Maintaining Your Car is a Priority

I spent the morning at Centerville Service Center getting my oil changed. I've been going there a few years since they aren't about being speedy with the service and light on the repairs. An ASE Certified mechanic looks over the various parts rather than simply replacing the oil and filter. It costs more than an Oil Express, but you get what you pay for.

Changing oil isn't hard. I've done it plenty of times. Oil Express is fine for newer cars that have little wear and tear, particularly if you don't mind spending $10 more for someone else to change your oil. Don't get me wrong, Oil Express are quality establishments all and all by telling you about your levels and such but they acknowledge their limitations. They don't have the same people on staff regularly, just as they don't schedule appointments. They're like Great Clips or Big League as compared to your regular barber or Stylist.

If you balk at having your car regularly maintained then I suggest you consider how much you depend on having a car.

Ever look at used car prices in the Sunday paper or online? I do all the time. Cars are overpriced. I've listened to Clark Howard enough that I try to look for a more recent car with low mileage, but they always seem to be roughly the same price as a new car. Trust me, it's a seller's market, for I look things up on Kelley Blue Book and compare them with quoted prices on Cars.com.

When I was a kid, we never had a new car. We were a single car household most of the time. If the car was in the shop, we'd borrow from my grandparents. Funny how many times I recall our pulling off the road occasionally due to various smokes from under the hood. It was normal. We always had a car with tons of miles that would last a few years during which time it would have parts replaced by our mechanic Ray Crow who must have owned a junk yard, for we always had used replacement parts installed that Ray had salvaged.

I never wanted to learn to drive partly due to my fear of being broken down in the middle of nowhere(we had AAA, but cell phones didn't exist). Also, I was ignorant of cars on purpose in the sense that I'd be too tempted to drive off into the sunset.

Now that I'm older, I own cars that came off the sales lot with a dozen miles on them. Having a car for 10 years doesn't seem like a long time when you remember buying it like it was yesterday.

Sure, once a car gets a certain age, things need replaced, but you own the car outright. Making decisions based solely on short term needs is silly, so you need to have a trusted mechanic.

I have a place where I know that I have peace of mind. They never try to push things on me like they do at Tire Discounters when I'm getting my "free" 5,000 mile tire rotation and they notice something else. They'll make note of things upon which I need to keep an eye, but if it's not necessary they say as much.

Shame they didn't regularly carry tires until a couple years ago, but having Tire Discounters is convenient by being a set of eyes looking underneath my car between oil changes. When they say anything extra is needed my regular mechanic at Centerville Service Center is easy to reach.