It’s great to drive a car–when you’re coasting down the interstate almost beating the speed limit. Or just cruising down country roads while your favorite music blares from the speakers.

Cool, right?

What’s not too cool and easy is the maintenance your car needs periodically. It can be a pain, and it can be expensive. But you cannot avoid it. Well… you can, actually. But if you neglect maintenance, sooner or later, you’ll suffer.

Why is Car Maintenance Important?

Long before you see and feel the tell-tale signs of a car going wrong, you need to know that as a driver and car owner, you need to keep your car road-worthy.

A car is an investment.

No, it’s not like a stock or a mutual fund. But it’s an investment that will help you do your job and move you from Point A to Point B. Sure, the value of your car will depreciate and go down over time. But if you take good care of it, it can pay dividends for your career, and even your personal life. It can enrich your relationships as you go to different places. For some people who are down on their luck, a car can even be their shelter, albeit temporarily.

Take good care of your car, and it will take you places; literally and metaphorically.

Keep your car running smoothly.

By following the prescribed maintenance for your car, you will ensure that it runs smoothly most of the time. There will be that occasional flat tire; you may scrape it at a pole or with another car, but by taking care of its exterior, interior, and its engine, the chance of your car dying on you becomes smaller.

Ever heard of Murphy’s Law: what could go wrong will go wrong… and usually at the worst possible moment? Badly maintained cars tend to conk out at the worst possible moment–when you got an examination coming up, or you need to go to your job interview, or there are some other deadline you need to deal with.

Regular maintenance will help you avoid those situations.

Save money.

The most common excuse for people missing out on their regular car maintenance is that they don’t have the money to pay for it. And that they are better off driving their car if it’s still fine. Their motto is “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

Here’s the bad news. It may be more expensive if you wait to repair your car when it breaks down. Check out the following table from Bankrate.com on the true cost of not maintaining your car.

By regularly maintaining your car, you are actually preventing it from breaking down. You will end up saving money on costs associated on a car that breaks down.

Save time.

Of course, you also save time if you regularly maintain your car. You save yourself from the hassle of having to skip a working day because your car conked out on the way to the office. Not just that, if a car breaks down, it will take more time to fix it.

Are you still asking whether car maintenance is important?

Being a driver isn’t only about having your hands on the steering wheel, being cool while driving and cruising on the streets. You gotta make sure that your ride lasts for a long time. While your car isn’t the measure of your worth, the way you take care of it reflects on you.