Car repairs are a very expensive reality of owning a car. Parts wear down over time and eventually need to be replaced. The cost of these parts plus the cost of labor at a mechanic mean that it is an expensive operation to have your car fixed. Although it may seem like there is nothing you can do when it comes to the high cost of car repairs, there actually are ways that you can reduce the costs.
Car ownership is usually second to home ownership in terms of how much of your income is devoted to the expenses. Since owning a car is necessary for most people, it makes sense to try to find some ways to reduce those expenses. Part of that involves finding ways to cut down on the cost of repairs. There are several ways to do this and we will go over several in this article.
1 – DIY repairs
Fixing a car when you don’t have much experience can be a daunting task. Yet, it is not as difficult to do some repairs as you might think. With the help of a friend or even simply watching some tutorials, you can often do some simple repairs without needing to bring the car to the mechanic.
From changing the sparkplugs to replacing your brakes, you can often handle the job yourself. After a while, you will learn more and more and eventually become proficient in certain repairs. This will save a lot of money over time when you don’t have to bring your car to the mechanic. Not only are you saving on labor costs to the tune of thousands of dollars, but when you buy the parts yourself you are also saving money there.
For instance, Jeep Cherokee exhausts cost much less when you buy them yourself online and can often be done yourself with the help of a friend. Replacing a radiator, leaky valve cover gaskets, and more can all be done by anybody willing to get their hands dirty.
2 – DIY maintenance
Keeping your car maintained is going to reduce the cost of owning a car dramatically since it prevents small problems from becoming big repairs later down the line. Very often, people let routine maintenance slide since it costs too much money and time to bring the car to the mechanic to have it done. This means that it is often the case that people end up having to pay more money for repairs that were entirely avoidable if they had taken care of the routine maintenance. If you do these small jobs yourself then you can save money, and time, and prevent future problems.
A DIY oil change is something that everybody is capable of doing and it will only take a few minutes of work. All you end up paying for is the oil to replace the old and the cost of disposing of the oil at a local recycler.
You can also tune up your car yourself, rotate your tires, and replace headlights without knowing much about fixing cars at all.
3 – Drive well
It is a cliche by this point that senior citizens drive old cars that look brand new. Why is it that they buy cars decades ago that still run like a top and others have new cars that look older? One of the reasons is how they drive their cars.
When you drive aggressively, you are putting wear and tear on your car that will result in expensive repairs being necessary. You should be mindful about how you drive so you can make sure that your car lasts long into the future.
For instance, if you drive too fast then you are putting a lot of strain on the parts of your engine. These parts wear out much faster than normal this way and will need repairs sooner. If you slow down then they won’t wear out as quickly and you may never need to fix them.
Braking hard and accelerating quickly after a stop is also putting a major strain on your brakes and engine. Taking corners too fast will also affect the drivetrain and the axles. Just take things slow and you won’t have to worry about that. Avoid tailgating people so you don’t have to slam on the brakes to stop.
You should also plan out your route well so you can avoid sitting in traffic or driving through a construction area. Driving over unpaved roads or ones with lots of potholes will damage your car and lead to costly repairs.