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Car & Truck Tips For Buying, Selling, Service And Quick Fixes
Welcome to Car & Truck Tips! Browse our site and you will find quality information about sales and service related to cars, trucks, vans, suvs, and all other new and used vehicles. Our car and truck tips are brought to you by people who have spent their entire careers in the automotive industry selling, buying and servicing cars at the dealership level. Our primary goal is to provide you, the consumer, with quality and sound advisement concerning your car and truck buying, selling and servicing. Whether it is a routine tune up or buying a used car or truck online, the advice and tips on this website will help you to make wise and informed decisions and feel confident negotiating a deal on and offline with car dealers and negotiating service contracts with dealer service departments or your local mechanic. |
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 Fix Battery: How To Fix Car Battery Problems
You turn the key and the only response from under the hood, is a rapid clicking noise. After connecting jumper cables from a Good Samaritan's battery to yours, you turn the key and your vehicle responds by coming to life. It sounds like you have a bad battery. To determine if the battery is bad, you will need a voltmeter. To test the battery, you need the engine to be shut off. If the engine has recently been running then I suggest that you turn the headlights on for about 30 seconds. This will
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Fix Scratches: How To Repair Car Scratches
Nothing can hurt the appearance of a new car and hurt the feelings of a new car owner more, than a scratch or ding on its formerly pristine surface. The first is always the hardest to accept but don't make the condition worse by ignoring it. It won't go away on its own and often times, left untouched, will result in a rusted unsightly mess. There are many products on the market today that can not only prevent those scratches from being deep ones, but also
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Winter Maintenance: Assault The Salt & Save A Headache
During these challenging economic times, many consumers are opting to hang onto their automobiles for another year or two rather than incur further debt by buying new. One simple measure to take that will help ensure your car's longevity is to wash it on a weekly basis. During the long winter months in cold, snowy climates, our roads are treated with various forms or snow and ice melting products, none of which are good for your car's body or chassis. Salt and other chemicals can do
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Auto Maintenance: Avoid Costly Repairs
I have been associated with the automobile business my entire working life. From a high school part time job pumping gas at the local “service” station, to my current job as service director for one of Maine’s largest Ford dealer groups; if there is one thing I have learned in all those years of being around things mechanical it is, if you don’t maintain it, it will break, and you will have to pay to fix it. I don’t care if you are talking about your lawn mower, boat, snow blower, or your car or truck. Much like our own
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Replacing Car Keys: Prices Up Due To Anti Theft Systems
Have you had to buy a replacement ignition key for your car or truck lately? If you have, then you have learned that a replacement key can run up to $100.00. Anti-theft systems have been incorporated into the ignition keys for about 10 years. The system is referred to as PATS. This is car jargon for Passive Anti Theft System. This anti theft system is what makes the key so expensive to replace. The anti theft system interrupts the vehicles ability to start. Different vehicle lines use
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Replacing Air Filter: How To Change Your Car Air Filter
This 10 minute service and twenty dollar part is often neglected, resulting in poor engine performance and loss of fuel economy. In the good old days the service station attendant would check your air filter when you stopped in for gas. Today, you either check it yourself or hope your service shop does it for you. If you are not inclined to check it yourself, make sure you ask your shop to check it. The rule of thumb for replacing an air filter is once per year, or if you can’t remember when it was done it is probably overdue. This quick service will
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Car Buying Tips: Negotiating A Car Purchase
I know most people need to finance the cost of a new or used car or truck. Car and truck salespeople know this also and they take advantage of it wherever they can. Sales people like to learn early in the deal what you hope your monthly payment will be. However, how you convey that information to a salesperson will make a difference in what you pay for the vehicle. Do Not Ever answer the question "What do you need for a monthly payment?" This puts
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Car Care Tips: Maximizing The Value Of My Car
Today’s automobile will easily get 100,000 miles and more providing you do the proper preventative maintenance. If you do the simple oil and filter services, change the air and fuel filters, and take care of the little things before they become big things you can expect your car or truck to stay on the road for a long time. In my opinion, that is the only way to get the full value out of your vehicle. Automobiles depreciate in value by thousands of dollars per year for the first 5 or 6 years. Then the depreciation slows into the hundreds of dollars. So the longer you can drive it the better return you have on your investment. If you find yourself at
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Extended Warranties: Ask, Who Holds The Warranty?
In most cases I am a strong advocate for buying an extended warranty. The only time I
can think of that an extended warranty doesn't make sense is when you trade new cars
every 3 or 4 years. There are several types of extended warranties. Some are
admimistrated by the manufacturer and others by third party companies. I am partial to
the manufacturers extended warranties as they tend to provide more hassle free coverage.
These extended warranties are only available from franchised new car dealers. This does
not mean that the only extended warranty franchised dealers sell are backed by the
factory, so make sure you ask who holds the warranty. If it is not the manufacturer then
research the warranty company before committing to buy. Extended warranties do not cover
everything, even though
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