Thomastown's roads
Beside the M80
The M80 Ring Road runs 38.3 km from Laverton North to the Greensborough Bypass, at 100 km/h for most of it, and Thomastown's industrial area sits right beside it. Off-peak it takes 25 minutes end to end; at peak, 30 to 45.
Factories and the Hume
Numerous factories and an electricity terminal station fill the south of the suburb, with the Hume Freeway to the west. If yours is a work van or ute from that end of the suburb, it may need servicing by kilometres long before the 12 months are up.
High Street and the station
The shops on High Street sit parallel to the Mernda line, and Thomastown station has had 310 car parking spaces since its 2011 upgrade. A car that only does the station run and back is doing short trips, and short trips are hard on batteries.
Two kinds of wear
Which jobs come up depends on how the car's used. A family car doing short trips to High Street and the station needs its battery and brakes watched. A work vehicle doing ring-road kilometres every day needs servicing by distance, and a close eye on tyres and the gearbox.
Crawling ring-road traffic at peak is hard on an automatic transmission and on brake pads. If the gearbox starts to slip or shift late, transmission in Melbourne explains what to do next.
If it were our car
For a car that does the ring road at peak most days, we'd have the brakes measured at every service and the automatic transmission fluid checked at the major ones. Up to forty-five minutes of crawling, twice a day, is harder on both than an open freeway.