Holiday travel from McHenry more festive if the vehicle is reliable

Timely safety check and maintenance can ensure trouble free trips

Last year, according to the AAA, more than 119-million Americans traveled for “year-end holidays.” With a population of approximately 330-million Americans, that means that more than one third of us left home for the holidays.

Quite a few people from McHenry will do

some traveling this holiday season. For those
who do, it's important to make sure your
vehicle is reliable before you go.

Of those who traveled in previous Decembers, 10.3% of them traveled by air or some other form of travel other than automobiles. That means that nearly nine out of ten holiday travelers used the roads to get to their destinations. That’s about 107 million. And, even those who travel by air, train or boat, probably have to drive a little to get to their points of embarkation.

That’s a significant commitment, all that driving and such. Why would people do that?

They do it because they want to be with loved ones for the holidays.

There’s nothing like spending Christmas with mom and dad, especially if you have their grandkids along for the festivities. Even if you’re traveling to spend the holidays with friends, they have to be good friends for you to take the effort.

According to “the Vacationer” website:

37.15% of holiday travelers will travel as far as 99 miles from home
19.3% will travel 100 to 499 miles from home
7.78% will travel 500 to 999 miles from home

If someone is traveling 500 to 999 miles from home, that’s a serious test of their vehicle’s ability to get them safely, and reliably to their destination and, of course, back. But even a trip of 100 to 499 miles could shake loose a mechanical issue waiting to happen.

Think about it – you’re all loaded up in the car, heading on out on the highway. Hopefully, you’re all having a good time. You might even be singing Christmas carols as you go. Suddenly, you hear a thumping and the driver is fighting the wheel as a flat tire threatens to send your vehicle out of control.

Or maybe the car just stops running. Hopefully, the traffic isn’t too heavy as the driver tries to safely coast the car onto the shoulder.

If it’s a flat tire, someone is probably back there unloading the luggage and Christmas presents to get at the tire and jack as traffic blasts by accosting them with a man-made wind. Hopefully, all the drivers going by are paying attention to the road and you’re all safe.

If all goes well, and you’re safely back on the road soon, it’s only a modest inconvenience. But if it’s something more serious, the degree of inconvenience, and potential costs, could be significant. You might not even make it to your destination.

The best way to ensure safe travel for the holidays is to have scheduled maintenance performed beforehand, along with a proper safety inspection. A safety inspection can be done for free and can often be done while a qualified auto repair technician is performing that maintenance.

The important thing is to have a good and safe trip and this is not a significant inconvenience.

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