How to Care For Your Car During Winter
Posted by in Car Care Tips on June 28, 2011
Your car is important investment. It may even biggest asset, to date. Plus, you need it to get to and from work and other many places. For these reasons and more, it is essential to understand how to take care of it during these cold, winter months.
For instance, do you know that you need to check the thread count on your tires? Why? If your thread count is low your car won’t have as good of a grip onto the road. This could cause your car to slide quicker, causing accidents.
Some people who live in areas that get a lot of snow prefer to have snow tires installed onto their cars during the winter months. This is especially helpful for those who have cars that have rear wheel drive. The reason is that snow tires helps to distribute more weight to the back of the car which helps to keep the car from skidding. Those who do not wish to go to the expense of installing snow tires or the hassle, may instead put some extra weight in their trunk in the form of blocks or sandbags.
A couple of simple things that most of us can do ourselves to help our cars is: checking our windshield wipers for cuts and tears or just replacing them since they are so inexpensive and easy to do, adding extra washer fluid, especially the kind that has extra additives in it that will help to melt frost from our window, making sure all of our other fluids are full, especially our antifreeze. Antifreeze is important. It helps keeps our radiator from freezing. Once a radiator freezes, it may develop little holes, which can lead to some serious auto repair work.
After we have done all the little things that we are able to ourselves, we may want to consider making an appointment with our mechanic and having him do a maintenance check. You could ask him to check over all belts, your brake system, and any other areas that he feels should be checked, just to make sure your car is running at tip top performance for these cold days of winter.
Hopefully, your mechanic will not find anything major wrong with your car. Then you are left with checking all the lights on your car. You want to make sure your headlights, turning lights, brake lights and even your flashers are working properly. When they aren’t working they usually just need a new bulb or possibly a new fuse. If you are unable to fix the problem some of the salespeople at some auto parts stores are more than happy to assist you. Read the rest of this entry »
Auto Sales Information, Data Collection for Global Car Sales in Mid-2011 Through 2012
Posted by in Car Sales on June 28, 2011
Is the economy low on gas as we round the corner here in Mid 2011? Many economic indicators appear to show that, and one of the best indicators as to the strength of the middle class, consumer confidence, and GDP growth is the auto industry. Okay so, let’s discuss this for a minute, where are we exactly?
There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on June 9, 2011 suggests that auto production is increasing in North America; US, Canada, and Mexico, in fact the article was titled; “Mexico’s May Auto Production Up 19% on Year to 213,329 Units. Some of those cars went to Latin America, although folks should be forewarned that although some South and Central American nations are taking more auto imports, there has been a swing towards socialism and typically that means slower economic growth moving forward.
Indeed, some socialist party leaders in South America insist that their policies are moderate and GDP growth will remain steady, for instance the new Peruvian Leader, Ollanta Humala is convincing Wall Street, the IMF, and other foreign investment folks that all will be fine, as per an article in the WSJ on 6-9-11 titled “Peru’s New Leader Challenges Stock Dumpers,” also similar messages from Argentina, and Brazil as well. Perhaps so, and thus exports to South America will continue to help Mexican and US-Mexican car maker partnerships.
Meanwhile on the home front it looks as if GM’s sales growth in China is hitting a plateau as the Chinese government finds too many cars on their highways, fuel challenges, and too much pollution and therefore has cut tax cut incentives for new car sales there. However, Ford reports solid in-roads in other parts of Asia and India, and gave forward looking guidance of global sales revenue growths of 8-10%, last year their revenue growth exceed 6% so, this is good news (see: WSJ 6-8-11 “Ford Forecasts Sharp Gains from Asian Sales).
Ford has also introduced a prototype vehicle to sell in the USA, a fuel-sipping 3-cylinder car out next year, and right now with $101 per barrel oil, it can’t come soon enough for American Consumers. Of course, do not expect US Auto Makers to be giving cars away anytime soon as there are inventory challenges, for example there was an article in my local paper here titled; “Shortages Drive Up Costs; Fewer Cars Drive Off Lots” (Associated Press, Desert Sun, 6/2/11) by Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin. Another article in the USA Today confirms this reality; “Auto Recovery Pauses in May – Sluggish Economy, High Fuel Prices Cool Buying” by James A. Healey also a lead story on 6-2-11. Read the rest of this entry »