Q. What should I expect to pay for a checkup to see if my car is ready for winter? What all should it include?

A. In general a safety check should include a check of the cooling system and the charging system.

In addition the tires should be checked both for proper inflation and wear. Your brakes should be checked often, but definitely during a safety check.

It used to be that cars had a lot of different belts that had to be checked for wear or cracking. Now there is just one, the Serpentine belt. Checking for cracking should definitely be part of a standard safety check.

What is not included may be just as important, and that is your computer system. The computer system cannot really be checked ahead of time. Once there is a problem the computer will tell you so, but until then there's not much you can do.

Prices very from place to place, but for a standard safety check-up, without doing any work that may be needed, you should be able to pay under $50.00.

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