It is very easy to become distracted while we are cruising down the road, sunroof open, and music up. We are enjoying the spring air that is finally here. But it is important to remember to keep our full attention on the road, distracted driving is impaired driving. Distractions range from cell phones to music to other passengers. Using a phone while driving is distracting and unless you are hands-free, you should not be picking up your device even if you’re at a stoplight.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 10% of all fatal car crashes and 15% of all injury crashes were caused by distracted drivers. 99% of drivers between the ages of 15 and 19 were distracted at the time of the accident.

This is a problem for anyone who gets behind the wheel of a car, especially young teens just learning to drive. Did you know that when you are driving and trying to focus on your phone the reaction time slows by 33%? That is a huge difference when in a split second it could mean life or death.

Responding to one single text message distracts a driver for roughly five seconds, that is long enough to travel the distance of a football field if your speed is 55 mph, or over.

Sobering statistics:

• 94% of teenagers acknowledge that texting while driving is dangerous.
• 11 teenagers die every single day as a result of texting while driving.
• One out of every four car accidents in the US is caused by texting while driving.
• Cellphone use is highest amongst 16-24 year old drivers.

There has been an increase in technologies like Bluetooth, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay to assist drivers and decrease the amount of distracted drivers that are on the road. If your vehicle is equipped with these be sure to fully connect before pulling out onto the open road and remember to leave your device alone.

If you’re dedicated to the concept of spring cleaning, then think about cleaning out the air vents and air system in your vehicle as part of your war on dust and grime this spring. Because the season is here officially, there’s no time to waste! Take a look at our tips on making sure your air smells as fresh as springtime ought to smell.

Your first task is cleaning the physical vents that are in your vehicle, the ones you see and adjust every day. You’ll need cleaning solution, white vinegar, a vacuum, and Q-tips. Give your vents a vacuum to get any loose dust out. Then you want to take a Q-tip that’s been dipped in a cleaning solution and really work it into the crevices and hard-to-reach spots. When the Q-tips you’re using come back clean, you know you’ve gotten all the grime. Then, take another Q-tip dipped in white vinegar and just go over it all again to get rid of any lingering odors. The vinegar smell doesn’t last long, and when it disappears it takes odors with it. Give the vents one last vacuum and you’re done! Make sure you’ve gotten them ALL, including the one that’s right up next to your windshield (we often forget about this one).

The next step is to take a look at your cabin air filter. Your owner’s manual should cover how to access it, and if not there’s always YouTube. The cabin air filter is your barrier against everything that’s floating through the air that you drive your car through – pollen, dust, smells, stenches – and it’s often a forgotten part of the vehicle. Take a look, and if you think it needs changing then schedule an appointment with us to have our service department take care of it!

Finally, if you still smell a little something-something in the car when you run the air, you might have mildew in your A/C evaporator. It’s easy to dry that up! Just drive about a mile away from home (that’s enough time to warm up your engine, you see) and then roll down all your windows and turn the air on full blast. Don’t use the A/C! Just regular old air will do. Keep it running for a minute or two, and that should be enough time to circulate air through the evaporator and dry up any residual moisture.

Every St. Paddy’s Day, my family participates in a fun-filled family football game. We’re a large Irish family, so St. Patrick’s Day is pretty much a second Thanksgiving for us – food, family, and as I stated above – football…

So, here’s the thing… It’s supposed to be fun, but unfortunately, my family is pretty competitive. Even a game of monopoly becomes an intense sport that takes strategy, athleticism, and skill. This past Christmas, I watched my sister drop tackle my brother because she caught him slipping himself an extra hunnit or two from the bank. It did not go well.

Since the Christmas Debacle Of 2017, bro has been throwing some serious shade at my sister. St. Patrick’s Day is literally tomorrow, and I am determined that they let bygones be bygones. So what better way to get them both in a better mood than stopping by King Volkswagen to save a crazy amount on a new car! The Sm:)e It’s Spring Event is underway, after all, in addition to their monthly specials!

My sister has been talking about downsizing from her HUGE minivan (I have 6 nieces and nephews just from her, who are now all grown up and drive their own cars) to something a bit more her size, bear in mind she is conservatively 5 feet tall on a good day. The 2018 Volkswagen Jetta 1.4T S would be right up her alley, and she can lease for only $99/mo for 36 months*! There is even the 2017 Volkswagen Tiguan Limited Premium, which she can lease for $99 for 36 months*! I couldn’t believe she can get a new car for under $100 a month.I know for a fact my brother has had his eye on the 2018 Volkswagen Atlas 2.0T S for him and his brood of children, and now he can get it for $249 a month*.

All in all, I’m expecting the whole family to be singing my praises this weekend, thus restoring peace just in time for our Reuben Dinner. After such a strenuous endeavor, I think I just might reward myself with a sweet new car too!

*All specials expire on 4/2/2018 see specials page for full details.

Spring is the season of new beginnings, and that includes your vehicle! There’s a list of services that you should be doing for your vehicle at the beginning of the season, and it’s all important – the winter is always hard on a vehicle, especially with snow and salt and rough conditions. Here are our recommendations for services you should be doing for your vehicle before spring really gets underway, and remember that you can always call us here at King VW for advice and help!

Start with your tires, even if you drive on all season tires. If you drive on all season radials, this is the time to rotate them. By rotating tires seasonally, you extend the life of all four tires.

Windshield wiper blades also take a beating during winter weather. Colder temperatures are hard on rubber compounds, and slush from the road isn’t helpful in the least. This slush often carries with it corrosive salt used to melt road ice, which can do a number on your blades. Early spring is a good time to you’re running low after winter.

Next, clean your vehicle’s undercarriage. There’s no magic solution to getting rid of the corrosive salt build-up but the best tool is a high-pressure sprayer. Pay special attention to the area around the front and rear bumpers. Once you’ve thoroughly sprayed the underbody, check for signs of rust and take the necessary steps to stop any small rust spots from eating away at your vehicle. We’ve all seen those pillars of snow that form around bumpers and wheel wells. That’s the most likely place for road salt to begin the erosion process. While you’re at it, you might as well wash the whole car. Winter is not really the time to spend afternoons hosing off your vehicle and chances are it’s been a while since the last time you’ve washed your car.

Examine your brakes. Like wipers, brakes take on a bigger role during wintertime and should be checked to ensure that they’re still in good shape. Listen for brake noises such as grinding, chatter, or squeals. Even if your brakes aren’t making any distinctive noises, it’s still a good idea for you or your mechanic to determine the amount of wear on the pads or drums. We often become accustomed to the feel of worn brakes, without realizing that we’ve become used to decreased stopping power.

Check all automotive fluids and top them off as necessary. Winter driving conditions require your engine to work harder and condensation can cause moisture buildup in the engine that creates wear. If your car is due for scheduled maintenance, have the oil changes and be sure to use the proper formulation and viscosity recommended by the vehicle manufacturer.

Go over the interior of your vehicle. This includes taking out and washing floor liners. Vacuum and clean the carpets, and make sure they are dry before you put the liners back in. A nice, clean interior is one of the best parts of driving after all!

Source: https://exchange.aaa.com/car-care/repair-maintenance/seasonal-car-maintenance/#.WpXIAZPwZTY

After the winter we’ve had, there are bound to be potholes lurking around every corner. This week, we’re dedicating our blog to those sneaky creatures of despair and what you as a driver can do to stay safe when you encounter one (or ten).

So, potholes are formed from water getting into cracks in the pavement and then freezing. When water freezes, it expands, which pushes the pavement apart and weakens it. When vehicles drive over these weak spots, the pavement crumbles under the pressure. Annnnddd then a pothole forms, here and ready to ruin countless lives.

How to avoid potholes? Avoid puddles on the road. Unless you can see that it’s just a thin layer of water, try to drive around the puddles. Water is great at hiding potholes’ sizes and depths until you hit them and learn the truth.

If you do hit a pothole, well. Try to approach the situation slowly if you know driving through the pothole is inevitable. If you hit a deep pothole, or hit any pothole at a speed, or a combination of the both, make sure that your vehicle is okay afterward by pulling over when it’s safe to do so and inspecting the exterior of your vehicle and tires for damage. The pothole could have blown a tire or thrown off your alignment, both things that need to get fixed ASAP.

After you encounter a pothole? Call your local DOT or DPW and let them know about it. It doesn’t matter if someone else has already reported the pothole. More reports are more motivation to get the situation fixed!

Even if you and I are totally different in literally every way, we might still have one similarity: topping off the gas tank when it’s time to fill up. A lot of people do it! It’s okay to admit it! I just like seeing that round dollar amount on the pump. But I found out recently that it’s actually pretty bad for your engine to do this. Here’s why.

First of all, you can totally burn out your engine in so many ways. The most important is that you can overwhelm your vehicle’s evaporative system. We all learned in science class once upon a time that heat makes pressure, and when your gasoline heats up from your driving, it expands from the heat and creates that pressure. So, when you overfill your tank, there’s nowhere for that pressure to go and it ends up in your evaporative system. This is not its intended purpose, so if you do this a lot then you can totally kill that system.

The other thing is that you’re honestly just wasting money. Pumps these days can sense if there’s excess gas, i.e. if it starts backing up into the filler pipe, and it just takes that gas and sends it right back into the station’s tank. So, the dollars and cents will start adding up but you won’t actually be getting the gas you pay for.

Basically, don’t top off. That’s just a bad habit. We’ll break it together, now that we have so much in common!

Fuel economy is a great buzzword these days – we’re all looking to get the most bang for our buck when it comes to filling up our tanks, but sometimes it can seem like we’re filling up more often than we’d like. That’s where this blog comes in! We’ve got some great proven tips for improving your fuel economy easily and getting a few more miles to the gallon as you drive around town!

The first and most important tip is to not speed. A great way to combat any lead-footed tendencies is to use cruise control on the highway when it’s safe to do so. This gets rid of the acceleration and deceleration that come with speeding, and also keeps you safe from getting pulled over (speeding is, after all, illegal). Lower speeds = higher MPG’s!

Maintaining your vehicle is instrumental in getting good gas mileage. With properly inflated tires, correct alignment, and regular oil changes, your vehicle will perform beautifully and efficiently! Low tires create drag, which makes your vehicle work harder to perform the way it should. Next time you need to get new tires, you should ask for low rolling resistance tires to help your vehicle that much more. Winter tires are a great idea for areas where there’s snow accumulation, because your engine won’t have to work so hard to overcome snow and ice.

When going out and running errands or traveling, try carpooling and combining all your trips into one journey. This will save gas, cut down emissions, and save money for everyone! If you need to stop, turn your car off completely. Idling for one minute uses just about as much gas as starting your car does, and it creates exhaust gases that are harmful to the environment. (And when you carpool, you can use the HOV lane!)

When summer comes, park in the shade and use your garage if you have it. When your vehicle is out in the sun, it damages your paint and clearcoat, and it causes your gas to evaporate inside your tank, leaving you with less to drive with.

Finally, clean out your car! If you have a lot of junk in the trunk, so to speak, clean it out so that you can carry what you need in your vehicle. If you have roof mounted storage, try and fit those items into your vehicle – or switch to a rear-mounted storage solution. This will reduce the drag of your vehicle overall and save you gas!

We can’t guarantee a massive improvement in your MPG’s – these tips won’t get you from 20 to 70 MPG but it will help get a couple more miles out of each gallon if you work hard. Try them out!

Out of all the people in the United States, 60% own pets. 73% of those pet owners own dogs. And do you know what? A lot of those dog owners like to travel with their dogs in the car. If you’re part of that population, we’ve got some great tips for you on how to safely travel with your dog – keep reading!

Only travel with your dog if they are healthy. If your dog is looking sick, bring them to the vet! If you need care for your dog while you’re away, then find a dogsitter or a place for you to board your pup if you’re going to be away for a while.

In the car, your dog needs to be restrained so they don’t wander and hurt themselves. The two options you’ve got are a crate (which needs to be big enough for your dog to stand up, sit down, lie down and turn around inside of) or a harness tie-down. When you’re on the road, only give your dog water to drink. Food is a no-no while you’re driving just because dogs can get carsick too. That water should be distilled/filtered or the regular water from your tap that you give them at home.

Don’t let your dog ride on your lap or stick their head out the window. The former because they can impede your ability to drive properly and potentially cause an accident, and the latter because debris, dust, and other nasties can fly into your dog’s eyes, ears, and mouth from the road and cause injury.

The final piece of advice is to stop frequently for potty and exercise breaks. Not only can your dog use the exercise, but you can as well!

Your headlights are essential for safe night driving. Without them, you won’t be able to see the road, you will present a hazard to other drivers, and most importantly you’ll be breaking the law by driving at night without headlights on. Of course, if your headlights are broken, it’s no fault of yours – but you will need to get them fixed.

If only one of your headlights is out, you still need to get it fixed. It could be due to a burned out bulb or a broken headlight component that needs to be replaced.

If neither of your headlights work, well, why aren’t you at the shop right now?! There is a very slight chance that it’s due to both of your headlights being burnt out, but it is much more likely that it’s a broken relay or a control switch that needs to be repaired.

If your headlights both work but just aren’t as bright as they should be, try cleaning them with a clean microfiber cloth and some cleaning solution. If after the cleaning they are still dim, take a good close look at the plastic of the headlights themselves. If it is yellowed, scratched, and pitted then you should ask us about headlight reconditioning or replacing your existing headlights with brighter bulbs.

Finally, if your headlights work fine but go dim in certain situations, such as when you accelerate, you could have a problem with your charging system. Talk to us about getting that checked out!