Bad Driving Habits Costing You Money

But, nothing would make February worse than unforeseen car problems, just as you’ve managed to scrape through the longest month of the year (We see you January), having to pay to fix damage on your car can set you back another month. We thought, why not help you and make you aware of a few driving habits you’re probably doing every day that can be damaging your car and cost you money!

Here are some tips for saving you money on the road:

1. Resting your hand on your gearlever: Ok so sure, we all have to endure traffic jams from time to time but resting your hand on your gearlever is probably going to begin causing you more problems long term. Unless you’re actually changing gears, there is no reason to have your hand on it, leaving your hand on the gearlever causes unnecessary pressure on your transmission bushings which increases internal wear. Do you know how much a new gearbox costs! It is not the time to blow your budget chum.
2. Weight makes things worse: This isn’t a new tip; it’s a known fact that having too much weight in your car will hamper its performance and petrol consumption, but it will also have a long-term impact on your vehicle’s suspension, brakes and drivetrain parts. It’s time to clean up your mess, keeping only the essentials in your vehicle can help you maintain an efficient driving experience and increase the life of your suspension and brakes.
3. Having Low Fuel Levels: This is not often talked about and sometimes disregarded as a myth, but having low levels of fuel in your car and maintaining those levels for longer periods of time isn’t helping your car perform well and is actually damaging it. Yes, unfortunately we don’t always have the luxury of filling our tanks, but not doing so can damage the entire fuel tank itself; modern fuel pumps are cooled by being submerged in fuel, so driving with only a small amount of fuel causes it to heat up and wear out more quickly.
4. We Hate Traffic! It’s not surprising that traffic isn’t good for anyone, it’s bad for our health our car’s health, everyone hates traffic! The process of stopping and starting your car in traffic is always going to cause wear, but the harshness in which you do so will have an immediate impact on your brakes, tyres and sanity. Whenever possible, brake smoothly and give yourself some additional room between vehicles to slow down gradually.
5. Texting and Driving: Yes, we’re coming back to this one. Texting and driving is just an all-around bad idea and one of the leading causes of traffic collisions and deaths in South Africa. We understand the need to be entertained and stay connected, but we have yet to find a commute that takes that long that the text couldn’t wait until the destination was reached. Be safe rather than sorry, you don’t have the money now to repair an entire car and you can’t replace a life.
6. BONUS: Check your Blind Spots! It happens all the time, we’re comfortable with our mirrors and sometimes we develop the habit of simply not checking our blind spot before we change lanes. Again, this is one of those tips that seem obvious, but when it comes to saving money on vehicle damage, we just wanted to make sure we had you covered.

We hope our few tips help remind you on some safer driving methods and we hope save you some money during the tougher times.

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