Car maintenance

I spent the entire morning today having our car washed, and its oil and spark plugs changed. It's actually part of an annual routine prior to having the car registered but this year I had the oil and spark plugs changed more often than is necessary for a 3 year old car. The reason for this is quite simple - the car went under water last year due to the floods brought about by Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) as September concluded in 2009. I had to exercise a little extra care for the engine, which miraculously survived the flood where even the computer box emerged undamaged as confirmed by 2 casas (Mazda Makati and Quezon Avenue).

We logged more than 15,600 kilometers over the last 11 months. Normally, this should not be more than 10,000 km but this year we only had one car as we never got another one to replace the still-in-limbo Crown that I hope will be up and running by January next year. It's been quite a challenge to find parts despite the great efforts of the mechanic handling the vehicle. I just hope all the effort and resources won't go to waste.

The staff over at Caltex Marcos Highway (across Robinsons Metro East) were their usual reliable selves when I had the car's engine and body washed, and the oil and spark plugs changed. They obviously knew what they were doing according to their particular expertise and I was very satisfied with the service provided. They were, as always, efficient and neat in their work. And it probably helped that I have been a customer at the shop since the mid 1990's when my father introduced me there as he was having our family's old Corona's engine tuned up.

I use fully synthetic oil for the car's engine. It is a little more expensive than the basic or regular oil available but based on experience it provides for the best performance and protection for the engine. For spark plugs, I already had these changed from the regular ones to the Bosch Super 4's although I also have used Bosch Platinums in the past. Also, based on experience the Super 4's have always provided me the best performance ever since I started using them for the Crown earlier this decade. Unlike the conventional spark plugs that have a single watchamacallit on its head, the Super 4's had 4. I've observed that carbonization is significantly slower and the ignition sounds so nicer when I used the Super 4's.

Of course, maintaining a recent model car is much easier and cheaper than maintaining an old vehicle. The rule is to try to bring a vehicle to as close as possible and practical to a level that will comply with current emission standards. That should cost a little more for older vehicles especially in the case of my old Crown, which happens to be 20 years old (its a 1990 model). The Clairvoyant's 3 year old Mazda 3 is definitely notches better than its predecessors (Familia and Astina) and we have been blessed with its good performance including its safety features. We just had to shell out for its repair after Ondoy and that included investing in a new audio system that already included GPS, and USB and iPod connectivity.

We will finish paying for the 3 in 2012 and until then, we will be taking good care of the car so that it will continue to provide us with the best performance it can. Meanwhile, we are again thinking about what vehicle to acquire given that we are now leaning towards getting a new vehicle by end of 2011 when we would have completed paying for our house - ahead of schedule.