Fear can inspire driving safety

Fear motivates many of our daily decisions and actions. Advertisers have long played upon our sense of fear to sell us everything from anti-perspirant to zwieback. Our fear of underarm “pancakes” is the motivation to use the former, and fear of a fussy teething infant helps sell the latter. We’ve all seen commercials promoting the curtailment of “embarrassing wetness,” and one of those rock-hard toast manufacturers used a baby on the box to infer an answer to teething discomfort.

The list of products hinting to assuage our fears is endless. We buy insurance (life, auto, health, home and others) to help reduce our fear of death, accidents, sickness or fire. We are even sold laundry soap based on the fear that our current soap might not get our clothes as clean as the new and improved formula.

It’s also possible that we buy a new or newer vehicles based on fear — in part because we’re afraid of being stranded, and maybe partly because we fear our image deteriorating along with our rides.

I just realized that my vehicle maintenance regime is based on fear too — and that’s a good thing. This revelation came to me as I prepare for a 5,000-mile road trip.

The first thing I did was to buy new tires. The old ones had approximately 50 percent remaining, but fear made me discard them. I know that this trip will involve many hours at speed. When I visualize myself in a gaggle of car, truck and semitrailer traffic at 78 mph, I can’t justify the half-worn rubber — I’d be in fear of tire failure (the No. 1 cause of vehicle breakdown on the highway). It’s not that I can afford to buy them — it’s that I can’t afford not to. I’m sure the dealer will find a local driver to buy my old ones, which will work fine around here — I just don’t want to use them for 12 hours a day with heat and speed.

I’ve found that most vehicle owners hate to spend money on repairs and maintenance, and I’ve always wondered why. We depend so heavily on our cars, I don’t know why so many take them for granted. Any mechanical device in use will require repairs and maintenance, so we should expect that our cars need periodic attention. In fact, a proper maintenance program will usually eliminate unexpected repairs — there’s that fear factor again.

In spite of the fuel prices, I still consider driving a motor vehicle to be cheap entertainment, and I don’t want that entertainment to come to a halt. So, I keep my vehicles in top shape out of fear — fear that they may otherwise let me down. Even with maintenance and repair costs, I consider driving a privilege and a bargain

That’s why — again out of fear — I bought four new shocks (even though this vehicle has only 35,000 miles), and put synthetic oil in the crankcase. The American Petroleum Institute claims that oil begins to break down after 3,000 miles. Since this trip is 5,000 miles, and I don’t wish to service in route, the synthetic is a good alternative. At around $6 per quart, it’s expensive, but once again, I feel I can’t afford not to use it.

I got a wheel alignment for good measure, borne of fear that a toe-in discrepancy (alignment lingo) might scrub off tire tread unnecessarily during the many hours of highway running.

Although we may not always think consciously about it, fear motivates much of our behavior. One may also call it preparedness, but preparedness is still motivated by fear of the adverse consequences that may arise out of ill preparedness.

Try to meet or exceed your vehicle manufacturers’ recommendations for service. Whatever your motivation — be it fear or simply good sense — treat your vehicle to the maintenance and repairs that will keep it dependable and safe. Otherwise, be very afraid.