It is no secret that owning and running a car can be hugely expensive and particularly if you spend a significant amount of time behind the wheel. Fuel, insurance, road tax, and maintenance costs are just a few of the expenses that every motorist faces and these can quickly add up, so how can you go about reducing these costs and saving money each month? Read on for a few tips.
Car Selection
The best way to reduce running costs is to choose the right car. Cars that are the cheapest to run will be small city cars which are economical and not particularly powerful. This means that you will not spend as much on fuel, they will be cheaper to tax and insurance premiums will be lower. You can find many excellent cars which are cheap to buy and run when you shop in the used car market from places like Fow.
Take Care of the Vehicle
Regular maintenance will ensure that the car carries on running whilst also making sure that it is operating smoothly and as it should. Regular car care should include checking and changing the oil regularly, checking the coolant, brake, transmission and power-steering fluids and keeping the tires at the right pressure. Always follow the maintenance schedule in the car’s manual to keep your car running smoothly.
Self-Repairs
Every car will need some kind of repair at some point in its lifetime. The majority will take it into the garage, but this can be pricey and is often not necessary. In many cases, it will be a repair that you can easily do yourself with the right tools/equipment as you can easily find lots of easy-to-follow guides and videos online. In addition to saving money, this can also be interesting and highly rewarding. As an example, you can buy a cheap chip repairs kit and fix any chips yourself instead of paying over the odds for someone else to do it.
Lower Insurance Premiums
Many motorists are unaware, but there are lots of things that you can do to lower your insurance premium. This is a major cost for new/young drivers, so they can be highly worth doing to reduce running costs. A few examples include having an alarm or immobilizer installed, increasing your excess, adding an experienced driver to your policy and keeping your annual mileage down.
Keeping a car on the road is extremely expensive and especially if you drive on a regular basis, but there are many ways that you can reduce these costs and using a combination of these could free up a fair amount of money each month.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.