Preventive maintenance helps to ensure your vehicle runs well and is safe to drive. Automakers even include recommended service intervals in the manuals that come with every vehicle. Unfortunately, many vehicle owners ignore recommended maintenance services. According to the automotive market research company IMR Inc, nearly 8% of motorists procrastinate on vehicle maintenance. Here are three reasons why waiting on maintenance and auto repair services could be dangerous.

1. You Could Get Into an Accident

Your vehicle combines many mechanical systems that enable you to control it and drive safely. When you ignore maintenance and auto repair services, those systems degrade until they no longer work, making your vehicle prone to accidents. For example, your brakes require annual maintenance to ensure the brake pads are in good shape and enable you to control your speed and stop safely. If your brakes are shot and not working, you can't stop safely and might run into another vehicle or pedestrian. You also might run through an intersection and cause an accident that timely maintenance could have prevented.

2. Your Safety Equipment Could Fail

Vehicles are equipped with active and passive safety systems that rely on technology to work effectively. Blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assistance, and automated braking are just a few examples of the many types of active safety equipment that most current-production vehicles possess. Even some passive systems, like seatbelts, depend on automatic tensioners to make them more effective and comfortable to use while driving. An electronic failure could render one or more systems useless and leave you and your passengers more vulnerable to suffering serious injury or death if an accident were to occur.

3. You Could Succumb to Carbon Monoxide

A defective vehicle system could cause extreme harm even if an accident doesn't happen. If your exhaust system is degraded due to a lack of maintenance and essential auto repair services, it could lead to potentially deadly carbon monoxide in the passenger cabin. Carbon monoxide is a hazardous gas that could affect your motor skills and judgment while you are driving and may even result in death.

Regular maintenance and auto repair services are essential to ensure your and your passengers' safety. If you're in need of an auto mechanic to take care of all your vehicle's needs, contact Automotive Procare today. We look forward to assisting you!