Ways for Retirees to Reduce Car Costs

After medicine, food, and housing, as a retiree your greatest expense may well be your car. Taxes, fuel, insurance, and maintenance all take a toll on your budget. Finding ways to decrease these costs can make a significant difference in your financial well-being.

The obvious first step is to simply drive less. You will do this automatically when you no longer have to drive to work everyday. Learn to combine trips so that you start and drive your car a little as possible. Don't do this to extremes. An emergency should not be delayed to save gasoline. You may be able to pay bills, shop for groceries, and stop off to visit the grandchildren all in one trip. You will get the bulk of your income all at one time in the month. This gives you a unique opportunity to most of your spending all at one time also.

Have your car serviced regularly. By this, I mean have it looked over for preventative maintenance. This will allow you to fix most problems before they get large and expensive. A good and trusted mechanic can save you hundreds and maybe thousands per year by doing this right. It will also give you the ability to have things fixed on your schedule. If the problem is small, you can delay the repair for a few weeks until it fits your budget better if necessary.

Keep your tires properly inflated. This will help improve your gas mileage and extend the life of your tires. Keep your antifreeze fresh by replacing it every other year and change the oil at least 4 times per year. These will add years to your engine's life and maintain its performance level. Learn to brake slower. Rapid stops erode the brake pads faster than gradual stops. You will rear-end fewer cars, too.

Develop travel routes that require fewer rapid accelerations and few stop and start conditions. These are real fuel eaters and are hard on cars. Drive slower on the freeway. Speeding burns more fuel than driving the speed limit. Lots of up and down hill driving requires more fuel than the more level terrain and even speeds of the interstates.

If you can switch to a slightly smaller car, this will bring better gas mileage. However, you may want to watch for makes and models that are known to have high maintenance costs. Online car reviews and magazines with consumer information articles can help with making this choice.

Driving less should allow you to get a reduction in car insurance. If you drive a car a few years old, your taxes will be less. Consider putting aside the replacement cost of your car as a substitute for buying comprehensive and collision insurance. The interest that this account earns will help cover any glass breakage.

If you have a serious accident, you will be able to just replace your car. It's a little painful, but you will spend just about as much on insurance over time unless your a bad driver. You have to buy liability in most states. Buy the minimum amount. It will cover all but the worst case scenarios. These might exceed your coverage no matter how high.

Shop for your car insurance. Rates can vary by 75% from company to company. You may have the greatest rates going, but you just as easily might not. Some types of cars automatically carry lower coverage rates. When shopping for replacement vehicles, talk to your agent before making a purchase.