Simple Rules Of Saving On Cars

BOSTON (CBS) - All this week we are going to cover some of the simple finance rules from The Simple Dollar that lead to personal success. This one is about our cars.

Buy cars based on reliability and fuel efficiency. Those are the two factors you should think about above all else when it comes to buying a car because they will make an enormous difference in your finances. A reliable and fuel-efficient car will keep your fuel bills and your repair bills low for the entire time that you own it. I would add safety to the list as well.

You can research reliability at your local library by taking a look at data from Consumer Reports; fuel efficiency is easy to find at websites like fueleconomy.gov.

Drive the speed limit. Driving the speed limit saves you in multiple ways. Most cars are engineered to have good fuel efficiency at typical speed limits, but their fuel efficiency drops rapidly above that, shedding as much as 1% fuel efficiency for each mile per hour over 65. Slowing down even a little can save you a lot of cash.

Furthermore, driving the speed limit reduces the chances of a traffic ticket, which can be expensive and result in insurance increases. Simply dropping your speed from, say, 70 to 65 only costs you about 4 minutes per hour of driving. And all those cars that pass you on the Mass pike you will meet again at the tolls!

Keep up with your car maintenance. Some folks ignore regular car maintenance. When that light goes on take it in for servicing. Neglecting maintenance will eventually wear out your car and lead to major problems far sooner than necessary.

Your car has a maintenance schedule in the owner's manual that you can easily follow – it tells you what maintenance is needed at what mileage, making it easy to schedule appointments.

Keep your tires properly inflated. We all know about PSIs since Deflategate. Every two PSI that's missing from your set of tires costs your car 1% in fuel efficiency. Not a big deal, but many cars are missing as much as eight or ten PSI, resulting in a loss in fuel efficiency. That's about a gallon of gas for every 20 that you buy.

Even worse, an underinflated tire is much more at risk of tearing or suffering other damage, leaving you stranded with a big expense. Keeping it inflated is really easy, too; you just need a few minutes at the air pump at your local gas station to get things right.

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You can hear Dee Lee's expert financial advice on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 each weekday at 1:55 p.m., 3:55 p.m., and 7:55 p.m.

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