DIY auto care and repair has changed over the years.  Rarely do you see people changing their car’s oil on their driveways anymore and such.  This is because it is cheaper, cleaner and more cost effective to go to a discount oil change place like Walmart (Its only $15 to $20 for an oil change at Walmart and they will not lie to you about items needing replacement that really don’t like they do at car dealerships and Jiffy Lube).  Basically, DIY auto care and repair is still done and it can save you a ton of money, but it is more about researching on the internet and making some phone calls.

It is nowadays, in most circumstances, much cheaper to have a local professional mechanic whom is moonlighting through the local Craigslist come to your house and provide the service.  They will usually do any service in comparable fashion to your local dealer service station (they are the same mechanics) at a fraction of the cost.  To save even more you may want to get the parts required yourself at your local auto parts store.

A good tip here is to visit the local wholesale auto supply store and either become friends with some of the customers or get a wholesale business license (cheap and easy to get).  The savings here are usually in the neighborhood of 30 to 50% over retail auto parts stores.  You can save even more by using salvage yards and Car-parts.com which has a searchable database of over 1,000 salvage yards.  Parts are listed by distance and price.  The savings one can expect on parts from a salvage yard are in the range of 50% to over 95%!  That’s huge and when you hire a professional mechanic through Craigslist, you can easily turn a $3,000 repair at your local new car dealer into the $300 repair it should really be! 

Headlight cleaner, restoration and repair from the best in the business!

Remember, I said salvage yard, not junk yard.  Modern salvage yards have cars with low mileage and some can be virtually brand new.  Their only problem is a wreck that had them totaled by the insurance company.  This does not mean that all the cars, trucks or SUV’s parts are bad.  Some will probably be in better shape than those on your car.  The deals one can find through salvage yards, dealers or online are amazing.  I had a 2000 Ford Mustang GT which was soon going to need 4 new tires.  The car dealer wanted $295 per tire plus installation.  For $500 I found a complete set of tires and GT alloy wheels that were virtually new!  Could you imagine what the dealer would have asked for that?  $5000+!

Yes, you can still do the work on your car if you like, but why at these huge savings?  Do something better with your spare time like spending more time with the family.  Maybe with some of the savings go out to eat, go shopping and watch a movie.  You will see that this way, you will no longer cringe when it comes time for maintenance or repair of your car or truck.

Headlight cleaning, renewing and restoring 

Another great, common sense repair idea – and this one can easily be done by you – is headlight cleaning and restoration.  Just look at your car headlights and see if they are clear or cloudy, worn, ugly, dirty, scratched, dim and ineffective.  This condition is not only a cosmetic eyesore, but it is also extremely dangerous as these cloudy, ugly headlights will greatly reduce light output (measured in lumens), effective sight distance, and your overall night time driving safety.  According to AAA, dirty, worn headlight lenses are a major factor in serious night time car accidents.  Instead of driving around with dangerous, ineffective, cloudy headlights and instead of spending hundreds of dollars on replacements at your local car dealer (the average is $300 per lens – that’s $600 per set), restore them to new with MDWholesale.com’s New Lite headlight cleaner, restoration and repair kit.   So be sure to use the New Lite headlight restoration kit to make your headlights really shine and save big over replacement headlights.  For more information or to purchase New Lite please visit www.MDWholesale.com.