Get a Roadside Assistance Plan

If your car breaks down, what’s the plan to move an immovable hunk of metal?

New cars are not immune… flat tire / out of gas / missing keys … It’s like buying a feeling almost… that wherever I may get stuck, I dial a number and a helpful truck and driver just, show up.

Favourite line:

[what do you do when] a car stops, and turns into a giant, immovable mass of metal, for which you’re responsible?

A correction:

Second last paragraph, first sentence, it says “used cars are not immune”, but that should say “new cars”

 

The 2 Types of Roadside Assistance Plans

Check with your dealer for details, but as a general rule:

Dealer Roadside Assistance

  • tows you to nearest dealership
  • covers your vehicle

Auto Club Roadside Assistance (eg. CAA)

  • tows you to wherever you ask
  • covers you the person, so even if you’re driving a friend’s car, you’re still covered

 

Mini-cover, third down.

CAA has saved me so many times, I have a blog section just for them – CAA

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All-Season Tires are Delusional

Last week, Canadian Tire invited me to drive on an ice rink to test tires; winter VS all-season ones.

Winter dominated.

What had the most impact on me, though, was:

50% of Canadians are driving without winter tires. I was shocked.  That’s too low and not okay.

How can 1 thing perform 5 functions?

Show me one outfit that can be worn to work, a cocktail party, a club, a movie night in, then to play baseball.  Can’t.

(read it online here)

Favourite line:

For sure I’m a bit lippy this week, but I feel strongly about this because apparently half of you are irresponsibly driving beside me in icy conditions while wearing roller-skates, thinking they’re good for all four seasons.

At 7ºC, the rubber in a non-winter tire hardens, it loses elasticity, and therefore adhesiveness.

Therefore, winter tires go on at 7ºC

The rubber in a winter tire is designed to stay flexible in low temperatures, so it sticks better to the road.

Driving with me is Graham Jeffery, Tire Business Manager with Canadian Tire, hi hi.

Deep grooves that expel snow, that’s what to look for.

Here’s a post about my new camera setup, seen above.  And I’ll leave you, with the Final Cut file.

This is what the video above, actually looks like.

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Going to a Detail Shop? Do This

Tips and tricks for taking your car to a detail shop.

(read it online)

Favourite lines:

Remove the weird stuff you’re hiding in your trunk from whomever.

You’d be surprised at how many people keep weapons in their vehicle’s gloveboxes (remember that, next time your road rage out on another driver).

A toothbrush for the vents in the dash.

A micro-fibre cloth dusts the interior, no chemicals needed.

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Understanding ‘Car of the Year’ Testing & Results

AJAC – Auto Journalist Association of Canada – hosts this annual event, ‘Test Fest.’

They bring in 180+ new model vehicles, and auto writers from across Canada, to the Niagara Falls Drive Centre, for a full week of testing and voting to determine ‘Car of the Year‘.

(read my original ‘Test Fest’ post here)

This is the vehicle I’m driving in the video, the all-new Mercedes B250.

Nice car, it is a Mercedes, and note the asterisks:

That’s how you choose drive, park, neutral; different eh.

It’s billed as a “family car”, but I don’t understand where all the stuff goes, the stuff that comes along with a family. This car would work best if your family also had a van, too.

As a new auto journalist, this was my first time at ‘Test Fest’, and was blown away by the logistics, and high level of authenticity of it all.

So I wrote about it for this week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

(read it online here)

Favourite Line:

The last one – “Even I wouldn’t listen to me”

29 years of results are posted http://www.AJAC.ca. Go search your car, see how it fared.

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