What is a Car Service?

What does it mean when you hear the term car service? Does it mean you have a service that brings you a car when you need it?

Not typically. What this term normally refers to is the service and maintenance needed to keep your vehicle on the road and running right. When you buy a vehicle, the dealership may offer extended service programs that allow you to come to them for the regularly scheduled appointments at the time intervals required. Some new models include a specified service period as a complementary aspect of owning a new model.

A Car Repair is Something Else Entirely

When you need repair work for your vehicle, you’re having something replaced off of the normal schedule of maintenance. You could have a part that needs to be replaced because it stopped working, which is a repair, not a service. Sometimes a car repair is required when a recall is issued. This happens when the manufacturer or the NHTSA identifies a defective part that causes a vehicle to be unsafe to drive. You need to keep up with maintenance service requirements for your vehicle, but you don’t want vehicle repairs to become part of your normal driving experience.

Are There Different Types of Services?

There are different grades when it comes to the car service you’ll experience when you head to the dealership or service center with your vehicle. These differing grades are minor and major services. Your minor services occur more frequently, cost less, and require less time in the shop. Major service appointments take more time and occur less frequently. Your major service appointments will happen at varying intervals, such as 30,000, 60,000, and 90,000 miles, for some items that need to be addressed at those times.

Minor Services Include

• Oil and filter change
• Tire rotation, alignment, balancing, air pressure
• Battery inspection and cleaning
• Fluid, filters, belts, hoses, brakes, and emissions inspections
• Windshield wiper replacement
• Replacing burned out lights

Major Services Include

• Replacement of filters, fluids, and spark plugs
• Timing belt or a serpentine belt replacement
• Services related to fuel delivery, emissions, ignition

Why Should You Pay Attention to Car Maintenance and Service?

For most of us, purchasing a vehicle is the second-largest purchase we make. Only our homes cost more than the vehicles we drive. Every car on the road requires thousands of parts and systems working together to operate properly and take owners where they need to go. If you want your vehicle to last a long time, you must maintain it properly with a regular service appointment at the prescribed intervals. Here are some benefits to proper car care and maintenance.

Increase the Lifespan of Your Car

This is the biggest reason to have regularly scheduled maintenance performed on your vehicle. If you want the vehicle to last beyond the loan period, you need to ensure proper have it properly maintained by a licensed mechanic. It’s also important to have that maintenance recorded for the future when you want to sell the vehicle.

Prevention is the Best Cure

During your car service appointment, your mechanic may find minor issues requiring a little repair work. Handling small issues when they appear goes a long way to ensure your vehicle stays on the road longer. You want these small issues handled before they become big problems, which is what you’ll have if you ignore them.

Increase the Fuel Mileage of Your Vehicle

Proper care and maintenance prevent your car from wasting gas when you drive. Some common causes of poor fuel economy include:

• Engine misfire
• Low compression
• Fouled or worn spark plugs
• Faulty engine thermostat
• Defective coolant sensor
• Under-inflated tires

Preventive maintenance will help address all of these issues to ensure you have the best possible fuel mileage for your vehicle.

Consistent Safety During Your Drive

Regularly scheduled car service appointments for the maintenance you need will keep your car running right and help you stay safer during your drive. You want to have stable steering, excellent engine starting, and tires that keep traction for you. All of these things improve a car’s precision and reliability, giving you a safer vehicle on the road.

Retains the Value of Your Car

At some point during the ownership of your vehicle, you’re going to want to sell it. It’s important to keep good maintenance records and the right schedule to show the next owner that you’ve cared for the vehicle. This will increase the value of your vehicle compared to others. One way to ensure your maintenance records are maintained for you is to ask the service department to record them so they will show up on a CarFax report.

Gives You Confidence in Your Vehicle

If you want several thousand miles for an oil change, you might begin to worry that your car isn’t going to drive the way it should. It’s important to properly maintain your vehicle to give you the confidence needed so you can trust it will perform properly every day. If you’re unsure what will happen with your car when you drive, you don’t have the peace of mind that you want when out on the road.

Service Your Car at a Dealership

There are stories that dealership service teams charge a lot more for the same work as independent shops. When you compare the services you need, you’ll find this simply isn’t true. The right place to go when you need a car service is the dealership with the brand name of your vehicle on the sign. This is the team that knows and understands your vehicle better than any other.

Most car dealers have factory-trained technicians that work on the same brand of vehicle every day. This should give you the confidence needed to see your local dealer when you need service. Of course, when you visit your dealership service team, they will record the service appointment and work done in their computer system, which then shows up on the CarFax report. Even though most independent service centers do this as well, not all of them do.

Regular car service and maintenance make it easy for you to know your car will drive right and take you where you want to go every day. Don’t skip the appointments; make time to care for your car, and it will take care of you.