Written by Menswear Style in Cars on the 13th October 2023

Whether you are a keen, confident driver, or you are just starting to drive on the roads, it’s no surprise that safety should always be your main concern. The last thing you want is to either come to harm yourself, or to cause someone else to come to harm, and the truth is that you can hopefully avoid such a fate if you take some simple steps whenever you drive. A lot of this also comes down to keeping your vehicle itself safe - because as long as the car is safe, it’s much more likely the people will be safe, too.

With that in mind, here are some of the main things to think about in order to keep your car safe every time you drive. You should find that the following all helps to do just that, so that you can effectively keep yourself and everyone around you as safe as possible.

Secure It 

Something you should do even before you drive is to make sure that you have secured your car. In other words, you need to think about how and where it is stored. The ideal is obviously to be able to keep it in a locked garage at your home, but that is not always possible and not everyone has the access to that kind of storage. Beyond that, having it as close to home as possible is best, perhaps on a driveway or under a carport. And if you have to park it on the street, then you should make sure that it is as close to your home as possible, or to your place of work when you are at work. Ideally you will have eyes on it from inside. You should of course also make sure to lock it every time you leave it, even if only for a moment - and do nothing to encourage anyone to try and break in, such as leaving something valuable on display inside. If you can secure it like this, it’s going to be more likely to stay in a safe condition for you to drive it. 

Service It 

Taking your car for a regular service is another thing that you really need to make sure you are doing. If you are not doing this, then you are going to find that you struggle to really look after it, and you are going to be much more likely to see it break down or get into some kind of mechanical issue. Servicing the car should happen every 10,000 miles or so as an average, although that can vary depending on the vehicle as well. When you service it, it is best if you can take it to a professional garage, and ideally one that specializes in the make of your car. They will know the car better than anyone, and be able to arrange for the proper parts and so on too, so that is something that you should really bear in mind here. In any case, regular servicing makes it a much safer vehicle to drive.

Fix Up Any Issues Quick 

Whenever there are any issues with the vehicle, you should make sure that you are fixing them as soon as possible. The longer you leave them, the worse they will get, and you will find that you are going to struggle to have confidence in the car’s ability to drive well and to remain safe at all times. You need to make sure that you are getting any issues looked into and fixed as soon as possible. To do that, it depends on what the issue is, and there is no doubt that some fixes will be quicker than others. But the best step is to simply call the garage and discuss the problem. From there, you can then figure out what you might want to do about it, so that you can easily get on the road again. 

Keep It Road Legal 

It should go without saying that you need to make sure your car is road legal at all times. As well as getting it to pass the MOT, you should find that you are going to need to think about a few other things as well, just to ensure that it is legal to keep on driving it. There are certain things which you need to watch out for here. For instance, keep an eye on the tire tread. This needs to be deep enough otherwise they might not be legal, and you could be running a significant safety risk by using them. Some legal checks are not necessarily going to make you feel less safe, but are still important. For instance, if your license plate is damaged or missing, then you can get pulled over for that - so you will need to make sure that you get the number plates replaced as soon as possible. Keeping the car road legal is hugely important and something to keep up with as best as you can.

Driving In The Right State 

The way in which you drive is obviously important too, and much of this comes down to what kind of mental and psychological state you are in as you drive. You should make sure that, as far as possible, you are only ever driving when you are in the right state of mind. That means you feel alert, awake, sober and confident, and you are not worried at all about your ability. But at the same time, watch out for overconfidence, because that can be a really dangerous thing too if you are not careful. All in all, driving in the right state is hugely important if you are going to keep safe. 

Those are the main things you can do to keep your car safe whenever you drive - and therefore ensure the safety of people as you drive your vehicle, too.

Secure It, Service It, Fix Up Any Issues Quick, Keep It Road Legal, and Driving In The Right State.