HERE ARE 5 TIPS FROM ME TO YOU THAT WILL SAVE YOU MONEY AND ELIMINATE SOME CAR SERVICE HASSLE

"No Hassle Car Service - For Less Money"

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1. Schedule Routine Maintenance Trips (30/60/90k inspections) to your service shop on "Fridays." Most shops perform the bulk of their heavy repair work (stemming from cars that break during weekends) Monday through Thursday. Technicians begin to slow down - spend more time - are more thorough - and pay more attention to detail - on Friday's jobs.

2. When your car won't act up for your mechanic - the way it does when you drive it - don't hand your keys to the person at the service desk or try to tell him or her what you think is wrong with it. That's their job! Take a technician for a ride (you drive) and when your vehicle acts up - stop - then ask the technician to drive until he experiences the same problem. Now you are both on the same page and you've cut your diagnostic fee significantly!

3. Always ask for a written repair estimate. Depending on the nature of repair this may cost you some upfront money but for proper diagnosis will be well worth it. This accomplishes several things. First, it allows you to better understand line-item charges so that you can ask better questions. It also forces service shops to put on paper exactly what they propose to fix your vehicle. Afterwards, should you have similar problems it will be much easier to distinguish those repairs from any previous ones. It's to your advantage to know that today's sophisticated cars often generate similar symptoms with totally different causes.

4. Use 5-W-30 viscosity (skinny) engine oil. Modern engines are manufactured with tighter tolerances. "5 weight oil " flows more easily through tighter internal bearing clearances, allows faster lubrication during initial start-ups, and reduces internal engine drag. Even if the vehicle you drive has 100+K miles on it - and it uses no oil and leaks no oil - it will get better miles per gallon with "skinny oil."

5. Never use high octane gas if your car's engine was manufactured for low. High octane fuel is formulated to withstand higher pressures and higher combustion temperatures (i.e. high compression engines) than your low compression engine can produce. The result is unburned fuel that flows out of your engine, overworking your car's afterburner (catalytic converter), wasting money and polluting the air you and I breathe.