20 Ways to Save Money on Your Car, Part 1

Here's a money saving article written backwards from Money Central. The title is "20 Ways You Waste Money on Your Car", but it really offers 20 ways to save money on your car. I'm going to cover this in parts so we can get to all of them and I'll get a chance to add my two cents to each. ;-)

That said, here we go with the first set of 20 ways to waste (save) money on your car:

• Premium gas instead of regular.
• 3,000-mile oil changes.
• Taking false economies.

My thoughts on each of the tips above (in order):

1. Ok, I admit it. It took me a long time to get over this one. I used to like to treat my car to a "special" drink by giving it higher octane gas. Then my wife nudged me back to reality and I'm a purely "regular" guy no. However, regular gas is now more expensive than what I used to pay for premium! :-(

2. This is one of the biggest rip-offs in the auto service industry. My car's manual says that oil changes should be made every 7,500 miles, yet the dealer/garage still puts a 3,000-mile reminder sticker on my window every time the car is serviced. Maybe it's because I live in the tundra of Michigan, but I suspect it's not. I think garage's want "every 3,000 miles" engrained into people's minds just like jeweler's have trained us that "two month's salary for an engagement ring" is the standard.

3. I agree. If something needs replacing, I'd MUCH rather do it a bit early than risk a breakdown. Why? Breakdowns are expensive, time-consuming, a hassle, and can be dangerous. There's simply no need to risk them.

Click here to read part 2 of this series.

Comments

[David]

This should be a great series! I just did a post on kind of the same thing, with some info that the Motley Fool had up at one point, "Saving some money on your car with these helpful hints". I am sure some of them overlap with yours, but thought you might find some of them helpful.

I look forward to reading the rest of your series FMF!

[jenmoon]

in our area, the gas station (arco?) that only takes debit cards and cash (no credit cards) is something like 12 cents less per gallon. i drive the extra 10 blocks to fill up there.