Car Maintenance for Hybrid Vehicles

There are many reasons to love hybrid vehicles. They're great for the environment, and they're also great for the wallet; given the escalating prices of gasoline, they practically pay for themselves! To boot, many hybrid vehicles are sporty, attractive, and trendy. It's no wonder they sell well, and that more and more manufacturers are investing in designing new hybrid models. But for all the merits of hybrid vehicles, there are a few issues to consider -- specifically, the fact that maintenance is a little different for hybrid cars than it is for non-hybrids. This isn't a problem, of course -- just something hybrid owners ought to be aware of.Actually, the news is mostly quite good. In fact, we could almost chalk up maintenance as another one of the true perks to hybrid ownership, as, generally speaking, maintenance is much less demanding and less involved with hybrid cars than it is with traditional vehicles. The most common maintenance error a hybrid owner can make -- believe it or not -- is simply spending too much money on unnecessary vehicle maintenance.For a prime example, consider your car's brakes. We all know that brake pads need to be replaced fairly regularly -- but in a hybrid car, your brake pad will actually last a lot longer than it will in a traditional vehicle. That's because a hybrid uses regenerative brake pads; in fact, this is an important part of how most hybrid systems work. If you're driving a hybrid vehicle, then, you should be aware that brake pad replacement won't be necessary nearly as often as it would be if you were driving a non-hybrid automobile.And unlike electric vehicles, hybrids do not need to be plugged in. In fact, it's doubtful that you will ever need to replace the battery; the battery in a hybrid vehicle is designed to last for the entire life of the car. So long as you maintain a charge, you should be fine. (And a charge is maintained simply by regularly operating the vehicle.)So are there any areas in which a hybrid might require some special maintenance or attention? There might be just one. For some types of hybrid cars, it is necessary to change the battery filter every 40,000 miles or so -- but this is only true in a few cases. You can find out if your hybrid fits this description simply by consulting your owner's manual. It might also be mentioned that the same holds true for many non-hybrid vehicles, too, so even this is not truly a mark against hybrids.In fact, the issue of maintenance really causes virtually no pause when it comes to hybrid vehicles. Of course, every car is different, and service issues can arise unexpectedly. In comparison to non-hybrid vehicles, though, hybrids offer no real areas of concern, and in fact the most major differences between regular car maintenance and hybrid car maintenance are all very much in the hybrid's favor.