Is your car leaking? Should you fix that minor oil seepage coming from the valve cover? If you spend a lot of time on the road, yes. If you use the car locally, maybe you can live with it. I make that statement at the risk of offending environmentalists, but the realities are that use is a definite consideration. Preventative maintenance  is something that should be considered before these types of choices need made. I always query the customer about who the primary driver is and how the car is used before recommending any service procedure. A car leaking can be a case by case type of situation. If your teenager is using the vehicle around town or you are a retiree who only drives a couple of miles to the grocery every other day, it probably makes sense to spend the money on something of higher priority, like food and shelter. An auto repair shop should be finding, noting, and prioritizing every current and potential problem with the vehicle by doing an inspection whenever it is in for service. Knowing all the current and potential problems allows the customer to either budget for the repairs or start looking for another vehicle before the current one dies.  The service advisor at the shop needs to have a good understanding of a customer’s situation relative to how he or she uses the car and then must help prioritize repairs. If you have a car leaking, be sure to ask Robert’s Automotive about how serious it is, what to do or see our preventative maintenance page for more information.