Some Tips to Extend the Life of Your Car! Don’t Drive Like an Idiot!

Actually, the care and consideration you give your car during the break-in period when it’s new should – hopefully – continue as for as long as you drive it. If you drive your car with care, and treat it gently, it will reward you with longer intervals before you need any repairs, and you’ll have a long and happy relationship together! This means:
• Don’t race your car’s engine during start-up; you are not in the Indy 500. Racing the engine is a quick way to add years of wear to your engine, especially when it’s cold.
• Accelerate slowly as you begin your drive; the most wear and tear to your engine and drive train occurs in the first 10 to 20 minutes that you’re driving. Yes. We know. One of the reasons you bought it was because it will go from 0 to 60 in 8.9 seconds. All we’re saying is – don’t test this out every time you back out of your garage!
• Don’t let the engine idle in the driveway. This seems to be a popular Urban Myth, or whatever those are. A lot of people think you should always let your engine “warm up” before driving it, especially when it’s cold. They also think that the way to do this is to let your car idle in the driveway. This is just wrong. Stop it. When your car is going nowhere your engine isn’t operating at its peak temperature, your fuel isn’t combusting, soot is depositing itself on your cylinder walls, oil is contaminating your parts, and it all means you are going to have damaged components sooner rather than later. So, like we said, stop it. We’re not going to tell you again!
• Shift your automatic transmission into neutral at red lights, and it will put less strain on your engine and automatic transmission; your car isn’t still trying to go, go, go while you’re stopped, stopped, stopped!
• Make your tires last longer! Drive that posted speed limit, quit with the fast starts, screeching stops, and sharp turns, try to avoid the potholes and speed bumps, practice your parking (you really can parallel park without driving up on the curb to do it; you just have to concentrate), and finally – of course – if you are leaving a trail of burning rubber, see # 2 above, and just stop it.
• See if you can make lists so you can put all your short driving trips into one longer driving trip. Most of the wear and tear and pollution happens in the first few minutes of driving. If you can do several errands at once, during slow traffic hours if possible, you’re going to get to keep your car a lot longer!