Preventative maintenance is important for your car. Keep reading for 7 key benefits of preventative maintenance for your car.
Preventative maintenance might seem like a pain, but there are lots of great
reasons to take your car to the shop regularly.
Routine maintenance includes things such as oil changes, fluid refills, new
batteries, brake maintenance, and belt replacements. Sticking to the
recommended preventative maintenance schedule prevents a number of problems with your vehicle, from minor to severe.
Even if you haven’t kept up with routine maintenance, it’s not too late to get back into the schedule.
Keep reading to learn seven benefits of handling routine maintenance.
1. Spot Problems Early
Preventative maintenance isn’t just about replacing belts, spark plugs, and filters. Those things are important in keeping your care running smoothly.
But your schedule maintenance appointments also give your mechanic a chance to look for other problems.
The problem could be so minor that you haven’t noticed an issue yet. A trained mechanic can spot the issue while it’s still minor and easy to fix. This can prevent more complex problems.
2. Save Money on Auto Repairs
On average, an auto repair costs $397.87. But some repairs cost significantly
more. A new catalytic converter could set you back $1,190.18.
When you maintain your car, you prevent serious damage from being done to the mechanical parts inside. That can help you avoid those potentially expensive repairs.
Say you skip oil changes. Your engine can start to overheat and work less
efficiently.
Continue to ignore your oil changes and the engine components might start to wear out. The engine needs the lubrication to operate properly.
You could even cause the engine to completely fail. Replacing the engine is much more expensive than just scheduling your regular oil changes.
If a belt breaks, it can stop everything, including the engine, power steering, and alternator. It can also damage those components, forcing you to replace them and spend more money.
By handling routine maintenance, you can prevent those costly problems from ever happening, which decreases your lifetime car repair costs.
Even with proper maintenance, your vehicle might eventually have problems. When your mechanic spots problems early during routine maintenance, those issues can usually be repaired inexpensively.
If you don’t repair them early, the problems can continue to grow worse or cause damage to other parts of your car. You’ll likely end up with a much higher repair bill.
It’s also easier to budget for more affordable and predictable routine maintenance. When a major problem happens, this unexpected expense can be difficult to afford.
3. Have Auto Repairs Done Faster
Routine maintenance is easy for your mechanic to handle. If you schedule it ahead of time, you can get in and out of the auto repair shop quickly. That means you can get back to the rest of your day with little interruption.
If you put off maintenance and end up with major repairs, you’ll spend a lot more time without your vehicle.
Complex auto repairs can take hours or even days to complete. If you need a specialty part, it might need to be ordered. That leaves you waiting even longer.
You’ll either be without your vehicle or have to rent a car, which increases your overall costs.
It’s much more efficient to handle your maintenance regularly than to put it off until there’s a problem.
You also have more control over when you take your vehicle in for work. Routine maintenance should be done within a recommended range, but it isn’t an urgent need.
If you wait until something goes wrong with your vehicle, you need to take it in immediately to get your car back on the road. You don’t have the luxury of waiting until the work is convenient for your schedule.
4. Maintain Safety
Your family’s safety relies on you taking good care of your vehicle. Ignoring routine maintenance puts you at risk of mechanical failure.
You can’t predict when or where you’ll be when that failure happens.
If you don’t maintain the motor, your car could break down on you at any time. You might find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere. In bad weather, that could be especially dangerous.
If you don’t take care of your brakes, they could make it difficult to stop fast
enough. They could fail completely and cause an accident.
Keeping your car in safe working condition can give you peace of mind each time you get into your car.
5. Keep Car Running in Peak Condition
Regular maintenance keeps all systems inside your vehicle running smoothly. That gives you a smooth, comfortable ride wherever you go.
It also allows your vehicle to run more efficiently. You’ll often see better gas
mileage with regular maintenance.
Tuning your engine can average a 4% improvement in gas mileage. Proper tire inflation improves your gas mileage by up to 3% with the average increase being 0.6%. When you replace your clogged air filter, you might notice an improvement in acceleration.
These things make driving your car more affordable and more enjoyable.
6. Retain More Value
Most people don’t keep their vehicles until they die completely. The average keeps a new car for 6 years.
When you take care of your car, you help retain its value. People will naturally pay more for a vehicle that’s well-maintained.
Used car buyers know that the prime condition means there’s a lower chance of expensive mechanical problems down the road. That means you can get more money out of your vehicle when you sell it.
7. Get More Use Out of Your Vehicle
If you have no plans of getting rid of your vehicle, routine maintenance can help you keep your vehicle longer.
Routine maintenance prevents problems from happening. It keeps everything running smoothly.
That means you can drive your vehicle for more years without being forced to buy a new vehicle due to mechanical failure. You can buy a new car when it works for your budget and life, not when you have to.
Schedule Preventative Maintenance Now
With preventative maintenance, you improve the overall condition of your vehicle, which saves you money. The cost of handling regular maintenance is worth the benefits you get out of a well-maintained car.
If your vehicle is due for regular maintenances, schedule service with us now