Proper car maintenance is essential for safety and performance purposes. The annual service is expected, but many repairs and replacements of car parts are abrupt and expensive. The best way to ensure your car's maintenance stays on point is to budget for it. The following are tips on how to budget for car maintenance:
Develop An Estimate
The first step to creating a budget for car maintenance is to come up with an accurate estimate of how much it takes to maintain your car. Therefore, you should collect all the car's maintenance records for the past year or two.
Find out what you spent in total in the past year on car maintenance and divide it by twelve to get the average monthly car maintenance expenses. For example, if you spend $3,000 on car maintenance in the past year, your monthly expenses will be $250.
That will be your monthly budget for car maintenance.
Evaluate Your Car's Condition
You may have a monthly budget, but the state of your car that determines how much you will spend on maintenance. You should hence consider your car's condition and see which repairs it may need in the next year.
An older car will probably require more maintenance than a newer car. However, a car in good condition will cost less in car maintenance even though it may be older.
Car Maintenance Fund
You should create a separate car maintenance fund or account. It is where you will draw funds for car repairs whenever necessary.
It is better to have more in the car maintenance fund than you need for miscellaneous expenses.
Better vehicle care can help you budget and save money over time. If you need car maintenance performed, we invite you to bring your vehicle into our auto repair shop today!