Car Maintenance Cost; How To Cut It!

Copyright (c) 2011 JD Durham

One of the most discussed areas about vehicles is "How To Cut Car Maintenance Cost", however most of those discussions center on preventative maintenance checks by taking your car in for service, pre vacation checks, pre winter checks and such.

What most of these discussions miss is the simple point of what the vehicle owner can do everyday to reduce that expense. Let's take a journey to see how you can do this!

Today we'll join with Mr. Peabody & Sherman and fire up the Wayback Machine. Please keep your hands and feet inside the Wayback Machine while it is moving! Our journey is to the days of the "full service 'service' stations". We'll choose a Shell Station.

Watch as the attendant greets customers, takes fuel orders and starts the fuel flowing. He cleans the windows with a paper towel and some cleaner, cleans the wipers, wipes the head lamps, checks the tail lamps and stop lamps, looks at the tires for wear and air pressure. Then he raises the hood, checks the oil level and condition (if it is ready for an oil change he tells you).

He checks the power steering fluid, the water in the battery, the coolant level showing in the overflow tank, inspects the fan belts (these are called accessory belts today), and even tops up the windshield solvent. This is all done as part of the fuel purchase and to keep you as a customer. There is no additional charge.

During our visit we see lots of cars in for normal maintenance, some need repairs but mostly its maintenance.

While we are in the Wayback Machine, let's look on the highways for cars on the side. Yes, there are a few but not near the amount of breakdowns as today. You see that people maintain their cars more and the bills for maintenance are less on a percentage basis because they do not wait until it breaks to take care of it. Let's return to our time and see what lessons we can bring with us.

Today most of us barely have time to do what we must and adding anything to our workload is going to create conflict. I am not suggesting that people today are less concerned, but they are more occupied with things other than automotive maintenance.

Today we have to pump our own fuel and many people stand outside the vehicle holding the nozzle which has an automatic feature or they talk on their cell phone. I am suggesting that a better use of this time while you are buying fuel would be to perform that "service station" inspection from many years ago. It doesn't require extensive knowledge and only requires about 2 minutes to perform after you get in the habit. Simply walk around the vehicle looking at the tires to see if one is low as compared to the others, check the oil and look at the coolant level to see if it is adequate.

A low tire not only damages the tire, but can cost money in lost fuel economy. Plus it could pose a serious risk of an accident. If a tire is low check the sticker on your door for the correct air pressure and inflate it. Many gas stations today have inflation stations for a fee, but for a small investment you could have a portable air pump at home.

Get in the habit of writing your mileage down and calculating the miles per gallon. If all of a sudden your fuel mileage drops you should look for the cause. Additionally different fuels (eg: Shell, BP, Chevron) do not burn the same in all automobiles, some can yield better mileage in one automobile than another so test each brand available to you independently over the course of a month and purchase only the one that you get the best mileage from.

If you develop the habit to perform these minor maintenance inspections at refueling time not only will you get better fuel economy but you will catch problems in your vehicle while they are still small and relatively inexpensive to repair. Not to mention that your vehicle will be better maintained and less prone to a breakdown leaving you stranded on the highway.

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