum:
Prevent expensive repairs with regular servicing.
Having your car checked regularly is a small price to pay compared to shelling out large amounts of money for major repairs in the future. By having your car undergo a regular checkup by a trusted mechanic, you’ll detect small issues and address them immediately. That way they won’t become major problems or even a risk to you and your passengers’ safety. Servicing doesn’t have to be an expensive affair. Especially if you take advantage of the plethora of vouchers and discount codes from places like Total Discounts for parts and services. According to auto experts, if your vehicle is running properly, it is cheaper to run on a day-to-day basis.
Pay attention to your wheels.
It’s a must to rotate your wheels and make sure they are properly inflated. By doing so, you’ll keep your tires for a long time and avoid buying new ones prematurely. Tires that are not properly inflated use up to 6 percent more fuel. Plus, they can compromise your car’s braking efficiency and overall stability.
Remove unnecessary weight.
Driving around with a heavy load makes your engine work harder, which means it’s also consuming more fuel. Unnecessary weight also causes more wear and tear on the car’s suspension, chassis, and tires. There are things that your car should never go without, such as:
But, are there other things you may be unnecessarily driving around with on all your small journeys? Are you using your car as a storage locker? Doing so eats away at your fuel consumption.
Owning a car can get pretty expensive - fuel, insurance, servicing, repairs! Here are 5 ideas for keeping your auto maintenance costs down. #autocare Click To Tweet
Drive smart.
Smart driving means handling your car in a sensible way and practicing fuel-efficient driving techniques, such as not speeding or accelerating rapidly and avoiding hard braking (cruise to a stop instead – you’ll also extend the life of your brakes). Experts say that driving aggressively lowers fuel mileage by 5 percent in the city and as much as 33 percent on the highway. So, if you want to keep your fuel costs low, keep within the speed limit and cruise at 50 mph whenever possible. Another way to save on fuel is to turn the engine off instead of leaving it idle if you’re parked and waiting because restarting it uses up less fuel.
Practice preventive maintenance.
Another way to keep your car costs down is to learn to check your car and do some basic repairs and replacements yourself. Familiarize yourself with your car and its components and learn to do some preventive maintenance when it comes to checking oil and water levels, tire treads and pressure, battery condition as well as windshield washing fluid. Do some research online for the things you can do at home.
Knowing how to make these car checks yourself, you’ll save a lot of money on roadside assistance, professional servicing, and emergency repair down the road and keep your overall auto maintenance costs down. After all, who doesn’t like to save money!
Carole here: Thanks, Jason, for all of these excellent tips! Not only are they easily doable, but practicing these tips will pay off in the long run.
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Here’s Jason’s mini-bio…
Author Bio:
Jason Greenhalgh is a UK-based blogger and often posts regularly around the internet on a variety of topics. When not blogging, Jason enjoys riding his motorcycle on weekends and visiting new places as often as he can. Jason also plays a small role in local politics and hopes to move forward with this in the future.
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Take the expenditure in your Google doc and include a segment for the cost for each garage visit. I did the same with my car I owned for years.
Great article!
Thanks for the idea and feedback!
Car maintenance is a good things since it keeps the car in its good working state. Make sure to be knowledgeable on how to check your car and what parts to check. This will cut off the money you spend in car repair.