For our family, a car is an absolute necessity. Whether that’s for the school run, to get to a larger supermarket to or for getting to extra curricular activities. As well as non essential trips like camping, visiting family and so much more. I rely on my car, much more than I’d like to admit. And as a family, we couldn’t be without it.
When I’m trying to save money, I’ve been tempted to put off maintenance that doesn’t seem urgent at the time. Things like car servicing, or getting tyres replaced. I’ll even put off filling up with diesel until the very last second. BUT these things have come back to bite me, multiple times. I’ve learned the hard way that keeping up with regular car servicing will help avoid bigger costs. You can book your appointment slot at DAT tyres for your next car servicing early so you can plan for these bigger expenses ahead of time.
Routine services will stop smaller problems becoming much bigger. I previously had a problem with my coolant leaking which ended up being a fairly big job. If I hadn’t had delayed having my car serviced this would have been picked up sooner – and would have been “a cheap fix” according to the mechanic – oops. I won’t be forgetting that again!
It goes without saying, missing regular services is putting your family at risk. And knowing this I can’t believe I’m not more on top of it. Services can help identify problems that could be fatal, such as brake problems or having tyres that are past the legal limit.
We drive hundreds of miles on our Camping adventures, so even if our tyres “look OK” before we leave, I always like having routine checks so I can change my tyres before they hit these limits. Especially for longer road trips. They will also make sure your spare tyre is suitable incase there was an unavoidable problem on your journey. I definitely feel more confident on longer journeys when I know everything has been checked.
Regular Car Servicing also helps to protect your vehicles value, especially in newer cars or cars that haven’t skipped servicing. I know personally when looking at a new car I always look at the Service History. I have more trust in a car that has been regularly maintained. You can even check the MOT History of a vehicle online before you purchase a vehicle – you just need the vehicle registration.
Car Servicing is definitely not an “optional extra”, it’s something that comes with the luxury of owning a car. Booking in annual services and tyre checks in advance always helps me plan spends across the year and avoid unexpected costs. I have a separate savings pot that I pay into monthly which pays for MOTs, services, tyres, AND has little extra just incase.