It doesn’t matter if you live paycheck to paycheck or have a lot of money in the bank – you should always do your best to save money wherever possible.
One of the best ways to save money is by maintaining your assets and possessions before they break down – especially when it comes to cars.
A regular 10-year-old car will break down quite often. According to some estimates, most people spend over $500 each year on repairs. That’s someone’s monthly rent, or even monthly salary – depending on where you live or what you do for a living.
Fortunately, all of this can be avoided by regularly maintaining your vehicle.
However, since maintenance could also be costly, we’ve decided to let you in on a few secrets and strategies on how you can save money while maintaining your car. Let’s begin!
Don’t Wait Around
The first and arguably the best strategy to save money on car maintenance is also the simplest one.
All it takes to save a few bucks, most of the time, is to act immediately. The worst thing you could do is wait around to check your car or take it to the mechanic. The longer you wait, the greater the chances of something going wrong. And, as you’re probably aware, the second something goes wrong with your car – money leaves your pocket.
It doesn’t matter if you drive a brand new Mercedes-Benz or a dinky Corolla – maintain it regularly and don’t wait around. This strategy will save you a fortune over time.
Keep Your Car In A Garage
Another great strategy to keep the maintenance costs at a minimum is to keep your vehicle safely stored.
Once again, it doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive – keep it in a garage. Naturally, some won’t be able to do this, but if you live in a home with a garage – don’t leave your car out on the driveway.
You may not think that a little bit of rain or snow can harm your car, but they certainly can. Leave your car out in the driveway long enough, and before you know it, you’ll be on a first-name basis with your local mechanic – if you catch our drift.
Speaking of mechanics…
Find A Reliable Mechanic
We all know that some mechanics love to rip people off. It is unfortunate, but it is just the way it is. You’ll bring your car in for an oil change, and you’ll leave the shop with new brake pads and air filters and an empty wallet.
So, ask around if someone knows a trustworthy and reliable mechanic. There is an excellent chance that some of your friends or family members know a guy that you can take your car to without worrying ever you’re going to get scammed.
Once you find your guy – don’t take your car anywhere else. That way, both you and your mechanic will always have an insight into what’s going on with your car.
New Isn’t Necessarily Better
We all know that a new car is a bad investment. As soon as you drive it out of the shop – you’ve lost money. But, what most people don’t realize is that new parts can be a waste of money, too.
Let’s say that your headlight was busted. Ask yourself, do you really need a brand new headlight, or could you simply visit www.usedpart.us and find a used headlight that is as good as for half the price?
Sure, in some instances, you’re much better off buying a new part, but not always. There is a good chance that you can find a spare part for your car that is as good as new without paying the premium price.
Some spare parts come from totalled vehicles that can’t be brought back to life, so mechanics salvage all the useable ones and put them up for sale. If you can get your hands on one of these – you’ll save quite a lot.
Learn What You Can Do For Free
Remember when we talked about taking your vehicle to the shop for an oil change? Well, if you do that – you’re literally burning money.
Changing oil is the easiest thing in the world. You could learn how to do it in a matter of minutes. However, that is not all you can do. You can also learn how to change filters, swap out brake pads, change tires, swap out spark plugs, charge or change the car battery, so on and so forth.
None of these things require any kind of special knowledge, and you can literally learn them off of YouTube in a matter of hours. Or, if you have someone that already knows how to do all those things – have them teach you.
Don’t Rotate Your Tires If You Have To Pay For It
We all know that tires are expensive, but what’s also expensive is paying a mechanic to rotate your tires. Usually, you’ll pay like $20 or $30 for a mechanic to rotate your tires. However, if you do the math, you’ll come to realize that this is a complete waste of money.
Just leave your tires alone and switch them when necessary. A few extra months you’ll get from rotating the tires won’t amount to anything if you have to pay for it. If you can do it for free – do it. But don’t pay for it.
Drive Your Car
Believe it or not, if you leave your car in the garage for a long time – it is more likely to break than if you drive it regularly.
Just like our bodies, our cars will also deteriorate if they’re too static. What we’re trying to say is -take your car out for a spin even if you don’t have to. Now, we’re not saying that you should drive it every single day, but if you’re driving it twice a year – either sell it and call a cab when you need to go somewhere or take your car out of the garage once in a while. It’ll help.
Conclusion:
Naturally, things like regular inspection and driving carefully will contribute the most when it comes to saving money on maintenance, but you already knew that. Therefore, we’ve focused on these seven strategies.
Hopefully, you’ve learned a thing or two here, and you’ll manage to save a few bucks by relying on some of these money-saving strategies in the future.
