People love their vehicles, and they are a necessity for many. But, let’s face it, cars are expensive. The automobile loan payment alone can be a considerable expense depending on how costly a vehicle is, but that’s far from the only cost related to owning a car. Required maintenance items like tires, oil changes, motor vehicle insurance, car washes, registration, auto repair, and other costs add up over time and can be a significant financial burden.
Why Should You Maintain Your Vehicle?
Vehicle owners are sometimes tempted to skip or skimp on regular maintenance or put off much-needed repairs to save money short term and keep down the overall ownership cost of their car. However, this often has the opposite effect and costs you more money, sometimes much more, in the long run, due to your car breaking down and requiring a far more expensive repair than the maintenance would’ve cost to avoid the repair. Keeping up with routine car maintenance should not be viewed as a drain on your budget but rather as a way to save money throughout your ownership.
While this article explains how maintaining your car will save you money over the long term, there are more reasons than just money savings for keeping your vehicle up to date on maintenance. Safety for you, your passengers, and other drivers is paramount, which requires maintaining your car properly so that a breakdown doesn’t lead to a potentially harmful situation. Let’s examine how properly maintaining your vehicle will save you money in the long run and keep you and yours safer on the road.
Prevent Unnecessary Repairs
Simply put, a car that’s well taken care of will take care of you, meaning it will run well, get you where you need to go, and not be an undue burden on your pocketbook. The most basic example is to make sure the oil is changed regularly as outlined by your car’s manufacturer in the owner’s manual. Keeping up on oil changes prevents the most catastrophic repair, an engine replacement caused by engine oil that’s dirty and filled with debris and metal shavings making it unable to properly lubricate and even adding to the wear instead of mitigating it.
Improve Fuel Efficiency
Whether gas prices are high or not, people are always looking for ways to save money on gas. If your engine has worn, damaged, or improperly functioning engine parts, your car’s engine may not completely fail, but it will suffer in its fuel economy. Engine parts that do not function properly, or at all, often increase the energy requirements to make the engine work. That energy, of course, comes from gas. A clean, well-functioning, properly maintained vehicle will run more efficiently, reducing the fuel needed and saving money.
Extend Your Vehicle’s Lifespan
This one is probably also obvious, but a car that has been properly maintained and taken care of will have a longer life than one that hasn’t. Being proactive about your car maintenance and servicing instead of running it until it breaks down and requiring an expensive repair saves you money on the repairs needed and extends your car’s lifespan. Regular maintenance helps keep your trade-in value up or gives you more years before you need to replace your vehicle with a newer, more expensive car.
For ultimate savings, if you take care of your car and keep it far beyond when you have paid it off, you can take the money you were spending on car payments and save it or spend it elsewhere that you need. Extending your car’s lifespan will help you do that if you want to save as much money as possible.
Avoid Unexpected Emergencies
Manufacturers will always provide a vehicle maintenance schedule, typically in the owner’s manual or relevant documentation, that tells you at what time frame or mileage you should have certain services performed. The purpose of this is to keep your engine in top running condition.
Maybe you ignored the recommended maintenance regarding changing your spark plugs every 40,000 miles as recommended by the manufacturer. Your engine isn’t running well, and your check engine light is on. You’re not sure what that could be, so you pull over, and rather than driving and making the problem worse, you opt to have your car towed to a mechanic for inspection and repair.
Towing can be very expensive. Not only that, but the diagnostic costs can also be. The labor and parts to replace the plugs will remain the same, but you could’ve saved significant money on towing and inspection costs.
Vehicle-related repairs and last-minute emergencies are even more frustrating if you’re far from home, especially on a road trip or a vacation. You may miss activities you’ve already paid for or something you want to attend. On top of that, your service options could be severely limited, depending on where you broke down, which can be a risk due to the repairs not being performed correctly, or you may be forced to pay a steep premium for rush service.
Prevent Accidents and Other Serious Issues
A regularly and properly maintained vehicle can prevent costly repairs saving a lot of money, but more importantly, a well-maintained car is safer. If your vehicle fails on the road of a critical component, a serious accident can occur, resulting in much expense or even fatalities.
If your brakes start to grind or squeal, and you ignore the sound, your brake system could completely give out eventually. This prevents you from being able to stop, which is almost certain to cause an accident at some point. It’s obvious how dangerous it could be to have no brakes. The same could be said about your tires, steering, and suspension components.
If you need maintenance services or repairs because you’ve ignored routine maintenance, contact the service professionals at Huffines CJDR Lewisville. We can help you save money long term by maintaining your vehicle. We are available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday for all your vehicle needs. Find us at 1024 S. Stemmons Fairway in Lewisville, Texas, or call us at 972-316-4023 to schedule an appointment today. You can also schedule your service online for your convenience.