Welcome to April’s blog! We’re looking over the pros and cons of maintaining your car as opposed to buying a new one when things begin to fall apart.
It’s straightforward to tell where an auto mechanic stands: fix your car. But we often see customers bringing in vehicles that are just beyond fixing. They’ve waited too long, pushed it too far, and done the kind of irreparable damage to their engine that makes us wince. We have to advise them that they’d be better off getting a new car and letting go of their current model.
The unfortunate part about that is how much money the client is losing. Preventative maintenance saves money. It costs considerably less to bring your car to the auto mechanic at regular intervals and trust their instruction. You should believe a qualified mechanic when they tell you, “You’ll need to get that timing belt replaced in a few months,” than to drive for an additional year and then have the timing belt suddenly give out on the freeway.
Preventative maintenance is a matter of picking your battles and giving your car the resources it needs. We know the savviest car owners put a small amount of money away each month for what they save on car repairs and put it into a fund for their eventual new car.
When you ignore an expert auto mechanic’s advice because you do not want to spend money, you effectively put the fast money you have here and now over your long-term money. As well, you are placing cash ahead of your safety and the safety of your car and your passengers.
You can bring a car into a shop once a month, and that represents incredible preventative maintenance. Or, you can make a manual check of your tires and spend some time listening to your engine before you begin driving to decide if it may need to be looked at by your auto mechanic.
To add, we have an amusing client story we have to share with you about exactly this topic! We recently had a client, Tiffany M., who owns a 2013 Jeep Wrangler that needed maintenance. We did a whole bunch of work and the Jeep ran great. A couple of weeks later, she called us and she was very upset because she saw liquid coming out from underneath the car. We were confused, so we asked her to bring her Jeep into our shop for a close inspection. It turns out that the A/C unit had condensation on it and the liquid that appeared to be leaking was just water from the condensation. She felt much better and thanked us for our help. Soon after, Tiffany brought us a little cake that had “My Condensation” written on the top in icing. We are so delighted to receive this gift and the cake tastes great...as you can see from the photo. :-)
Our gift from Tiffany M. Thank you for your kindness! :-)
Your auto mechanics at HB Auto & AC team want to keep you running for as long as you can in the car you have and make that vehicle safe and smooth. If you haven’t been doing much preventative maintenance and are worried that you may need to accept the expense of a new car soon, call on HB Auto & AC to help you out.