Thursday, 09/10/2014

How do you think of your car? Is it your beloved pride and joy, or is just a machine that gets you from point A to point B? Whether you're a motoring enthusiast or not there are a few things you need to do to keep your car running properly. This will reduce the number of opportunities to put yourself in harm's way.

The first thing is regular maintenance. I am not suggesting that you become one of those blokes who spend his Saturdays in his garage, performing all sorts of mechanical wizardry. No, what I mean is that you need to ensure your car is booked in for its routine maintenance according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Some of you might begrudge paying the mechanic to work on a vehicle that appears to be in perfect working order. Think of it this way; you're paying him to ensure you don't break down in the wrong part of town, or a million miles from civilization. Breaking down in either of these places is a sure-fire guarantee you aren't going to enjoy your evening.

Petrol is another thing you should keep an eye on. If you make a habit of driving around with a nearly empty fuel tank and only put the bare minimum in to get you around, you will find this habit will end in disaster if you ever need to leave town in a hurry. I am not talking about doing a runner on your other half; but if a bushfire/flood/tsunami/herd of wild elephants is heading your way you'd probably like to get out of town ASAP. Unfortunately, you may not have the time to fill up on the way out of town, especially if half of the townsfolk have the same idea as you. It's probably not a bad idea to always have enough fuel in your tank to get you to the next town or county (whichever is going to get you out of range of your town's annual threat).

Next, check the water in your radiator. Does the water look rusty? Does the radiator have as much water in it as it should? Look after your radiator, because being stranded on the side of the road on a blazing hot summer's day isn't as much fun as it sounds.

Tires are a bugbear for a lot of people. Let's face it, after you've spent several hundred dollars on a new set of tires nobody can tell the difference. Realistically these expensive rubber rings do a lot of work and if you sat down and calculated how many kilometres each tyre does, then divide that amount by the price of the tyre, you'd see that at the end of the tyre's life it has barely cost you a fraction of a cent per kilometre (you can't say the same about the petrol you just purchased). Make sure you keep an eye on the tyre pressure and look out for unusual wear patterns.

Remember two weeks ago when I suggested you carry a bag of supplies in the boot of your car? That also requires regular maintenance. This isn't too difficult. You just need to keep an eye on the expiry dates of your supplies. It isn't a bad idea to mark your calendar to remind you to do this every couple of months.

I know car maintenance isn't interesting for a lot of people, and there are a lot more exciting things to spend your money on, but if you look after your car it will return the favour.