No doubt, you have a lot of errands to run with Christmas  fast approaching. It might be worthwhile to have your car, truck or SUV checked out to make sure it won't leave you in the lurch with all that driving you have to do.

• Drive kids to school and pick them up after last day before Christmas Break
• Bring kids to church to practice for Christmas Play
• Make list and go to grocery store for Christmas Party
• Go to liquor store for drinks for Christmas Party
• Go to stores for Christmas shopping
• Go out with family to buy the Christmas tree
• Go to other Christmas Party at work
• Go sledding with family
• Bring the baby to see Santa
• Take family to church for Christmas Play
• Go back to stores for those things I forgot on other trips

These are just some of the places you may need to go this year as you prepare for the approach of Christmas. You may have even more trips than are included in this list. You may find you have unexpected stops to make that couldn’t possibly find their way on the list in advance; trips you just couldn’t possibly anticipate. But, what’s clear is that you’ll probably have a bit of extra driving to do during the holiday season.

On the other hand, you may go to visit family or friends during the holidays. You may take the family for a short vacation, such as a drive up to the Dells.

Whatever additional driving you do this Christmas season, one thing you don’t want to do is worry about whether you can trust your vehicle. Worse than that, you don’t want to find your car won’t start or find yourself stuck on the side of the road somewhere.

Reliability in an automobile is a product of due maintenance and repair. If something breaks, you have it fixed promptly. Parts of an SUV that are broken today tend to lead to other parts that are broken if the parts broken in the first place aren’t dealt with.

Maintenance is how you ensure that the vehicle is in good condition and ready for the road ahead, whether you’re driving a long distance or just making short trips to the stores and other places in town.

Maintenance catches things before they break and tweaks them so that they’re not as prone to break any time soon. It’s no guarantee that something will break some day but, if you do timely maintenance, you’re not as liable to be surprised, or stuck out on the road somewhere, when wear and tear gets the better of a part on your vehicle.

When you’re making multiple short trips, that causes additional wear and tear. Every time you start your pickup truck, for instance, you test the condition and capacity of the starter and battery. Every time you hit that pothole the city still hasn’t fixed, you challenge the ability of the steering and suspension to take it without failing.

You want your brakes to work. You want the cooling system to work, and not to freeze up when the car sits overnight. And you want the engine to run well and not experience too much wear and tear with the parts inside. In other words, you want the oil changed on schedule. 

Whatever you have going on this Christmas, hopefully, you’ve prepared your vehicle for whatever is ahead. And, hopefully, you have a wonderful Christmas season.