A Women's Point of View: Car Maintenance in a Perfect World

by Colette Cooley, Office Manager for Cars For Keeps

Car maintenance in a Perfect World would mean that our cars would need no maintenance to run perfectly at all times until we decide that we want a different car. Or a different color car. Or a different looking car. You know, like a pair of shoes.

Unfortunately, cars do need maintenance and they need it regularly. On a women's list of favorite things to do, this falls somewhere just above going to the dentist and cleaning the toilet. The oil needs to be changed. The fluids need to be checked. The brakes need to be looked at for wear. The oil filter needs to be changed. The air pressure in the tires need to be checked. The freon in the air conditioner needs to be checked. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Since we would rather clean spiders out of the garage then do these things ourselves, here are a few tips to make this regular chore a little more pleasant.

First, find a car repair facility that is woman friendly. Like Cars For Keeps. A pleasant waiting area with coffee, tea, and soft drinks, internet to check your email, soft music, television with CD's to play, and most important of all - a clean restroom with a baby changing station. Coloring books and readers for kids, a service manager who thinks women are intelligent and shuttle service if you don't want to wait.

Second, if you are waiting, you can catch up on your reading, do business using our wireless internet, copy recipes out of our up-to-date magazines, return those phone calls that are stacking up, or if you have had a particularly stressful day, we will give you some crayons so you can color. Don't laugh, we have several adults who find this very therapeutic. In other words, come on in, relax, have a few laughs while you're attending to car maintenance in an imperfect world.

A Woman’s Point of View: Sometimes Heroes Come in Greasey Shirts

Colette Cooley, Office Manager at Cars For Keeps

You have been looking towards your vacation for months. The snow is huffing and puffing outside, but you are lost in your “dream”. You are at the point where you don’t think you can make it through another day at the office, so you think about your dream to get through the day. Your vacation. Your Nirvana. Your soul’s restoration. Then, finally, your dream has come true. You are actually living your dream vacation. And your car breaks.

I am not talking a broken fingernail here. The car is close to being terminal. Loud noises, smoke, not steering, barely starts, coughing, choking, jerking, seizure, ge-the-de-fibulator-quick, sick. So many thoughts go through your head in that first 10 seconds. I can’t go to the world’s largest mall this afternoon. What a disaster! I will not yell at the kids. I will not kick my husband. I will not stomp my feet in a pique of frustration.

I will call AAA. They come and get the car and tow it to the recommended automotive repair shop where you find out the car is not terminal after-all, and can be repaired and back on the road today. You suddenly have new names to add to your little black book under the heading of; Heroes Who Will Come To Save The Day. Your vacation is saved. Your mind is restored. You are back in your dream. You are on your way to the mall. AAAHH! Life is good.

Preventative Maintenance: Listening to Your Car

by Rob, Cars for Keeps Owner

Mike the Librarian.

My buddy Mike gave me a ride home from the range last week. Being the car geek I am, I immediately asked him how long the back tires had been making that growling sound.

He said “What sound?” and once again proved that people often don’t hear or feel the gradual changes their vehicles go through. Until the noise was gone, he thought it was normal.

That’s another reason it’s so important to have a trusted, knowledgeable person give you an independent perspective of your cars safety and reliability.

I recommend a basic inspection at least every three months. Note that I didn’t recommend oil change that often, it's just that since we change our oil so much less often in modern vehicles, it is too easy to ignore an issue that could have a simple remedy if caught early enough, so, every change of season presents a vehicle with temperature and moisture changes that affect multiple parts of your mobility. At Cars for Keeps, we call this inspection our AAA Readiness Inspection. If we normally do your oil changes, we do it for you for free. This usually works out to be an oil change every other readiness inspection.

Our high tech road machines (Cars) adjust themselves with such precision, that most people don’t know any fault is happening until the computers cant compensate any further & the system “folds” in sometimes simple and sometimes dramatic ways.

Even if you choose the convenience (perceived convenience IMHO) of the drive through oil change place, having a qualified mechanic inspect it regularly is a key aspect of the long term reliability of your mobility machine.

More about Mike's Great Escape next time.

Watch for our Hot Apple Cider Specials this month…

Top 5 Ways to Prematurely Kill Your Car

by Marjorie, Social Media Marketing Manager for Cars for Keeps

I am NOT a mechanic - not, that is, unless auto mechanic skills are hereditary. My dad was a master tinkerer, and growing up all my family's vehicles were clunkers which he kept in somewhat working order far longer than the cars themselves expected to live. If you have a master tinkerer in your family, I'm sure you know what it's like: for every five cars in the driveway, two of them are sure to be working great.

While this was fun growing up, it's led to some bad car maintenance habits. We've all let those little quirky things about our vehicles go too long - some to worse ends than others. I've tortured many of my vehicles by not properly attending to maintenance. Here is a top 5 list of auto maintenance sins I've committed; I'm sure many of these will be all too familiar.

5) Forgetting to replace the oil cap after a refill. This I've actually done twice - to the same vehicle. Luckily, the smoke that billowed out from under the hood was only from the oil that was burning on the manifold.

4) Not checking radiator fluid. On a marathon trip across Montana, I forgot to check the radiator level and got 500 miles before the engine temperature spiked. Waiting three hours on the side of the road for it to cool down was a great lesson. Note: always carry a jug of water in your car - and only check the radiator fluid when it's cold!

3) Neglecting regular maintenance. Getting my wheels aligned was suddenly moved to the top of my priority list when my little Ford Focus' left rear tire fell off mid-cruise. Another reason to give your car regular checkups.

2) Neglecting windshield wipers and fluid. It seems like such a small priority on a clear, sunny day, but the minute rain or giant bugs hit your windshield, not having properly working wipers can mean the difference between a crash and a smooth ride. And how about those muddy country roads?

1) Not listening to my car. Most cars will tell you something is wrong before serious damage occurs. For example, my beautiful, rust-free, all-manual 1991 Mitsubishi pickup uses oil, and when it's running low, the engine has a faint tick. Once I failed to heed this warning; the engine overheated, and I almost ruined the car. Luckily, it survived and is doing just fine. No, it's not for sale.

What about you? What have been some of your worse auto maintenance sins?

Stay tuned for a chance to win a free oil change and checkup from Cars for Keeps. Contest details will be posted on Friday!

The Art of Loving Your Car

by Robert, Cars for Keeps Mechanic

This weekend my wife and I both decided to wash our cars. Not just a little soap and water and call it a day, but to really pamper them. We started with a soapy water wash then dried with sheepskin towels. Cleaned the rims and shined the tires and then finished with a wax job. Both of our arms felt like rubber and that they may fall off!

However we were not done yet! The carpets needed to be vacuumed; the dash wiped down, the seats wiped off and all of the glass inside and out needed cleaning.

After we had gotten elbow-deep in cleaning, I started to wonder why we did this to ourselves? Because we really do love our cars! They take us places we need to be, and sometimes they take us places we've never been. Our car, next to our family, friends, pets, and co-workers, is a major part in our life and yours too. It’s been there through the hard times and the good times. Through snow, rain, super hot days at the beach or a fantastic day at the vineyard. It may have given us a few problems and needed to be brought in on a tow hook once (or more!) but we still love it.

The point is that if you truly, deep down in your heart, love your car, you will want to take care of it. We at Cars for Keeps really do love cars. We are actually car nuts, and if you want to talk with someone who will appreciate all the things you love about your car, we are here for you. We not only love our own cars, but yours too.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a practical Volvo, a rusty Ford Pickup, a shiny new BMW or a problem ridden Maserati. We want you to know that we love your car and want to keep it in top condition throughout its entire life expectancy (or longer!). We want you to experience what you car can be, and that’s a lifetime of service from ANY automobile. With a combination of maintenance and problem prevention, we've been able to help many of our clients extend the lives of their vehicles to 300,000 miles or more - at 300,000 miles of smooth running, who wouldn't love your car? We love cars for keeps, and we fix cars for keeps.

Until next time, Robert.

A Woman’s Point of View: The Mechanic and What Makes Him Tick

by: Colette Cooley, Cars for Keeps Office Manager

Oct. 9, 2009

As an observer of human nature (as most women are), we notice personality types all the time. Consciously or unconsciously, we gather visual data about people so we know if we are in our safety/comfort zone with any person at any given time.

Now that I have covered the deep psychic stuff, let’s have some fun with it. Just remember, there are exceptions to every rule.

Mechanics with whom I have worked have a tendency to be introverts. They are much more comfortable with machines than they are with people. Every car they work on is a personal challenge. It does not seem to matter whether the job is large and complicated or small and simple. It is personal. It is what a blank canvas is to an artist. To be made into something beautiful. They are passionate about cars and how they can make each car run like a finely tuned instrument. They spend their lunch time watching “car things” on the computer and their weekends doing “car things”. They are always building. Always creating. Always solving. It is the epitome of the creative process in a most masculine way.

And who benefits from all this positive energy? Why, we women of course. Another perfect solution.