Getting
your car ready for the road | | By Lucy
Lazarony • Bankrate.com |
| Ready to hit
the road and get away from it all? Make sure your car is ready for the journey,
too.
Few things spoil a road trip or family vacation
more quickly than car trouble far from home. Who wants to spend even a moment
of a hard-earned holiday on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck? A
pre-trip auto checkup could make all the difference. Take good care of your car
before you leave, and it will take good care of you out on the road. An
ounce of prevention
Packing a roadside survival
kit will make any auto mishap that does come along a whole lot easier to deal
with. The easiest way to safeguard your road
trip is to let a mechanic perform a full safety inspection on your car a week
or two before your trip. "Do it at least
a week before you go so if something pops up, it would give the repair shop time
to take care of it," says Bill Csogi, an 20-year ASE certified master mechanic.
He owns Car Critic of Naples, Fla., an automotive inspection, appraisal and investigation
company. Having a mechanic look at your car the
day before your trip is not a good idea. If there's a problem, it could take some
time to fix. A big, last-second auto repair could
really throw a wrench into your vacation plans or even force you to delay your
trip. "You may have to rent a car at the
last minute and that can get expensive," Csogi says. So
let a mechanic give your car the once-over a week or two before your trip. In
a safety inspection, a mechanic will check everything from fluid levels, belts
and hoses to lights and tires and brakes to make sure your car is ready for the
road. Low coolant or antifreeze, a fraying belt
or a worn-down hose could lead to big trouble out on the road. A small repair
now could spare you a big expensive repair later on. And
there are plenty of things you can do on your own to help get your car ready for
a long road trip. Check out
these do-it-yourself maintenance tips. If
you're a regular customer, a mechanic may charge you next to nothing for a safety
inspection. Other customers can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $90, the cost
of a full hour of labor, for a safety inspection.
Whatever the cost of a safety inspection, you should consider it money well spent. "It's
just one of those peace-of-mind things," says David Bennett, manager of automotive
programs at AAA. "Have somebody who's qualified take a look at everything." Prepare
for the worst
No matter how much maintenance you
and your mechanic do on a car before a trip, there's no guarantee that you won't
have auto troubles out on the road. "Keep
in mind nobody has a crystal ball," Bennett says. "It may look good
today and tomorrow something may happen."
Having a roadside survival kit at the ready will make an unexpected breakdown
a lot less stressful. What should you pack? A
copy of your car's warranty and contact information for your emergency car care
service should be at the top of the list. Whether
you have roadside assistance through your car's warranty or insurance or you belong
to an auto care club such as AAA, make sure you have the emergency contact number
with you at all times. | 
