This article will save you thousands, I promise you.  Number one alone is a monster.  Now here are some ways to save money on your car that you probably  haven’t seen around the web that I have learned through trial, error, and driving everything from the worst beater you can imagine (an old datsun 210 that looked like a lemon) to a new sports car.

1) If a light comes on on your engine that says “Service Engine Soon” Don’t rush over and pay $100 (I have made this mistake) for the local dealership to tell you whats wrong.  Go to autozone and they will give you the code your engine is throwing FOR FREE.  Then go home and google the code.  You can save yourself hundreds, even thousands of dollars doing this.

2) Do not use the dealer to make repairs unless you absolutely have to.*  This is especially true on older cars because they are much less complicated as far as electronics go.  However even on new cars independent repair shops generally will be just as good and charge hundreds or even THOUSANDS less.  The trick here is to make sure and find a reputable repair shop in your area.  As your friends and coworkers if they know of anything and if all else fails try the internet.

3) Whatever you do, do not buy an extended warranty.*  There was a survey done and the extended warranty was worth it only 1 percent of the time. Ouch.

4) Take your car to jiffy lube or do your oil changes yourself.  There is nothing magical to doing an oil change, anyone can do it if you read up on it.  On the other hand Jiffy Lube does it for 40 bucks.  At a dealer you will usually pay over 100 dollars.*  Ridiculous.

5) Do not buy premium gas unless your car HAS to have premium gas.  This will save you hundreds.  There is absolutely no advantage to using a higher octane gas if your car isnt knocking (making a click click or clunk clunk noise) when it is running.  It is not a special treat that will make your car run better.  I know in some parts of the country the LOWEST octane you can get is 91.  I promise you you will never need higher than 91 octane as far as current gasoline cars go…and thats the mechanical engineer in me talking not the personal finance guru.  Worst case scenario lets say you live in colorado like me and you put 87 octane in your new high compression engine and it knocks a bit.  Go grab an octane booster from autozone, or fill the rest of the tank with 91, and problem solved.

Hope these help, I know there are a lot of tips out there “inflate your tires to the correct pressure” “change oil <x> miles” whatever, we’ve all heard them; take these ones to heart and you will save even more.

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