Virtually every family has one or more up to possibly four or five vehicles. Too many people think you buy a good car new or used in that has been inspected and just drive it until various components quit working. That is exactly what a good percentage of people in this country do. That is why there are many franchise auto repair shops and family owned garages in this country.
If a family purchases new tires from Discount Tires or Costco, they many times get them on sale with up to about $300 of a set of Michelins which include disposal of old tires, and balancing and rotation of the new tires for the life of the tires. If a person buys the same tires from an independent dealer and balancing and rotation is not included, it can get real expensive. Let’s say you want to rotate your tires every 7,500 miles. I believe Jiffy Lube charges $20 to rotate your tires which does not include balancing. Other places like Firestone and Big O will charge you if you did not buy the tires there.
Discount tires only requests that you make an appointment prior to bringing your vehicle in for tire rotation and balancing. It only takes them about an hour and you have your car back. We had a Michelin completely blow out that only had 8,000 miles on it, it much have encountered something large on the highway to do that. Discount tire replaced the tire with a better tire that the style that was on there because that model tire was discontinued. We had the left rear tire losing about 5 lbs and the tire light coming on every month of so. I took it to Discount they pulled the tire and found a very small nail in the tire, plugged it and now all is well at no cost to me.
If you are not going to drive a car very many miles, it might be ok to get tires from a local low price tire outlet with a shorter estimated life and save money. If you expect to drive the car to work and on trips and keep the car it is best to buy tires with an estimated life of 70,000 miles. A set of passenger car tires may cost anywhere from $600 to $1000 depending on the tire size for the higher mileage tires. Larger SUV’s, pickup, and trucks need tires that are much more expensive than that.
Families need to take their car to an oil change outlet at least every 3,000 to 4,000 miles. If you use regular oil in your car, it should be changed every 3,000 to 4,000 miles. If you use synthetic oil you can determine with 5,000 miles is about right depending on how the oil looks. If it is getting darker you probably need to change your oil. At the same time periodically have the wiper blades inspected and replaced it necessary. The oil change people will check your air filters and fuel filters and make recommendations and you can decide if you think you need them or not.
Have the brakes on your car inspected at least once a year. Many times if brakes are needed it is only the back brakes but it can be both the front and back brakes. The cost might be for back brakes $300 to $500 if both brakes are needed. The brake people also look at your struts, I recently had a front strut that was leaking and had to replace the struts. The cost for the back brakes and the struts was $1300. They have a deal where if you sign up for Synchrony credit card and pay off the balance in twelve months or less there is no interest.
Have an air conditioner repair shop check to see that none of the hoses are leaking and that it is cooling to it’s optimum potential. If a compressor is needed it is very expensive from $1,200 to $2,000 depending on the vehicle. Maybe a compressor can be avoided with good maintenance.
Have your vehicle washed regularly to include the underside to keep the mud and dirt from deteriorating the muffler and tailpipe. Get Maguires liquid wax and wax you car at least once a year to maintain the finish. Wipe down your engine and the surrounding parts periodically.
Keep in mind cars under warranty need to check with the dealer for your car to see the correct procedure for getting warranty work performed.
Good luck with maintaining your transportation.