Spring Car Maintenance: A Checklist

Spring is a season of fresh beginnings and for most, a thorough Spring cleaning.

Just a reminder: your car needs as much maintenance and deep cleaning as your home. After all, it’s also an important part of your daily routine and will probably take you on your next adventure.

To help you give your car the attention it deserves, we’ll discuss Spring car maintenance and provide you with a comprehensive checklist to make sure your vehicle is ready for the warmer months ahead.

What is Spring car maintenance?

It’s exactly what it sounds like.

Spring car maintenance refers to the set of essential maintenance tasks that you need to perform on your vehicle as the weather transitions to a warmer one. Spring car care and maintenance is a proactive approach to address the issues that may have occurred before the warmer seasons.

It’s also a way of preparing your car, especially if you’re planning a fun road trip soon!

Why is maintaining your car in Spring important?

Maintaining your car is always important. But even more so in Spring, for the following reasons:

First and foremost: safety.

Roads tend to be extra challenging during the storms leading up to the warmer seasons. So, when Spring comes, it’s important to check your vehicle for issues that compromise your vehicle’s safety, such as worn brakes, damaged tyres or faulty lights.

Maintain your car for efficiency and longevity.

A well-maintained car operates more efficiently and has an extended lifespan. When you address small issues in Spring, you can prevent major problems down the road and improve fuel economy that then helps you save money on petrol.

A well-maintained car is a comfortable car.

Spring maintenance includes checking your vehicle’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Ensuring your air conditioning is working correctly will definitely help you keep cool during those warmer Australian days.

Checklist: How to care for and maintain your vehicle in Spring

Now, let’s go through the important steps in your Spring car maintenance routine:

☐ Examine all of your tyres.

Since harsh weather conditions can be hard on tyres, this is the best time to inspect them for tread depth and uneven wear patterns. Check the tyre pressure and switch back to all-season tyres (if you used winter tyres during the colder months).

☐ Replace your windshield wiper blades.

Ideally, wiper blades need to be replaced every six months. So, if you’ve had your wiper blades for over six months or you’ve noticed signs of damage, it may be time to replace them.

☐ Check all the lights.

Check that all lights, including headlights, taillights, brake lights and indicators are working correctly and replace any burnt-out bulbs.

☐ Conduct a brake inspection.

Inspect your brakes for signs of wear and tear. Pay especially close attention to squeaking and grinding noises as these are signs that your brakes may need replacement.

☐ Change and replenish automotive fluids.

Check all car fluid levels: engine oil, coolant, transmission fluid, and brake fluid. Also, ensure they are at the right levels. An oil change is also an important part of a Spring car maintenance routine.

☐ Do a battery check.

Cold weather can be tough on vehicle batteries. So, check for corrosion and ensure the connections are secure. Tip: if your battery is more than 3 years old, you might want to consider replacing it.

☐ Once everything is settled, refresh and clean the car.

Start from the outside: look for rust or any other external damage. Wash your car and apply a protective wax coating to shield it from the elements. Then, go through all of the interiors. Wash your floor mats and liners and clean all surfaces with car-safe cleaning products.

With a comprehensive Spring car maintenance routine, you can ensure your car is ready to take you efficiently, safely and comfortably on any springtime adventures you have planned (or not planned!).

Just don’t forget the Spring car maintenance routine

Remember: doing regular maintenance and following these steps on the Spring car checklist will not only save you money in the long run, but it will also ensure that you have a safer driving experience at any time of the year.

So, as everyone gets into the refreshing spirit of Spring cleaning, don’t forget to have a look at your car too.

Find the right vehicle for you with Private Fleet this Spring.

Private Fleet empowers you to gain all the benefits of a fleet purchase but as a private buyer.

Backed by decades of vehicle industry experience, fleet buying power and a network of car dealers across Australia, we’re here to ensure that buying your next vehicle will be as straightforward as possible for you, no matter the season or time.

Shopping for a car is an enjoyable process – let us make it hassle-free, too.

Reach out to us today for a seamless and simple car-buying experience.

How To Really Annoy Other Drivers: The 10 Worst Driving Habits

OK, everybody, gather round. Mama’s going to teach you how to be a terrible driver*. You know the one: that driver, the one who everybody hates and who nobody wants to ride with. In fact, I’m going to tell you about all the bad habits that you simply must acquire if you want to lose friends and irritate people.

*For the sake of any non-human robots reading this, this article is an example of the ancient art of sarcasm and irony.

Of course, there are plenty of bad habits when it comes to driving, but these are some of the most annoying. They aren’t stupidly dangerous, like running red lights or driving on the wrong side of the road, but they are still somewhat dangerous all the same.

#1: Incorrect Indicators

Those amber lights on the side of your car front and back are designed to let your fellow drivers know if you are about to change lane or turn a corner. But other people should be able to read your mind, right? After all, you should be able to go where you want to when you want to, and why should you be bothered taking time to use those indicators, even though the lever for applying them is right by your hand (assuming you’ve got both hands on your steering wheel, that is). Failure to use them will really make the blood of other drivers boil quite satisfactorily.

However, this isn’t the only way to annoy your fellow drivers with your poor indicator habits. A safer way to mis-indicate is to turn on your indicators far too early and keep everybody guessing as to whether you’re turning the corner or turning into a driveway. At least the people behind you will slow down so they don’t bang into your rear end, and you can hold them up for ages and then (extra bonus points) accuse them of Annoying Driving Habit #2.

#2: Tailgating

Yes, you’ve heard of the two second rule, but that’s for wimps, right? After all, that person in front of you has had his or her indicators on for the last minute, so you can hardly be blamed for driving a scant metre from their rear bumper. Besides, why did they put bumper stickers on the rear of their car if they didn’t expect you to read them? Never mind that you’re driving so close that the driver in front of you doesn’t dare to slow down one iota to avoid you rear-ending them. That’s a way of ensuring that everybody keeps up to the right speed, right?

Even if you’re a little further away and are able to stop in time if the driver in front of you does finally decide to turn into a driveway or if they have to stop for something insignificant, like a dog running into the road, you can still annoy and intimidate them. After all, you’re only sticking close to them waiting for a chance to overtake, and they’re guilty of Annoying Driving Habit #3.

#3: Channelling Your Inner Gandalf

Every time someone comes up close behind you, you need to get your battered grey hat and wizard’s staff on and shout “You shall not pass!” However, if you’re unable to make the road crack at their feet, sending them plunging like a balrog into the chasm beneath the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, there’s a simpler way to stop the people behind you from overtaking and annoy them at the same time. If you’re really lucky, they may let out a suitable enraged roar.

All you need to do is to keep your speed really slow during all the bits of road that are windy, filled with oncoming traffic or painted with pretty yellow lines down the middle. Once these useful areas have shifted to open, empty straight roads with passing lanes, speed up to the full speed limit so that the driver in the car either doesn’t pass you or is forced to break the speed limit to get past you. Bonus points if you can bait them into doing so going past a speed trap or when there’s a cop hiding behind a bush.

This surefire way to annoy all your fellow drivers is best combined with Annoying Driving Habits #4 and #5.

#4: Not Pulling Over

OK, so there’s a queue of traffic piling up behind you like you’re leading them to freedom. At long last, you’ve come to part of the road with a wide shoulder, or possibly even a slow vehicle bay. To get the satisfaction of completely ticking off every single one of those drivers and their passengers, don’t pull over. Just keep on driving and staying in your lane.

#5: Living In The Fast Lane

Finally, to ensure that your fellow drivers start shouting dubious things about your ancestry and your love life, get into the fast lane or the passing lane (in Australia, that’s the one on the right that doesn’t have the oncoming traffic). And stay there. Don’t go at speeds that get used when overtaking. Don’t even go at the open road speed. Go just below it.

After all, you can’t let anybody pass you, as they may be guilty of Annoying Driving Habit #6.

#6: Scantily Clad Loads

If you have a ute or if you’re towing a trailer, it makes sense to tie down anything large like tables and chairs. You don’t want the inconvenience of losing that. However, if you’re taking a load of garbage to the dump or if you have a lot of things in the back that you don’t mind losing, such as leaves, grass clippings or stones. So to ensure that you enrage your fellow drivers, don’t bother covering this load. Leave it naked, even. That way, some will blow back as you drive, right into the windscreen of whoever’s behind you (see Annoying Driving Habit #2). If your load involved stones or gravel, then you may be lucky enough to chip their windscreen. Extra bonus points if the person behind you is getting about on a motorbike or bicycle– those peasants who don’t have as many wheels as you deserve a load of old barbecue ash in the face, right?

If you don’t have a trailer or a ute, you can get a similar effect by applying Annoying Driving Habit #7.

#7: Litterbugs

Your car is your castle, and you don’t want to clutter up your precious car with old coffee cups, uneaten fast food meals and packages, etc. You could merely keep these in a bag and dispose of them at the end of your journey, but why squander the opportunity to irritate not just other drivers but pedestrians, home owners, town councils and environmentalists? Out the window with it!

Throwing an apple core or peach pit out into the grass in the middle of the countryside is for amateurs. If you do this when nobody is in sight, this won’t annoy anybody. However, for maximum effect, dispose of plastic, paper or glass that you can’t be bothered with any longer, and do it in a built-up area.

However, a still-burning cigarette butt (here, I’m assuming that the way you drive isn’t your only bad habit) might be a bit too far. After all, you could hit a cyclist in the face with hot ash or, during drought season, start a fire. And the person behind you might be indulging in Annoying Driving Habit #8, meaning that they’ll be able to squeal to the authorities and get you into hot water.

#8: Staying Glued To Your Phone

You spend a lot of time in your car and you’ve got a busy life, so of course you NEED to stay on your phone. There are calls to take, and you’re pretty sure that you saw a text message or Snapchat or maybe it was a notification on Messenger from your boss or maybe it was your boyfriend or possibly it was your mother, but you’d better check, and then even if it came from the person in the group chat from the book club commenting on the latest bit of chick lit you’re working through at the moment, well you have to read it then and there because it would be rude to ghost them and just leave them with a Seen message without even a like or an emoji, right**? You have to consider the people in your life who are there only virtually ahead of the drivers around you! Besides, if checking your phone leads you to miss a light changing, make manoeuvres at the last minute (see Annoying Driving Habit #1) or swerve in front of people, you’ll annoy them to perfection.

Moreover, if you want to indulge in Annoying Driving Habit #9, you have to curate the right Spotify list.

#9: Wannabe DJs

You might not have the world’s most expensive car but you certainly have a very good sound system with very powerful speakers. If you’ve gone to all that effort, you have to flaunt it, right? Wind that speaker up, put your windows down and let that music play! Now, doing this with middle of the road music might only mildly annoy people. But to really grind people’s gears, select something that is loved by only a select few, preferably with dodgy lyrics of the sort that would have seen your grandfather getting his mouth washed out with soap by great-grandma.

If you’re a fan of this particular habit, then you probably regret the fact that Elon Musk chickened out on having some varieties of Tesla making fart noises when travelling at slow speeds. You’d have had a lot of fun with that – think of how many people you could tick off with an EV with a loud stereo and farting noises, especially if you drove past where they’re coming out of a funeral or something along those lines. However, that would probably mean that you’d drain your battery fairly quickly and have to drag yourself to the nearest supermarket with a charging station (see Annoying Driving Habits #4 and #5) and hope that someone else hasn’t decided to try in Annoying Driving Habit #10.

#10: Entitled Parking

It’s raining, so you want to park close to the doors of the mall or the supermarket or K-Mart or your other retail destination of choice. Otherwise, you might have to WALK (Gasp! The horror!). So park wherever you like. You’ll have the satisfaction of getting people’s goat and getting their knickers in a twist if you park your car somewhere clearly designated for something special (who do they think they are, right?). Put your 4×4 in the disabled parking spot or in the mothers with babies parks (your 4×4 will probably blend in with the others in the parents-only carparks anyway as long as nobody sees that you don’t have baby seats cluttering up your back seat). Or to become everybody’s least favourite person, park your 5-litre petrol or diesel in the EV charging spaces.

Now, have I missed any?  Who wants to suggest a few more annoying habits guaranteed to irritate?

**100 words in one sentence – I think that’s my personal best. Tell me, are you not annoyed?

Pets On Board

Go on – admit it.  Your pet is definitely one of the family.  One of the reasons why you chose the car you did is because you knew that you wanted to fit the dog in the car.

On the other hand, some of you may not consider your dog or cat to be a “fur baby”, even though you’re very fond of them, but you’ll still want or need to take your pet in the car with you at some point – to see the vet, for example.

However, are you carrying your pet in the car the right way? Cars have been designed for humans and to keep humans safe during a crash (if this happens) or a sudden stop, and the designers didn’t seem to think much about animals, and with good reason – there aren’t, to my knowledge, any crash test doggies… and now I’m curious and want to look this up. Back in a minute… Turns out there are canine crash test dummies after all.  More on them a bit later. However, distractions and fascinating new facts aside, there is a right way and a wrong way to carry a dog (or a cat) in a car.

The one thing that you shouldn’t do is to have the dog loose in the cabin. If the dog is feeling in the least bit insecure, it will come and lean on you and try to get close to you for comfort. It is impossible to drive safely the way you should with a large dog panting and slobbering in your ear, or with a small to medium-sized dog bouncing up and down on your lap and yapping. Your dog should be restrained. At the very least, you should train your dog to ride in the footwell of the back seat – and even that’s not ideal.

If you have an SUV, hatchback or stationwagon, there is an obvious place to put the dog: in the boot.  However, some dogs may try to climb out of the boot to come and join you in the cabin, and then you’ve got the problem of the large dog drooling down your neck or the smaller dog yapping on your lap (or, in the case of my brother’s dogs when they climbed out of the boot of his Subaru Legacy wagon, both). If you can get one of those screens or shields, that sits between the rear seats and the boot, this is ideal, as the dog can’t climb over or through these. These guards aren’t restraints, so your dog may be injured if a crash happens.

If the dog is in the boot, you will probably want to make sure that you don’t have your lunch or other food supplies in there with it. Otherwise, when you open the boot, well, the food will technically still be inside the boot but it will also be inside the dog.  Either keep the food in a very stout esky or put the food in the cabin of the car.

But what if you have a sedan and you’re not quite prepared to go out and buy a new car even though you’ve just acquired a dog? Is that new car essential? Well, the dog may be a good excuse to get a new car, especially if you’ve been wanting one for a while. However, if the budget doesn’t quite stretch to that yet, then you need to look at restraining your dog in the cabin. You shouldn’t put a dog in the boot of a sedan, as the dog may become distressed and some may become carsick.  Dogs, like people, like to see where they’re going when they’re travelling.

There are two ways you can restrain a dog in the cabin. The first is to buy a harness for your dog. These are compatible with most five-point seatbelts, and the idea is that you put the harness on the dog, then get the dog into the car and onto the back seat (try bribery with treats if your dog isn’t keen), then clip the seatbelt through the harness. Never try to slip the seatbelt through the dog’s collar, as this could strangle your dog if an accident happens.  These harnesses are properly tested and they are designed to keep your dog safe if a crash happens. You guessed it: this is why crash test dummy dogs exist and it’s how they have managed to ensure that these harnesses actually restrain dogs if the worst happens. 

Dogs like to look out of the window, so if your dog is on the smaller side, then you can also buy booster seats designed for dogs.

If your dog is restrained on the back seat of your car with a harness (with or without a booster seat), then it can be wise to put down a blanket to protect the interior upholstery from dog hair, dribble and scratches. You can buy specially designed hammock sorts of things that fit over the seat and protect the upholstery (the dog sits in the hammock thing), or you can put down a blanket. The blanket will slide around the place, but it’s easier to wash than the big hammock thing. Your choice as to what you prefer.

The other main way to keep a dog restrained in a car if it’s small (meaning the dog, not the car) is to use a carrying crate. It’s best to restrain the crate or you have the risk of a loose and heavy object inside the cabin that could smack into you from behind in a crash. You can do this by slipping the seatbelt through the bars or handle of the crate before fastening the seatbelt. The other advantage of a carrier crate is that you can lift the dog into the back seat and put him/her where she/he needs to go, without any need for orders, cajoling or bribery.  You can also, in the case of chunkier smaller breeds that can be a bit harder to pick up (e.g., Staffordshire Bull Terriers), train the dog to enter the crate once the crate has been clipped in place.

In the case of cats, a carrying crate is an absolute must. Of all the many cats I have known throughout my life, only one of them actually enjoyed riding in the car, and even the one that enjoyed the car could be a menace, as she would try to jump onto the driver’s lap or onto the dashboard. Most cats, however, hate riding in the car and will fight like fury to get out. I think it’s the engine noise that freaks them out, although I haven’t tried to take a cat in an EV yet.  Make sure that the crate is very securely closed and that the door can’t be prised open, or the cat will do exactly this, and then you have the problem of driving with a very frantic and frazzled cat screaming around the interior of the car (yes, this has happened to me). If the cat does get out of the crate in transit, pull over, stop the engine, climb into the back seat (don’t open the door or window) and put the cat back in the crate. Then apply first aid to your scratches.

If you want to carry other animals in a vehicle, use common sense. Birds, rabbits, chickens and the like go in a carrying crate. Sheep and goats can go in the back of a stationwagon or SUV, but make sure you have a guard between the cabin and the boot or the goats will climb out and investigate the cabin (personal experience speaking here). However, if you transport this sort of livestock, then investing in a crate that goes on the back of an old-fashioned farm ute is a must – leave the boot for haybales and bags of feed instead.

Getting To Know ANCAP’s Car Safety Ratings

When buying a new car, safety is always on top of everyone’s list, and rightfully so, especially if you always have precious cargo: you and your loved ones.

Fortunately, there are several ways to check if the car you’re looking into buying is safe on the road – and one of them is provided by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

So, before buying that new car and heading on that adventure, here’s everything you need to know about ANCAP’s safety ratings. This way, you can make a fully-informed choice as you buy your dream car.

In this article, we’ll explain how the ANCAP Vehicle Safety Ratings work to guide you in your research for your next car purchase.

What is an ANCAP safety rating?

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is an independent voice on vehicle safety for Australia and New Zealand that has been publishing safety ratings for new vehicle makes, models and variants since 1992.

ANCAP uses star ratings (from 1 through 5) to indicate the level of safety that a car provides for both occupants and pedestrians in the event of a crash. It also incorporates the technology that a vehicle model has to avoid or minimise the impact of a crash. So far, ANCAP has tested around 900 car models available in Australia and New Zealand.

To check how safe a car is, you can search for the model and make here: ANCAP Safety Ratings.

Important note: safety standards change over the years and ANCAP adapts to this. This is why the ANCAP website clearly includes the year when the car model has been tested – as such, a 5-star rating in 2002 may not be as reliable as a 5-star rating in 2022.

When checking the ANCAP safety rating, ideally, you want a model that has 5 stars and has been tested in the last 6 years.

How does ANCAP rate the safety of vehicles?

ANCAP conducts a series of internationally recognised, independent crash tests and safety assessments to determine the safety rating of each new vehicle. This involves:

• a range of physical crash tests
• an assessment of onboard safety features and equipment
• performance testing of active collision avoidance technologies

All vehicles are evaluated and rated in these four key areas:

• Adult Occupant Protection
  This is an assessment of the level of protection for adults seated in the front and second row of a car during the most common injury-causing vehicle crash scenarios.
• Child Occupant Protection
  This considers the level of protection that children seated in the rear seats with appropriate child restraints get. ANCAP also tests the inclusion and effectiveness of safety features for children, including the ability of vehicles to accommodate the most common child restraints.
• Vulnerable Road User Protection
  This area evaluates the vehicle’s ability to minimise injury risk to a struck pedestrian or cyclist as well as the tech inclusions included to avoid or reduce impact with other road users.
• Safety Assist
  This criterion rates the inclusion and effectiveness of additional collision avoidance technology in vehicles that may prevent or minimise the risk of a crash.

To earn a 5-star ANCAP rating, a vehicle must perform at a high level across ALL four key categories.

What do ANCAP ratings look like?

Let’s look at an example.

Take the top-selling car in Australia in June 2023: the Toyota Hilux. The Toyota Hilux received a 5-star rating in 2019, with the following assessment scores:

The 5-star rating was given after the vehicle model performed well during the tests performed across all the key categories.

What vehicle safety tests are done to get an ANCAP safety rating?

ANCAP simulates the most common types of on-road crashes to assess their effects on adult and child occupants, as well as pedestrians, all using crash test dummies.

Physical crash tests include:

• frontal impact
• side impact
• run-off-road
• rear-end
• pedestrian strikes

The technologies assessed for the Safety Assist category, on the other hand, include:

• car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian and car-to-cyclist autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems,
• lane support systems (LSS),
• automatic emergency steering (AES)
• and speed assistance systems (SAS).

If you’re curious about these, you can watch the test simulations here: How ANCAP tests cars for safety.

The ANCAP rating requirements are updated every 3 years to encourage the inclusion of the latest safety features in the new cars that are available in Australia and New Zealand.

Road safety is everyone’s concern, and it helps to have access to reliable vehicle safety ratings that can guide you towards choosing the vehicle that can take you and your family safely on your next adventure.

With all these safety concerns and other complexities involves in the car-buying experience, it helps to have a vehicle expert who can guide you.

So, if you have questions about cars, ANCAP safety ratings and how you can choose the right vehicle for you, simply reach out to us for a chat.

Find the right (and safest) vehicle for you with Private Fleet.

Private Fleet empowers you to gain all the benefits of a fleet purchase, but as a private buyer.

Backed by decades of vehicle industry experience, fleet buying power and a network of car dealers across Australia, we are here to ensure that buying your next vehicle will be as straightforward as possible for you.

Shopping for a car is an enjoyable process – let us make it hassle-free, too.

Reach out to us today for a seamless and simple car-buying experience.