Mechanic Shop Femme Chaya Milchtein Offers Road Trip Tips for Queer Car Owners

Chaya Milchtein, automotive educator and founder of the Mechanic Shop Femme brand, offers advice to car owners heading out on the road for the holidays or for a road trip this winter.

Traveling by car during the holidays remains a popular mode of transportation when visiting friends or family. Just recently, AAA forecasted that 49 million people hit the road for Thanksgiving this year, albeit a small 1.7 percent increase from 2022. 

At Vacationer, we admit that we focus on air travel and cruises quite a bit throughout the year, but it’s also important to remember packing the car and visiting family and friends or taking a quick vacation nearby or a long-distance road trip is still a popular way to see the world. 

So, with that in mind, we wanted to reach out to Chaya Milchtein, a queer automotive educator (not a mechanic) who started the Mechanic Shop Femme more than six years ago. Well, this Mechanic Shop Femme provides courses and classes to educate and empower women and LGBTQ+ folx about the complex world of car ownership. 

Mechanic Shop Femme became a passion project for Milchtein after she spent several years working with customers in automotive departments, including a Sears Auto Center in Glendale, Wisconsin. Milchtein said that her unique expertise and wealth of experiences changed the trajectory of her life and now she’s paying it forward. Through Mechanic Shop Femme, she provides a safe space for women and the LGBTQ+ community to ask questions about car ownership without shame or judgment. 

Scheduled to release her first book, Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership, in April 2024, the mechanic shop phenom chatted with Vacationer to offer advice to queer car owners who plan to hit the road for the holidays and plan a road trip during the winter. Milchtein, apparently a myth buster, also throws shade at mechanics who recommend you ‘winterize’ your car. If you’re a car owner, you don’t want to miss out on her priceless pearls of wisdom. 

Vacationer Magazine: As you know, we’re in a busy driving season due to year-end holidays. What are some tips that you would recommend to queer car owners driving to visit their family and friends during the holidays? Should they pack the car with specific tools to ensure a safe ride to grandma’s house?
 
Chaya Milchtein: That’s a great question. Ironically, in my book, I wrote a little paragraph about tools and how I think it’s unnecessary to carry tools in your car unless you’re planning to fix your own car. Because most people are like, “Oh, let me buy this toolkit that I have no idea how to use, sitting in the trunk of my car, taking up space.” So, yeah. But when it comes to road trips or any kind of long-distance travel, the first thing you want to do is make sure that your car is up for the drive, especially if it’s a longer drive than you traditionally do with your vehicle or do on a regular basis. 

Make sure that your oil change is up to date, and if you need one, go get one. You want to do a multi-point inspection or a road-trip inspection to check over the car to make sure that there are no surprises. The worst thing you can do during a road trip is break down somewhere because you didn’t realize your tires were bald or you didn’t realize that you had a steering or suspension problem that can directly impact your drive. 

Some people choose not to do this because they’re worried about what the results will be. But I’m here to tell you that most of the time if you cannot afford to fix your car and you’re trying to decide what to do, renting a car is probably a better option than driving your car when there’s a problem. Because when there’s a problem, you’re going to end up with a much bigger problem that’s going to be exacerbated by the fact that you are in the mountains of Pennsylvania with no reception and nowhere to go.

 So first things first, make sure your car is ready for that trip. Make sure your oil levels are topped off, and your tire pressure is good. And then during the course of the trip, most traditional automotive advice for how often to check over your car goes completely out the window because you’re doing a significant amount of driving, more driving than you would typically do. It’s considered severe driving and you’re running your car for a long time, especially if you’re going a long distance. 
 
I recommend every morning or every other morning when you wake up during your road trip, especially if it takes you a few days to get there, check your oil level and check your tire pressure. These are things that you’d normally do once or twice a month, but they become more critical while you’re driving. Also checking your tire pressure will help with your fuel efficiency, which when you’re taking a road trip is pretty important too. 

So, is there anything in particular car owners should carry in their car?

Well, what you should carry in your car is going to depend on what climate you are driving through. So if you’re on the West Coast and everything is lovely and the sun is shining, then the basic things that you’d carry in your car are just going to be that…basic. You know, your tire pressure gauge, a rag to check your oil level, and other sort of basic emergency kit items. 

Winterizing is bullshit, okay? For the most part, when somebody recommends that you winterize your car, the service that they are recommending is entirely unnecessary. – Chaya Milchtein

But it’s different if you are on the East Coast or in the Midwest and you’re traveling in areas where there’s a chance it’s going to snow, where the road is going to freeze over. Then you know having a warm change of clothes, a few granola bars, and making sure you have a snow shovel or a snow scraper are all going to be more important. Those are things that you’re going to add to your emergency kit. 

Yeah, you just answered my second question because I was going to ask you, how do you winterize your car? 

Winterizing is bullshit, okay? For the most part, when somebody recommends that you winterize your car, the service that they are recommending is entirely unnecessary. The winterizing service that mechanics recommend – some mechanics recommend – is changing the thermostat, the gasket, and the coolants. And those things are unnecessary to do every year. If you maintain your car regularly, and you do what your car needs when your car needs it, for the most part, you’re gonna be set for the winter. 

It’s good to just get a general checkup, you know, go in for your oil change, make sure your tires, your brakes, your battery, and everything is in proper working order. That helps insulate you a little bit further from those unexpected emergencies. But there is no specific service that needs to be done every single winter on every single vehicle. 

Again, use your common sense. If your wiper blades are worn, you should probably replace your wiper blades. If your battery is five years old and on the edge of its life, it might be a good idea to replace the battery because these things are going to cause inconveniences to you. 

You’re going to go to your car in the morning or you’re going to be at the grocery store; you’re going to try to start it and it’s not going to start. That’s going to suck. But the thermostat, the gasket, and the coolant do not help with either things your car needs or things that you might need to prevent those future inconveniences. 

Chaya Milchtein drops more knowledge in her book, Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership, currently available to preorder. You can also follow Chaya and Mechanic Shop Femme on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram.