No matter the cause or how much patience you happen to have, traffic jams can be a nightmare. It is bad enough when traffic is stop and start, but when it comes to a screeching halt irritating does not begin to describe the situation.

Dead stop traffic jams can not only eliminate your ability to get to where you are going on time, they can cause all sorts of problems with your car. Overheating, a loss of fuel efficiency and engine wear and tear can all go along with long waits that involve little to no movement. Consider how many cars you have seen with steam billowing from the engine compartment in the middle of jams and the evidence of abuse becomes clear.

Since you have no control over the traffic jam, you have no control over the beating your car takes, right?

This is just not necessarily so. If you want to spare your vehicle unnecessary damage, the best thing to do in this situation is to just turn off the car and wait it out. You do not need to do this if traffic is moving, but if it remains at a standstill for a while and no end is in sight, your car will thank you for shutting it off.

While you might not always be able to avoid long traffic jams, you do have control over the amount of damage your vehicle takes during the wait. If a standstill better describes a situation than stop-and-start driving, it is best to go ahead and give your ride a break.