The pudgy prognosticator from Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, promised us an early Spring this year. Soon, weekends won’t be just for depression and microbrews; there’s every possibility that we will be seeing the lush and green Oregon we all love. Don’t sit out the good weather because your vehicle is dead in your driveway- make sure your car’s maintenance gets its proper place on your schedule. No, wait, don’t skip ahead to the next article! Of
all the articles in this newsletter, THIS ONE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOU, PERSONALLY, to get the most from your vehicle and your experience as a Tom Dwyer client.
Regular scheduling of your vehicle’s maintenance is critical for success! When we take on a person as a client, we’re doing more than just saying we’ll fix the particular problem they’re having that day. We’re making a commitment to do everything we can to keep their vehicle “…safe, breakdown-free, and operating at its best.” We can’t do that as effectively if we only see the car when something is smoking or sparking. Bringing it in on a regular, consistent basis lets us see when oil is starting to seep under a gasket long before the gasket fails. It lets us check the battery’s charge long before the car dies in a parking lot. It lets us check the pH of your fluids long before they break down and corrode the inside of your engine.
Putting your maintenance on a regular schedule makes your life easier as well. It helps reduce the number of unplanned, catastrophic breakdowns that leave you without a car while yours is in the shop. It allows you to see what repairs are likely in the future and to put aside a little money each month instead of having to come up with a huge hunk all at once. Finally, it allows you to keep an eye on problems that don’t demand repair right away but will get worse over time, so when the time comes that it actually does have to be fixed you’ll know it.
Here’s another bit of behind-the-scenes info to make your life easier… like most businesses, we have busy times and slow times. We’re heaviest in the Summer (June, July, and August) and lightest in the Fall (October, November, and December). That means it will be easier for us to do short-notice appointments in the Fall, but you’ll probably have to schedule farther in advance as Summer approaches.
We like to see your vehicle about every 4 to 6 months in most cases. If we see it more often there isn’t much time for the vehicle’s status to change, but if we wait longer we run the risk of something cropping up unexpectedly. Also, please realize that we mean bringing the vehicle to US for OUR TECHS to look it over. Running to a QuickyLube is better for your vehicle than nothing at all, but if you do that then we haven’t seen the vehicle and we’ve all missed a chance to catch a problem before it starts.
So, please, pay attention to the dates on those oil change window stickers. It may not be at the top of your list, but bring in your vehicle when the sticker says to. Don’t wait until the vehicle itself leaves you no choice.
