Regular maintenance can significantly improve your vehicle’s lifespan, allowing you to reach approximately 300,000 miles. Sticking to a basic car maintenance schedule helps keep your vehicle running smoothly. Key areas of maintenance include oil changes, tire rotation, and fluid checks. In this blog, we’ll explain the benefits of regular maintenance and offer car maintenance tips for car owners to keep their cars running perfectly.
Improved Performance and Safety
Proper vehicle maintenance enhances the performance of your vehicle, ensuring a smoother ride and better handling. With better handling, your safety is improved, and your car is easier to drive. This is especially important for a manual transmission vehicle, where transmission fluid and engine coolant need to be changed more frequently to preserve top performance.
Maintenance also helps ensure optimal safety standards are met, which can prevent accidents caused by faulty components such as a poor power steering pump, incorrect tire pressure, or faulty brake pads.
Extended Lifespan
By keeping your car well-maintained, you can extend the lifetime of your vehicle. A maintained car can last up to 300,000 miles, depending on a variety of environmental factors, compared to the average car lifespan of 200,000 miles. Each step you take to maintain your car can add years and miles onto its lifespan.
For example, oil changes help prevent against engine damage and wear and tear, keeping your car safe and preventing costly repairs down the line. Tire rotations promote even tire wear, which prolongs tire life and ensures better fuel efficiency for your vehicle.
Cost Savings
Not only does regular maintenance protect your car’s function and safety, but it also brings financial benefits. Regular maintenance should address any and all minor issues with your vehicle, meaning you won’t need the same expensive repairs that you’d need if those minor issues became major over time. Maintenance helps you to catch issues in need of repair before they become dangerous and expensive, and maintenance costs are typically much lower than costs of more extensive repairs.
Enhanced Fuel Efficiency
Having clean air filters and properly inflated tired contribute to fuel efficiency, so you spend less on gas while also causing less pollution. Neglecting maintenance increases your fuel consumption, forcing you to spend more money on gas and contribute more to global emissions.
Car Maintenance Tips for Fuel Efficiency
- Keep your tires properly inflated by checking your tire pressure regularly
- Ensure you use the correct type of motor oil for your car
- Replace your spark plugs every 100,000 miles
- Replace your car battery every three to four years
- Check your vehicle’s owner’s manual for instructions on how to preform simpler maintenance tasks, such as changing wiper blades
Warranty Compliance and Resale Value
By following a regular schedule of maintenance, you can ensure that any larger issues that arise are covered by your car warranty and car insurance. Since warranties typically do not cover damage that occurred due to a lack of maintenance, taking all necessary maintenance steps ensures that major damage cannot be attributed to lack of maintenance, which makes it more likely to comply with your vehicle’s warranty.
Documented maintenance records can also increase the resale value of your vehicle, reassuring potential buyers that your vehicle is safe to drive and has a long life ahead of it. A well-maintained car is more desirable to buyers than one that has no record of routine service. Documenting your vehicle’s maintenance schedule to potential buyers also helps them to know the proper maintenance routine to continue after they’ve purchased the car, ensuring that the car is maintained even after vehicle ownership is transferred.
Conclusion
Regular vehicle maintenance is the best way to prevent major damage and expensive repairs for your vehicle. By simply taking your vehicle to the auto shop for routine services, you can improve vehicle performance, safety, and lifespan while enjoying cost savings down the road. To ensure your car is properly taken care of, consider making a vehicle maintenance checklist and schedule a regular maintenance appointment at Specialty Auto’s repair shop today.