Car Mechanics

You Don’t Need To Change Your Oil as Often as You Might Think - Modern cars often only need an oil change every 7,500 to 10,000 miles.

Don’t Let Worn Brake Pads Turn Into Expensive New Calipers - This service can be overpriced due to unnecessary add-ons like caliper replacements or rotor resurfacing, which are not always needed. Buying calipers you don’t really need is the No. 1 unnecessary upcharge to avoid. Even if a caliper is faulty, chances are good that a cheap set of slide pins and some lubricant are all that’s needed to get it back into working order. If you go in for brake pad repairs and the mechanic suggests expensive caliper replacement or even a full system replacement, get a second opinion.

Premium Tires Are Rarely Worth the Upgrade - On average, new high-priced tires did not perform significantly better than new low-priced tires in terms of stopping distance on a wet road surface, maximum lateral acceleration on a wet road surface and NVH characteristics.

Change Your Transmission Fluid, but Politely Decline a Flush - Don’t bother with engine or transmission flushes. These techniques are often recommended to clean up dirty engine oil or transmission fluid. They’re not worth the money.