We can’t emphasize this enough: take care of your ride. It may be brand new now but if you don’t have it regularly cleaned and serviced, it will look, smell and run like a neglected public utility vehicle in less than a year. Here’s the continuation of the list of horrible things that will happen if you don’t take care of your car:
If you don’t service your brakes…you’ll hear a horrible screeching sound, then a tree will approach you much faster than you’d like, then you’ll make a horrible screeching sound, then a government employee will clean you up. You can take the cheap route with most things car related, but never skimp on your brakes. Get them serviced properly, and make sure there’s always plenty of pad on that rotor.
If you forget to test and replace your battery… all will be going great until you miss an interview for a six-figure-salary job because your car won’t start and your high school nemesis gets it in your stead. If your battery is getting close to being five years old, you need to swap it out. Once it’s about three years old you should test it every now and then.
If you don’t rotate, balance, align, and replace your tires… you’ll hear a horrible screeching sound, then a tree will approach you much faster than you’d like, then you’ll make a horrible screeching sound, then a government employee will clean you up. Tires are the single most important part of your car, since they are the only part of your car that acts upon the road. Buy good tires, and replace them when it’s time, not after it’s time.
If you never clean your headlights… you’ll be damn near blind when driving at night, fail to notice an otherwise obvious road hazard, and drive off a cliff into the Pacific ocean. There are a variety of cleaning products for headlamps on the market.
If you don’t refill your wiper fluid… you’ll get some nasty crap of some sort (grease/bugs/bird crap) on your window and you won’t be able to do anything other than smear it around, further impeding your view. As you focus more on the nasty crap and can see less of the road, you’ll run over some kid’s dog/cat/imaginary friend/grandmother. All this could have been prevented by simply pouring the contents of a cheap jug into a resevoir that’s clearly marked under your hood.
So there you have it. Can you think of any terrible repercussions for not maintaining your car properly? Share it with us.