Vehicle maintenance website needed.

December 14, 2011 7:23 PM

I'm looking for the best free online vehicle maintenance scheduling, logging, and alert website. Can someone recommend one they've used?

I'm finally getting a new truck! Yay! And I want to take care of it. I'm looking for a website, preferably free, that can alert me when it's time for scheduled maintenance, alert me to recalls, log my maintenance, etc.

Hopefully someone has had a positive experience with something like that?

posted by Jackie_Treehorn to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

First, most cars/trucks are time and mileage based, whichever comes first. So simply dealing with dates isn't a catch all. On the positive side, doesn't every new car these days come with a built in maintenance countdown of some sort that is both date/mileage based? My 2011 GTI did, the GF's 2009 Fit did and my mom's new Kia something or other did. So you'll have an alert there on the dash staring you in the face. The log is in the glovebox.

However, if for some reason your car doesn't do this, simply calculate out the next few years of maintenance and put it into a free calendar solution like Google and be sure to set an alert. Make use of repeating events so entry is quick and you can shift things as necessary without having to move all future dates one by one. Feel free to use a fat client (I use iCal since I'm a Mac user, I'm sure Windows and Linux folks have their own caldav compatible application) to help out as well.
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:44 PM on December 14, 2011

Do you have an Android phone?
posted by dgeiser13 at 2:15 PM on December 15, 2011

Response by poster: I have an iPhone. I do have an older droid incredible that I don't use right now however.
posted by Jackie_Treehorn at 2:54 PM on December 15, 2011

I've heard really good things about the aCar app. It appears to be only available with Android.
posted by dgeiser13 at 9:55 AM on December 16, 2011

Response by poster: Purchased Gas Cubby for my iPhone and have been really happy with it.
posted by Jackie_Treehorn at 5:32 AM on March 22, 2012