Building Long Lasting Relationships With Quality Service and Trust Since 1980
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM
We Gladly Service Your Asian and Domestic Vehicles
Alpine Auto Service, Inc.
Why Alpine Auto Service?
© 2012 Alpine Auto Service, Inc. | 7120 East Furnace Branch Road | Glen Burnie MD
21060 | 410-
We honor extended warranties.
Close By
At 7120 East Furnace Branch Rd. 1/2 block east of Ritchie Highway
Fast
Most work completed in one day.
Honest
Do only work that is necessary.
Professional
ASE certified Master Technicians.
FREE Financing
0% Financing for 6 months!
Priced Right
Highly competitive pricing for the most respected service in town.
Choice Of Parts
High quality or economy parts saves you money.
Convenient
FREE local shuttle service.
Early drop-
No Surprises
All prices must be approved by you before any work is done.
Incredible Warranty
18 months or 18,000 miles on parts and labor.
Work Done Right
The first time, on time. Serving our clients since 1980.
Customer Rewards Program
Free gas for your referrals.
100% Customer Satisfaction
Our most important goal.
Insurance work accepted.
The subject of vehicle maintenance is a murky one at best. Vehicle manufacturers have recently found that promoting their vehicles as "low maintenance" plays well with prospective buyers. Who wouldn’t want a vehicle that needs nothing more than fuel? So, their recommended service intervals are not based on what will make your car last as long as it can. After all, they want to sell cars, and they’d rather sell you one every 100,000 miles rather than every 250,000 miles.
You can find the manufacturer’s maintenance schedules in the back of your owner’s manual. This used to be considered the minimum required maintenance to keep your vehicle running efficiently for a long time. Note that these schedules are the minimum required. If you plan on keeping your vehicle for only 70,000 or 80,000 miles, these schedules will suffice. However, with proper maintenance, many of today’s engines can easily exceed 200,000 miles without a major overhaul or rebuild. But that’s not likely to happen if you follow the manufacturer’s schedule.
Here’s the main problem for the consumer when he or she shops for maintenance.
It’s extremely difficult to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. There
is no standard for maintenance. You could ask 10 different repair shops for a price
on a 30,000-
Frequent oil and filter changes are critical to extended engine life. Yes, engine
oil is much better than it used to be. And modern engines don’t contribute as much
"blow-
Consider the implications of not flushing your cooling system for 100,000 miles. Proper cooling system maintenance will reduce corrosion in expensive items like radiators and heater cores. But it will also reduce the corrosion on inexpensive items like freeze plugs. Freeze plugs are small metal discs that seal access holes that are cast into engine blocks and cylinder heads. They may cost only 50 cents each, but some are located in the back of the block. If they rust through and leak, the engine or transmission must be removed to replace them. The other freeze plugs are apt to be in the same condition. You could easily spend $1000 to replace all of the freeze plugs, which are worth about $10 for all of them. It’s a lot less expensive to flush the cooling system every other year.
The cost to replace a timing belt may be several hundred dollars before it breaks, but if you wait until it breaks, it may do several thousand dollars worth of damage to valves and pistons.
So how do you know what you need? The key here is to find a shop that you trust and follow their advice. They will have many years of experience and know what maintenance is needed based on your make of vehicle and your driving style. Maintenance is not free, but it’s much less costly than a repair.
