Thursday, February 27, 2014

Check out our favorite bumper stickers!

When you're stuck in traffic, it never hurts to be behind someone who's got some humor. At least you get a good laugh for a few minutes. Hopefully you're not stuck for too long because after 30 minutes of being stuck in traffic, you will quickly stop laughing. If you're ever in the mood to make your back bumper a little more fun, feel free to reach out to us to find out where you can purchase these. Also, feel free to share your personal favorites! 



Obviously we will not force you to conceive babies but we have to admit if you have babies in your car, that's a really funny one!
 Hopefully, this isn't the kind of bumper sticker you'd want to put on your car. Also, if your car is getting to that point, come by and see us because it will probably be time for a new car.
This is for the repeat offenders, if you see a cop and you know it's for you, well, License and Registration!
 When you need to relax the person behind you, nothing beats a good old "Namaste" to them. Breathe in, breathe out and take it easy!
Who doesn't like The Beatles? Not only is it funny, but it will also add a personal touch to your back window.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Tires 101! Don't miss it!

Tires 101 - Learning the Tire Categories

Tires are purpose-built. In other words, they are built using the specifications that are best suited to the job that the tire will perform. These specifications determine the materials that the tire is made of as well as the tread patterns and the overall look of the tire. These build specifications can be broken down into the following categories: Touring, Performance, All-Season, Light Truck, and Winter.

Touring
I'm sure you heard the term "touring", but what does that mean? Touring means traveling at highway speeds for prolonged periods. Touring tires are designed to give a quiet, excellent ride with top-notch handling at highway speeds. This type of tire has a non-aggressive tread pattern with straight ribs that allow the channeling of water. Another characteristic of the touring tire is long tread life. Long tread life is certainly a plus but the downside is that the hard compound that makes up this tire tends to freeze in winter, which in turn, sacrifices traction in bad weather.'
 
Performance
This type of tire does a great job at highway speeds. It has an aggressive tread pattern that provides great traction and handling during cornering and aggressive driving. These tires have heavy or large shoulder lugs for cornering traction and a wide smooth face for gripping the road surface. Evacuating water is usually not a strong point of this type of tire. They are made of a softer rubber compound which aids traction but wears out quickly. Performance tires are usually short-lived. Most "Summer" tires fall under this category.'
 
All-Season
This category includes the most versatile tires. All-season tires have a dual purpose. First, the tread patterns squeegee, or remove water from underneath each tread block maximizing rubber-to-road contact. Secondly, the tread patterns allow the "pumping" of water, ice, and snow away from the tire. These tires are also made up of a compound that resists freezing, ensuring better traction during icy conditions. Another great characteristic of the all-season tire is its performance in great weather. They are comparatively quieter than performance tires and their blocky tread pattern allows good traction and handling in the wet and dry.'
 
Light Truck
This type of tire is built for work. They are constructed to work under heavy loads and in rough conditions. The rubber compound is hard, ensuring durability and the steel plies help the tire resist punctures and tears. The tread patterns vary widely and is determined by whether the tire will be used on or off-road. You will find lots of variation for light-truck tires, so thinking through the truck or SUV's mission will go a long way.'
 
Winter
This category of tire is built for inclement and severe weather. Its whole mission in life is to move and break through snow and ice. The rubber compound resists freezing temperatures and remains flexible. The treads open and close as the tire moves down the road creating a "crunching" effect on ice and snow. This "crunching" keeps the treads clean which gets them ready for the next bite, ensuring traction. They are excellent at evacuating water. The sharp edges on the treads break through ice so that the tire can find the road or a surface that provides greater traction. If you experience an abundance of ice, snow, or inclement weather, the winter tire is your best bet.
Here's a quick guide for category characteristics:
  • Touring- quiet, good highway performance, long tread life 
  • Performance- great handling and grip for aggressive driving in the dry, poor performance in wet and snow, short tread life 
  • All-Season- good highway performance, good wet, dry, and snow performance, moderately quiet 
  • Light Truck- good for heavier loads, hard compound, aggressive tread pattern, good on and off-road performance 
  • Winter- great in ice and snow, resists freezing, best at evacuating ice and snow, great winter traction
Now that you can "speak" tires and know the difference between the types of tires available, you can make an informed purchase, choosing the right tires for your needs.

Friday, February 14, 2014

GM and Honda to Collaborate on Next-Generation Fuel Cell Technologies

GM and Honda are teaming together to make the next generation fuel cell technology.

 Their goal is commercially feasible fuel cell and hydrogen storage in the 2020 time frame.

“This collaboration builds upon Honda and GM’s strengths as leaders in hydrogen fuel cell technology,” said Dan Akerson, GM chairman and CEO. “We are convinced this is the best way to develop this important technology, which has the potential to help reduce the dependence on petroleum and establish sustainable mobility."  Takanobu Ito, president & CEO of Honda Motor Co. Ltd. said:
 “Among all zero CO2 emission technologies, fuel cell electric vehicles have a definitive advantage with range and refueling time that is as good as conventional gasoline cars. Honda and GM are eager to accelerate the market penetration of this ultimate clean mobility technology and I am excited to form this collaboration to fuse our leading fuel cell technologies and create an advanced system that will be both more capable and more affordable.”

Fuel cell technology covers many of the major challenges facing cars today – emissions, efficiency, petroleum dependency, range and refueling times.  The only emission from fuel cell vehicles in water vapor.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Best traffic bypassing apps!


We all know that Traffic Technology is evolving at the speed of light. Also, the moment you drive off the lot you might find out that some insane new technology just came out! For this reason, we’ve compiled the best apps you can download to help you save time on your work commute. It will help you avoid, accidents, traffic, police stops and radars or basically anything that will prevent you from getting home fast.



Garmin Street Pilot

This expensive software with photo- realistic mapping and right-now prompts, which worked well even when you are cruising through rural areas without a cell signal. That detail and immediacy are the result of maps that live locally on your smartphone, not in the cloud. Another distinguishing feature is Garmin's awesome mass-transit database. The app can route you to the nearest parking garage and it will drop a virtual pin on the map to help you remember your car's location. It even knows the bus schedule and will help you find the nearest Bus/Metro/Ferry stop. Live traffic information is provided by Here and augmented by crowd sourced data.

Waze

Recently purchased by Google we still need to say, it's not Google Maps with added directions. The maps and routings are built by 50 million worldwide users. Traffic data in the U.S. is based entirely on the progress of "wazers" currently driving. These generous volunteers provide information on speed traps, accidents, and other road events, which fellow wazers confirm and update. But Waze needs an internet connection; lose service and most of the info is unavailable. The police and traffic warnings are highly reliable, and points-of-interest searches are augmented by larger databases such as Google, Yelp, and Foursquare. This is basically a game-changer in the Traffic Apps of the world.


Scout

This product comes from mapping- and traffic-service provider Telenav, so they know what they are talking about.In case you don’t know who they are, they are the inventors of In-Car Mapping systems. We like the layers of information that come with directions, such as weather forecasts. Two other features stand out: OnMyWay texts contacts that you're en route, and the Meet Up function lets multiple users see the others' progress in real time. Scout also acts as an event guide, with listings of movie times, concerts, and so on. In-app upgrades include speed traps and speed cameras. Like Waze, Scout's prompts may be a beat slower than those of Garmin's StreetPilot, but, hey—it's free! We also love that you can choose a monster truck as the icon for your car. Basically, this is a very contender! Don’t miss out on it.



Trapster

Directions and traffic alerts aren't the only ways to improve your commute—apps can also help you steer clear of cops, drive green, or find a charge. For those averse to tickets and fines, Trapster uses voice prompts to flag red-light and speed cameras along with known speed traps. Data is crowdsourced from 20 million users, and accuracy is solid.