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Driving in the winter can be dangerous and scary. If you live in a cold climate and encounter snow on a regular basis, this article will prove to be very helpful! Before winter arrives you should have your car inspected to be sure it is ready for the potentially bad road conditions. You can do this yourself or take it to a qualified mechanic. Checking the battery, wipers and fluid, brakes, ignition system, antifreeze levels, lights, oil level, heater and air pressure within the tires will help to keep you safe throughout the winter season. A good set of tires is essential to get the best traction possible when the road is icy or wet. Many tires around today will be ready for multiple types of weather, but it is important to make sure the tire treads are wide and deep to allow for all snow types. Certain types of snow are more prone to ‘packing’ and proving some types of tires essentially useless.

If your car is in good working condition, you are still not done. In some situations there is little you can do to prevent drifting off the side of the road and becoming stuck in a ditch. It is times like these when creating an emergency kit in your vehicle can be extremely helpful. If you are stuck, hopefully you are so somewhere where there is still traffic going and someone can pull over to provide assistance; however, if you are out in the middle of nowhere and possibly do not have cell phone coverage, the kit could save your life. Essentials for the kit include extra hats and gloves for any passengers that may not have them, a first aid kit incase of any injuries incurred while getting stuck, a bag of sand or kitty litter to spread on the ground if any of the tires aren’t getting any traction, a flashlight with extra batteries in case you become stuck during the night, flares to help wave someone down if visibility conditions are poor, and food and water in case you become stuck for an extended period of time. As mentioned earlier, a phone often becomes an instant best friend when you are stuck. Calling friends or family to help you get out if you are close to home, a tow truck if you are far away, or an ambulance if there are any unfortunate injuries are only a few of the things a cell phone can do for you. Usually calling someone to help provide assistance will be your best bet to get out if you are stuck. Trying to push a car or truck in deep snow can prove very dangerous especially if the vehicle has not settled all of the way in the snow. A several thousand pound vehicle can easily slide a few inches or several feet as you are pushing it, and it could very easily slide towards you. If you do choose to attempt to push the car free, watch your feet and arms so that tires do not roll over on top of you. Ensuring you have a safe vehicle is good, but your best bet is to go slow, drive safe, and watch the road carefully. Safe Driving!

You do you bills online, shop for cars online, look for doctors online, and purchase various services online. Face it, doing business over the internet is a trend that is not slowing down by any means, if anything, it’s progressing. So why not buy and sells cars online? Many businesses and private sellers are taking part in the internet craze and making quite a profit with it. By both buying and selling cars online you are open to a whole new market that didn’t exist before.Normally in the past when you were looking to either buy or sell a car, you did it locally. If you were selling your car the process would consist of taking out an ad in the local paper and maybe advertising on the vehicle itself. You might also try word of mouth and put up a few advertisements on work and school bulletin boards. With the growth of the internet, the process of selling a car has changed dramatically. Of course you can still follow some of the traditional methods, but you can also choose to advertise to a much larger audience. With the internet you can advertise the sale of your car all over the world. This opens you chances of selling your car for the price you desire dramatically. People search through tons of websites to find the specific car, truck, SUV, or motorcycle that they are looking for.The internet also has made a breakthrough for those looking to buy a car as well. No longer are you stuck with what’s being sold in your town, city, or state, you can look beyond for the hot car of your dreams. Often car buyers are looking for a specific vehicle, whether it is new or old, they have an idea of what they want. With the option of bidding on cars, you can say goodbye to annoying car dealerships and the salesman that go with them. You can bid exactly what you want to. No more being pressured into buying something that you really don’t want to buy. You can look through hundreds of websites for whatever car you want, no matter where it might be. The options are endless when it comes to finding the perfect mode of transportation for your needs.What’s also great about buying and selling cars online is the relative ease. With a click of your mouse you can scroll through hundreds of cars until you find the one that shouts out your name. With a few more clicks, you can look up all the details of that car. If not fully satisfied, you can then call the seller and ask any additional questions you might have. The same goes for someone wishing to sell a car online. No more having to be home when someone wants to take a look at the car you are selling. All you have to do is put a great, detailed description of the car and post a ton of pictures from every angle. The buyer then gets all the information they need and you didn’t even have to be there. The internet is a great place for both buyers and sellers alike, it’s defiantly a market you should take advantage of.

Five years ago, in 2003,

Every driving student had heard from friends and relatives to “be very careful and drive slowly” on the driving test. However, this could not be further from the truth. Doing this is over caution, a situation in which the student taking the test is very careful and can annoy traffic behind him. This situation has several “symptoms”, but also one very easy cure.One sign of over caution, as mentioned above, is slow driving. Many students believe that if they drive under the speed limit they are “safe”. This is very wrong. Most examiners will fail a slow driver. Some have a strict rule (like in

There she is stranded alone in the parking lot. Two small children press their noses up against the cold December glass. They’re wondering why Mommy is so upset and why they haven’t started home.The woman looks around for someone to help. She wonders, “what happened to my car? It started this morning before we went to the mall.”Does this sound familiar to you? It happened to my wife once. It was really frustrating for both of us. I was out of town on business and we had just recently moved to the area and had no one to call.Fortunately a good Samaritan came by and helped her. She had one of those portable air compressor and battery charger units in her trunk. She went straight to my wife’s car connected the clamps to the terminals and my wife’s car started right up.My wife went on and on about how neat and compact this device was. I decided to look into it further especially since I didn’t want her to be in this situation again. It turns out that for around $100 or less (depending on what features and how powerful it is) we could keep one of these gadgets in my wife’s trunk. That’s cheap insurance to keep yourself or a loved one from being stranded if you ask me.There are several different makes and models and may offer different options. Here is a summary of some items to look for:Emergency StartingFor the most bang for your buck get a system that offers the most cranking amps available. Many systems are available that offer between 250 to 375 amps. This high amperage will allow for starting a completely drained battery.Air CompressorAlthough you can buy them without an air compressor having one with your battery charger for your trunk makes sense. For emergencies this device can inflate a flat tire in less than a few minutes. For slow leaks this may buy you a little more mileage to get to the nearest tire service shop. You can use this to inflate your beach toys too!Work LightHaving both hands free makes hooking up a compressor charger unit less troublesome especially at night. A built in work light is like having a third hand. Just set the charger on the engine or side of the compartment to give light to what you are doing (just make sure to put the charger back on the ground before starting the engine.)Reverse Polarity AlarmOne of the most important things to be mindful of when using an automotive battery charger is making sure the clamps are connected correctly. Knowing which terminal or post is positive and which is negative is less of an issue with a reverse polarity alarm. This handy indicator may save the battery and lessen the risk of explosion for the user.If you have loved ones that drive at all, getting a portable air compressor and battery charger really is cheap insurance from getting stranded. There are many kinds available for all budgets and they are simple to use so get one today!

Despite this fact, many people refuse to perform preventive maintenance on their vehicles. Some have little knowledge of cars and are intimidated from doing such maintenance.Others avoid doing such maintenance because they prefer to avoid the work and effort involved. Still others simply lack the time or resources to perform preventive maintenance on their cars. Whatever the reasons, there are many benefits to checking and maintaining the performance of your vehicles’ brakes, tires and other parts.Benefits Of Performing Preventive MaintenanceThere are many benefits to taking proper care of your vehicle. First, you can easily prolong the life of your car if you take time to have critical parts maintained. Like your body, your car can become “unhealthy” to the point where it simply stops performing.By maintaining your vehicle’s health, you can help ensure that you will be able to drive it for many years.Second, you will likely end up selling your car at some point. Few people retire cars. Instead, when they grow tired of them or want a newer model, they will sell the car to another party.A properly-maintained vehicle will attract a higher selling price than a vehicle that is in disrepair. Usually, the small amount of time and effort it takes to maintain your car is well-compensated by the higher resale value you will enjoy when you sell it.Third, performing preventive maintenance on their vehicle can save you money over the years. For example, having the oil changed every 4,000 miles often helps your car use fuel more efficiently. This increased efficiency can help you get better gas mileage.If you use a lot of gas, this can save you money. Similarly, checking your tires for bald spots and pressure can prevent a tire from blowing while on the road. This helps you avoid costly tow trucks and repairs.Also, keeping your suspension and steering well-maintained can prevent them from falling into such disrepair that repairing them becomes cost-prohibitive.What Should You Have Maintained In Your Car?As mentioned, regular oil changes every 4,000 miles should be at the top of your list of preventive maintenance items.Also, be sure to have your cooling system flushed and antifreeze levels maintained. Have coolants added to your car to help maintain the integrity of your water pump and radiator. Be sure to also have your car’s belts and hoses inspected every 40,000 miles. If they need to be replaced, do so.Your car’s brake system needs an inspection each year. If you drive a lot, you may want to have your brakes checked more often (every 12,000 miles is a good idea). Regularly inspect your tires for bald spots and pressure. Make sure the pressure levels are maintained as this will extend the life of your tires. Have them rotated twice a year.Also, make certain your filters are working properly. Their ability to keep contaminants from harming your car’s engine and transmission is critical. If new filters are required, have them replaced.There is a lot you can do to ensure you car lasts a long time, maintains a higher resale value and doesn’t leave you stranded at the side of the road or on the highway.Doing a little preventive maintenance regularly can pay big dividends in both time and money each year.For the small amount of time and effort required to do this maintenance, it is definitely a worthwhile investment.

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Gas is on the rise and it’s expected to continue to climb. Here’s two ways to get around the high costs of fuel and literally drive for cheap:1. Vegetable Oil. Note: This process will only work with a diesel vehicle (see #2 for gasoline vehicles).What this consists of is converting your diesel car or truck to run off of free vegetable oil. The conversion can be relatively straight forward and you can buy an already put together kit that you and your buddies can install over a weekend. The other option, which is cheaper, is just getting the same parts as in the kit separately. This can save a bunch of money and the parts are generally just as good.The free vegetable oil will come from grease bins in the back of fast food or Chinese restaurants. You have to filter out the grease a few times to get it clean, but since it is free this process is definitely worth it. Plus you can now buy filtering pumps that will do all the work for you.2. Run your Car with Water, saving a ton of money on gas.Here is a new process that works for gas cars and trucks, (and actually diesels too if you don’t want to do the vegetable oil conversion). You are not running solely on water, rather it consists of running your vehicle by supplementing water with gasoline. This can literally double your gas mileage and obviously save thousands of dollars a year.This requires a conversion as well, but it is a do it yourself process, and it’s easily reversible so it will not interfere with your car warranty’s, nor will it harm your vehicle. Essentially you are using electricity from you car battery to separate water into a gas that burns smoothly and efficiently.

Fleet maintenance is very important. It ensures that all vehicles within a fleet are performing as they should. If any maintenance problem arises, the fleet operations manager or fleet management employee can arrange for those problems to be addressed before they become larger issues that may negatively impact the business’ performance. But we need to note that it is also important to perform regular maintenance on the vehicles within a fleet to improve fuel efficiency. Many wonder how this is possible, but there are a number of factors that can help determine fuel efficiency. In the next few minutes, we will look at the various factors that can potentially impact your fleets fuel efficiency.The air filterWhen an air filter is clogged, it negatively impacts a vehicle’s fuel efficiency by 10%. The air filter also prevents impurities from damaging the inside of the vehicle’s engine, so there are a couple of benefits to making sure a clogged air filter is replaced.The actual savings that a business can experience by making sure the air filters in their vehicles are properly maintained is around $0.31 per gallon per vehicle. If you have ten vehicles that need new air filters and each holds 25 gallons of gasoline, then that is a total gasoline savings of $77.50. If trucks need to be filled twice a week, that is a weekly savings of $155 a week or $620 per month. All of those savings really adds up. A simple air filter translates into savings of around $7,500 per year, which is a significant amount of money that will impact a business’s revenue.TiresImproperly inflated tires can negatively impact gas mileage. For every psi drop in pressure, gas mileage is lowered by 0.4 percent. Properly inflated tires, on the other hand, can improve gas mileage by around 3.3%
The savings that a business can experience by making sure tires are properly inflated is around $0.09 per gallon per vehicle. So once again, you have ten vehicles with underinflated tires and each holds 25 gallons of gasoline, then that is a total savings of $22.50 in gas. Although the amount doesn’t seem high, keeping tires inflated can prevent premature replacement, which can save money.Motor oilUsing the recommended grade of motor oil for the vehicles in your fleet will improve gas mileage by 1 to 2% by using the grade that is recommended by the manufacturer. That is the grade of oil the engine was made to take. Using the wrong grade of oil can reduce the vehicle’s gas mileage by 1 to 2%. Also, oils that are marked “energy conserving” are especially helpful .The savings a business can experience by using recommended grade of oil is $.03 to $.06 per gallon per vehicle. If you have the same ten vehicles mentioned in the above sections that hold 25 gallons of gasoline and they are not using the right grade motor oil, but you change to the right grade of motor oil, the gas savings is a total of $7.50 to $15.00 per 3,000 miles on the truck, which translates to a yearly savings of anywhere between $85 and $200 per year in gas.A few remindersThe above examples are simple ways that can improve gas mileage. As a fleet manager, you may also want to consider how quickly the driver accelerates and how well the driver adheres to the speed limit. While these things have nothing to do with fleet maintenance, they do have an enormous impact on how much fuel is used on the road, which therefore impacts how fuel costs impact the business. By keeping these things in mind, thousands of dollars in fuel costs can be saved.

With 2007 not far behind us, we can certainly remember the roller coaster ride that gas prices took us on. However, when looking back at the fuel trends in 2007, the prices fluctuations were rather staggering. We all remember looking at the price on the gas station’s sign and cringing at the sight of $3.00 per gallon but a couple of days later feeling the relief when seeing it under $3.00 per gallon- if only to $2.99 per gallon the single penny lessened the blow. to our pocket books.Prices in 2007The gas prices in 2007 put a dent in the wallets of many individuals and businesses alike. However, it is the business that really felt a punch. With many large businesses running large fleets of vehicles, they had to develop cost-efficient ways to transport goods despite the rising gas prices. Although these fleet management techniques worked to curb costs, large retailers began offsetting costs by increasing their prices thus creating a vicious circle of rising prices. Whether it was truly necessary, no one knows, but they touted fuel costs as being the reason why.Just as crude oil rose to astronomical prices per barrel, diesel took a punch as well.Let’s take a look at the roller coaster ride 2007 took us:• January 1st opened up with gas prices at $2.38 per gallon, which is nothing compared to the prices we are seeing now. With crude oil at $58.85 per barrel, we thought it was the end of the world and even diesel had reached $2.58 per gallon.• Luckily, by February 5th, the price of crude oil had decreased to $58.27 per barrel and gas prices were showing a promising $2.23 per gallon and diesel was down to $2.43.• But by March 5th, we were biting our nails again when crude oil spiked to $60.37 per barrel and the gas prices reached a very uncomfortable $2.55 per gallon. Diesel reached $2.62. Seven days later, crude oil was $59.95 per barrel and gas was $2.60 per gallon with diesel hanging at $2.68 per gallon.• By April 2nd, we witnessed gas prices hit $2.75 per gallon and diesel was only 4 cents more at $2.79 per gallon. Crude oil prices had hit $68.92 per barrel.• But it was on April 30th that the punch was truly felt when the signs at the gas stations read $3.01 per gallon for gasoline and diesel was actually showing a lower price at $2.81 per gallon. Crude oil prices had hit $67.16 per barrel, which was actually less than earlier in the month.• By May 28th we saw gas prices spike at $3.25 per gallon and a crude oil price of $69.20 per barrel. Diesel was still hanging around the $2.81 mark and we were being warned that it would be rare to see gasoline prices go below the $3.00 mark.• However, we did have a little bit of a reprieve in August when gasoline reached $2.82 per gallon and diesel was once again a tad bit higher at $2.84 per gallon. But the crude oil prices were hanging around at $71.51 per barrel.• As for the end of 2007, crude oil prices continued to hang between the $70 range and we didn’t see the prices drop below $3.00 per gallon very often. Prices in the range of $2.92 to $2.96 per gallon were what we saw the most of.The trends of 2007 definitely took the public for a loop. Despite the rising prices in crude oil, the prices in gasoline did not increase at the same rate, which is good for individuals and businesses trying to operate on a budget. Hopefully 2008 is going to be less of a roller coaster ride.