How can you make your car safer?

Making your car safer is a simple matter of ensuring that the safety features it was manufactured with remain in place. This includes brakes and steering maintenance, preventative servicing from a qualified mechanic, and simple awareness of how it drives and handles. The easiest way to make your car safer is just to pay attention to small signs that it is functioning as it should.

Making your car safer

You can make your car safer by adding safety features, but much of the work is in simply maintaining the vehicle in good general condition.

• Regular maintenance and servicing from a reliable mechanic is the best way to pick up any problems that your car may be developing
• If you live in a rural area or are planning a long drive, kangaroo scarers, a small very inexpensive device that creates a whistling noise on your car as it travels, may be a good investment
• Tyres are a major source of safety issues in domestic cars. Check yours regularly, ensuring that you have at lest a match head’s worth of grip on the tyres
• Check that the tyres you have are the most appropriate for your car. They need to be the right type for your vehicle, as well as the right size and properly aligned and balanced. If your car pulls to one side, shudders or simply doesn’t handle well, suspect the tyres
• 4 wheel drive owners need to be aware that the only safe tyres for general driving are road tyres. Off road ones should only be used for just that
• Be aware of the general handling and performance of your car. Changes in this, as well as odd noises and smells, pulling, shuddering, or any other differences should be checked straight away by your trusted mechanic
• Brakes should be checked at every service, and signs of wear include pulling to one side as you brake, slow or ‘spongy’ braking, too sudden stopping, or any other changes in the stopping of your car
•  If you are considering a new car, look at the safety features available. Side and curtain airbags, as well as driver aids such as ESC can make the huge difference in the severity of an accident, or in your ability to avoid one

Regular maintenance of your vehicle is one of the best ways of ensuring that your car is as safe as possible.

A safer car

The safety of your car depends on two things. The first is the safety features and quality of the vehicle that you purchase in the first place. The second is how well you maintain those features and the car itself, and your ability to ‘listen’ to the car when it is telling you that trouble is afoot. Make your car safer by investing in all the safety features available when you buy one, and regularly taking it to a qualified mechanic for maintenance.