The safety of your car is essential for your safety and that of your family. It also protects the rest of the traffic that you’re participating in, which means that it helps you avoid making a costly mistake that could weigh heavily on your conscience.
Other than this, your car is a valuable asset (one of the most valuable that you own). By their nature, personal vehicles are hit by depreciation quite hard but if you ignore the maintenance of the vehicle, it will happen even faster. This makes ignoring maintenance a costly mistake. It is also important that the worse the condition of the car (worn out and deflated tires, suboptimal oil, etc.) the worst its fuel economy will be.
Keeping a checklist of things to inspect and repair is the only way to make your car maintenance efforts truly systemic. Why is this so important? Here are three major reasons!
1. Making a proper schedule
The first thing you need to know is that a proper maintenance schedule plays a huge difference in the safety of your vehicle. You see different parts of your car get worn out at different paces. It is also important to mention that the only way to track this is to write the exact time and mileage when you last checked or replaced something.
For instance:
- Oil should be replaced 3,000-7,000 miles.
- Air filters should be replaced every 15,000-30,000 miles.
- Battery should be inspected every 20,000 miles and replaced every 35,000.
- Brake pads should be replaced every 60,000 miles.
So, how do you tell when the replacement is due if you aren’t tracking carefully?
Remember that we’re talking about thousands of miles, which means that it doesn’t take so much active effort. Just write it down and take a look at where you are now and then.
It’s also important to remember one thing, sometimes it is your safety that is compromised. After your brakes start screeching, chances are that you still have 5,000 of using them safely. These 5,000 miles will be over before you know it and you’ll be treading on dangerous ground. Needless to say, you definitely shouldn’t wait for the last possible minute to replace them.
2. Budgeting car maintenance
Car maintenance can be a costly affair. Fortunately, as we’ve described earlier, different parts of your car are not going to need replacement at the same time. According to an expert mechanic from Gold Coast, having a checklist makes it easier for you to keep things on a budget.
The way this works is fairly simple. You make a complete list of all the parts that need replacement. You also call your local mechanic and inquire about the costs and the cost of a regular service. Then, you put it all on paper.
This way, you can calculate the absolute worst-case scenario and compare it to your income or emergency fund. Overall, it makes your car maintenance efforts easier to predict and handle successfully.
For those who are determined to keep their car in top shape at all times, there’s nothing more important than being able to afford this. By properly scheduling, you will ensure that you can always afford these improvements.
Even if something is more expensive, you can pay it off in months. Needless to say, without the time to plan, you would have to either resort to a loan or ignore the problem for the time being.
3. Routine maintenance of your car
There are a lot of tasks that you can handle yourself. There are two major reasons why you could skip this.
People who don’t drive regularly tend to forget about the problem, unless they install a notification system to remind them every couple of days. Even then, if your car is still running without any problems, you might forget that this is still a priority.
Second, you might not have enough time for this. While it is true that replacing lights, pouring oil, or changing spark plugs takes minutes, you still have to find some room in your busy schedule to actually do so. You also need to either go to the store to buy them or place an order and wait for it to arrive.
Sure, none of these issues are huge problems or obstacles but they are still something that requires a small-to-moderate amount of planning. Ignoring the logistics behind your car maintenance leads nowhere.
In conclusion
The reason why we picked these three advantages is that they’re exclusive to checklist-making. Safety of your car, preservation of its condition, increasing its value, and making it feel better to drive are possible even without a checklist. With a checklist, it is less likely that you will forget something. It’s also easier to find time, money, and even will to get to work. At the same time, making a checklist doesn’t take long and there are even some templates that you could download to make your life easier.