5 Tips to Increase Your Car’s Longevity
A new or used car is a huge investment. After dropping thousands of dollars on your new set of wheels, the next step is making sure you know how to keep the wheels turning for as long as possible. Here are five tips you can use to make sure your vehicle keeps running smoothly for up to 200,000 miles.
- Don’t Drive Aggressively: Be gentle with your new vehicle. While pushing your Chevrolet Corvette to the very edge of its limits to find out just how fast you can make the sprint to 60 miles per hour might seem fun, doing so consistently isn’t good practice. Extreme speeds, aggressive acceleration, and hard braking can wear down your vehicle causing unnecessary wear and tear.
- Follow Your Maintenance Schedule: The maintenance schedule in your owner’s manual is a road map to keeping your vehicle running. It details when you should get services like air filter replacements, oil changes, and inspections for the belts and hoses in your vehicle. Making sure you keep to your maintenance schedule will help you prevent major issues down the line and keep your engine running for miles.
- Always Use Your Parking Brake: Whenever you park your vehicle, make sure to engage your parking brake, especially when you're parked on a steep incline. Doing so will shield your vehicle from its full weight resting on the transmission.
- Don’t Overload Your Vehicle: Loading your car down with too much weight can cause undue strain on everything from your tires and brakes to your suspension and engine. Before you hitch a trailer to the back of your vehicle or load up your cargo area with heavy items, make sure you know your vehicle's limitations. Check your owner’s manual for both your max towing capacity and your payload capacity. If you’re not sure what those terms mean, check out our guide to understanding towing capacity and things that affect it.
- Keep Your Car Clean: It may not seem like a big deal, but regularly washing your car is an important part of vehicle maintenance. Keeping it clean protects the paint job and prevents rust. When you wash your vehicle, it can be easy to neglect your undercarriage, but it’s important to remove dirt and grime to prevent corrosion.
These tips can help you keep your car on the road for 200,000 miles or more. Our service experts at Tipotex Chevrolet are here to help you with regularly scheduled maintenance appointments and automotive services like oil changes, air filter replacements, belt and hose replacements, engine repairs, and more to make sure your ride stays road-ready for longer.