How to Prepare Your Car for Safe Long-Distance Travel

A short spin forgives a lot. A long drive forgives nothing. The soft tyre, the low coolant, the wiper that smears, none of it bothers you on the way to the shops. Three hours up the motorway, it becomes the whole day.

Most breakdowns on a long trip were sitting in the driveway before you left, visible to anyone who looked. The trip didn't cause them. It just gave them the miles to matter. Ten minutes before you go saves you a hard shoulder in the rain with a bootful of luggage and somewhere you were meant to be.

An empty lit motorway stretching into the dark, the kind of long open road that punishes a car you didn't check — Hours of open road ahead. Everything you didn't check in the driveway, you'll be checking on the hard shoulder.

The ten-minute check

Tyres. Pressure cold, all four and the spare, set for a full load, not an empty car. Tread and any lump or split in the sidewall. Tyres are the only thing touching the road. Treat them like it.
Fluids. Engine oil on the dipstick, coolant between the marks, screenwash topped and not just water. A dry screenwash bottle on a salty motorway is genuinely dangerous.
Lights and wipers. Every bulb, both sides, indicators and brake lights included. Wiper blades that clear the glass instead of smearing it into a low-sun blindfold.
The load. Heavy stuff low and secured. Nothing loose on the parcel shelf that becomes a missile in a hard stop. Don't block the back window.

The one people skip

Screenwash. It's the least glamorous item on the list and the one that blinds you first, when a lorry throws a wall of dirty spray across your windscreen and the bottle's empty. Fill it.

Plan the tiredness, not just the route

The car being right is half the job. The driver being right is the other half. Fatigue on a long monotonous road is closer to being over the limit than people accept. Plan a proper break every two hours or so, before you need it, not after you've started drifting. A stop is fifteen minutes. The alternative doesn't bear writing out.

Set it up before you move, not at seventy

Sort the cabin in the driveway while you're stopped, because every one of these jobs done at speed is a crash waiting for an excuse. Set the route on the sat-nav or phone before you pull off, and mount the phone somewhere you can glance at, never in your hand. Have the fuel sorted, and know roughly how far a tank takes you so you're not white-knuckling into a garage on fumes. Mirrors, seat and climate set. A drink and something to eat within reach so you're not rummaging in a bag doing eighty. Two minutes stationary buys you a whole trip where your eyes never have to leave the road for the fiddly stuff.

Match the car to the conditions

A long trip in July is a different animal to one in January. If there's any chance of ice, fog or snow at the far end, everything on driving safely in winter weather applies double, because you'll be tired and far from home when it hits. And the check above is just the travel version of the basic maintenance every driver should know. Do it in the driveway, in the dry, before the road makes it your problem.