General Car Maintenance
Will the dealer call me when it is time for 'warranty service'?
With regards to general car maintenance, in most cases you cannot expect the dealer to call you when it is time for a warranty service. The dealer will contact you for regular maintenance, as they want you to come back into the dealership and potentially show you a new car while your vehicle is being serviced. So, you can expect cards in the mail, follow-up emails or phone calls from the dealer when it comes to regular maintenance but not when its time for a warranty service.
What is a "written estimate"?
With regards to general car maintenance, a written estimate is something you receive when you bring the vehicle in for service before the work is actually done. The written estimate is a guideline or idea of what the mechanic believes needs to be done to your vehicle to bring it back up to spec, along with the approximate cost for this work. In order to change the amount of a written estimate, the mechanic would quite often call you and get approval for doing additional work which is going to raise the overall cost of the work to be done.
What tips will help me keep track of my cars "maintenance visits"?
With general car maintenance, I personally have a tip to help keep track of my maintenance visits. With part of the package you receive when you bought the vehicle, along with the owners manual comes a maintenance schedule book. The maintenance schedule book has full details with a place to enter the date, who did the work and what the work was done. Using the maintenance schedule book allows you to keep a very clean track of your maintenance visits. The nice thing about these little schedule books is that it makes a very valuable tool for when you go to sell the vehicle as you have a little document which is easy to read, it's not just a bunch of receipts and notes all stapled together. The maintenance schedule book is a very clean document showing that you've treated the car and its maintenance schedule with the most respect.
What should I do if the mechanic didn't fix the problem with my car?
With general car maintenance, if the mechanic didn't really fix or resolve the issue you had in the first place with you car, it's probably best to go back and ask them about that. Remind the mechanic from the written estimate of what was approved, what was agreed upon, what you paid for and then point out that those things were not addressed. If you get pushed back or have resistance from the mechanic, it might be time to take it to the local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. This will make sure that there is some resolution and will put some pressure on the mechanic to do the right thing before it turns into a legal or a lawsuit.
What does "totaled" mean?
With general car maintenance, totaled is a term that was really built by the insurance agencies. Totaled means that a vehicle was in an accident, maybe a flood or a big storm to which that vehicle has been identified as being beyond repair. The car has therefore been "totaled" and should be scrapped and parted out, as opposed to being fixed and put back on the roadway.
What is an "oil change"?
An oil change is really one simple thing that anybody who owns a vehicle needs to do to protect their investment and all it means is replacing the oil that's been protecting the engine over the course of it's use and the oil filter and replacing with all fresh fluids and a fresh filter. It's the one thing that anybody can do who owns a vehicle and will protect the vehicle while they use it and then also increasing the value when you go to sell the vehicle or trade it in later. It was generally considered that an oil change needed to be done every three thousand miles, that's probably the way your father and your grandfather did it, but in todays new engines and todays new high tech oils and the engines being built to a much higher degree of tolerance, that oil change duration is extended. Most vehicles now are in the five to seven to even the ten-thousand mile range as far as factory scheduled maintenance goes. This is yet another reason why it's so important to consult the owners manual and know the maintenance schedule before you start racking up a lot of miles on your car.
What is a "tune-up"?
A tune-up is a function that is probably something your father or your grandfather did on the family vehicle years ago. It's something that with today's new technology and computer-controlled systems on engines, is not quite as common. In essence, a tune-up would be going through all the fine systems of the vehicle to make sure they're all in optimum working order, and making sure if there are any adjustments to the fuel delivery system or the braking system, to make sure that it's working to the best of its ability. In today's modern cars, however, a tune-up is really nothing more than plugging the car's computer up to the mechanic's computer, allowing those two systems to speak to one another, and giving a full diagnostic report and then making adjustments based upon that. It's somewhat funny, because the term "tune-up" is something that has really become an old-world term. It's something that is not necessary. Many vehicles, even inexpensive vehicles, now offer 100,000 mile tune-up schedules. In essence, over the entire life of the car, it never needs to be tuned up. That's again because the computer systems that are controlling a lot of the systems in today's cars are so advanced and high-tech that they keep the car's engine in a optimum set of tune.
What is "tire rotation"?
With general car maintenance, tire rotation applies when tires at the front of the car and the tires at the rear of the car wear at different rates. Primarily, the tires of the front are obviously also for steering therefore you get more wear and tear on the sides of the tires. The tires at the rear of the car are quit often doing a lot of the driving work so they get more wear in the center of the tire tread. Hence it is very important and of great investment to rotate the tires. Basically, rotating the tires means to take the tires on the front of the car and to flip them to the rear and vise versa. The reason that this is important is that today's modern cars are designed to have tires that are consistent in their wear and their tire pressure. This means you don't want to have tires that are in a different state of age and wear in across the vehicle. Breaking systems, especially safety systems rely on all the tires being of equal quality and equal state of wear. So, in summary having your tires rotated may be a relatively simple operation but it is also one of the best preventative maintenances you can put on your vehicle.
