Planning a spring road trip? You may want to get your car checked
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Throughout the pandemic, many vehicles sat dormant through restrictions and stay-at-home orders.
"My wife's car sat in the driveway most of the time because she works from home," said Sal Piermatteo of Pedricktown, New Jersey.
Now, as restrictions are lifted and the vaccine rollout continues, drivers are becoming more mobile.
"People are feeling that now is the time to resume travel," said Jana Tidwell of AAA Mid-Atlantic.
Make sure your car is ready. As it turns out, April is National Car Care Month.
AAA Mid-Atlantic expects road trips to return this year with nearly 70% of travelers saying they're ready to go.
"Instead of flying, we're thinking about doing a road trip because it's only like 8 hours, 8 hours away, so I was like, ok, that would be fun," remarked Iyanna Poindexter of Newark, Delaware.
Barry Cooperman is the manager of AAA Car Care Center in South Philadelphia.
"We're getting very inundated with cars with now everybody starting to come out," Cooperman said.
The center is seeing a whole list of issues in cars that have been dormant.
"We've been seeing a lot of batteries going dead because it's been sitting, sitting and sitting," Cooperman said. "They're not getting their fluids taken care of, they're thickening up, becoming dark and discolored."
"We've been seeing air filters and cabin filters with sometimes a rats' nest or a birds' nest inside of them," he said.
Cooperman added that tires are starting to dry rot so be sure to check them too.
Still, AAA expects a busy summer.
"AAA is expecting to rescue over 120,000 stranded motorists in the Philadelphia 5 county area," Tidwell said.
