It’s a great feeling to drive home in a new-used car. There are some aspects of preparing your new (to you) car for life on the road though. Even if you found a perfect car that fits you well, there are 5 things you should try and change as soon as possible.
- Factory and OEM clone air filters work, just not as good as they could do. If you spend a few dollars and buy a good quality air filter like a K&N filter (there are a good number of similar-quality brands on the market if you prefer the companies that supply those) then you will subsequently increase mileage, horsepower, and overall performance. Though good air filters are not cheap, it will still be a good investment in the long run (the mileage savings should neutralize the initial cost of the filter and added power is always a welcome improvement to any car enthusiast) Most high end filters are washable, too, so it should be a one-time investment.
- If you purchased a used car and you don’t have documentation of when spark plugs were changed last, then change them. Use a quality platinum or iridium plug for a hot, cleaner burning spark. Many people change new car plugs simply because some manufactures still insist on using a lower grade plug to keep their costs down. Much like the air filter, this can add a bit of extra time before a fill-up is needed, as well as giving better performance and horsepower as well.
- If the car is not currently under factory warranty research tuner chips for your make and model. The (typically easy to change) computer chips can make a big difference in performance. If this is a totally new area for you do some research on Car Performance Chips – just have a play around with Google and spend a bit of time getting a good overview of the topic, as it’s quite an in-depth one. A bit of research goes a long way though, and an afternoon reading good quality information sources (cross-reference where you find information out from using other sources to give yourself a better chance of weeding out unreliable information) can pay big dividends.
- Get rid of the space saver spare tire that the car is most likely equipped with. Get a tire correctly suited to the road conditions you’ll be driving on most often. If you read the limitations on the space saver spare you’ll find they are designed for short distances and low speeds. In any case, you will probably need to replace the tire if you get a flat at highway speeds anyway so there is no money saving involved if you wait until it happens. Finally, think about snow tires or chains-in the event of heavy snow they can make a large difference to the grip the tires can generate.
- Get rid of the cheap scissor or bumper jack that came in your car. Whether just for emergency use or for use when doing your own maintenance at home a quality jack like this 2 tonne bottle jack will be easier and safer to use.
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Adam loves cars and anything with wheels. He has many interests and passions but he especially loves writing and blogging. Hence starting this auto blog.
Better yet, if you have AAA (or similar), get rid of the jack, tire, etc. and leave the dead weight behind except on long trips.