Archive for August, 2010
Car Maintenance For Women
Long ago in a land not too far away a fair maiden could take her car to a gas station and a smiling uniformed man would run up and ask her “Fill ‘er up maam?” In those days cars were actually serviced hence the name “service station.” A service station employee would pump your gas check your tire pressure and even add oil to your car if necessary. The only thing that you would pay for is the gas. Of course if your car needed oil you would also need to pay for that as well but you did not pay for the “service.”
Those really were the good old days! For a lot of today’s women this is nothing more than a fairy tale as they cannot remember it ever actually happening. Every woman should have some basic automobile knowledge. This is especially true if she does not have a man she can depend on to take care of her vehicle for her.
I had owned a cute little blue sports car for about a year when I first met my husband. Being a gentleman he offered to check whether my car needed service. He asked me when the oil had last been changed. “What do you mean by changed?” I asked. I had never bothered to change the oil; I just added more when it was low. The oil was sludge when he drained it because I had driven about 25000 miles without changing it. Now I realize that I must have the oil changed on a regular basis. An easy way to remember is to go by holidays on the calendar. Since I drive 15000 miles annually and I should change the oil after 5000 all I have to remember is to change it at around Easter Labor Day and Christmas.
The most important accessory for your car it is probably sitting in your glove box the owner’s manual. Take some time to read through it because it is full of useful information about your car. You can learn when these procedures are due by reading the owner’s manual and taking the car to a shop for the required maintenance. A lot of these things are simple and can be taken care of at a local service station or you may even learn to do them yourself! You can learn how much to inflate the tires what kind of fluids to add and many other helpful pieces of advice. It is a good idea to use your owner’s manual as a type of journal wherein you will be able to keep track of when you had maintenance and oil changes done.
Drivers should learn how to check the air pressure of their tires and know how to add air to tires when necessary. Learn where your jack and spare tire are kept and more importantly learn how to use them to change a flat. Even if you have a roadside assistance policy what will you do if you have flat tire in a remote area where your cell phone does not work? Perhaps a Good Samaritan will stop to give you a hand. But how will you know if he is an actual Good Samaritan or an axe murderer? At a minimum you should be able to replace a flat tire if you need to.
You must have a portable battery charger in your car to charge your battery in case your battery goes dead. Not only are these chargers much safer to use but you also are not going to need to have another car around to jumpstart your battery.
There is a builtin sensor in your brakes that alerts you when they are about to wear out. When the pads are almost worn out there is a little pin which will make a squeaking sound. This is your signal to have the brakes serviced; putting this off until the pads are completely worn out with metal rubbing on metal will be a far more costly repair.
The time to find a knowledgeable trustworthy mechanic is before something goes wrong with your car. Find a reliable auto repair shop that’s good and trustworthy before your car needs a repair not covered by the warranty. Check with friends family and neighbors for a recommendation of a reliable auto repair shop so when the occasion arises you will know where to go. Until then maintain your regular maintenance schedules and you can drive without any worries.
About the writer: Deloris Emmeries is married to a wonderful mechanic who has taught her many maintenance tips over the years. Her husband uses auto repair shop software for his repair shop giving him the ability to do his vehicle and fleet management software and car repair estimates on the computer. This shop management software has really been helpful to him and his business.
Car Designations Explained: The European Influence
Theres nothing like using the motherlands terminology to make your car sound like its got more class. Of course youll never drive an Aston Martin Black Pudding but harking back to the gentlemanly days can give a marque some extra kudos.
Shootingbrake or shootingbreak depending on which country youre in
In the 1800s and through to the early 1900s a brake was a type of opentopped horsedrawn carriage of any size designed for hunting. It was designed to carry the driver and a gamekeeper at the front and several sportsmen with guns in the back. Dogs guns and game were carried alongside in racks. While this sounds like it could have morphed into a mafiastyle limo its more commonly used to describe a station wagon or estatetype of car.
Aston Martin is particularly fond of the term DB5 DB6 Virage Vantage Lagonda and DBS all had the term applied and its been resurrected recently by Audi for a couple of concept cars. Ferrari Porsche Volvo Bentley and even Lamborghini have produced concepts or production cars. Although anyone trying to shoot a pheasant while hanging out of the side of a Lamborghini would need heatguided missiles.
Many of the concepts started to look like stylistic hearses. www.shootingbrake.com has a number of images.
Drophead coupe or drophead coup
Basically its a convertible or cabriolet in British English. The name applies to both cars with a retractable hardtop roof or a soft folding top. The concept behind a convertible was that you could convert your opentopped car into one that had a roof. British manufacturers tend to use the designation with Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe Bentley Arnage Drophead Coupe and Daimler DoubleSix 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupe. RollsRoyce released its 2008 Phantom Drophead Coupe at the January 2007 Detroit North American International Auto Show.
Fixed head coupe
Its the opposite of a drophead coupe. A coupe with a fixed roof the term was mainly used by British manufacturers such as Jaguar e.g. XK150 EType well as RollsRoyce e.g. Corniche Aston Martin e.g. DB3S TVR e.g. Tasmin 280i and Bentley e.g. Mark VI Park Ward.
GT
Standing for Grand Tourer or Gran Turismo in Italian GT means its a high performance car with the comforts required for long distance driving. Theyre usually larger and heavier than sports cars and mostly have their engine at the front. While outright power and acceleration of GT cars can match some sports cars softer suspension and a heavier body often means on the track theyre left in the dust. Examples include pretty much the whole Aston Martin range Ferrari 599 GTB Jaguar XJS Maserati GranTurismo and the Mercedes SLR McLaren. The Porsche Carrera GT is not really a GT car more of a supercar or hypercar.
So as long as it sells cars car manufacturers will continue to evoke the images of a halcyon yesteryear.
See more articles at Car and SUV
About the writer: Darren Cottingham motoring journalist and editor of Car and SUV a website specialising in new car reviews road tests and news.
Car Auction
The simplest and most comforted way to encounter cheap cars while sitting in front of your computer is to have a look on online car auction websites. It is impressive how many deals on cars are closed every single day again through online car auction venues. Why don’t you give it a try if you are after a new vehicle? It’s easy and simple to find a car auction website.
It is completely normal that the first question that comes up in your head is: How do i find a good online vehicle? The answer is simple just go to your popular search engine and type in: “Car Auction”.That should get you 1000s of results. But you have to be careful which online vehicle auction you will be visiting or buying/selling your car at. Try to specify your choices to a few sites that look professional decent and have a good recommendations record.
That’s the first step checking all the auction sites on their goods and bads. The next step is: Do you want to sell a car or do you want to buy a car?
If you want to sell your vehicle than you will have to find out what the site has to offer how many photos of the car you can submit what information is tolerated to be submitted and the price of the fees and how many deals on auto the site has. There are websites that will offer you free advertising but will ask for a part of the selling price. Other online car auction sites will have certain advertising fees that might depend on the cars value or on the advertising period.
It is better to consider an online car auction company that will actually buy your vehicle and market it later. It can bring you less profit than selling your car on your individual way but it will spare you a lot of difficulty. As a matter of fact once you sell them the car it is no longer your worry who or when will buy it.
The rules are pretty much the same if you want to buy a vehicle. Try to discover a site that looks respectable enough. Set a budget for yourself and try to find the best car within your money frame. If you have discovered a few cars try to negotiate with the buyer. The fact that this is an online car auction venue does not mean that you have to agree on the first price which is asked.
If there is too much money involved in the deal it is best to see and testdrive the car before coming to an agreement with the seller and signing up the papers. If this is not achievable than ask for all information that you want to decide you are really buying a good quality car. It is an advisable idea to perform a vehicle check too. Just for extra piece of mind to make a point that there are no unpaid bills insurance problems or the car being reported as stolen. The good news is that all these checks can be done online as well.
About the writer: I love to write articles.