As the earth warms, global warming and sustainability has become a big news maker. People often ask me what they can do to help fight global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some have gone so far to get a hybrid vehicle, others have taken to walking more, riding the bus while others are puzzled what they can do with little money that would make a difference. What I am going to suggest is how to get the biggest amount of good for the least amount of money. Not everyone can afford to buy a new car. The easiest way is to do very small steps. When a tire is not inflated properly, it requires more energy to make the car move and maintain speeds. An informal study found the majority of the vehicles in the US are only inflated to 80% of capacity. Property inflated tires can increase fuel mileage by 3.3%, an under inflated tires can lower fuel mileage by .4% per pound. Putting that an average driver who drives 12,000 miles per year, that would be an ex ... read more

Drivers are the weakest link when it comes to driving safely, according to Jason Forcier, Bosch regional president of electronics. What do vehicles have to avoid have a crash? In avoidance, the first equipment was ABS brakes. That stands for Anti-locking brakes. No matter hard you push the brake pedal, the wheels will not lock up. When the wheels do lock up, it increasing stopping distance and take away the ability to steer you vehicle. ABS was introduced in high end vehicles and now is on all vehicles sold in this country. The next wonderful avoidance devise installed was stability control. This devise has the ability to sense through electronics that you vehicles is in a slide. Using the brake system, it will apply the brake on one wheel to help bring your vehicle out of the slide. I have driven a vehicle with stability control disabled and then working, it really works well. Some vehicles have a “heads up” display superimposed on th ... read more

(From Left to Right) Travis Minyard, Technician; Will Calkin, Technician; Ryan Kossol, General Manager; Cynthia Kallunki, Business Manager; Sheba Rode, Greeter; George Rode, President. Not Pictured, Justin Ortiz, Technician

One of the questions I’m asked a lot is can you use regular in a vehicle that was designed for premium. The short answer is no. The engineers that design the engines and all the controls for it are very careful with the timing of what is called the power stroke. Years ago, when you could tune engines, one of the critical adjustments was ignition timing. Ignition timing as most other “tuning” adjustments are no longer adjustable. Yes, don’t ask for your car to be tuned anymore, it’s a word of the past with newer cars. To understand ignition timing, picture swinging a kid on a swing. The timing of pushing the kid is important, if you push too late, you are just pushing air (late timing or retarded timing) If you push the kid to early, you will slap his back or maybe push the kid out of the swing, not good. The perfect timing for the kid on the swing is to push him gentle in the beginning or the forward stroke and continue it until the kid is at th ... read more