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North American roads cover millions of miles of landscape through habitats that vary from desert and grassland to mountain or forest and everything in-between. While we enjoy the freedom of the open road, we are nearly always crossing through the homes of wild creatures which may venture out on the road at the worst time possible.  Follow these tips to avoid a collision with our natural neighbors. 1.  Pay Attention - It may seem like the most basic of instructions, but in our tech-crazy world t...

Buying a used car can be a great experience or a complete nightmare, depending on what you know when you sign on the bottom line or hand over your hard-earned cash to the seller.  While most used car establishments are reputable, there are still some that will be happy to sell you a little less car than you bargain for.  As a matter of fact, some dealers and individual sellers simply don't know the history or the problems with a car when they offer it to you. Check these ten important things be...

The automotive aftermarket offers thousands of cool gadgets and gizmos to make your summer driving experience safer, more comfortable and way more entertaining. Here are the top ten coolest of the cool gadgets for 2017: 1. Dash-cam - It seems like there are cameras everywhere today, and there is no better place to put one than on your dash. If something exciting or dangerous happens while you are driving, the dash cam will catch all the action. You can use this as evidence in case of a crash, t...

Summer is a great time to head to the movies and what could be more American than heading to the local drive-in to take in a movie while enjoying a piece of classic Americana?  But don't head to the drive-in unprepared.  Follow these quick tips to make the most of your viewing experience. 1. Check Your Battery - Drive-in theaters these days pipe the audio through your car stereo and you won't be able to leave your engine running for a two hour plus cinematic experience.  Your battery will be do...

You notice that suddenly your vehicle seems to be getting worse gas mileage than it did awhile back. Why? What happened? Like with most things on your vehicle, there can be numerous problems at the root of poor fuel economy. Let’s start with the simple ones and work our way to the more complicated issues: Tires: This one’s easy. Underinflated tires mean more rolling resistance (think about riding a bike with a low tire), and more rolling resistance means poorer fuel economy. Check your tire ...

So you got a new set of wheels – congratulations! You’re going to want to hang onto it as long as possible, so you’ll want to keep it maintained as well as you can. Here are some suggestions: First, read the owner’s manual carefully and stick to manufacturer’s recommendations for service intervals. There are certain things that are critical enough that failure to adhere to recommendations can void a new car warranty. Don’t let that happen! For instance, just about every manufacturer recom...

In the old days, a tune-up was necessary about every 35,000 miles. It would usually consist of setting the ignition timing, replacing the mechanical breaker points in the ignition, cleaning and adjusting the carburetor and replacing the plug wires and spark plugs. Today, of course, the carburetor’s job is done by fuel injection and the ignition timing and spark are controlled by the engine computer. Few vehicles still have plug wires anymore either, as the distributor was replaced by the compu...