Tips To Save Money On Car Ownership Costs in 2021

Owning and maintaining a car can turn out to be quite expensive. The purchase price of the vehicle is just the beginning. If you thought that just buying the car is enough and you can enjoy it for life without paying anything more, sorry to disappoint you. It does not work like that. Just like with all other things in life, you have to care for it too. You have to spend for its maintenance as well as fuel spending. Buying and maintaining a car can be one of the most expensive things in life.

As with all other types of personal finance spheres, the more you try to use cost-saving measures today, the more money you’ll be saving for the future. While this does depends on your current financial situation, there are ways to ensure you can save money and cut costs.

Saving money when buying a new car

1. Car finance: If you are the one paying for the purchase of the vehicle, you should use the help of the car salesman. Such dealers can help you top buy vehicles in your budget and can even squeeze in better ones. They can adjust interest rates, offer much longer loan tenure, or break up the car loan in ways that makes it super easy for you. However, at the same time, you need to be aware that even a few months more can add quite a bit to the car’s total cost.

2. New cars or used cars: Buying a second-hand car can bring down your costs by a good amount. Besides, these are not bad in performance either. Maybe a bit, but by a negligible degree. New cars have a high depreciation in the first 2 years, which means it makes more sense to use a used car.

3. Maintenance costs: consider the long-term maintenance costs before getting a new car. The cost of insuring an expensive car is much more.

4. Car trading: It is not a sound move to trade cars every second year. Cars’ value depreciates fast, which means you lose in trade-in value when you chance cars. It is better to get smaller models with more mileage. 

Saving on car maintenance

After buying a car, you need to pay monthly EMIs, insurance premiums, fuel costs and other expenses. However, here are several ways to save money at times like these.

1. Keep the car properly tuned since this shall improve the mileage.

2. Replace oil filter and oil once the vehicle has run a certain distance. Frequently changing oil extends the engine’s life, reduces wear and tear in the engine and saves on repair expenses.

3. Examine the air filter each month. Just doing this improves the mileage 10% per year.

4. Using high octane gas is not necessary, not unless it is knocking and pinging. Premium gas costs more, but it is suitable for high-performance cars, or when high-octane fuel is recommended.

5. Check tire pressure regularly as it can lose you mileage due to under-inflation. Get balanced tires per year to avoid damaging the suspension system and shock absorbers.

6. Check the fluid levels. If the battery has low water level, its life will be short. Check the auto transmission fluid too, along with the coolant, clutch/brake fluids.

Saving on driving expenses

It is not possible to negotiate on fuel prices like you do with the car’s price. But you surely can take these steps to reduce driving expenses overall.

1. Check if you can carpool. This saves you cash long-term, and is certainly an environmentally-friendly way to go. You’ll save not just on gas, but also save your car from daily wear and tear. That means less maintenance costs.

2. Carpooling reduces the vehicle’s annual mileage as well. Ensure that the insurance company is aware of your average distance driven.

3. Develop habits which aid you in saving fuel this includes using the accelerator gently, paying heed to traffic conditions so that you can gradually slow down, not driving too slow or too fast, and giving a steady speed when on the highway. Try not to get stuck behind slow-moving cars, as these only burn up more fuel.

4. Do not let your vehicle be idle when in traffic. It wastes fuel.

5. You can save a lot of fuel when you combine several errands on one trip.

Save on motor insurance

Car insurance takes quite a chunk of your money in the long run. Insurance cost is higher for those with poor driving history, and for those driving in certain risky areas. Here are some ways in which you can save on insurance premiums.

1. Voluntary deduction: Choosing this ensures you a lower premium. But don’t choose a high voluntary deduction as you’ll need to pay this when asking for your claim.

2. Safety features: has your car been authorized for use of anti-theft measures? If so, you can get big discounts on your car insurance premium.

3. Old car insurance: If your car is 10 years old or so, consider getting own-damage cover for it. However, you should still retain that third-party liability insurance cover too. If your car is older than 5 years, it won’t be worthwhile to get a comprehensive car insurance policy.

4. Compare and contrast insurance covers: Different providers offer different insurance covers. So choosing one is hard? Not really. There are financial websites from where you can compare different insurance covers for free.

5. Bundling insurance: If you have a home insurance policy or a health policy, think about getting a car insurance policy from the same company. You can get bundling discounts.

To conclude, there are many ways to lower your car ownership costs. All you need to do is to be diligent and to adhere consistently to the methods to save costs to see gains.