The most costly part of your car is you! Fix that
We motorists, we who moan loudest about the needless neglect and dilapidation, still claim to be mystified when our own car breaks down. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
What you need to know:
- What we see so clearly and moan so loudly about is nothing more nor less than lack of care and preventive maintenance.
- And yet we motorists, we who moan loudest about the needless neglect and dilapidation, still claim to be mystified when our own car breaks down.
By far the most important cost element in motoring is not duty or VAT or car allowance taxes; it is not the price of petrol or road licences or insurance.
It is not the make, model and age of car you drive. It is not the rate of depreciation. It is how you use the vehicle – your load, your speed, your driving style and your service discipline. Look at it this way…
We know roads would be smoother, safer and cheaper in the long run if they were built properly in the first place, if they were not subjected to massive overloads, and if they were properly repaired at the first sign of damage.
We know they would look a lot better if they were swept, if the verges were trimmed and the kerbstones and bus shelters weren’t driven onto and into.
We are equally wise that power lines would be more reliable if overhanging branches were cut back; that water supplies would improve if leaks were fixed, if the reservoir pumps worked, and if dams were not clogged up by people farming on river banks.
What we see so clearly and moan so loudly about is nothing more nor less than lack of care and preventive maintenance. And yet we motorists, we who moan loudest about the needless neglect and dilapidation, still claim to be mystified when our own car breaks down.
MAINTENANCE
We claim, wrongly, that it is a matter of bad luck or someone else’s fault if our car is prone to hic-ups or constantly needs spare parts. We think, wrongly, that delaying a routine service, or carrying too much luggage, or ignoring a rattle, or settling for a cut-price quick-fix of a fault, don’t really matter and might even save money.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Why should a car be any different from a road or a telephone line or a water pump?
Well-built means the right make and model for local conditions, starting in good order. Repair any obvious fault, modify any obvious weakness, at the start.
One-tonne pick-ups are designed to carry one tonne. Putting more on their backs is like putting an overloaded truck on a road; the pothole might not appear instantly, but the damage that will cause it is being done.
The same applies to carrying six people and towing a trailer with a shopping car, or bouncing along a goat track in a limousine, or driving a 4WD off-roader like a sports car. They may all do these things, but it is not what they are designed to do.
Similarly, smart fabric seats and carpets are not designed for bricks or chewing gum or mud and grass. Third gear is not for cruising downhill. Window winders are not for body-building exercises. Clutch pedals are not footrests. Gear levers are not baseball bats.
Use all the mechanical components smoothly and gently. Never force, stamp or bang. Treat the paintwork like your best suit and the passenger compartment like your living room.
Pick a car that’s designed to do what you do. Or modify your usage. Or accept the consequences.
