As almost anyone that drives a car these days knows it’s a very expensive thing. With the cost of car insurance, regular maintenance, emergency breakdowns, changing of parts, gas, and even the governments need to take some money for our cars it gets to be quite an expensive thing. There are however some very simple ways for drivers to save money with their automobiles.
Buy Used
Instead of buying a brand new car, buy a used vehicle. You can get a three to four year old vehicle with under one hundred thousand that was well taken care of for under half the price of what a car was new. Often older people like to sell their vehicles after three to four years and another good place to look is for vehicles that were leased to individuals or companies. After the lease is up the cars are usually sold as used vehicles. Leased vehicles always have regular maintenance as part of the contract. When you buy a new car, as soon as you drive it off the car dealer it starts losing value!
Select A Good Car
Yes, you should always select a car in good mechanical and body condition but there are other things as a car shopper that you should look for as well. If you are just driving yourself around and don’t have to deal with winter or muddy roads you don’t need a large four wheel sports utility vehicle. This will just cause you to spend a lot more on gas then it would if you got a six cylinder car such as a Chevy Impala.
Also when selecting a car you should consider how a car will affect your insurance rates. The fast sports cars can often cost you almost three thousand dollars a year to insurance – and that’s if you have a spotless driving record! Models such as the Porsche 911 Carrera GT2, the Mercedes S65 AMG, and the Audi R8 are the most expensive to insure. The Mazda Tribute 1, Honda Odyssey LX and Chrysler Town and Country LX are among the least expensive to insure out there. Before you select a vehicle to purchase call your insurance company and ask how much the cost will be to insure the vehicle you are getting. Remember if you purchased your car with a loan you will be required to have full insurance coverage on your car.
Be A Good Driver
Of course not getting speeding tickets will save you money when paying for those tickets, and the higher insurance rates but there are other benefits of being a good driver as well. If you’re not driving at high rates of speed you saves significant gas millage, thus you save money. A trick I often use is if I know I’m going to need to stop at the red light ahead I just let off the gas and idle into the light instead of keeping my foot on the gas pedal until I’m right up on the light. This will save you money one gas and will cause less wear on your breaks so they will need to be replaced less often.
Regular Maintenance
Many people think by skipping regular maintenance you will be saving money. The truth is this tactic will just cost you a lot more money in the long run. Skipping out on your regular oil changes, filter changes, belt changes, tune ups and just the checking over of your car will cost you in the long run when things start to fail when you’re on the roadside. It’s expensive to have a tow truck!
If you want to save money a good idea is to learn how to change and replace your own oil and filters. You can save yourself almost 50 percent of what you would spend if you had a quick oil place do it, and even more if you had a car mechanic do your oil change. This is also a good time to give your car a good looking over yourself to look for bad belts, fluid leaks and general problems. Depending on your car and your skill you can save almost 70 percent of the money you would spend if you played someone else to do a break job. Also getting your front end aligned on a regular basis as well as new tires when your tires start to go bald can save you on gas millage as well as prevent accidents due to poor road conditions. So getting your car maintained on a regular basis is a good idea for those who wish to save money.
Overall
Overall the best tip to give drivers who want to save money is to be smart. Most of this information is common sense, so think before you speed, think before your next car purchase and think about getting your car maintained on a regular basis.