The price of gas is going up.  A new, more fuel efficient car might make sense -- but the prices of cars are going up as well.  Soon, your existing car might not look like such a bad idea.  Maybe you've paid it off, or you're close to doing so, and the cost of repairs and maintenance is usually less than the cost of a new car payment.  How can you make it last as long as possible?

MSN Money reports, "Not everyone wants to drive a car that just clicked over the 250,000-mile mark…but most of us can, since today's vehicles are better built than ever and can easily surpass 200,000 miles with regular maintenance."  Extending the life of your car is easy if you follow a few simple practices.  Following the maintenance schedule is key.  MSN says "A few hundred bucks' worth of prevention each year can stave off thousands in repairs."  Babying your engine helps, as well.  "It helps to avoid jackrabbit starts and racing the engine while it's idling. You can reduce wear and tear even more by bunching your errands into fewer trips, since most of the damage done to an engine happens its first few minutes of operation."  Keep in mind that towing taxes an engine heavily.  If you need to haul something heavy, consider renting a truck, so you can "put that kind of stress on someone else's engine."

It might feel cheap, in the short term, to skimp on maintenance.  But it can cost you.  Another MSN Money article cautions us to avoid "taking false economies."  For instance, it's "better to replace a timing belt on the manufacturer’s schedule than to have it break somewhere in western Nebraska." 

CNN Money has a similar set of recommendations today.  They suggest switching to synthetic oil to extend engine life.  And if your car does need repairs, they caution, be wary of what's known as "upsell."  With auto sales slumping, "more and more profits are getting squeezed out of car repairs," which "means you may be persuaded to buy a higher quality or more expensive part. Or, you may be encouraged to have work done on your car that isn't necessary."

Perhaps the most important tip anyone can give you when it comes to extending the life of a car, though, comes from MSN columnist Liz Pulliam Weston.  She cautions us to "refuse to care what other people think."  Weston is "convinced that many, if not most, cars are traded in before their time simply because people become embarrassed about driving them."  Instead, she recommends that drivers take "perverse pride in showing up with the oldest car. ... My motto: 'Laugh all you want. It's paid for. Is yours?'"

She has a point.  Jeff Bartlett, an automotive editor with Consumer Reports, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that "If you swap a 2- or 3-year-old car for a new car, you are rushing from the most expensive period of one car into the most expensive period of the next. You'll also pay more taxes, higher licensing fees and, in many cases, more for insurance."   In fact, CR recently ran an analysis of "keeping a 3-year-old gas guzzler financed with a five-year loan for an extra year or two versus trading it in for a new, more fuel-efficient car."  They determined that, whether the car in question is a sedan, SUV, or pickup, "In all three cases, it was cheaper overall to hold the guzzler for another year or two."

And when the old car does die, research the best deals on new cars with U.S. News' car rankings and reviews.