If you own a reliable car such as a Mercedes, you want to keep that car in as great a shape as possible. But you also know that sometimes you can't get the car in to a repair shop immediately, so some repairs have to wait. But be careful which repairs you delay. Some problems, especially those that affect how quickly you can get in and out of the car, can seem funny or annoying at first, but they are very serious in reality. Get problems like this fixed as quickly as possible to help keep you and anyone else in the car safe.

Easy to Overlook a Potential Problem

Being able to enter and exit the car without delay is a safety issue. If you have to go through any elaborate ritual to get the door open, you risk being unable to escape a dangerous situation. For example, if the door latch isn't working well and you have to open a car door from the outside -- when you're sitting inside the car -- you're not going to be able to escape from a crashed car very easily.

That seems obvious when you put it that way. But if you're merely parking the car and have to roll down the window, open the door from the outside, and then roll up the window before turning off the car's engine, that can seem like just an annoying thing to have to do. It actually might not occur to you that the delay caused by using the window, plus the requirement that the car engine be on if you have power windows in some cars, could make it impossible for you to quickly get out if you've been in an accident.

More Potential Safety Issues Can Occur

Even if the repair doesn't involve something that directly related to exiting the car, it can still cause a safety problem. If you have to open the car door in just the right way to avoid setting off an oversensitive car alarm, for example, then getting into your car to escape a bad situation happening outside will be much, much harder. Depending on the car alarm, you might not be able to start the car if the alarm is going off.

Call that doom-saying if you want, but it's those odd, hopefully rare situations that you have to think about when deciding what to do about a car repair. If you see a potential safety issue, do what you can to get it repaired as soon as you find out about the problem. Try not to wait unless you know you're not going to be driving the car.

When you realize there's something wrong with the car, ask yourself:

• Does this slow down the process of getting in or out?
• Does this draw attention to the car?
• Does this require that the engine be on or off to handle?
• Could this affect the engine at all?
• Could this interfere with being able to see out the windows?
• Could this cause the car to break down while running?

If you answer yes to any of these, bring your car in for repair at once. For more information, contact Benchmark Motors Inc. or a similar company.