Parents play an important role in guiding their children. It includes everything from general life lessons to automobile maintenance tips. While you may not find car maintenance to be the most exciting topic to have a discussion on with your children.
However, it is one of the crucial aspects to ensure that your child’s car is safe and operating at peak performance. In fact, according to a recent study, 16-19-year-olds have the highest crash percentage compared to other age groups. This statistic is undoubtedly alarming but highlights the importance of teaching college students about car safety and maintenance.
You can help your child become a responsible driver in several ways. It includes everything from setting up a car maintenance schedule to addressing common car issues. Therefore, we’ve come up with some tips for helping your college-going children learn the importance of vehicle maintenance and how to spot a good Minneapolis auto repair shop.
1. Emergency Preparedness
It is an essential part of car maintenance, and you must include it in your parental guidance plan. It will help prepare your child for unexpected situations such as a car breakdown, accident, or natural disaster.
Some emergency preparedness tips include always keeping a first aid kit, spare tire, and tool kit in the car. In addition, ensure that your child knows how to change a tire and jump-start a car in case of a dead battery. Additionally, encourage your child to always carry portable phone chargers. It will help in getting emergency roadside assistance.
Unfortunately, accidents can still happen despite proper car maintenance and emergency preparedness. Therefore, teach your child to seek legal consultation, significantly if injured due to someone else’s negligence. In addition, make them aware of a car accident compensation attorney and keep their contact handy. These attorneys can assist with insurance claims, obtaining compensation for all the expenses related to the accident. These include medical bills and even pursuing legal action against the responsible party.
2. Basic Automobile Maintenance
Sending your children in a vehicle sure worries you as a parent. However, teaching them the right tips to maintain their motorcar will relax them. Besides preparing them for emergencies, telling them about crucial vehicle maintenance is essential. Some parents ignore it thinking it is the basics they would know. But you should not make this mistake.
The basics include but are not limited to the following:
- Maintaining Tire Health: Most people do not pay heed to maintain tire pressure. However, it is among the most important things to care for in an automobile. You should tell them about the required tire pressure, have a spare tire, and, most importantly, rotate the tires timely. In addition, they should get the tires balanced from the garage after a few weeks to ensure the vehicle is aligned.
- Light Inspection: Light bulbs are the most prone to wear & tear items in any car. Therefore, it is necessary to teach your children about inspecting them often. They can do it by asking a friend to walk around the vehicle and check all the light bulbs. It includes brake lights, reverse lights, headlights, and fog lamps. Also, teach them to change the bulbs as they get dim because driving with low light can be dangerous and may lead to accidents.
- Check the Battery Health: This one is important, and many of you miss out on it. You must ensure to tell your children to keep a check on the vehicle’s battery health. Let them know about monthly battery cleaning. It includes disconnecting the battery and cleaning it with the wire brush to reduce the chance of corrosion. In addition, suggest they always carry jumper cables to help stranded motorists on the way.
3. Technology to the Rescue
Getting on a vehicle for the first time is much easier in today’s era. Also, parents can be more relaxed about sending their children to college by car. You should suggest children use technology to ease their driving and auto maintenance.
For this, suggest they download apps that could be helpful for them. It includes apps for navigating directions, finding the nearest fuel station, and looking for clean restrooms nearby.
Fortunately, such apps are available for both iOs and Android systems, thus easing it for everyone. More than anything, such apps are helpful in calling for emergency roadside assistance. So, why not make yourself and your children aware of the same?
Bottom Line
We hope the above information helps you prepare a friendly maintenance guide for your children. It should include everything necessary in automobiles, including safety, emergencies, and handling common vehicular issues. Also, ensure that you add everything because even the minutest details matter and can prove helpful in times of need.