Trust, care and car washes. The beginners guide to keeping your car forever

Before we get started let's preface this isn't one of those blogs, we are speaking strictly on building a rapport with your mechanic. This isn’t as hard or scary as you'd think, it starts by going to just one place for everything. You might be asking why? Would this help? The answer to that is simply so they'll get to know your car, all of it, inside and out. All its quirks and oddities that give it charm and personality. When a mechanic gets to know your car the way you do, they can get to know what's truly best for it.  

If you're confused by this step that's okay, it wasn't written for you, it's terrible backwards advice anyway. The problem is, there's plenty of people that have this exact mindset. That maintenance is not important. The real title of this step should be “an ounce of prevention is worth a gallon of cure” because that's the truth. Regular oil changes, regular check ups, regular maintenance will all keep a car on the road longer than anything else. It'll keep what is a little problem now snowballing into a costly tow + repair when you break down on the side of the road. Be proactive, not reactionary, it's not much fun on the side of the road.    

This is a common phrase heard from the types of people with “race cars” that have slightly less resale value than the rims they sit on. While they technically aren't wrong, it's not exactly worth ounces of weight reduction they’re going to get. We want to let you on a little secret, rust is entirely preventable. Now before you start your objections, yes, we are aware we live in Chicago. We are also aware our roads are more salt and potholes than pavement during the winter months. None of this invalidates our previous statement that rust is in fact preventable. It's pretty simple too, the key to preventing that salt from building up which can be taken care of by any good car wash offering an undercarriage cleaning. Rust inhibitors and undercoating help also.  

In the end it's really not all that hard to keep that forever car. Like a house it's going to need maintenance and care, probably a lot less than the house, but more than your washing machine or microwave. We hope these few tips can help you out.