5 Ways to Devalue Your Vehicle

So, you’ve got a reliable vehicle that’s great on gas, looks great, and gets you from point A to B in style.  You want to keep it for a long time, bu you also want to maintain a lot of the value associated with it so you can trade or sell it when you’re ready to update.  In today’s blog, we’re describing 5 ways to devalue your car quicker than you can say “junk it”  So, hold on and be prepared, it’s going to e a bumpy ride (pun intended).

1. Lack of Maintenance and Servicing

Every buyer wants piece of mind.  A feeling of tranquility when they purchase their car AND verification that the vehicle is in a good state of reliability.  Each car comes with a service book, which will be marked and stamped by the dealer, so keep ALL of your records to show prospective buyers (dealerships, too) that your car has a great history.

2. Lackluster Paint Care

DO NOT neglect your paint job.  In most cases, vehicles these days maintain their paint jobs due to the detailed precision of application during the car’s inception.  Don’t buy discount car care products.  The best wax kits include: washes, waxes, polishes, and extra protective layers.  Don’t use brushes to wash your car, but rather soft clothes.

3. No Friggin Insurance

Always get insurance for your vehicle.  Why?  Because it’s the single most important remedy for accidents that can happen when you’re driving.  It also means any damage will be fixed properly, usually by us or a reputable bodyshop. 

4.  Smoking Cigarettes

If you EVER want to resell your vehicle., don’t smoke in it.  Smoking seeps into fabric surfaces, seats, headlining and carpets and is virtually impossible to extract.  This will depreciate any potential buyers who are repulsed by smoke, or potential buuyers with children

5. Not Cleaning Vehicle Interior

For some parts of the day, your vehicle is your home.  Treat it well.   Make sure you keep your car clean and vacuumed.

Our FAVORITE Instagram Photos of the Month

If you're like us, then you have a certain appreciation for the automobile.  It's smooth contour lines, leather seats and the speed and power that comes from a great engine.  As big social media fans, we can also appreciate a vehicle captured in the right light.  In today's blog, we're showcasing our favorite Instagram photo of the month.  A collective effort from our peeps at the dealership.  Check out our favorites below! 

5 Facts About Kids and Car Safety

Kids are the future of our nation, the bubble gum popping and bike riding youths of the new world.  Keeping them occupied in the back seat of a moving vehicle is difficult enough.  Today, in our weekly blog, we describe 5 facts about kids and car safety.  

1.) Most accidents happen near home: Most accidents occur on residential, rural roads that are local, during a routine trip to the grocery store or day-care center.  No matter what, always buckle your child into their seat, even if the drive is two minutes away.  "Always buckle your child up, no matter how near or far you're going," says Marilena Amoni, associate administrator for research and program development at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). "And never forget to use your own seat belt. Kids watch everything that you do, so it's important that you set the right example."

2.) Kids are at more risk than babies and toddlers: If your child is between 4 and 8 years old, they are more likely to be hurt in an accident than their smaller counterparts.  Most parents strap their infants into rear facing car seats, but only 20% of kids between 4 and 8 ride in booster seats as safety experts recommend. Some children even sit in the front seat before 13 years old.  Children are the safest in the backseat, putting them far away from the impact of a frontal crash.

3.) SUVs aren’t safer: It’s BIG, bad, and menacing, but SUVs are no safer than ordinary sedans.  They’re more likely to rollover.  The safest vehicles are low to the ground and larger (station wagons).

4.) A car does NOT have to move to be dangerous: Parked cars are also, surprisingly deadly.  As many as 220 children per year are killed in non-traffic auto accidents.  Some are strangled by a window when they’re leaning out, inadvertently leaning on the rocker-type power window switch.  Other children, when alone, release the emergency brake, setting the car in motion.  Finally, at least 30 kids die each year when their parents leave them in the car and they suffocate from overheating. "Children should never, ever be left alone in an automobile -- not even for a minute," says Terrill Struttmann, executive director of Kids in Cars, an education and advocacy organization he and his wife started after their 2-year-old son was killed by a car set in motion by two kids playing alone inside.

5.) Kids don’t need to be inside a car to be hurt by one:  nearly 400 children are killed each year when they’re hit by an automobile.  ALWAYS keep an eye on your little ones, no matter how many times you’ve warned them to stay out of the streets.  A survey conducted by Safe Kids Worldwide found that a majority of drivers speed in school zones, and that nearly a third violate stop signs in neighborhoods where there are kids.

Do you have any tips of your own?  Feel free to comment below: 

How to Change a Flat Tire

Imagine driving you car down a rural road on your way home from work.  Your favorite song is blaring on the radio, and you finally feel a sense of ease from a busy day.  At your favorite part of the song, you hear a loud pop, then the slow roll of a popped tire as you cruise to the median.  First, you make sure that you’ve steered clear of any hazards.  Then, you realize that your front left tire has become a disheveled piece of rubber.  Hands on your hips, foot tapping the ground, you take a long sigh, but not one of relief, one of frustration.  Darn! A flat tire.

Now, if you own a vehicle with run-flat tires or a low tire pressure warning system, you most likely won’t have to deal with these frustrations, if you don’t own those options, you’re in luck.  We’ve got a step-by-step guide to helping you change that tire.

1.    Get your tools – find your car’s spare tire, jack and tire iron.  The spare is usually in the trunk under the floor mat, or in a minivan mounted on the back of the tailgate or underneath the vehicle.

2.    Check air pressure- if you have an air pressure gauge check the tire’s pressure on the spare, hopefully it should be fine.

3.    Remove flat tire- MAKE SURE CAR IS IN GEAR OR PARK, and that the emergency break is set. Also, make sure your car is on a flat surface.

4.    Use the tire iron- (the L shaped bar that fits over the wheel lugs) to loosen each lug.  They are usually very tight, so use a little force, they should loosen after a couple tries.  Leave the lugs loose and move the jack under the car (shown on directions of jack).  Raise the jack until it contacts the car’s frame.  Continue to expand it.

5.    Once the tire is completely raised off the ground, remove the wheel lugs completely.

6.    Take the spare tire and line it up over the wheel studs, you’ll have to hold up the tire and try to line up the holes in the wheel. One tip is to balance the tire on your foot while you move it into position.   Once done, the lugs should screw on easily. Once each of them is snug and you can't tighten them any further by hand, use the tire iron to finish the job.

7.    Lower the jack- carefully, and then pull the jack away from the vehicle.  Once the spare tire is on, carefully lower the jack. Pull the jack away from the vehicle. The final step is to tighten down the lugs completely. The reason you tighten the lugs now is that the tire is on the ground and it won't rotate around like it would if it was still hanging in the air. 

Congrats, you’ve just changed a flat tire!! For more tips or questions, visit http://www.landroversandiego.com