Everyone in Fort Wayne IN does our best to budget for scheduled vehicle maintenance.
What’s hard is planning for unexpected automobile repairs.
The truth is that our vehicles can stay on our IN roads longer than ever before with proper maintenance. That’s because of improved vehicle design and manufacturing quality. But some of those same improvements also lead to higher repairs costs for every automobile or vehicle.
There’s a tool that can be found on Edmunds.com that you can use to prepare your Fort Wayne IN service and repair budget.
Let’s suppose you have a used Toyota Camry – a very popular car in the Kendalville area…
It’s now paid for and you’d like to keep it running for the next three years. You can go to Edmunds’ True Cost to Own calculator and enter your vehicle’s data. The calculator will provide estimates of what it’ll cost to service and repair your vehicle in Kendalville over the next five years. The estimate’s based on where you live in IN, manufacturers’ recommendations and repair experience for your particular model.
Of course these are just estimates – there’s no way to predict what’ll actually happen to the car in your driveway, but it’s a good starting point. The calculator also has estimates for depreciation, financing, insurance, IN taxes and fuel costs.
Let’s focus on maintenance and repair in the IN area: This table at Edmonds.com shows that the average monthly cost of maintenance and repairs for our example in IN is about eighty-three dollars. That may sound like a lot, but compare it to a new car payment.
So if you set aside eighty-three dollars a month, you’d go a long ways towards taking care of routine maintenance and being prepared for the unexpected repairs that arise.
Some folks in the 46808 zip code area are afraid of what can go wrong with their older car so they buy a new one. That’s fine if you really want a new car, but if you properly maintain your older vehicle, you’ll save a lot of money on new car payments and insurance. It just makes good economic sense when times are tight in Fort Wayne.
Give us a call for additional advice on how to keep your automobile running on a budget.
North Wells Service Center
522 Wallywood Dr
Fort Wayne, IN 46808
At North Wells Service Center we install quality NAPA replacement parts. To learn more about NAPA AutoCare, visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.
