Motoring can feel like bills upon more bills sometimes. If you’re not paying excessive amounts to fill up at the pump, you’re seeing your insurance premiums rise or the cost of maintenance chipping away at your disposable income. It can be frustrating because most vehicles are essential to our way of life – whether it be driving to work, ferrying the kids around or for our leisure pursuits. With this in mind, finding ways to save on motoring is ever more important. One area where you can attempt to do that is car maintenance – let’s take a look.

Learn to DIY the basics

The average motorist is often hesitant to involve themselves in anything that might damage their vehicle, partly down to a lack of knowledge and experience. This includes carrying out basic maintenance tasks such as changing a tyre or replacing windscreen wipers. However, if you can learn some of these basics and build a suitable toolbox over time, you should be able to save money in the long term by doing some DIY car maintenance. Of course, some maintenance or repairs are too risky to be done at home – so leave these jobs to a professional mechanic who has access to specialist equipment such as socket sets from suppliers like RS.

Source replacement parts online

If you have a better understanding and experience of basic car repairs and maintenance, you can look to save on replacement parts too. Shopping online for these is a great way to source straight from suppliers and you can often find better deals on tyres and other parts if you look online. With savings on parts and labour, you can save a small fortune on basic car repairs.

Compare garages and mechanics

Some maintenance and checks are a legal requirement and need to be done by recognised professionals. MOTs and servicing will always be an annual cost that should be invested in, but you can try to save on these too. Again, compare online for the cheapest deals in your area – the digital marketplace is often more competitive than local markets, so reconsider just taking your car to the nearest garage. For those more serious one-off repairs, get some quotes from different garages as well, so you know that you’re getting the best deal.

Check your driving style

Perhaps the ideal way to save on maintenance costs is to avoid having to pay them in the first place. Now, repairs are inevitable, but you can certainly lower motoring costs in the long term if you review your driving style and see where you can improve. Harsh or improper gear changes are going to wear your clutch quicker, while rapid acceleration and braking are going to burn through fuel faster and wear your brake pads and tyres down. Many different factors like this can increase the amount of maintenance your car needs and therefore your costs.

*This is a collaborative post.