If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Every month I set aside $50 in my high yield HSBC online saving account just for future auto maintenance. We have a newer vehicle (2006 Pontiac G6 GTP), but I know things happen.
We went in for an oil change and tire rotation last week, which cost me $60 (after a 20% coupon, plus it gave me 2000 Speedy Reward Points because Valvoline is somehow connected through that program). They told me I was about 10,000 miles overdue for a transmission service, plus a fuel service was due and asked if I wanted to add any of the services on at that time. I declined, and thanked them for the heads up.
Now, I wasn’t planning on having to have these extra services done (I don’t much pay attention to that, which is probably bad). So when I got home, I called my father-in-law who manages an auto parts store and told him what I needed done, along with the prices that Valvoline would charge. He said that I should definitely get the transmission service done, and I could just buy a fuel treatment to put in myself. He gave me the phone number of a family friend who he said could hook us up for a decent price and from now on I was to take the car to him for repairs, and even oil changes. Sounded good to me!
We have yet to call and get the car in, but I plan on doing it in the next few weeks when we have the spare time and my husband has a chance to call and talk to the mechanic. I know he won’t rip us off, and he’ll give us a better deal than what most places could offer.
The best part? We already have money in the bank for it! Because I save that $50/month for auto maintenance and repairs, I don’t have to worry about having to come up with the money to get the car serviced. I don’t know how much it’s going to cost, but I can imagine it won’t go over the amount we have stashed away.
That’s the nice (and smart) thing about having money set aside for this. Some people may simply use their emergency fund for stuff like this. Some have a separate savings sub account like we do. The things is, if you have a vehicle it’s wise to stash some money into a saving account in one form or another because cars do need repairs and maintenance. Even if it’s just enough to cover your oil changes and registration renewals, it won’t throw you off guard when this stuff comes up!
I know we will need new tires in the next few months, so that’s the next big purchase for the car. The bad thing about having a car like ours (the GTP variety) is that the tires are 18″ and not all places carry them. When I was doing price checks, they run about $160 per tire and most places have to special order them. So that’s another thing I need to keep in mind. Our car isn’t cheap…even the windshield wipers are special and cost $20 a piece!
Ok. Moral of the story? It’s smart to have money set aside for the unexpected (and even expected) repairs. Even with a new vehicle, you aren’t guaranteed that nothing will go wrong!
