You and Your Car: You Better Love the One You're With.
Remember those plans to pick out a nice new car this year? Chances are they went down in flames this month along with your IRA. We Americans have a passion bordering on entitlement for purchasing a new car every two or three years. Low monthly payments and easy financing have fueled that craving to the extent that this year was supposed to see 16+ million new cars sold.
That was then. This is now. The latest predictions are closer to 12 million new cars sold in 2008 and many people will have to forego the new ride. The reality has set in that whatever is in your garage now will likely be there next year too. As the song says, "if you can't love the one you want you had better love the one you're with!" Do not despair though; today's cars are built to last much longer than the vehicles of yore. The rusted out K car that haunted you through the '90s is not the ghost of Christmas future for your current ride. With some care, it can take you many more miles and can be managed very affordably.
First, decide if you can still afford the car you have. Are your monthly payments too much of a burden? Now is not a great time to be selling a car, but if you lease there is a useful website at www.leasetrader.com that helps people get out of their leases when they become too much.
If you wanted to turn in your car for a hybrid, you can still keep your car and save the planet. Go to www.terrapass.com and purchase a carbon offset credit. They are cheap and more environmentally friendly than selling your older ride for a shiny Prius.
Assuming you can continue to afford the car you have, you must start becoming more proactive about owning and maintaining it. Since it may be a couple years before you are back in the market, you will need to get more mileage out of your car.
Let's face it, you were probably thinking that the squeaky brakes or the rattle that came after you hit the three-foot pothole at 70 mph were not big deals since the car was going back to the dealer in another six months. Wrong. They are not about to become someone else's concern. If you are going to get more out of your ride, you have to act before those nagging little problems become major ones. Cars are like anything else, and an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of after-market parts.
Do you know the service schedule for your car? Do you know when to change your oil or rotate your tires? Familiarize yourself with the owner's manual in your glove compartment and be proactive about servicing your car!
If you have specific repairs to do, research what they should cost before throwing yourself at the mercy of a mechanic. My own website www.driverside.com allows you to run a "Pre Service Report" for your car which tells you what standard repairs and servicing should cost within your own town. It also tells you about all the mechanics who repair your kind of car and how they are rated and reviewed by others. Be proactive!
Also, be sure to save your maintenance records! It can actually increase the value of your car. You can store them on a site like DriverSide or just do it the old fashioned way and keep them in a binder.
In addition to servicing, you should pay attention to all the small things you can do yourself. Keep your tires properly inflated. Check fluids regularly. Keep your car clean and waxed and try to avoid parking it in the sun. You don't want the paint or the interior to give out before your engine does and preserving the cosmetic appearance of your vehicle increases its value.
Think a bit about how you drive. Do you race away from every stop sign like a former Investment Bank CEO leaving a congressional hearing? That puts incredible strain on the engine, especially if you haven't given the car time to warm up. How about idling for long periods of time? If you are going to sit for more than a few minutes, turn the engine off. Common sense is really all you need when thinking about how best to drive your car or truck.
To keep your car longer, you have to start thinking proactively with your vehicle. For more tips on how to extend the life of your car, courtesy of our editors, visit http://www.driverside.com/auto-library/how_to_extend_the_life_of_your_car-288
Remember, with some care you can get much more out of your car. And don't be embarrassed. Used is the new new!
Follow Trevor Traina on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ttraina
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I'm driving the same little PU truck I paid cash for in 1992. 130,000 on the od. It will last me many many more years. A little liability policy also. Wake up america.
Cars
* are supposed to take you from point A to point B.
* should last you a long time
* be reliable
* if they happen to look not ugly, all the better.
if people understood these simple tenets then they wouldnt be deep into debt that much !! I laugh at people who say Japanese cars dont have "personality". Well, i like cars that dont show off their personality to the car mechanics way too often...ahem..american cars. :)
Well, I think the Toyota Prius has proven beyond doubt that "personality" makes a difference. Unlike other hybrids which look like their ordinary counterparts except for the plaque, they sell well. People are eager to show off that they are driving differently. And let's face it, the Smart car and other models like it sell because of their looks, and not just because of their relative fuel economy. Of course, looks alone don't cut it. American car companies are proving that with losses in the billions.
My car is rock solid 1990 Honda Civic Hatchback that gets roughly 38 MPG.
"Do you know the service schedule for your car? Do you know when to change your oil or rotate your tires?"
Did you already have the Haynes Manual for your vehicle the day you drove it off the lot?
The question no one is asking: Why must Americans go into debt just to get around?
Build a better mass transit system so we don't even need to own the damn things.
They don't. It's their own choice to drive large cars that they can't afford instead of small cars that they can.
I was born in the 60s and I'm on my third car. I expect it to last me awhile ... and that the next one will be a hybrid.
Hooray!
I had no plans to replace my Ram pickup next year ... or for the next 10 ... or 15!
Ram? Is that a Chrysler model? You might be out of spare parts on a year or two.. :-)
MOPAR BABY!!!
Even if Chrysler folds, and I doubt it will, an aftermarket manufacturer will pick up the parts business. Why? Because there will always be a market.
Oh, please. I could buy a new car with cash anytime I want to. But I won't because I bought my Prius last year already, after calculating that it will save me money over my seven year old vehicle. This car will serve me well for another five years, or so, after which I will replace it with whatever high efficiency vehicle will be available at that time.
One does not buy cars for fun. One buys them as part of a long term household economic plan. And if the time is right to replace a vehicle, it should be replaced, no matter what the economy looks like in general. Everything else is just financial nonsense.
I buy cars for fun, KTM, just not NEW ones. I'm not too proud to drive someone else's hand-me-down...lol. But I know how to maintain them...most people don't.
You're right about the household plan. But if people can't buy a new car with cash, like you, keeping up their vehicle is economic common sense to stretch their dollars.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with being your own mechanic IF you know how to do it. But I don't and rather save my time and let people do it who are actually experts. I pay them and someone else pays me for what I do best. Works quite well for me and I have no false pride about NOT knowing how to replace an automatic transmission. I know physics (a little) and EE (a lot) and I leave car repairs to the people with the knowledge and the tools.
In my line of business we have a kind of customer who thinks that they can do things better than us. We never pursue them because they will rather spend half a year of frustrating experimentation on trying to do what we sell for a couple thousand dollars packaged in a box than spend the money on our products. Professionals don't feel a need to convince amateurs that we can do our work better than them. Other professionals buy from us and we buy from other professionals. And the amateurs are poor customers, anyway, because they always think they are being screwed, even if you give them the best possible product for the lowest possible price.
Some of us actually like to drive and view a car as more than just a transportation appliance.
Which is just one of the many reasons why you are more than knee-deep right now. Having fun, still, or are you waiting for 12% unemployment before you declare the party over?
I've got 204k on an 04. I'm screwed.
Excellent bits of advice,.. thanks for putting them all together.
I had planned on trying to keep my (finally paid for) Mazda Protege (~88K miles) for at least another year anyway,... looks like I may be shooting for two more years now. At current rate of use, that will put me in the ballpark of about 125K miles. Just got it new tires and an alignment, the brakes are next, and then time to replace the plugs and hoses.
Yeah, doc, but those are all cheap things compared to buying a new vehicle.
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