Truck Maintenance & Care - Falling Back In Love
As our economy bounces around, many people are
finding their pocketbooks tightening up. When that happens, spending starts to change, bills take a greater percentage of the money, and there isn't as much left for eating out, going to the movies, buying performance parts, etc.
For most of us, there is nothing majorly wrong with what we are driving. We have owned our vehicles for years and are probably pretty close to paying them off. So why, when we are getting so close to paying a truck off, would we take on another five-year loan? If you look at the economics, it is almost always cheaper to repair and rebuild a vehicle than it is to buy a new one.
My truck payment is almost $1,000 per month, and when you add in insurance, I'm paying much more than $1,000 per month. After I pay my truck off (14 months left, yay!!!), I’ll have $1,000 extra each month to pay bills down, save, and spend how I want. Even if we have to put a new engine in the truck (with transmission), we won't spend more than a year's worth of payments to do it.
While we can talk finances all day long, it won't change the fact that you feel your truck is getting old and you want a newer model. So we recommend spending a little quality time with your pickup to see if you don't fall back in love with it. It has been with you for quite a while and giving a little back can make a huge difference.
With the basic maintenance done, the next step for us was one that a lot of Americans have gotten out of the habit of: washing the truck. Now, I don't mean that no one gets their truck washed, I mean no one does it on their own—without paying someone to do it or going through an auto washer. Taking pride in your truck and spending an afternoon washing it yourself can make a world of difference in how you view it.
