Your belly is getting bigger and you may be getting uncomfortable. I remember when I was later on in my pregnancy, getting in and out of my car took effort! To be honest, there were moments when I couldn't wait to have the baby and get the pregnancy over with.
Look under your engine oil cap and you may see a milky, frothy residue. There are a couple of reasons for this — one being more serious than the other. In either case, it's not ideal for your engine.
The image you see above is from a 2013 Honda Accord. This car came to our shop recently, and for any of you that drive a Honda or Acura product, you’ll know that the maintenance reminder starts to count down in percentage how much "oil life" your car has. Ever wonder what happens below 5%? It starts counting negatively in mileage! The cluster above is showing that the client was 3,574kms OVERDUE on the oil change.
Last fall I took a road trip to Ottawa because I was scheduled to be on set with CTV Morning Live. I had the opportunity to ride with Joshua Norton, who successfully pitched me to CTV, and we started talking about creative ideas for my blog as well as some of his other projects. I believe in giving credit where it’s due and the idea for this blog post is definitely thanks to him!
The jam-packed trunk you see above belongs to a good friend of mine. She travels a lot for work and lugs around product samples. Her trunk (and sometimes the rest of the car) is always filled to the brim. She came to our auto repair shop last week because her car needed to have suspension and engine work done. In order for us to replace her rear shocks, we have to access them through the trunk. Before we did any engine work, we had to disconnect her battery . . . also located in the trunk.
I get it—for some of you, having a set of winter tires means you have to find storage space for them, it's an added expense, and a chore to book the appointment to get them done. It's not fun. I understand. But we do live in Canada, it gets cold and we have SNOW! Some call that white gold!
When I first started driving I got in the car, put on my seatbelt and away I went. Then came airbags and I remember watching commercial after commercial of those crash-test dummies. Nowadays, airbags are standard on cars and some even come with smaller airbags that minimize the impact of your knees hitting the dash in the event of a collision. Vehicle safety has come a long way.
It's the happiest time of the year! Beginning 5am Christmas Eve through 5am Christmas morning, you and your little ones can track Santa's journey with the help of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command). You can call 877-HI-NORAD (877-446-6723) or visit NORAD Santa Tracker to see where the jolly man and his entourage are.
It seems like there's more and more information that manufacturers want to display for you while you're driving. Not too long ago, instrument panels were plain—no lights on—just displaying your speed and RPM.
In my opinion, there’s only so much you can do to make a minivan exciting. A minivan, according to Google, is quite simply a “small van, a people carrier.” The 2014 Honda Odyssey is positioned as a minivan with all the bells and whistles—and a built-in vacuum cleaner. Yep, built-in. So our Odyssey clients with this feature have no excuse for driving around in a dirty minivan!
I grew up in a typical Chinese home, the Canadian-born daughter of Chinese immigrants. From a young age, I knew I had high expectations to live up to; academics were incredibly important (I remember my dad asking me what happened to the last 4% when I brought home a science test that I scored 96% on). After school and on weekends, I had math tutoring. My mom wanted me to be a well-rounded kid, so I had dance, art, swimming, and skating lessons (thankfully not all at the same time). I sang with the Toronto Children’s Choir for a few years.
It seems like people are getting new phones all the time, left, right, and centre. Before you throw away your old phone, consider this: Did you know that according to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), you can use your old phone to make emergency 911 calls?
Here’s how the 2013 Hyundai Sonata is billed: it’s a car for owners that “…look for quality and the features they want at a good price, and even a design that expresses their sense of style.” That’s quite the standard for me to live up to, driving that car!
Just to be clear.. let's look at the transformation. Here's a 1988 Hyundai Sonata:
Ok, so I’m not talking about the kind of dry rub for chicken or ribs. Dry rub (commonly known as dry steer) is when you turn the steering wheel with the vehicle stationary. Not a good idea unless you’re doing a really tight turn à la Austin Powers:
When I first began speaking with Hyundai about road testing their cars, I mentioned that my husband and I are always looking out for our next car in case his reliable 2004 Toyota Corolla needs to be replaced. It has almost 400,000kms on it so we’ve gotten some good use out of it. We need a smaller car and my husband commutes a lot so he wants something fun to drive. I typically have the kids in my car so they’d only be with him every now and then.
Turning your steering wheel all the way in one direction (e.g. to the lock) until it stops is very unhealthy for your car. Ever notice a whine noise when you hold the steering wheel turned all the way? And if you back off just a little bit the whining stops? That’s because your power steering system is under a significant amount of pressure.
It’s the first time I’m road testing a car similar to the one I currently drive (Buick Rendezvous). We love the versatility of our SUV as it’s a 7-seater and can lug a bunch of things around. I was curious about the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe – it’s 7 years younger than my Rendezvous and I wanted to know how much has changed in terms of new car offerings. It also won the 2013 Canadian Utility Vehicle Of The Year Award. I tested the family-friendly Santa Fe Limited edition over one week and put on about 2,000kms.
I'll have to admit, cars' touchscreen media/navigation units are pretty convenient. But, as you can imagine, those things are very expensive to replace! For example, a new unit for a 2011 Honda CR-V is just over $5,000 for the part alone, nevermind the cost of labour. You could get a used one online for about $600—but I'd be weary of those. You won't know if the part functions properly until after installation. Of course, you could always get an aftermarket (non-Honda) unit.
