There are varieties of strategies to help you save thousands of naira over your car. Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 6 of these strategies to help you.
Drive Prudently
Aggressive driving like speeding, rapid acceleration and hard braking is one of the quickest ways to waste fuel. To cut fuel costs, you should try to drive more prudently so your vehicle will not have to use up so much fuel trying to adjust to the way it is being handled by you.
Also, refraining from hard braking will prevent your brakes from wearing out quickly and extend the life of your brakes. This will therefore help you save money on changing brake pads.
Regulate Your Air Conditioning
Running the air conditioning can reduce a vehicle’s fuel economy by more than 25%, says Oak Ridge National Laboratory. To regulate your air conditioning, drive with your windows open for a short time before using the A/C to let the hot air out first. On days that are not so hot or on windy days, go without air conditioning and put your windows down. Alternatively, on these days you can use air conditioning, but set it at a slightly higher temperature so it does less work.
Rotate Your Tires
The front tires wear out faster than the rear tires, switching these tires helps both sets wear evenly so you wouldn’t have to replace them prematurely. Read your owner’s manual or confirm from a trusted mechanic to know the best time to make the switch. Once you know this, rotating the tires is something that you can easily do on your own.
Avoid ‘Over Oiling’ Your Car
Some mechanics will tell you to change the oil of your car after every 3000 miles, but some of the newer car models can actually go up to 10,000 miles before needing an oil change. You should ensure you read your car’s owner’s manual to know the timetable for oil change that is specified for your car. Alternatively, if you don’t have access to the manual, you can use Google Search to get the information or ask a trusted mechanic
Try Handling Easy Repairs Yourself
A mechanic doesn’t have to handle every repair and maintenance that concerns your car. Repairs like replacing wiper blades, changing car tires, replacing your lights etc. are easy enough to do on your own. You can even go a step further and watch how-to-videos to help your better learn how to do these things.
Know Your Car
You should have a basic understanding of what your car needs and when it needs what it needs. This way you can avoid being up-charged when you take it for maintenance. Often mechanics or re-wirers give a list of things they recommend for repairs when you take your car to them. Your car many not actually need some of the things they listed at that time, but to make additional profit they will include it. This is a well-known fact for most car users but they still fall into this trap because they don’t have basic understanding of their car and its needs.
