Car Maintenance. It’s like going to the dentist, we all have to do it and we all hate how much it costs. When you go to the dentist though, you know that something is being done. It’s happening inside your mouth, you can’t miss it. Maintaining you car on the other hand is often invisible. Your car disappears behind the big shop door, comes out after a while, you pay your bill and drive off in a car that feels the same as it did when you arrived. So why should we bother maintaining our cars?

There really are several reasons and they are all directly related to your pocketbook. With gas prices soaring, we are all doing whatever we can to save a few bucks on a tank of Dino Juice. We watch the gas prices web sites to visit the cheapest station, we change our buying habits to fill up at the cheapest time of the day. Keeping up to date on regular maintenance means your vehicle runs more efficiently, therefore using less gas.

Regular maintenance is key to extending the life of your car’s mechanical components. Can you afford to buy a new engine because you missed a couple of oil changes? I can’t, and it amazes me every time I see a customer buy a new engine because they were lazy and they were refused warranty.

I began writing about Understanding Maintenance last summer and then lost steam. Now, I’m training a couple of new service advisors and I thought the time would be perfect to continue with the series. The first was a post about why we do Brake Maintenance and next up will address why we change the air filter.