Motoring Tips
David Milloy
With winter on the way (sorry!), we thought we’d offer a few tips that will hopefully help to keep your motoring costs down and your car (and you) in fine fettle.
Save money on your car insurance
Buying car insurance is a painful and costly process. Although we can’t do much about the pain, we can at least offer a few tips that might save you some money.
- Never allow your insurance to automatically renew – you’ll invariably find that last year’s premium has increased, often significantly. Don’t just meekly accept it – shop around on price comparison sites for a better deal. You’ll usually get one too.
- Don’t leave it to the last minute to renew your insurance. Buying a car insurance policy that’s due to start within a day or two often results in a higher premium than one that’s scheduled to start in, say, three weeks time. So start your search well before your car insurance policy is due to renew. You might be surprised by the difference in price.
- Add a named driver to your policy. If more than one person is likely to use your car then adding them as a named driver to the policy can, if they’re an experienced driver with a good driving record (i.e. no claims or convictions in the last few years), help to reduce your premium a bit. Do not, however, add someone to your policy and claim that they’re the main driver if they’re not. That’s a form of fraud known as ‘fronting’ and would not only invalidate your insurance but would also be likely to see you face criminal charges.
- Insure all your cars on one policy. If you and your family own more than one car, insuring them on a multi-car policy can sometimes shave a bit more off your annual premiums. Be aware, though, that it can also cause the price to increase!
- Pay annually if you can. Paying for your policy up front usually works out cheaper than paying by instalments. That said, paying your car insurance monthly can be better for cash flow.
- Avoid unnecessary policy ‘extras’. Insurers will usually offer you various policy add-ons, such as breakdown cover, at extra cost. Although some of these extras can be useful, it’s easy to waste money by purchasing add-ons that you don’t need – e.g. why pay an insurer for breakdown cover if you’re already a member of a breakdown organisation? Buy only what you think you might need.
- Make sure you’re registered to vote. Insurers use the Electoral Register to verify customers’ addresses as part of their fraud prevention checks. If you’re not registered at your current address, then they’ll most likely either ramp up the premium or decline to offer you insurance cover.
So much for insurance, what about maintenance? Surely it’s just a case of changing the car’s oil and filters every so often?
Make sure your car’s cambelt is changed on time.
If your car (or a car you’re thinking of buying) has a cambelt (not all do, so check to see if yours does), then you need to make sure that it’s changed on time; a snapped cambelt is likely to cause a lot of damage to your car’s engine and result in a hefty repair bill. In the worst case scenario, it can even damage the engine to such a degree that it has to replaced.
Cambelt servicing intervals are expressed in both miles and time. It’s important to remember that it should be changed whenever either of the two criteria is satisfied. So, for example, if your car’s cambelt has a service life of 5 years/60,000 miles, it must be changed if either 5 years has passed or it has covered 60,000 miles since last being replaced. Your car’s water pump should also be renewed when the cambelt is changed.
Replacing a cambelt isn’t cheap but it’s much less expensive than repairing or replacing a broken engine. If you’re planning to sell your car, bear in mind that a car which has recently had its cambelt changed will be easier to sell and should, all other things being equal, attract a better price than an identical car that needs a cambelt change.
This can also work to your advantage when buying a car. If the car you’re looking at has a cambelt then ask the seller for evidence of when and at what mileage it was last changed. If it’s overdue for a change or is due one very soon then either use that as a negotiating tactic to bring the purchase price down or walk away from the car.
Talking about cambelts is tiring stuff, so that leads us nicely onto…
Tyres: what to look for when buying.
The most important consideration when it comes to buying tyres is a simple one: how much grip do they offer, particularly in the wet. No other factor comes close to it, not even price.
Think about it – a tyre with more grip will help to bring your car to a stop in a shorter distance than one with less grip, and that could make all the difference if you find yourself having to make an emergency stop. This is especially true in wet weather, something that’s no stranger to us in Ayrshire.
Unfortunately, some people skimp when it comes to buying tyres, perhaps reasoning that a budget tyre will do the job just as well. The reality is, however, that a budget tyre is cheaper for a reason, that reason being that cheaper materials are likely to have been used in its construction. This may result in it lacking somewhat in grip compared to one that costs a bit more.
Tyres on sale in the UK are advertised with ratings given in three categories, including wet weather grip. Our suggestion is to search for tyres with ‘A’ rated wet weather grip as a starting point. You’ll find that many mid-price tyres have such a rating. After that, it’s just a question of selecting which brand to go for (you’ll probably have several options here), bearing in mind that you should avoid fitting tyres with different tread patterns to wheels which share the same axle – at a minimum the two front tyres should be the same and the two rear tyres should be the same, even if they’re a different make to the ones on the front wheels.
You’ll often get the best prices for tyres online rather than by going into a tyre specialist and asking them for a price. In any event, it can be well worth your while to spend some time surfing the net for the best price, particularly if you’re buying more than one tyre. It all adds up.
Happy motoring.
