A car like a Land Rover is a significant life investment, and many of us depend on our cars to get us to and from work each day, to allow us to carry out our essential chores and obligations, and much more besides.

For that reason, it’s obviously a pretty miserable and unfortunate state of affairs when your car gets damaged and has to have serious work done on it, or else be replaced out of pocket.

While various vehicle cover plans exist, such as Cars Protection Plus, it’s always best to do what you can to avoid damage to your car in the first place.

Here are a few good driving practices to keep your car in decent condition.

Practice good situational awareness and avoid potholes and small obstacles on the road

When driving, you should always maintain a broad, relaxed focus on the road in front of you, that allows you to notice potential obstacles without becoming too highly focused on any one thing that you lose track of the bigger picture.

We all know that this is important, but it’s still pretty common for the average motorist to find themselves spacing out for extended periods of time when driving, only to hit a pothole, or a stone, or small obstacle or bit of debris on the road.

Not only can these kinds of obstacles puncture your tyres, but the force and vibration generated by driving over them can actually lead to more significant damage to your vehicle.

Remain calm while driving and avoid sudden manoeuvres, such as sharply applying the brakes, unless necessary

One style of driving that is very likely to lead to various forms of damage to your car, is to drive as fast as possible at all times, only to slam on the brakes at the last moment whenever you come to a slower speed zone, or a set of traffic lights.

Not only does sharply applying brakes like this cause wear and tear in and of itself, but driving in this way also significantly increases the odds that you will have some sort of collision, due to not having enough time to properly react in different situations.

Instead, remain calm while driving and manage your speed better. Avoid sudden manoeuvres, such as sharply applying your brakes, unless you actually have to in order to avoid crashing into someone or something, or ending up in some other unsafe situation.

Drive your car regularly, and make sure to check the tyre pressure, the car’s oil levels, and so on

Driving your car regularly is important for ensuring that it doesn’t experience the kind of deterioration that comes from allowing it to stand idle for a prolonged period of time.

In addition to driving your car regularly, you should also perform standard bits of maintenance frequently, rather than allowing them to go neglected for prolonged periods of time.

Among other things, you should routinely check the pressure in your tyres, and check and maintain your car’s oil levels.