If you’re shopping for a new set of shoes (tires) for your ride, then you might be baffled by the sheer selection of tire types in the market today. You have a whole selection of touring tires, all-weather, ultra performance tires, etc… So which one should you choose?

The thing is, it’s pretty much the same with a lot of things out there - it’s simply a name game. Understanding for which purpose a particular tire type is would help you in choosing what suits your need best.

All Season - Probably the one that most would recommended and rightfully so, given its versatility. If your car is simply a daily driver, all season tires would probably best for you as you only need one set of tires to use all-year round.

Summer - Ideal for dry climates. These tires are optimized to give you grip for dry surfaces and the heat caused by traction on such conditions.

Snow - These tires give you the best grip on low-traction surfaces of wet and icy roads. They aren’t really prescribed for summer driving since the added grip on dry surfaces causes immense wear.

Touring - Touring tires, while attractive, are the best ones if you’re in a budget. They provide a cushy ride and long wear but performance and grip is somehow compromised. Don’t plan on using them if you want to delve in street racing as, aside from lackluster performance, these might be unsafe for the stress of racing.

Dual performance/Track and competition - The choice of the weekend track racer. These perform well both on the street and track conditions. Ideal if you drive your car to and from the track.

Ratings - Depending on the types mentioned above, you might also find added labels. From best rated to least, they are: extreme performance, max performance, ultra-high performance, and high performance.

Not all cars on the roads have them and not all cars coming out of the factory can have them as standard. But there’s a reason why anti-lock braking systems or ABS has been around as a safety feature. If you’ve driven a car without an ABS, you might have experienced wheel-locking when braking one time or another. Slam too hard on the pedal at a certain speed and your liable to screech to a halt. ABS prevents that. In most four-wheel ABS systems, this allows you to maintain steering.

Without being too technical, ABS is basically a system of a computer and sensors monitoring the speed of each wheel. When you press down on the pedal, the system kicks in and it takes over how each wheel should slow down to prevent unnecessary skids. If you’re new to the whole ABS thing, you might not notice anything strange at all save for the occasional pulsing of the brake pedal when the system kicks in.

However, this isn’t a foolproof system that would guarantee that skids won’t ever happen. Definitely, you have to consider other factors like the condition and grip of your tires. The road surface will also be a factor. Oil and tar on the blacktop will definitely give you less grip than a paved concrete road. Your speed and direction would also play a factor. The ABS doesn’t necessarily shorten the stopping distance of your car too.

You might want to test the system out in an empty parking lot when you get the chance. You might notice that driving on wet surfaces would affect overall handling but you will notice a difference when the ABS is working. You ABS usually just continues to work silently (unless your car has some options to turn it off). Usually, when it fails, it means that the system is not active (and the amber ABS light on the dash lights up). Usually, your brakes would work just fine, it’s just that you won’t have the ABS to help you out. But take it to a qualified mechanic as soon as possible for repairs.

Another trademark of a defensive driver is to drive by the book. Boring for the daredevils out there, but this is a surefire way of lessening accident risks. This means that if you have developed a driving plan towards a particular destination, stick to it.

As part of planning ahead, you should be able to give yourself ample time and space to position your car in the appropriate lanes so you can predictably make a turn or any other move at the right moment. Mind your blind sides (especially if your car doesn’t have the newfangled camera systems). Avoid tailgating and keep driving within the minimum and maximum speed limits. Even slow driving can be dangerous at times.

If you are not familiar with the area and need the aid of a map, then pull off to the side or a parking lot and not stop in the middle of the road. Be aware of your turn signals. Don’t forget to switch it back (if it does not auto cancel) to normal if you fail to make a turn. Do not confuse other motorists as well.

Brake warning lights are there on the dash because they serve a purpose. What it does is to alert the driver that something is wrong with the braking system. It it suddenly lights up, immediately check your owner’s manual as it can mean a lot of things.

It can simply mean that the hand or parking brake is on and that you just need to disengage it. It can also mean the DOT-3/brake fluid in the master cylinder is low. If you smell something burning and it comes on, then the reason is obvious. If you do have an ABS-equipped car, then this means that you have an ABS light on the dash. This usually comes on when the car is started then switches off later. If it lights up, blinks, or stays on, then the ABS computer has gone a bit awry. Unfortunately, the problem can be as simple as a foreign matter has messed up with one of the sensors, or as complex as replacing the entire ABS unit.

In any case, if the warning light goes on, the best course of action, still is to get it scanned and tested by a qualified mechanic. Your braking system is not one to just ignore. As I would put it, stopping is more important than getting from 0-60 in sub-8 seconds. Getting a portable ODB-II scanner that you can easily link to your car’s diagnostic port can also give you an immediate result as to what’s causing the problem. Just have a reference guide of the error codes for your car.

Collisions usually happen when one or both the drivers are inattentive. Inattention in turn can be caused by several reasons – fatigue, drowsiness, talking, distractions, fiddling with the radio… As a defensive driver, one must be alert to be able to recognize the hazards that could be present on the road so that they could be avoided in time. Distracted driver kills. In the UK, they’ve already made moves to make fines a lot heftier just by driving distracted. So while we don’t have sterner legislation to make up for it, just make sure to keep your focus on the road.

This could be quite a difficult task, but the only way to be really alert while driving is to concentrate solely on what you are doing. Observe yourself. Find out how long it takes before your concentration falters and your mind starts to trouble itself with other things. Try to do this everyday and try to lengthen the time of concentration. Make a conscious effort of not doing anything else while driving.

Reserve doing your daily rituals outside the car. I’ve seen them. People who shave using the rear view. Drivers reading the paper behind the wheel. Guys chomping down on their happy meals. There’s only one thing that you should do behind the wheel and that’s to focus on the road. Even if it’s too tempting to make use of technology, try not to fidget with your phone. If you really need to take calls, then invest in a good hands-free car kit - one that require one-touch answering and dropping, provides a loudspeaker or an ear piece.

Any object, no matter how small and light it is, can feel like a ton if hurled at a speed of at least 60 mph. Many car injuries are actually caused by loose objects that get flung in collisions. If you’ve paid good attention during your high school Physics class, you’d remember that force is exerted when a speeding object is subjected to sudden deceleration. So imagine how much damage it would cause if you have say, canned goods in the grocery bag?

The more disturbing thing is that, people and pets, which are not strapped well into their seats can become loose objects too! No wonder most fatal injuries occur when drivers or passengers are not wearing their seatbelts.

So what to do? Take a good look around the interior of your vehicle. Secure all heavy objects in the trunk of your car or at least safe under a fixed cargo net. Avoid putting unnecessary objects on your dashboard. If you have passengers with you, may they be babies, children, adults, or pets, make sure that they are well strapped with seatbelts before driving off. And don’t forget to buckle up yourself.

I get headaches when driving at night and that’s not just about incompetent drivers and frustrating traffic jams. It’s the glaring headlights of other vehicles! For other motorists such as moi, here are a few tips on how to not get these halogenic problem get to you.

First of all, it is illegal to turn bright lights on in the face of another driver. In some states, it is even a law to dim bright lights within a specific distance of an approaching vehicle or from behind. But in any case that you encounter such a fiend, do not lose yourself to the temptation of flashing your lights at him as well. One visually handicapped driver is bad enough, and when you make it two we’re talking about an impending disaster.

What you do is you avert your eyes instead making sure that you move them a bit downwards to the right. This will still enable you to use the fog-line (or the white stripe that outlines the edge of the road) as reference to keep the car aligned with the road, even if you are slightly visually impaired at the moment. Just make sure that you still keep aware if the vehicle with the ignoramus driver start to drift into your lane.

Surveys say that many people aren’t really tire-smart, meaning a lot of people are not really keen on how many PSI their tires have. Having poorly inflated tires hastens tire wear and even heighten fuel consumption by creating unnecessary drag.

Here’s a quick guide on checking proper tire inflation I wrote for LifeSpy some time ago:

• Invest on a good tire gauge.
• Check the tires in cold inflation, meaning just before you start driving. When you drive, the wheels get hot. Your readout may not be accurate when you measure them hot.
• Unscrew the protective caps of the air valve.
• Press the gauge against the valve and check the readout.
• Compare with the recommended.
• Add or let out air as need.
• Screw the protective air valve cap back on.

Some other things that you have to monitor would be tire wear. Are the treads still packing grip? You might have to rotate your tires every 6,000 miles. It’s National Tire Safety Week and this here is an interesting video on a lot of people not being tire smart. View the video after the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the rising cases of car crashes despite having speed camera on roads and all other motoring safety devices on cars, the Brits are looking into laying the smackdown on erring drivers.

A couple of weeks ago, new guidelines have been published citing that drivers who are driving distracted (using their fancy-schmancy gadgets like mobile phones, sat-navs and even MP3 players) that creates clear and evident danger could face jail time of up to two years in prison. These activities formerly warrant careless driving punishable by fines but the guidelines intend to change that by boosting them to dangerous driving.

They’ve also laid out new guidelines to ensure the safety of pedestrians on the road. If you’re a pedestrian, you must love this ordinance. Ever been splashed by those bastardly drivers running over puddles? Well, there’s no room for those bastards anymore in Britain as doing so merits a £2,500 fine.

Oh man, I got to love how the Brits are beefing up their motoring laws.

Source: The Times Online

We have several postings on how you can protect your teenagers from road accidents. The day they get their license is a day of a day of awareness on road safety.

But what is that feeling you get every time you see him behind the wheels? Feeling nervous and unsettled about him driving about town? His own license means you can retire from being his chauffeur, you know.

So don’t fret. you just have to know how to prepare your young driver for this responsibility.

Read the rest of this entry »