MANY vehicle owners often overlook the idea that taking care of their car is not dissimilar to taking care of their body.

Like the rupture of an important artery can make a person collapse in a split second, a sudden failure in the suspension system or a loose bolt in a wheel disc can turn a dream machine into a hulking wreck. But the analogy goes further; a poorly-maintained car is more likely to have an accident and endanger the lives of its occupants.

The functions of each and every component in a motor vehicle are crucial, whether bouncing on country roads, stuck in city gridlock or cruising on a highway.

All vehicles, from cars to airplanes, are composed of a series of individual, interrelated parts, each performing a specific job. If any one component fails to perform for whatever reasons, the overall system can fail.

In this respect, the reliability and improvement of individual components becomes very important.

The generally accepted reliability concept is if the number of components increases, the reliability of the entire system decreases very quickly.

So in a system with 50 interacting parts, each with 99.5 percent reliability, the system has an overall reliability of 78pc.

If the machine has 100 interacting parts each with 99.5pc individual reliability, the whole system’s reliability will be reduced only to about 60pc.

The more interacting parts the less the whole system can be relied on.

A car owner can hardly remove the parts of their car in an effort to make it more reliable.

But we can improve the car’s reliability by improving the individual components, providing redundancy, doing preventive maintenance and increasing repair capabilities.

Redundancy is provided mainly in aircraft or space shuttle, where the smallest fault can quickly endanger the lives of passengers and crew. The idea is to ensure that if one part fails, the system has an alternative, to keep it functioning.

For instance, if we back up a component that has 80pc reliability with one of the same reliability, the resulting reliability is 96pc (for those curious, this can be found by multiplying the probability of the first component working by the probability of the backup component working multiplied by the probability of needing the backup component – in this case, 0.8 + 0.8 × (1-0.8) = 0.8 + 0.16=.0.96, or 96pc).

But often, when it comes to maintaining a car, owners prefer to repair something only when it breaks. The wise choice is to maintain preventively.

In addition to empirical evidence, theoretical calculations show preventive maintenance is less expensive (and less frustrating) for the car owners.

According to operation management experts, Professor Jay Heizer of Texas Luterhan University and Professor Barry Render of Rollins College, a good maintenance facility should have six features.

They are well-trained personnel, adequate resources, ability to establish a repair plan and priorities, ability and authority to do material planning, ability to identify the cause of breakdowns and the ability to design ways to extend the expected time between a repair and the next failure of a component ,machines, process or product.(MTBF).

During my 35 years of driving, I have personally experienced, seen and heard of numerous accidents, with varying degrees of damage and injury – sometimes even loss of life.

Many of these could have been avoided with preventative maintenance. The importance of maintaining your car cannot be overemphasised.

Here is a basic checklist of things to examine on your vehicle:

- tyres are well inflated and balanced.

- has enough lubricants

- has enough water in the radiator

- tied rod and suspension systems are in proper condition

- accelerator, brake and clutch levers are in proper conditions

- does not have suspicious looking wiring