Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Neglect Your Regular Car Maintenance

Taking the time to maintain and care for your car may seem like an unnecessary cost or burden that can be easy to overlook. However, when it comes to your daily routine, the health of your car is nearly as important as your own, and should be treated accordingly. So in case you’re wondering why you shouldn’t neglect your regular car maintenance, some of the most basic reasons include:

1. It’s Dangerous

Probably the single most important factor in regular car maintenance is safety. Driving is a commonplace, boring habit that most of us accept as part of our daily lives, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re controlling a one-to-two-ton piece of heavy machinery at speeds of anywhere between one and one hundred miles an hour.

A car accident can impact so many lives beyond your own, and we owe it to the other drivers and pedestrians to make sure that we do everything within our power to make the roads as safe as possible. Putting off or ignoring routine maintenance can lead to loss of control, which can turn a routine trip into a life-or-death situation.

2. It’s Expensive

This reason may seem a little bit counter-intuitive, but “cheaper now” is almost never the same thing as “cheaper in the long run.” If you put off changing your car’s oil, for example, your gas mileage will begin to decrease, which costs you more at the gas pump. It can also lead to sludge buildup around the engine, which hurts your car’s resale value and can cause mechanical problems to the engine itself, which can be quite costly in the long run.

Similarly, putting off tire checkups will force you to buy a new set of tires instead of rotating the ones you have, and a missed transmission fluid check can lead to severe mechanical damage that you will have to pay through the nose to fix. While it may seem easy to save a few dollars by neglecting car maintenance, in the long run, it will be far more expensive to continue postponing the inevitable.

3. It’s Inconvenient

Finally, a major mechanical failure is inconvenient. Most routine checkups or regular maintenance appointments take only a few hours to address. If you put off your regular tune-ups, however, you may find your car in the shop for days or shut down completely.

If you’re worried about the time a check-up will take, look for a professional service that works quickly and efficiently, and remember that the alternative is going to take far more out of your day.

When it comes to car upkeep, we’ve all had days where we just didn’t want to have to deal with the extra work. However, putting in a little bit of time, effort, or money today can save you from having to spend a major chunk of time, effort, and money in the future, once those routine maintenance issues have spiraled out of control.