When you’ve spent money on a car, no matter how much money that might have been, you are going to want that car to last as long as possible. If it doesn’t last very long and it starts to break down a lot or not even start in the first place, or rust begins to appear, or perhaps even the interior starts to split and look bad, you will have to pay out again for another car – or for repairs if you want to keep this one.
It’s far better to look after your car to ensure that it really does last for as long as it possibly can. So along with keeping it clean, there are some other necessary jobs you’ll need to think about to make your car a long-lasting one. Read on to find out what they are.
Drive Carefully
The best way to make your car last as long as possible is to drive it carefully. This may be something you need to think about since, as with anything, when you have been doing it for a while, you can fall into some bad habits, and those bad habits might be causing damage to the car without you realizing it.
Driving with less care than you should can lead to dents and scrapes, and you may need wheel polishing if you have alloy wheels and they have been scratched as you have been driving around. The minor scrapes and dents might not seem like much, but they can lead to problems if they aren’t fixed since they can lead to rust. Plus your car won’t look its best.
However, the worst problem with poor driving is that it can damage your engine, and when this happens, it can cost a lot to get fixed, or even mean the car doesn’t last as long as it should. As an additional benefit, when you drive carefully your car is more fuel-efficient, saving you money on petrol too.
Store it Inside During Winter
We don’t mean you should keep your car in your house when the weather turns cold, of course, but leaving your vehicle out in all weather can be detrimental to its longevity, so looking into storing the vehicle inside a garage or specialist unit might be wise. This will depend on how often you need to use the car, of course, as storing it somewhere away from your property could become very inconvenient very quickly.
If you have nowhere to store your car, or you need to use it every day and can’t leave it somewhere safe for the winter, you can invest in a cover for the car. Place this over the vehicle each night and remove it when you need to use it, and the car will stay protected. Plus, you won’t have to scrape ice away from the windscreen before your journey, which is a definite bonus.
Top Up The Fluids
Ideally, we should all check the fluids in our cars at least weekly, and certainly before any long journey. However, most of us forget about this and just drive the car until something alerts us to a problem. By this time, it could be too late, and the major damage will have been done.
Try to get into the habit of checking the fluids in your car every week. Perhaps choose a Sunday so you know you’re ready for the week ahead. You’ll need to look at the oil, water, coolant, and petrol levels and top them up if they are running low.
