We truly appreciate your business and thank you for this five-star review.

"I am very happy with the service I have received at O'Hare Honda. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The waiting area is comfortable and clean. They have always had my car ready in the amount of time they said it would take."

Click here to view this review and others on Edmunds!

Your Monday Maintenance Tip: Night Driving/Reduced Visibility

Driving in fog
• Driving in heavy fog is dangerous, and should be avoided if at all possible.
• Sometimes, though, conditions suddenly become foggy when you’re already
on the road.
• Your safest bet when visibility is greatly reduced is to pull off to the side
of the road and wait for the fog to lift. If you do that be sure to get your
vehicle as far off the road as possible and turn on your vehicle’s emergency
flashing lights so it doesn’t get hit.
• If you must keep driving in the fog, slow down! Also, watch carefully
for vehicles in front of you that may be moving at an even slower pace.
• Turn on your headlights as soon as any fog appears. Use the low
beams, rather than the “brights.” Your high beams, or bright headlights,
will throw light into the fog, making it even more difficult to see the road.
• Be sure to keep your headlights on, even if it’s during the day. They may
be the only part of your vehicle other drivers can see.
• Don’t stop in the middle of the road. And don’t use your emergency
flashing lights when driving.
• Use your windshield wipers. Also, turning on the defroster can help cut
condensation on the inside of the windshield.
• Keep a safe distance from other vehicles, and signal early if you need to turn.
• Use the right edge of the road as a guide to help you stay in your lane.

Nighttime driving
• Even if it’s clear outside, driving at night is more difficult for most people
than driving in the day. That’s because it’s harder to see road signs and other
vehicles. It’s also harder to judge the distance between your vehicle and others.
• Always use your headlights when driving at night. Turn them on half an hour
before sunset, and keep them on until half an hour after the sun rises.
• Using your “brights” or high beam headlights will enable you to see a
greater distance if it’s not a foggy night. But be sure to switch back to the
low beams as soon as another vehicle approaches so the driver isn’t
“blinded” by the bright light.
• Make sure your windshield and headlights are clean.

http://bit.ly/NRd6cx

Honda expanding at several U.S. plants

Honda's decision to further its expand its Civic plant in Greenburg, Ind., adding 500 workers and expanding capacity by 50,000 vehicles a year, is only the start.

The company laid out a big plans for North America. It has spent $1.6 billion at its North American factories in the past 18 months as it prepares to mark its 30th anniversary of making cars in the U.S. That officially happens on Nov. 1, the day in 1982 when the first Accord rolled of the line in Marysville, Ohio.

Greensburg will be the only place in the world where Honda will assemble the Civic hybrid as it phases out production of the model in Japan.

The Indiana plant, which will build 250,000 vehicles annually, already makes the gasoline and compressed natural gas versions of the Civic. Workers there started making the all-new Acura ILX hybrid in April. A second shift of 1,000 workers was added last fall.

Honda was the first Japanese automaker to assemble vehicles in the U.S. three decades ago. Today, it has nine lines in seven assembly plants with the capacity to make 1.63 million vehicles a year in North America, most of which are powered by engines and automatic transmissions made here. What's next:

• By 2014, when a new plant in Celaya, Mexico, starts making the Honda Fit, North American capacity will hit 1.92 million vehicles annually, Schostek said. The continent is already Honda's largest manufacturing base in the world.
• In Ohio, Honda is investing more than $500 million and adding 100 jobs to expand capacity.
• In Lincoln, Ala., Honda is investing $275 million and adding 140 jobs, boosting capacity by 40,000 vehicles to 340,000 a year. That will include the Acura MDX beginning early next year. The SUV is currently made in Alliston, Ont.

The new Mexico plant is an $800-million investment that will create 3,200 new jobs with the capacity to make 200,000 cars starting in 2014.

This network produces the full range of Honda's products, Schostek said. Canada is becoming a hub for small cars and crossovers. A new dedicated facility in Ohio will make the new NSX sports car sometime in the next three years.

By shifting production to the U.S., Japanese manufacturers will be able to reduce costs of labor and transporting parts and vehicles across the Pacific, said Alec Gutierrez, market analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

In 2011, 85% of Honda and Acura models sold in the U.S. were built in North America and that figure will grow to 90% in the next few years.

Honda also wants to export more vehicles and parts from North America to other regions.

Last year, Honda exported 53,000 vehicles from North America. That figure will grow to 100,000 this year and eventually 200,000 annually, Honda officials predict.

http://usat.ly/OfWyvv

We are always thrilled to hear from our wonderful customers. Thank you, Elena and Kyra!

"The level of service we continue to receive at O'Hare Honda is unparalleled. We purchased our Honda Fit here in 2010 (our first car buying experience) and come back in for check-ups regularly. Everyone we have come in contact with here (from the sales floor, to the waiting area, to the repairmen, etc) have been supportive, friendly and attentive. We are never waiting long, but the waiting area is always clean and enjoyable. The car remains in excellent condition, and any questions we have had are answered right away from their service team. We do not get a constant flow of calls or emails from them trying to let us know about any deals they have going on, we hear from them only at the right times...when it's time to take the car in, and our purchase anniversary!"

- Kyra

"O'Hare Honda is the best place to get my Honda checked up. I bought my Civic here in March 2011 and have had several service appointments since. They only perform the necessary adjustments and don't try to charge you for other services. The wait times are always reasonable, and the waiting area is comfortable. I will return to O'Hare Honda for every service appointment."

- Elena

Honda Offers Free Insurance

In an attempt to lure buyers to its first electric vehicle, the automaker throws in free, no-deductible collision insurance.

If the thought of free car insurance gets you excited, Honda has a deal for you: free collision insurance. Notice we said "free" and not "stipulation-free" -- the deal is applicable only under certain conditions. That is, if you're in the market for an electric vehicle; you live in California or Oregon; you want to lease instead of buy; you can afford payments of $389 per month; and you don't care to purchase the car at the end of the three-year lease. Still interested? 

Yes, the free insurance deal is available only for Honda's Fit EV, which also comes with all of the above caveats. Honda is hoping the allure of free insurance for the duration of its three-year leases will draw buyers in. 

It's a marketing tactic to get drivers into the car, of course, but Honda says it's also a practical move. According to reporting by The Detroit News, the fact that only 1,100 vehicles are poised to hit the streets this year could have given pause to insurers attempting to rate the financial risk of such a low-volume vehicle. The insurance freebie gets around that possible snafu.

Is this likely to catch on within the industry? General Motors offered a year of free insurance to drivers in Washington and Oregon last year, but didn't subsequently renew or expand the program. The problem: It was difficult to administer. 

But with such low volume -- just 1,100 cars total -- administrative logistics are likely to be minimal for Honda with the Fit EV. And for drivers of the new, unproven vehicle, the added assurance of complimentary insurance, maintenance and roadside assistance could make the difference -- along with the financial break, which comes to an estimated $600 per year. 

Fit EV drivers will still have to pay for their own liability insurance. According to Jerry Hirsch of The Detroit News: "Consumers leasing the Fit will be required to carry liability insurance at $100,000 per incident and $300,000 overall coverage."

Courtesy of MSN

We appreciate the fantastic feedback, Barrie! We look forward to seeing you again.

"This is the best experience I have ever had working with a dealer on an auto repair! They repaired a manufacturer defect and were extremely efficient in preforming routine maintenance at my convenience. Will be happy to take my car in for service in the future."

- Barrie

Your Monday Maintenance Tip: The Importance of Oil Changes

Having your oil changed on a regular basis is one of the most important things you can do to keep your car in proper running order. Literally speaking, there is no better way to keep your car in tip top performance and have it run for hundreds of thousands of miles than to keep your oil changed whenever it is recommended by the car manufacturer or the oil change shop. Oil changes cost under fifty dollars, even if you choose to have the top of the line oil added into your car, so there is really no reason why you could not afford such a simple and painless procedure. By getting your oil changed on a regular basis, you will not only improve the life of your cars engine, but you will also allow your car to maximize the horsepower it puts on the road; and you can make sure that all of your cylinders are firing and working as properly as when the car was new. 

The benefits of oil changes are not so great as the drawbacks of not getting your oil changed, which are catastrophic. While you do increase the life of your engine and keep your horsepower maximized by getting your oil changed regularly, these are not as significant as the problems that can arise if you do not change your oil when it is recommended to do so. Firstly, not changing your oil often enough can cause significant damage to your engine, as the oil is necessary to keep all of the moving parts lubricated. By not having enough oil or by using oil that has outlived its usefulness (is filled with dirt or has low viscosity), you run the risk of allowing parts to not work as efficiently as they possibly could.

In the long run, such parts grinding together without lubrication in such a stressful environment as an internal combustion engine could eventually lead to such parts fusing together, jamming up or altogether failing. This is catastrophic to your engine, as the engine could simply stop working or actually explode if enough parts refuse to work.

When you go to get your oil changed, you really have one of two different options. You can either choose to spend less money and simply purchase whatever oil you want to put into your car from a store and add it in yourself; or you could have a professional do it. Because of all of the major restrictions on what you can and cannot do with oil nowadays, it makes much more sense to have a professional do the oil change, as they have special ways in which they are able to dispose of it. If you do the change yourself, you will have to save all of the oil which you remove from the car and take it to a place like your local fire station to have professionals dispose of it, instead of you simply taking it to the dump or pouring it down the drain. Since there are so many hassles involved in changing the oil yourself, you may want to simply have professionals do it, even though it is more expensive.

 

Courtesy of Ezilon

Honda Pilot is ready to fly

Take me to your pilot — or better yet, a Honda Pilot and I'll hit the road for a memorable vacation.

With Honda's full-sized Pilot, a buyer has one of the most well-rounded and capable sport utility vehicles on the road.

This is a unit with three rows of seats, a spacious and accommodating interior and a wonderful 3.5-litre engine that sounds delicious and performs impeccably.

The tester, a fully loaded mid-level Pilot EX-L, is the kind of SUV I could have easily taken on holiday this week — a Honda big enough for my fishing gear and a few fishing buddies. With towing capacity of 4,500 pounds, the Pilot also is capable of hauling a nice fishing rig.

The Pilot comes prewired for a trailer and has an integrated hitch. Five models of the Pilot are available from the base LX 2WD with a starting MSRP of $34,920 to the top of the line Touring with a base MSRP of $48,520. In between are the EX ($40,820), EX-L ($43,120) and EX-L RES ($44,720).

All Pilots are powered by a 3.5-litre, 24-valve SOHC i-VTEC V6 engine cranking out 250 horsepower at 5,700 rpm Transmission is a five-speed automatic.

While some other SUVs may have more power, none that I've tested have an engine that matches the Pilot's for pure pleasure. Responsive and fuel efficient with ratings of 23 mpg city and 34 mpg highway, the VTEC motor is a true highway star — someone please cue up the Deep Purple! That engine has variable cylinder management which deactivates cylinders when full power isn't needed, cutting down on fuel consumption.

 

Courtesy of The Chronicle Herald CA

A different kind of gas engine

Entrepreneur converts cars to run on natural gas

Inside a gutted big-box store, a technician is converting vehicles to run on a fuel — natural gas — that costs about half as much as gasoline.

This is CNG Trans of the Far East Side, one of the companies behind a growing push to make natural gas a viable option as a motor fuel. These efforts are closely tied to Ohio’s burgeoning shale-gas industry, which could provide decades of homegrown energy.

“We are at the beginning,” said Rick Ridenour, who has worked for decades on natural-gas vehicles and is now CNG Trans’ sole full-time employee. “Everyone who converts is loving this stuff.”

What they love is the price. The public pays about $2 for natural gas that provides the equivalent energy of a gallon of gasoline. And for anybody except the most avid gearhead, the performance of a natural-gas vehicle is indistinguishable from that of a gasoline-powered vehicle.

The early adopters are local governments, corporate fleets and just a few consumers. Columbus and Dublin have begun converting their city-owned vehicles, and Gov. John Kasich has proposed doing the same thing with some of the state fleet.

“One of the advantages, particularly for folks like you in Ohio, is there is a lot of natural gas,” said Dave Hurst, senior analyst at Pike Research, a technology market-research firm.

Nationwide, there are 111,800 natural-gas vehicles on the road, including cars and light trucks along with commercial and industrial vehicles, according to Pike Research. That represents far less than 1 percent of all vehicles.

That total is more than double the number of plug-in electric vehicles, but much less than the number that can run on biofuels such as E-85 or biodiesel. Each of the alternatives to gasoline is battling for customers and for government aid.

Sixteen countries have more natural-gas vehicles than the United States, according to NGV America, an advocacy group. Iran, Pakistan and Argentina are the leaders, each with more than 2 m illion of the vehicles.

Getting control

In Dublin, IGS Energy is working with the city government to install a fueling station that is scheduled to open this month. Central Ohio now has six such fueling stations, in addition to an unknown number in the garages of homes and businesses.

“Right now, we’re going for the low-hanging fruit,” said Matt White, a regulatory attorney for IGS. By that, he means that IGS is focusing on potential customers whose driving patterns mean they stand to save the most money from the conversion. The ideal customer is a business or public agency that drives a lot of miles and returns each day to a central point, he said.

Some examples include buses, garbage trucks and mail-delivery vehicles.

The switch involves an upfront cost of about $10,000 per vehicle. If a business wants its own fueling station, that can cost a million dollars or more. Each year, savings on fuel will help pay off the initial investment. Some businesses can start realizing savings in as little as two years.

IGS, whose main business is selling natural gas, sees these vehicles as a way to expand demand for its product. The company offers to supply its customers with gas at a fixed price for several years at a time, offering predictability that clients cannot get with gasoline.

David Peabody, president of Peabody Landscaping on the Northwest Side, will have about two-thirds of his 38 vehicles running on natural gas by the end of summer. He is installing a fueling station at his offices and converting the vehicles. The project has its roots in the 2008 surge in gasoline prices.

“One thing that really bothered me is that I had no control over one of my largest costs, which was fuel,” he said.

He sought out information about alternative fuels and met Ridenour, who was then an instructor at the Hocking College campus in Logan. Once Peabody decided to go with natural gas, he spent years getting permits and shopping for equipment.

Soon, he will see the rewards of all that work. He estimates that it will take about 18 months to recoup the cost of the project with fuel savings, an unusually quick payoff because he is doing much of the work in-house. After that, the savings will allow him to be more competitive in a business where profit margins are often tight.

Just imagine

CNG Trans was started last year by Steve Lindsay, general manager of Lindsay Honda on the Far East Side. The company installed a compressed-natural-gas fueling station at a former Meijer fuel location off Brice Road south of I-70, where it also converts gasoline vehicles to run on natural gas.

Near the station, the company has rented the former Meijer store. What used to be 200,000 square feet of retail space is now an empty shell, with work space to do vehicle conversions.

For that task, Lindsay hired Ridenour, who has worked on natural-gas vehicles for as long as the 32-year-old Lindsay has been alive.

The wiry Ridenour is part mechanic and part scientist, with a permanent tan and a youthful enthusiasm for what he does.

On a recent morning, he was working on a Cadillac Escalade. Like many such conversions, the vehicle will be “bi-fuel,” meaning it will still have its gasoline tank, in addition to the natural-gas tank, and it can be switched back and forth between the fuels.

“Just imagine the money we could keep in our country if we could get off (foreign) oil,” he said.

He did his first vehicle conversion in the 1970s, which enabled him to run his own truck on the gas that came from a well on his farm. He and his father later started a business doing conversions. The venture lasted from 1981 to 1996, ending at a time when unusually low gasoline prices led interest in natural-gas cars to dwindle.

The entrepreneur

Lindsay’s Honda store sells the Civic Natural Gas, the only consumer vehicle built to run on the fuel. He also drives one.

“It just makes so much sense,” he said.

He thinks the environmental benefits are nearly as important as the financial ones. To make his point, he bends down behind one of the vehicles and takes a deep breath near the tail pipe. The vehicle has some harmful emissions but not nearly as much as the exhaust from gasoline.

On a recent weekday, he took his Civic for a drive to show off its handling. The car sells for about $26,000, which is about $10,000 more than a base model.

Lindsay stopped at the CNG Trans fueling station, located around the corner from his dealership. The single natural-gas pump is in front of a boarded-up convenience store.

Customers pay an automated card reader and hook the gas nozzle to a connector on the car’s fuel tank, similar to the connection between a propane tank and a grill. The price is $1.89 for the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline.

A nearby set of compressors makes the fuel ultra-dense, which allows the cars to travel a greater distance than would be possible with the thinner gas used for cooking and heating. This is compressed natural gas, or CNG.

Lindsay has invested several million dollars in CNG Trans. On most days, the station gets about two customers.

This is the “chicken and egg” problem that faces any alternative fuel. Customers will not buy the vehicles if there is no refueling infrastructure, but there is little incentive to invest in the infrastructure if there are few vehicles. To make the fuel work, entrepreneurs need to step forward, and that is what he has done.

“For me, it’s a challenge,” he said. “How can we integrate this great Ohio fuel into our transportation?”

 

Courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch

Thank you to both of these happy customers for writing these rave reviews!

"I have been going to O'Hare Honda for routine maintenance ever since I got my Pilot. Their prices are comparable to oil service chains, and you get a free car wash. They are very friendly and often recognize me when I come in. The waiting room is nice with free wi-fi, Starbuck's coffee and the bathrooms are decent (especially compared to other places).
A few tips: look at the coupons they send you in the mail. There's usually one for $5 off on an oil change.
Shop around for major repairs. Their prices are sometimes a little higher (but that could be because they use Honda parts)
Overall, a great place to get your car serviced. Highly recommended!"

- Jeff

"I have been going to O hare Honda for routine maintenance ever since I got my Pilot. Their prices are comparable to oil service chains, and you get a free car wash. They are very friendly and often recognize me when I come in. The waiting room is nice with free wi-fi Starbuck s coffee and the bathrooms are decent (especially compared to other places). A few tips: look at the coupons they send you in the mail. There s usually one for $5 off on an oil change. Shop around for major repairs. Their prices are sometimes a little higher (but that could be because they use Honda parts) Overall, a great place to get your car serviced. Highly recommended!"