Why don't we just take care of our cars?
A common ad you might see this time of year is a Winterize Special. Around Spring you might see an ad for preparing your car for summer or just for warm weather. I don't understand it.
Perhaps in some parts of the country a winterization might include throwing some blankets, a cell phone, a couple big candles, some flares and a set of snow chains in the trunk in case of a problems away from town in a serious blizzard. Perhaps in the summer one might carry drinking water and a cell phone in case of a break down. Other than that I can't really get my mind around anything special one might do to a car at any particular time of the year. Still, a common reason for vehicle maintenance is; going on a trip, bad weather approaching, someone getting married, someone dying or any number of reasons. Now if the car is only 200 miles from its next oil service before a 1000 mile trip, you are being launched into space, suddenly have an attack of extreme paranoia or something along those lines perhaps that thinking has validity. Otherwise it is usually expected that the repair shop should make your lack of reasonable planning a reason for it to have an emergency.
A well maintained vehicle is always ready for a trip, hot weather or cold weather. The idea is that your vehicle runs like it always ran. Why would we want to wait for a special occasion to take care of our third most expensive investment (second if you don't have children)? As I have indicated in a previous entry, your vehicles owners' manual has instructions on how to keep it as reliable as it can be. There are also more detailed instructions in the factory service manuals if you need them. Aftermarket information systems copy that information into their programs as well. It isn't popular to follow instructions but in the case of auto repair it is preferable. Frank Sinatra's "I do it my way" must apply to something other than equipment maintenance and marriage or doesn't mean success, only a way of living in misery.
An occasional day of car rental for 25 to 50 dollars is so much better than last minute panic over put off repairs and maintenance. It is easy to schedule in advance and to plan for in our budgets as well. Keeping a vehicle that is paid for is very nearly always cheaper than buying new ones as well. I know putting things off seems to be the American way but hopefully some of us can ignore that and make our lives simpler, more peaceful and more in control.
Thanks for letting me take the wheel.....
Robert