Teaching Car Care To The Kids
Published September 28th, 2021
School holidays for older teenagers allow the opportunity for more driving lessons as they hone their Learner driver skills. For those of you based in cities and regional areas that are not locked down, the better weather generally allows for longer drives and more experience with highway driving, which is very important.
Something that tends to be overlooked throughout the long learner driver period is for young drivers to learn car care and safety check basics prior to taking to the road.
While cars these days from the lowest cost economy models are equipped with reliable engine and system monitoring when there are potential issues, this should not detract from teaching our newest drivers the basics to ensure that they have the ability to check and, if necessary, deal with minor issues.
Things like regularly checking water, oil, tyre pressures (and how to refer to the optimum manufacturer specified levels) along with the correct function of all vehicle lighting. More importantly, the ability to remove and replace a flat tyre – or to refill a tyre in the case of there being no factory spare is also a relatively easy skill that is neglected. Sadly many of our younger drivers these days have no idea if their car even has a spare tyre!
Midas offers its customers high value Emergency Roadside Assistance packages that ensure our newest and our most experienced drivers are taken care of 24/7 in the instance of a major or a minor failure. Even with this emergency service network, having some background knowledge is never a bad thing. It reduces panic and enables our new drivers to have more of an understanding of the issues that can bring these computers on wheels to an abrupt stop.
In the case of older cars, things like checking battery terminals are clean and tight, air filters clean and air hoses tightly attached without cracks or other wear damage, ensuring the vehicle jack and wheel spanners are in the boot and all are in working order. Another doosie for young drivers with older cars is to ensure that your spare tyre is full of air! This is something that is discovered far too often when it is needed the most!
Visit your local Midas Auto Care centre if you need any assistance, advice or repairs during these school holidays and beyond.