Why Maintenance?

 

Your vehicle, is most likely the second largest investment or perhaps currently the largest investment you’ve made at this point in your life. This simple-looking machine though is quite complex, containing on average over 30,000 parts, working within multiple intricate systems during every startup and drive to guarantee your travel from your point A to your point B.

For a relative comparison, your body is comprised of over one trillion cells, making up 11 organ systems (muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory, endocrine, digestive, reproductive, urinary/excretory and integumentary…in case you wanted to know all 11).

And similar to your vehicle, all of these systems work together to ensure complete functionality of your body from allowing you to breathe without thinking about taking each breath, to simply (although not simply) breaking your consumed food automatically to nutrients and energy utilized to operate all of those well, organs and systems.

There are a lot of pieces to both (perhaps, too many), but if we neglect our daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly needs for either we experience issues.

So, for your body, we endure check-ups, exercise, better diets, etc. Maybe they are not the most fun (or cheap), but it’s all essential for us to do our jobs, take care of our families, and even just wake up and get out of bed the next morning.

And like your body that requires food, nourishment, cleansing routines and perhaps a little exercise, your vehicle has similar needs, needing attention at certain intervals of time to ensure that all 30,000+ components and parts will continue to work and keep your car moving.

Your 5000 mile interval oil changes and tire rotation is comparable to your daily food need, just for your car. Things like cabin air filters, brake fluid services and wheel balances are your haircuts, dentist appointments–needed only so often (refer to our maintenance chart included at the end of this week’s post). And sometimes, you have your major appointments for the more critical circumstances–equivalent to your x-rays of broken bones, or stress tests on your heart, are similar to the electrical or engine diagnosis we perform on your car to figure out the more complicated cases.

Which brings us to properly maintaining your vehicle.

Much like your health and preventative measures to ensure a long, healthy life, keeping up on maintenance on your vehicle results in a similar outcome. The aim is to help with longevity, optimal performance and preventing you from being stranded on the road at the most inopportune times, because as you know, system failures in your body, or your vehicle, are never at a convenient time.

And much like the suggested intervals for those appointments, we have the same for your cars. It makes them not only more dependable and efficient, but can be relied upon for miles upon miles–more than we could say for the cars of prior decades.

This month, we introduce our blog series on vehicle service, brought to you by the DeNooyer Chevrolet Service Department, as your guide and guru to all things service, as well as the dealership. If you have questions on your vehicle or things you’ve encountered, we’ll aim to answer them.

So find the newest release every Wednesday here on the DeNooyer Chevrolet blog, as myself, Motor Maven (a.k.a. MM), informs you on things about your car, from technology set up (those Infotainment systems can be tricky) to what that sound might be from your rear wheel well. And please, if you do have questions, write to MM at MotorMaven@DeNooyer.com. Every other week, I’ll answer your questions on “Ask MM” as we delve more into the pains, quirks, curiosities and concerns of our vehicles.

“For the Miles Ahead” is a weekly series dedicated to guiding friends, family and customers through their maintenance needs. If you have a question about service maintenance or car-related troubles, write to Motor Maven at MotorMaven@denooyer.com.