Cars, being the complex mechanical wonders that they are, tend to wear themselves out the more they are used. Like all machines, they have to be maintained if you want them to last you any decent amount of time. That said, while you could spend a ton of money on repairs when something breaks, you’d probably rather avoid the breakdown in the first place by simply conducting proper maintenance on your vehicle. There are a lot of parts of your car that, if you take care of them properly, will last much longer than you think.

Tire Rotation

One of the quickest things to wear out on a heavily used vehicle is the tires. After all, something has to crunch all of that gravel. That said, new tires are unfortunately expensive, and though you can’t avoid buying new tires eventually, you can at least make your current ones last longer by rotating them on a regular basis. Depending on the type of car you drive, certain tires on your vehicle suffer more degradation than the others. For example, a front wheel drive car puts more strain on the front wheels than the back. So if you want your tires to last longer, you simply move those front tires to the back and the back to the front. You can easily google what type of tire rotation to use for your particular vehicle.

Smart Brake Usage

Aside from tires, brakes are almost always the next thing to go. This is usually because most drivers don’t brake properly, or they at least don’t do it very carefully. Using your brakes is basically grinding metal on metal, and every time you use your brakes you are grinding away some of it. The solution is to use less brake and more physics when it comes to stopping. Look further down the road when you are driving, so you can see when a red light may be coming up or where other cars are stopping. If you know about it soon enough, you can coast to a stop rather than use a lot of your brakes near the end. The less you use the brake the longer they’ll last.

Frequent Oil Change

Yes, oil changes are a pain. But they are also a very important part of your car’s health. The oil in your engine keeps all of those metal parts running smoothly. When that oil is no longer effective your engine will start to suffer as well, and believe us when we say that buying oil is much less expensive than replacing a damaged engine. If you would like to avoid thousands of dollars in repair bills, change that engine oil out often.

In the end, maintaining a healthy car is really just a lot of simple, common sense type tips. Drive smart and listen to your car’s warning lights, and you can make sure you have a long road ahead of you before replacing anything.