Car App of the Week: Waze, FREE GPS Application

Life has been made simpler with the emergence of smartphones.  Need to find a great place to eat? There’s an app for that.  Want to set up a reminder to pick milk after work?  There’s an app for that.  Want to begin your plan for world domination by taking over your city with one swift button?  There’s NO app for that, yet…but who knows what's in store for the future!

The iPhone app store has a plethora of GPS apps that range from $.99 to $100, all allowing for a step-by-step guide to get from point A to B.  Our app of the week, Waze, a new navigation system that provides step-by-step directions on a 3-D map, combining crowd-sourced info as well as accurate GPS, is the perfect solution. Also, the app is totally free!  According to 148Apps: “Waze is a free, social, mobile crowd-source navigation and real-time traffic application for iPhone that gives its users a "real-time," live description of the road/driving conditions around them. It's a free, useful, fun application everyone should download and experience!”

Waze features:

·      Constantly-updated road map

·      Real-time traffic updates

·      Automatic rerouting

·      Live reports from users on the road

·      Turn-by turn directions

·      Road tweets – Twitter integration

·      Foursquare integration

·      Automatically learned frequent routes

·      Picture sharing from the road

·      User contribution scoreboard

Download ASAP! For more, visit: http://www.148apps.com/reviews/waze/ and http://www.waze.com/download/ to download

New Tires?

Need new tires? Watch this video to learn how to check your tread with a penny!

 

Gas Types for Your Vehicle

Did you know gas use to be sold to treat lice? Back in the day it was bottled and sold in drug stores. With people taking to the road, gas went from bottles to tanks! But with 95 percent of American households owning at least one car, how many know how gas is graded? Who’s over paying?

You don’t have to drive to your gas station to find out – stay seated and read on!

There are three main types of gas grades available in the US. They are defined by their octane levels:

regular (87 octane)

plus/midgrade (89 octane)

premium (93 octane)

Octane is defined by how easy it burns (combusts). The lower the octane level, the easier it burns. 

In your car manual, the manufacture typically states the “recommended grade” to use. However, according to USAToday, “The main advantage of premium-grade gas is that it allows automakers to advertise a few more horsepower by designing and tuning engines to take advantage of premium's anti-knock properties.”

With engineers agreeing that regular gas in a premium engine creates a barely noticeable difference in power loss, car owners can save money at the pump by using regular gas. Using high-octane gas in a car designed for regular creates a very little difference for your money.  Over time, if knocking occurs, it’s recommended that you use a higher grade of gas.