Read your user manual. The manufacturers manual will provide all sorts of hints and tips for you to maintain your vehicle yourself and to optimize and economise your driving in order to reduce fuel and maintenance costs.

Use a local, independent garage for servicing and tuning. Non-franchised garages are generally cheaper than a dealership and provide an honest job. Ensure that the garage is VAT registered, is genuine and reliable, and trust recommendations of good work at an honest price. If youâre ever in doubt about quoted work you can get a second opinion from another mechanic. This is also a great way to reduce the bill because with a second opinion you can barter or cost up they most cost-effective garage.

Top up your fluids yourself. By checking and topping up your carâs oil, coolant, brake fluid and even windscreen wash you will ensure that your car runs smoothly and efficiently. Topping up the fluids yourself is straightforward and cheap to carry out, and it could save you hundreds of pounds in repairs. If you're not sure how to top up any of your fluids check in the manual or even ask your mechanic to give you some pointers.

Check and inflate your tyres yourself. Having correctly inflated tyres will save you in petrol costs plus it will reduce tyre wear and tear. Regularly check that your tyres are inflated to the recommended pressure and if need be top them up with air at your local petrol station. If you're not sure what pressure your tyres should be at, it should be printed on the tyres or otherwise check in the users manual for directions.

As soon as you suspect a problem with your car get it checked out. It is better to pay for a minor repair rather than major work because you've aggravated the problem by not getting it looked at. If a warning light comes up on your dashboard and you can't solve the problem yourself you should take it to your garage in case it is a big problem.

Treat windscreen chips straights away before they turn into a crack which would be expensive to repair or pose a danger should it smash. Under most insurance policies chips are free to repair and will not affect your no claims.