Car Repairs
May 27th, 2006I need to be more proactive about car care, and so I decided to take my Jeep in for a tune-up this morning. Luckily my engine was pretty clean, and there are only a few minor repairs/replacements to make (e.g. spark plugs, transmission, etc.). I figure a few hundred dollars spent now is better than a few thousand dollars spent later…which is usually what I’ve had to cough up for car repairs in the past.
Once I got home, for some reason I was motivated to organize all my car maintenance records — so I spent 2 hours reviewing all my old receipts (starting from back in Baltimore) and entering all the information into an Excel spreadsheet. And once I start Excel, I end up going crazy with it…analyzing it, making plots, the works!
Anyway, here are some interesting facts I found out from my morning calculations:
- I’ve spent $7000 on my car since January 2002; approximately $3500 of that is from letting my car go too long without maintenance and then having to spent lots of money to replace entire components (clutch, differentials, brakes)!
- I drive approximately 10,000 miles/year. Not bad, especially for insurance premium purposes.
- I crashed into Dumb Bitch in February 2003. DB, wherever you are, I hope it’s 6 feet under ground.
By the way, I finally found a good site that provides a detailed Jeep maintenance schedule. (I’ve been looking for one — hard copy or online version — for some time now, since my owner’s manual was stolen.)