Everyone dreams of a brand new car. You pass a nice car on the freeway and you wonder what it is like. “Why can’t I have that?”Financial planners believe that keeping your current vehicle may be a good way to secure financial freedom over the long term.

“We advise our clients that if they want a 10 percent increase on their investments every year they need to cut down on their expenses,”Terry Mulcahy was vice president of investments at R.W. Baird, Mequon, Wis. “A new automobile is for most people their second biggest investment next to a home, so a great way to save money and increase financial assets is to hang onto their current vehicle rather than buy a new one every few years.”

One option to save money is to replace the engine in an existing vehicle.

“When a car or truck suffers major engine damage, often the first reaction of most consumers is to buy a new or used vehicle, but the cost to repower an engine is a drop in the bucket compared to monthly payments on a new car,”Tom Schrader is chairman of the Engine Repower Council. “The bottom line is that a repowered engine makes a vehicle more dependable, more fuel efficient, less polluting and more valuable.”

With repowering, your engine or an identical one from another like-vehicle is completely remanufactured/rebuilt. Not unlike installing an engine from a junk yard, critical internal parts are replaced with newer ones that meet or exceed original performance standards.

Frequently, remanufactured/rebuilt engines are better than the new engines installed at the factory because the original factory engine problems have been redesigned or repaired with better quality parts. They are reliable, reliable, and often come with a warranty that covers installation costs.

The Engine Repower Council is a nonprofit organization that educates consumers about the economic and environmental benefits of remanufactured/rebuilt engines. The Engine Repower Council supports “Be Car Care Aware”Consumer education campaign.

For more information including where to find qualified rebuild engines and installers, please visit www.enginerepower.org.