Motor Vehicle Tips

Winter is here and where I live, in Finland, we have just had our first snow with many drivers on slippery roads on plain summer tires.

Yesterday I was doing a 60 mile trip on smaller rural roads where the snow had not been melted away by heavy traffic and salt, summer tires still on, and I thought to myself:

It’s not really dangerous or difficult to drive on slippery roads as long as you know what to do and when, you just have to adopt a different style of driving and you’ll be as safe as on dry summer roads. The danger is if you apply a summer driving style to winter roads.

Rule #1: Slow Down

Don’t expect to reach the same speeds on a winter road as you do in the summer. Always plan for lower speeds and longer travel times.

Rule #2: Be Really Soft on The Pedals

To keep your car on the road you need grip. When the tires have grip they roll at the speed you’re travelling and the car will go where you point the front wheels.

When you break or accelerate too much the wheels will lock and lose all grip.

This turns your car into an object sliding in stead of rolling on the ice, you will have no control over it and it will go straight forward, or if the road is slanted it will slide off the road.

Accelerate and break like you had an egg under the pedal, really softly, and you’ll have a lot more grip to play with.

Rule #3: Keep Your Distance and Slow Down in Time

One of the most common accidents at winter is to drive into the car in front of you when it’s breaking and you notice too late.

The solution is to always maintain a good distance to the car in front, 100-600 feet depending on your speed and read conditions. Keep the distance big enough that you will be able to stop in case the car in front breaks.

Always slow down when you come to a crossing, even if you don’t see any other cars near. This way if there’s a surprise you will still be able to stop.

Rule #4: Break Safely

If you find yourself sliding for a ditch or for an obstacle while breaking your best bet is usually to release the breaks for a second or two to steer in a new direction, then continue breaking.

Many times you can avoid an accident or reduce the damage by releasing the breaks and steering clear of the obstacle you are about to hit, maybe hitting a snow wall or some bushes instead. This method do require some practise though as the instinct is to push the break pedal as hard as you can.

If your car is equipped with automatic breaking system (ABS) it’s often better to just break and let the car maintain control. But if it’s really slippery even your ABS might lose control and in that case do as above, stop breaking for a second or two and then when you’re in control try breaking again. Read more about the ABS system in your cars users guide.

Rule #5: Accelerate Safely

You car can either steer or accelerate. If the road is dry there is enough grip for both acceleration and steering at the same time, but as the road gets icy you need to choose one.

Never accelerate when you drive through a bend, you need your grip to handle the turning. If you have to accelerate do it slowly and if you lose grip pull back a little on the accelerator until you regain control of your car.

Remember that a rear wheel car with the wheels spinning will tend to go into a dangerous spin while a front wheel drive car will go straight ahead with the wheels spinning.

In case you’re car is equipped with a traction control system (TCS) it will help you maintain control during acceleration. You will find more information in your cars manual.

Rule #6: Use Good Snow Tires

If your snow season is longer than a month you would do well getting snow tires. They will shorten your breaking distance and help you keep control of the car on slippery surfaces.

Check your local laws and regulations to see if snow tires are mandatory and if you are allowed to use tires with studs.

Rule #7: Practice and Learn

The best way to learn winter driving is to find a safe place where you can practise breaking and sliding! Actually trying out how quickly you can stop your vehicle will prepare you for an emergency and give you the gut feeling on how fast you can safely drive on a snow road.

You can find more tips for safe and fuel efficient driving at the fuel economy tips blog at MilesGallon.com

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There has been a lot of news coverage about the auto industry over the past year, and one topic has been about whether you should donate your car to a government-run program. “Cash for Clunkers” is the informal term that was used for one such program that ended recently. While it sounds like a pretty good deal to get money for a car that is older and perhaps hard to sell, and then using the cash to purchase a newer more fuel-efficient vehicle, there are some that don’t feel donating a car to the government is a good idea.

Basically, if you wanted to take advantage of this government-run program, you had to satisfy certain criteria. Your car had to be of a certain year, the quality of the vehicle needed to pass certain levels, and you needed to provide additional information relating to your car. You would have needed to do the research to ensure that your car matched the specifications of the vehicles that they were accepting. There was also a deadline, so you had to ensure that you got any relevant information together in time.

One reason why some people think you shouldn’t donate your car to the government is that it is tends to be a process that actually benefits the major car companies. The money made off of the vehicles that were turned in was usually used to help the major car companies and after the massive amounts of money already spent on bailing them out, most people were not interested in supporting them. Because the year restrictions were in place, cars that were a couple of decades old were not eligible and therefore the system didn’t fully support environmental factors either.

In addition to not wanting to support the auto industry, many people would rather you donate your car to a more needy cause, like a charitable organization. Every time a person takes advantage of a government program like “Cash for Clunkers,” it takes away from a donation that could have been made to a charity. Charities have been accepting donated vehicles for a long time, as they can fix up the cars and then sell them for profit, which can then be used to help out those who are less fortunate.

If you donate your car to a government program, then you are helping yourself out the most financially. With the recent Car Allocation Rebate System you stood to gain more money from your donation than you would have received through a normal trade-in. Charitable donations offer a tax deduction based on the value of the vehicle, but whether this is of any significance will depend on your individual financial situation. However, if you truly want to help others, then giving your old vehicle to charity is the only way to go.

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One thing that can be hard to do nowadays is to sell a home especially with the kind of economy that we are in now. This makes it tough when you need to move quickly.Selling houses today is different from before where you can sell it a much higher price and you can sell it in no time. Nowadays for you to sell a home you need to do some extra things to get it to sell. In this article we are going to look at a couple of ways that you can do to help it sell faster.

First thing you can do is to stage your home. If you don’t know what home staging is this is where you add furniture or decor to make your home look nice to sell. A lot of people that have used my home staging San Diego service have had their homes sell faster.Maybe the main reason for this is because when a home staging is done to a home the home is in its best state.

One other benefit that home staging can give you is that it can make the house bigger than what it really is. This is a great trick we do in our home staging Temecula service.People are looking for spacious homes.If you are going to try and sell a house that has little space because it is all filled up with furnitures then that would not be a good thing.  But if you stage your home and use furniture that gives it more space you will sell faster.

The next service you can use to help you sell faster is an interior designer.An interior designer can make your furnitures and the theme of your house match.The furniture should match with the theme of the house but the theme of the furnitures should match as well. That is one thing we do well in our interior designer San Diego service.This can be a good thing because buyers would like it if the theme matches.

So there goes some of the things which you can do to help you sell your home faster.

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As winter approaches usually energy costs rise.Most people would turn on their heaters resulting to higher bills.But what people do not know is that there are ways to get warm and save energy at the same time.One way is to make sure your windows are enrgy efficient.People do not know that heat escapes poorly insulated windows.So here some of the things you can do to change that.

Checking if your windows are double paned is the first thing you must do.  In my San Diego replacement windows service a lot of the older homes were made with single paned windows.This can waste a lot of energy.Replace your windows as soon as possible if you find out that your windows are single paned. This won’t just save you money this winter but it will save you money over the life of your home. 

Obviously I have clients of my San Diego glass company business who say that it is a big expense.  It is at first.But if you factor in the savings you will get thorugh the years on energy then it can be considered as an investement.And the bonus here is that it can raise the value of your home.It can also give you savings during summer time.It can make you save during summer because it also has the ability to make your home cooler.

Speaking of investments another good energy saver are frameless glass showers.  Studies have shown glass showers actually keep the heat in.This would really be a benefit come winter time.  I have clients of my San Diego frameless glass shower service who let me know how much better it is with a glass shower.

So those are some of the ways on how to save energy and still keep your house warm enough. It is an investment and not an expense when you realize what you save.

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Those among us lucky enough to be around in the 70s when this fantastic automobile came out drool whenever we consider it.  Imagine getting a vehicle from the factory with a 455 cubic inch engine in it!This car kicked butt!  Then if you probably did some work, like we did to ours, as in having the engine blue outlined, balanced and a ton more, it did even better.  Let’s just say it was doing much better then one hp per cubic inch!

This was the era of Smokey and the Bandit movies.  Good ole boy Burt Reynolds drove a black Trans Am in the film and everybody and his uncle all of a sudden wanted one.  Naturally, by that time the ones they were selling were watered down versions with no where close to the power of the first ones. 

Since we’re not sure of the statute of restrictions, let’s just say that any stories are thought to start’Once upon A Time’. 

One of our fave stories is when we were getting onto sunrise road late one evening and a Camaro rolled up next to us and started revving his engine, well you can imagine the rest.Here was a poor soul who had not a clue of what was in store.  Since we don’t believe in street racing, it definitely was a good thing we were both going onto the entrance ramp.  Once we were satisfied that no one was on the parkway at that point of night, we let the Beast Out To Play.  We never did see any more then his fading headlights.

One of the funniest moments was when we lived in upstate NY and my husband went to the store to pick something up and this man in a Mustang 2 pulled up next to him and my man had a good time ( hey, we are all titled sometimes ).  As Chuck tells it : You see at that point a local car dealer was running a television spot featuring a Mustang 2 just destroying a Trans Am.  So this gentleman pulls up next to me, gunning his engine for all he’s's worth.  The light changes, he chirps his tires and flashes me an enormous grin as he’s taking off.  Well, I idle away from the light,give it sufficient gas in first to tug even with him, then drop the hammer, lighting up both tires, throw second, light them up again and then ease off.  Drive down the line to the store.

When I come out of the store this man has finally got there and is waiting for me and says,’but the commercial claims Mustangs will beat the pants off the Trans Am.’ I extraordinarily blithely responded,’Not this Trans Am!’

They don’t make them like this anymore.  It’s downcast when you concentrate on it!  Those of us who lived and grew up in the age of the muscle cars, street rods, Sat. night cruise nights were very,very lucky.  I feel sorry for the youth of today that they missed out on all of this. 

So what has happened to that great 455 Trans Am, sadly the oppressive upstate NY winters are not kind to automobiles and rust took the Trans Am from us.  However, we probably did replace it – with a customised 1973 Vette, which we drove cross country to California, but that is a full nother story!

Do you know which cars are super fast and are among the fastest cars in the world? Visit thesupercars.org to view all the fast and exotic cars. Also take a look at Pontiac Trans Am auctions.

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