New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- There are few words more useful in everyday life than 'later'. I will send her the flowers later. I will get that medical test done later. I will see the dentist later; it only hurts occasionally. I will tell the boss I am quitting later. I will have that difficult conversation with her later.
And then there is the car. A tyre looks a little soft. Later. There is a faint noise when you brake. Later. The steering wheel has developed a tiny vibration. Later. The service reminder has been staring at you for three weeks. Later.
Nothing is dangerously wrong. Yet. That last word is where trouble begins. Because the car does not understand procrastination. It understands wear, friction, pressure, heat and mileage. Ignore those things long enough and the car eventually translates 'later' into a language everybody understands. Bill. Big bill.
Just a Little
Cars rarely begin demanding money suddenly. Usually, they start with something small enough to ignore. The engine sounds slightly different. Later. The brakes feel a little less sharp. Later. The suspension makes a dull thunk over a pothole. Later. The air-conditioner is blowing, but with all the enthusiasm of a tired ceiling fan. Later. The wipers leave a perfect stripe across the windscreen. Later.
And that little warning light on the dashboard? Surely it can wait until the weekend. The weekend comes. Then another one. The car continues to move. So, technically, everything is fine.
This is the great advantage of owning a car. And the great disadvantage. A car can continue moving while quietly collecting problems. We are particularly good at postponing the boring things. Nobody wants to spend a Saturday morning at the workshop because the air filter needs changing. Nobody gets excited about wheel alignment. Nobody calls a friend to announce that they have finally replaced the brake pads.
But these are precisely the things that keep a car from becoming a story.
The tyre that has been losing pressure slowly? Check it. The steering that no longer feels quite straight? Get the alignment done. The brakes making that faint scraping sound? Have them inspected. The battery taking a little longer to wake up every morning? Do not wait for the morning when it doesn't. The oil has done its kilometres? Change it. The service is due? Service it.
There is nothing glamorous about any of this. Which is probably why we postpone it.
Nothing Serious
We spend hours comparing mobile phones before buying one, then spend 15 minutes choosing tyres for a car that may carry our entire family down a wet highway. Then we wonder why the car does not feel right.
Tyres are particularly good at exposing this attitude. A little uneven wear? Later. Tread getting low? There is still some left. Pressure dropping every few weeks? Just fill it again. Until the day the tyre decides it has had enough. And tyres are only one part of the equation.
A neglected air filter can affect how an engine breathes. A worn brake pad does not become safer because we have ignored it for another month. Wheel alignment does not improve because the steering wheel has been sitting at an angle for six weeks.
And that strange noise from underneath? That is perhaps the most efficiently ignored object in motoring. If the car makes a noise once, we listen. If it makes the same noise every day, we stop hearing it. Somewhere between the first clunk and the tenth, the sound becomes part of the car's personality.
We even give it names. "That's always been there." Usually, it hasn't.
Some relationships are like worn-out tyres. You know they need changing. You keep telling yourself there is still some tread left. And sometimes, of course, there is always the argument for "just one more time". But let us stay with the car.
Pay Now, Or Later
The strange thing about preventive maintenance is that when it works, nothing happens. You replace the brake pads before they damage the discs. Nothing happens. You change the tyre before the tread disappears. Nothing happens. You replace the battery before it dies outside the office on a Monday evening. Nothing happens. You fix the suspension noise before a small problem becomes a larger one. Nothing happens.
And because nothing happens, we wonder whether we really needed to spend the money. That is the peculiar economics of maintaining a car. You pay to prevent an event that you will never see.
Nobody congratulates you for replacing a worn tyre before it fails. Nobody notices that your brake pads were changed before metal began grinding against metal. There is no trophy for avoiding a breakdown. Just a car that starts every morning.
And perhaps that is the whole point. The best-maintained car is often the least interesting car in the world. It starts. It runs. It turns. It stops. It cools.
Until It Hurts
But 'later' has another quality. It tends to become more expensive with age. The tyre wasn't particularly expensive. The damaged wheel was. The brake pads weren't particularly expensive. The discs were. The service wasn't particularly expensive. The roadside breakdown was. The little suspension noise wasn't frightening. The repair bill that followed certainly was.
The car has not betrayed you. You betrayed the car. You ignored the calendar. Perhaps that is why cars are such good teachers of the word 'later'. They do not argue with us. They simply keep giving us hints. So the next time the dashboard lights up, the tyre looks a little soft, the brakes sound different, the steering feels strange, or the car tells you it is time for a service, don't say later.
The car has no idea what later means. Neither does the mechanic. And certainly not the bill. Later has a curious habit of arriving with a tow truck.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.