What You Should Do
You have a nice shiny brand new car. You are really proud of it and you've been showing it off to your neighbors, friends and co-workers. When you get in it you drink in that new car smell and you just want to drive it somewhere, anywhere, just to enjoy that smooth new car ride. As you roll along you wish that it could stay new for as long as you own it. You dread the day you get that first door ding parked at the mall. Unfortunately it won't stay new. The miles will quickly add up, that new car smell will fade and then it will become like an old friend.
It may not stay new, but there are many things you can do to keep it like new. Some are easy to do and some a little more difficult. With new car prices the way they are today most people are hanging on to their cars longer and longer. This makes maintenance more important than it used to be. With a regular, planed maintenance schedule you'll get many trouble free miles out of that new car and you get the most out of your investment.
The best place to start a maintenance program is by reading your owners manual. In it you will find the manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule. This is based on "normal" driving. Well take it from me; no one drives "normally." The roads we drive on are dusty, dirty and strewn with potholes and speed bumps. Use the manufacturers recommended maintenance schedule as a starting point for your planed schedule, not the end of it. Here are my recommendations based on my years of experience maintaining and repairing all types of cars and trucks. We'll start with the Engine Compartment ...
The engine is the heart of your car and probably the most costly to repair when something goes wrong. With today's electronic controls a lot of maintenance has been eliminated. There are no more points or condensers to replace so we don't need tune-ups as often. There are no more carburetors to adjust so we don't have to worry about that anymore either.
There is one thing you can do that will add many miles to your engine, that is regular oil and filter changes. Most auto manufacturers recommend oil and filter changes every 7,500 miles or six months, under "normal" conditions. A better interval is 3,000 miles or three months. if you start this routine from day one, the inside of your engine will stay clean and you won't get any sludge build up that can damage it. You'll replace alternators, water pumps and just about everything that hangs on the engine, but by changing the oil and filter every 3,000 miles you won't have to worry about the engine itself.
Another thing I would recommend is to keep the engine clean. As time goes by, the engine will get dirty. Dirt and seeping oil will accumulate and this has a tendency to hold engine heat in. Having the engine washed every two years will help the engine breathe and keep cool. It will also make finding leaks easier if you should have one spring up on you. At the Mercedes dealership I worked at, we did an engine wash with every 30,000 mile service.