Maintenance vs. Repairs: The Differences

How do you know when your car needs maintenance work or a simple repair? Do they go hand in hand? While maintenance is preventive in nature, repairs are reactive. Those are the two main differences. But yes, they do go hand in hand. Without regular maintenance, you’ll face a lot more unnecessary repairs for your foreign vehicle. The prevention of premature repairs, of course, is staying on top of fluids such as engine oil, coolant, gearbox oil, and brake fluid. Then you have to consider replacement of larger components such as brake pads, rotors, wiper blades, filters, and bulbs.

Fortunately for you, you own a European or other foreign vehicle and don’t have to worry about too many maintenance tasks except the basics. Thus, you’re not taking your car into the shop for services quite as much as if you owned another type of vehicle. That said, in order to reduce the cost of ownership, you’ll need to keep up with your European car maintenance. While this part of car ownership is highly subjective, repairs are required due to a parts failure. That’s why so many people neglect maintenance: They don’t have to do it so they put it off. When a part breaks down, they have no choice but to take it in for service.

Two Sides of the Price Tag

You have two options as the owner of a foreign vehicle, or any vehicle for that matter. You can pay more up front when you buy your car, forking over more in interest and depreciation for a new car, or you can pay later (well after initial purchase) in the form of maintenance and repairs on a used car. You spent more on your European car for a reason: its higher functionality, better looks and better performance. Sign up for alerts from your dealer on scheduled maintenance tasks, as well as warranty information, deals and more.

Minimize the cost of repair by replacing tires every 15,000 to 30,000 miles and keeping more expensive add-ons like GPS navigation and Bluetooth systems up to date.

The four most important maintenance items on your vehicle to think about include:

• Oil: As the life blood of your car’s engine, oil is an essential part of keeping your engine’s parts rotating smoothly and working properly. Changing it regularly will ensure those oil contaminants resulting from exhaust gasses and tiny bits of metal don’t reduce its effectiveness, says Primer Magazine.
• Air filter: This gets clogged quite easily and quickly. When it does, your gas mileage is reduced, as well as your horsepower, and your engine will run pretty rough. You may even stall out.
• Brake pads: How often you change these will depend on a variety of factors, such as your style of driving (aggressive vs. cautious), the type of driving you do, the weight of the car, the quality of the pads, and the condition of the rotors.
• Tires: Take advantage of those built-in wear indicators between the treads. There are small ridges of 1/16 of an inch, which is the minimum safe tread depth. Every month, run your hand over the tires and see if they’re smooth.

Contact Hance’s European CAR Service Dallas

Contact us at 214-857-6026 to book an appointment for service on your Audi, Jaguar, Porsche, Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes or Volkswagen. Hance’s European is located at 1850 West Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, conveniently close to your work and home. Our hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a repair shop equipped with the tools, parts, and expertise needed for all of your European CAR Service Dallas.