Owning a car is usually the second biggest expense after housing for many people. There is almost no way around owning a car as many areas don’t have good public transportation options. It would seem like it is just going to be expensive without any way around it.
Luckily, that isn’t true at all. There are actually quite a few ways to reduce the cost of owning a car. First, you can save money when you buy a used car. Then, there are numerous ways to bring the expenses down over the time you own the car. In this article, we will go over some of the ways that you can save money on your car ownership expenses.
1 – Lower your insurance costs
Most people don’t know that their insurance costs are not fixed and that they can be lowered. There are actually quite a few ways of doing so. The first is to shop around. Many insurance companies would love to lure customers away from their competition so if you search around for the cheapest car insurance Utah has to offer then you can usually find a deal for less than what you are currently paying.
There are also likely some things your premium covers that you really don’t need. If it is highly unlikely that your car will be stolen then you can cancel that from your coverage and save money there, for example. There are almost always other items that can be removed that you won’t miss.
Lastly, if you drive better then you will have fewer moving violations that bump up your insurance costs. The same goes for accidents that cost you money for years as your insurance company sees you as a risk. The better you drive by using defensive driving techniques, then the lower your insurance costs will be.
2 – Do repairs and maintenance yourself
There are a lot of small repairs and maintenance that end up costing far too much when you bring your car to the mechanic for them to do. The labor costs are very high so even something as small as an oil change ends up costing quite a bit of money.
If you do some of those small jobs yourself it can save you a lot. For example, an oil change only takes a few minutes and only requires a special tool to remove the oil filter. Since you will do this a few times per year, it can save you hundreds of dollars for hardly any effort.
3 – Keep it in good shape
Whether you do the maintenance yourself or bring it to a shop, it is important that you spend some money in the short term to save it in the long term. When you are neglecting routine maintenance, things end up becoming bigger problems later. An example is neglecting the timing belt. This is something that needs to be changed at a certain mileage and when it isn’t it can break eventually.
When this happens you will have to replace the engine. For some, this means buying a new car. Which costs far more than the cost of changing the timing belt.
