These days many people in the Reno and Sparks areas are really committed to making their cars last a long time. First thing: you’ve got to start with what you’ve got. It’d be ideal if people started with a brand new car, never missed a scheduled service item, paid attention to the severe service maintenance schedule, and had regular inspections. But if you’ve had the vehicle for a while or bought it used, its maintenance history is what it is; that’s where you start.

Go through the maintenance schedule for your vehicle and see what’s been done and when. Have your Reno and Sparks service advisor at Wayne’s Automotive Center do an inspection and come up with a list of work which needs to be done. Review the list and prioritize the work, talk about the budget and make a plan to get caught up.

Making a plan is so important. Suppose you go in for an oil change only to learn your vehicle needs its cooling system serviced, a transmission service, and are coming up on a timing belt replacement in the next 5,000 miles/8,000 kilometers. You might be pretty overwhelmed.

To make it even more stressful, these are all very important systems that are expensive to repair if there’s a failure. In a consultation with your Wayne’s Automotive Center service advisor, you might decide to take care of the transmission on this visit, set an appointment for the cooling system service next month and get an estimate for the timing belt replacement so you’ll be prepared for it in a few months.

Having a plan for taking care of these important services will set your mind at ease.

For advice on how to make your vehicle last longer, visit us at Wayne’s Automotive Center.