Auto Repair: Helpful Advice For You

If you've ever faced auto repairs with a hopeless expression, then you're not alone. It's not fun dealing with things that go wrong with your vehicle because they can prove rather costly. However, knowing the best things to do in those situations can help you immensely. Keep reading to learn more about auto repair.

Do not take your car to the first mechanic you find. You need to do some research to find a reliable mechanic with fair prices. Ask your friends and family about the mechanics they have been to in the past and check the Internet to find reviews written by other customers.

Make sure there is an emergency kit located in your vehicle at all times. A battery charger, tire changing tools and an extra can of gas are just a few of the items to have on hand. In addition, you should have a flashlight with fully charged batteries, a blanket and other things.

Checking and repairing the air conditioning in your car is quite complex. If you need to have it checked or fixed, find a mechanic with an air conditioning certification. The gas used for air conditioning is potentially dangerous and this system is a lot more complex than the other parts in your vehicle.

Schedule yourself extra time for free checkups, especially if you are going in on a weekend. No matter how early you get in, there are only so many bays in the garage. That means that your car may have to wait for a few paying clients before it gets looked at.

Friends and family are a good source when you are looking to get some work done on your car. Ask around to see if anyone can suggest someone to you before you go on your search. Never go with the opinion of one person. Ask a few and see what other answers you get.

Take action if you believe a garage or dealership ripped you off. Notify one of the manager and give them a chance to issue a refund. If you are still not satisfied, contact your local Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. Your city or state consumer affair office is also a good resource.

Take your vehicle to a full service car wash a couple times a year for an extensive cleaning, inside and out. This removes most of the soil and helps preserve the interior of your car. This can pay off when you want to sell or trade your car in for a newer one.

Try to find an auto repair shop that is located close to where you live or work. This may not seem like a big deal, but you do not want to have a hard time getting there when it is time for you to go and pick up your vehicle after it is repaired.

You don't want to diagnose complex auto issues on your own. You are not the expert, and you must remember this. A minor issue can spiral into a huge dilemma. Let the mechanics handle the diagnosis. Be knowledgeable about the details, but let the repair shop make the diagnosis.

Many auto repair shops will tell you that you need your fuel injectors replaced when you do not. This is a way to get some more money from you. The proper time to replace them is after every 35,000 miles of driving. If anyone tells you that it needs to be done sooner, look for someone else to do your auto repairs.

When you purchase certain items at auto parts stores, they will install them for free. Keep this in mind when you go and pick them up. For example, a new set of windshield wipers is around five dollars. An auto parts store will usually install them for you for free, while an auto body shop will charge you around $50.

Have your receipts from auto repairs in an accordion file inside your car. You can set your filing system any way you desire. Some people choose a chronological filing system while others may choose to divide them into the types of maintenance or repairs that were performed on the car. You just want to make sure you have a full maintenance record for the car so that you can ensure proper repairs and full satisfaction should a dispute arise. This plastic file is invaluable to you.

Hopefully this article has helped you gain a firmer grasp on how to handle auto repairs in the future. It's important that you make the right decisions so that you can enjoy your car. No one wants to constantly worry about what to do when something goes wrong with their vehicle.

The 2019 Ram 1500 Limited Is a $65,000 Ultra-Luxury Truck

This is a 2019 RAM, 1500 limited and it is the newest full-size pickup truck on the market. It'S also the most luxurious. This one has a sticker price of a shade over $ 65,000, which is an enormous amount of money for a truck that isn't a heavy duty or Super Duty model. Today, I'm going to take you on a tour of it. I'Ve borrowed this Ram 1500 from a ram of ontario here in Orange County California, where they have a wide selection of new Rams and all sorts of different colors and trim levels and body styles. But I chose this one because it's the mack daddy, the top-end version, the one that people are really excited about in places where they wear cowboy hats to the grocery store and just what makes it so special well to start. This is a ram. So that means big power. This truck has the optional 5.7 liter Hemi v8, which makes 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque and the right configuration that powertrain in this truck can pull almost 13,000 pounds, which is massive, but it's not just about muscle. This truck also has a lot of luxury features being that it's the limited model. For instance, it has air suspension as if it were Sadie's Benz or a Range Rover and there's a lot of other luxury features and gadgets inside all that stuff leads to that sticker price of over $ 65,000. So today I'm going to take you on a tour of the new RAM and I'm gon na show you all of its interesting quirks and cool features, and then I'm going to get it out on the road and drive it. And then I'm going to give it a dug score now, I'm gon na start the Cork's and features on the inside of the new Rams limited where you climb inside and you're immediately greeted by some very upscale trim. You'Ll see it on the doors the center console. Also on the dashboard, if you look closely what you'll see is that this trim is designed to mimic stitching, even though it is it stitched itself, but it is a very nice look, it almost looks like a chalkboard, and it also feels nice to touch now. Next up, even though that trim is designed to mimic stitching, there's also a lot of actual stitching in this truck, and there are some rather unusual designs on the door panel. You can see there's this odd little decorative, stitching design, just kind of interesting, but there's also another one on the center console around the word limited. There'S this whole decorative design stitched into the console. It'S the same story in back on the rear door panel. There is this stitching decorative design, just like in the front and on the back of the front seats. There is another decorative piece stitched in there, so the rear passengers can enjoy their view of the stitching. The stitching goes so far that even the grab handles are leather, wrapped and hand-stitched. That'S what you get when you buy the top-end R and usually it's just a plastic piece you grab on, do to get in, but in this vehicle it's an opportunity for leather and next up, I really love the floor. Mats in the ramp limited. You see it's a truck, so they have to give you rubber floor mats in case you're, wearing work boots and trekking mud inside, but it's a luxury truck, so they also have to give you nice carpeting, so they figure well. What do we do? I don't know, and they decide well to do both so the floor. Mats in this truck are rubber, but the center part is nice carpeting in order to accentuate the fact that it's both a luxury truck and a work truck now next up, we move on to the center console, which is absolutely massive. If you open it up and you look inside you'll, see there's some outlines of pickup trucks. What exactly is that? Well, it's the last four generations of the RAM outlined so that if you want to look at the RAM and see its history, all you have to do is open up your center console and there's the history of the RAM going back like 40 years. It'S a weird feature: I'm not exactly sure why it's there, but it is kind of a funny little Easter Egg, that most people probably won't notice unless you've seen this video and it's the same story with the lid of the center console on the inside of the Underside of the lid, you open it up and you'll. Well a lot in the upper right. You have trigonometry ratios for sine cosine and tangent, plus the Pythagorean theorem, then there's a protractor for measuring angles and a ruler. This is in your pick. Ups center console mind. You followed by a standard two metric wrench conversion chart in the lower right in a fraction to decimal conversion, chart right above a big Ram logo and the words designed in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It'S a lot of information in an unlikely place and speaking of the brand logo. Let'S move on to the steering wheel where you will see that the middle. The steering, of course, has the RAM logo on it. Although it looks different from RAM logos in the past, this one appears to be more, I don't know digital or modernized. It looks like a new face for the RAM logo. It'S worth noting one logo you won't see on this truck is the Dodge logo. For the last I don't know, seven eight years Chrysler has been trying to convince people that Dodge and RAM are now different. This is technically only called the RAM 1500 and there's no longer a truck called the Dodge Ram. That'S gone Ram according to Chrysler is no longer the model name. It'S now the brand name. It'S supposed to be the truck brand in the Chrysler, Jeep Dodge Ram portfolio, and so technically, this truck is not the Dodge Ram anymore. It is the RAM 1500 makes you move on to the gauge cluster in this vehicle, which is rather intense. Now, when you turn it on, it says limited right under the word Ram, so you know you've got to the most expensive Ram. You didn't skimp and get some chintzy lesser version. Now take a look around that gauge classroom. You see there is really a lot going on. You have the main dials that show the tachometer and the speedometer and then they're sort of like connected in this cool way. To the dalles that show the temperature and the fuel gauge, it looks really cool, but there's also a screen in the middle, and so it really ends up being pretty busy in there and another interesting item in the gauge cluster. If you go to vehicle settings in school through a few menus, you can see the engines hours if you'd prefer to measure the engines usage and where, in hours, rather than miles as you can see, this one has been idle for 3 hours and moving for 3 Hours and maybe that's more useful to someone than how many miles it's gone now next up I mentioned this truck, has air suspension and it deed it does, and not only does that, prove the trucks ride when you're going over bumps. It makes it much smoother and softer, but it means that you can set the truck to various different rights. In fact, you have five different ride: height objects. Now the interesting thing is ram has named them in rather unusual ways. It'S not just pi and medium and low. Instead, if you put in the highest possible setting, that's called the maximum ground clearance. Air suspension makes sense. You put it in the next setting. It'S called increased ground clearance. Air suspension increased over normal. The middle one is rather unusual: that's called suitable for most situations, air suspension, not normal, not standard, but which, which air suspension, even I mean suitable for most situations. Okay, you're good, then, for most situations, the next one down just below the middle setting is called improved. Aerodynamics - and this is maybe the most interesting of the settings when you're driving along and suitable for most situations - you just set it in that it cruise along and everything's fine, but you get on the highway and you get up to a certain speed. The truck will automatically lower itself one setting into the aerodynamic suspension setting for better fuel economy. This is a pickup truck that automatically lowers itself at a certain speed for better fuel economy, we're in a very different world of pickup drugs from boost a few years ago. Finally, the lowest suspension setting at the very bottom is called lowered for entry and exit air suspension and you can lower it for easier entry or exit, and you don't have to be in the truck to do that. Press this little button on the bottom left of the key fob and the truck will automatically lower to make it easier for you to climb inside [ Music ]. Next up, we move on to a couple of other interesting items in this interim. Let'S start with the glove boxes now you have a regular glove box in the normal place. But if you look above that glove box and over to the left, you'll see there's a button, you push that and it opens an upper glove box. So in this truck, you have dual glove boxes, just in case you simply have too many gloves to put into one another interesting item in this vehicle. Now, if you're, towing and you're going down a hill, you probably want to go into a lower gear to take some of the stress off your brakes. Now in old trucks, you would put in a clutch and shift into a lower gear with the gear lever. In this thing, you just tap a little minus button on the steering wheel if you've ever been looking for a good example of how trucks have gotten more luxurious and user-friendly over the years. There'S all this stuff in the interior, but that may just be the best example possible. Next up, we move back to the center console for another interesting item at the very furthest forward. Part of the center console you can see, there are two little pockets. Well, that is for cellphone. Holding the one on the left is actually a wireless charger. You can just drop your phone in there and it will wirelessly charge the one on the right is just for storage, but regardless of whether you're, storing or charging it's a good place to put your phone while you're driving. So it's on some flat surface. So it flies around if you have to slam on the brakes quickly. Now next up, we move on to the ceiling, but by the mirror. There are a couple of interesting items up here. There are a lot of buttons that opens stuff. I'M gon na start with this button that says open we're closed. You push that in the rear window opens right up and a lot of older pickups. It'S a manual sliding thing, and this thing it's automatic the three buttons to the left: control the Sun roof. This is a pickup truck with a panoramic sunroof. There are not too many pickup trucks that have that, but the craziest button up there is the one at the very back. It'S a logo of a pickup with the tailgate down. And yes, if you push it, the tailgate automatically goes down. I know I'm gon na get emails from people that say back in my day for a pickup truck, you pulled it on the tailgate in to grab it and yank it down was a man's job. Well now you can just push a button and it comes right down times have changed now, next up below the giant screen in the middle you can see over on the right. There are two switches to turn off the parking sensors. Now, interestingly, in this vehicle, you can turn them off individually, the rear and the front. You can turn them off separately from each other. This is actually a really good idea, because, if you're towing a trailer and you have the rear parking sensors on every time, you backup it'll think you're about to hit your trailer and it'll beep like crazy. So you couldn't shut off the rear and keep the front ones on, because they're still useful, and since I've now mentioned the giant screen, I suppose we must talk about it. This is a 12 inch touchscreen, that's in the higher-end versions of the new 2019 Ram. It is absolutely massive, I think only Tesla in this industry has a bigger screen. Maybe the volvo screen is about the same size, but it's huge. It'S responsive to your touch and it does just about everything the screen hosts you connect, which is what Chrysler calls its infotainment system and the previous version was really good, but this version is even better than that. It remains one of the absolute best infotainment systems in the industry, and this screen is a great way to display it. Now, as you might expect, there are a couple of interesting items with the screen. I'M going to start with the screen themes. If you go into themes you can see, there are four different options. You have Ram 1500 long horn, black long horn, brown and limited. Now, why would I a limited owner want anything other than limited? The answer is I wouldn't. I would never stoop to the level of those other screen themes. Next up, another quirk of the infotainment system. You have the ability in this car to customize units, for example, you can change between miles and kilometers, gallons and leaders. That'S not all that uncommon. Most vehicles have that the interesting thing about this one is: when you go in to customize speed. If you click on it, it then says below that speed, so it says speed and speed, but if you're still confused, you can press the little eye on the right for information and the information it provides. You is the word speed, so speed, speed, speed. I hope you understand what that means. Next up in the infotainment system, a cool feature, this car has a blind spot monitor like most high-end cars lets. You know if there's someone in your blind spot, so you don't accidentally change lanes and hit them, but this vehicle has trailer towing, blind spot monitors. You hook up a trailer and this thing will automatically detect how long the trailer is and thus sort of adjust itself to figure out where your blind spots are. So we can inform you if there's a vehicle in your blind, even if you're, towing a trailer and your blind spot is in a different place than it normally would be, because of the way that your mirrors are adjusted except another, interesting quirk of the infotainment system. You go into these settings menu for the brakes and you can see there's an option for brake service. You click on it and asks if you want to retract the parking brake, so you can perform a brake service. That'S because this car has an automatic electronic parking brake every time you put it in part. The parking brake goes on and it clamps down on the rear brakes, and so in order to retract the parking brake, you have to go into the infotainment system, press that it will retract and then you can change the brakes. That'S pretty interesting! Next, up, moving on to the navigation settings, which is home to some of the infotainment systems, strangest quirks, I'm gon na start with points of interest and specifically ATMs. If you click on ATMs, it gives you a list of banks to select which one you want. Your ATM at and look at this list of base, I believe it is comprehensive. Globally there have to be 200 banks on here banks in India, central bank of Oklahoma. Everything you can possibly imagine is on this list. In case you want to search for your local bank ATM. The crazy part is even after all, those banks, it still gives you an option for other. So if somehow your bank doesn't appear on that list, you can still click other and get directed to other bank ATMs and it's the same story with restaurants. You go into the restaurants menu in the infotainment system and you can scroll through an almost unending list of different types of food. You can choose from if you want to see a nearby restaurant that serves precisely what you want. Interestingly, Swiss is on this list. What do they serve at a Swiss restaurant? Is it just like a normal restaurant but cleaner and everybody eats their dinner in 36 minutes precisely so they can go home and trim their hedges into an exact rectangle. It makes interesting item in the navigation settings is vehicle icon. You can choose how you want your vehicle to be displayed in the navigation screen. You can choose between blue arrow, which isn't an arrow at all red arrow, which is an arrow, yellow, hexagon or my personal favorite Ram 1500. I don't know why anyone would choose anything else. Another interesting navigation setting. You can choose a speed limit warning. That'S pretty common! You can set it for like 10 over the speed limit beeps at you, if you're going ten over, so you no not to speed too much the weird thing about this car is, you can set it for up to 20 over or you can set it for Up to 20 under so I guess it'll beep at you, if you're going too slowly. The weird thing is, you can set it all the way to like 3 miles an hour under the speed limit. So if you're going 32 in a 35 it'll beep at you to let you speed up, I've never seen a speed limit warning for below the speed limit before. But this car has it another interesting quirk of the infotainment system in this truck. If you want to dim the mirror, you do it through the infotainment system, it's not just a little button on the mirror. You push so it's dim at night. When lights are shining, you actually have to go into the infotainment system, press mirror dimmer and then that will dim the mirror. It seems like overkill to me. But what do I know now? Here'S an even crazier one, this vehicle, like most full-size trucks when you open the door the running boards automatically extend so that you can step on them and get in close the door and the running boards retract back into the vehicle for extra ground clearance. But here's the crazy thing: if you want to extend them without opening the door, you can go into the infotainment system, push a little button and they automatically extend. I have no idea why anyone would want to do that, but if you're showing off for a friend that your truck has power running boards, you have that option in the infotainment system. Now one other item on the screen. I also like in case you're. Not the touchscreen type Ram also gives you some traditional buttons for items that you'll use pretty commonly. For example, you can still adjust the climate controls using traditional buttons on the left side close to the driver, and you can turn on/off the stereo and adjust the volume using a traditional dial next to the touchscreen. Unfortunately, Ram is still using this feature where the gear lever is a rotary dial directly next to the volume control, and so you could be driving around and turned down the music and all of a sudden shift into park. By mistake. Now I've been informed by people. Why you can't shift into park because you have to ever put on the brake? It would never happen yeah, but you can shift into neutral and that's not really all that much better. When you really think about things you want to do on the interstate next, I'm moving on to the back, there's not much especially interesting or unusual back here, but there are a couple of items worth noting. One is just how roomy it is. Is a pickup truck the front seat is most of the way back, and yet I am totally comfortable back here. I have a ton of room and, on the subject of comfort, one other interesting thing: this truck has heated rear seat, it's pretty common in luxury vehicles, but it also has ventilated rear seats, which is not common in any luxury vehicles. In fact, you don't even get this on most Mercedes s-class models unless you get really high-end versions and certain rear seat option packages, but you get it in the RAM 1500 limited one other interesting item in the back seat. Hanging from the back of the front seat is a ram leather care guide to teach you how to care for your nice, leather interior. The thing I like about this little leather care guide is the word limited is embossed. Even on this thing. It'S not just printed. It'S actually pushed into the cardboard. I guess to really emphasize how limited it is. Next, I'm moving around back the track. There'S a couple of interesting things back here. One is on the tailgate. You can see that the RAM logo is that same sort of modernized, digitized Ram logo, like the one you saw on the steering wheel, it's very different from the RAM logos of your I'm, not sure, if that's interesting, but anyway, opening the tailgate, which of course happens Automatically see the other interesting thing: there are bed lights in this truck as there are in most trucks, but in this one they are LED and you can turn them on and off with the push of a little rubber button over on the left side of the Bed in case, you don't want your bed lights to be lighting up your bed anymore. Next up we move on to the front end, which I have to admit. I love it's very sleek and modernized compared to the look of the old one. In fact, it's this new front end styling that I think, makes the RAM the best-looking full-size truck on the market right now. Take a look, for instance, at the turn signal when it's on this is not like old-school halogen truck turn signals. This looks like a sleek kind of sporty car. Instead, it's a cool look. Now there are a couple of interesting things up front beyond just the styling one is they've gotten rid of the old Ram cross hairs, grille that all the old Ram pickups used to have you can see that is completely gone in favor of this new grille, which Is kind of busy and a little bit strange looking the other interesting thing is the headlights. Now when you look at these headlights, these are ill, be headlights back there by LED low beams and high beams. When you take a close look at him, it says dynamic. Afs buy LED, and it gives the exact degrees of inboard and outboard rotation in the headlights. Once again, if you needed any proof that pickup trucks are different than they were 15 or 20 years ago, there you go dynamic, EFS buy led. So those are the quirks and features of the new Ram 1500 and now it's time to get it out on the road and see what it's like to drive: a $ 65,000 luxury pickup truck, alright driving the Ram 1500. The first thing you realized you're in this is it's pretty big, but unless you're used to driving trucks, in which case it's totally normal, but I'm not boy, the first impression is it's really smooth. The transmission is really really really smooth just shifting in first. Second, third right there, acceleration is good, obviously, but it's not insane. I they said that isn't really the point of this vehicle still to v8 under there, so you got enough power, for whatever you need to do. The transmission is just so smooth. You can barely feel the ships also that I think that contributes to it not feeling as fast. It'S they've sort of tuned it more for smoothness than for performance, but I think that's probably what most buyers of this vehicle will want. The other thing is the ride. Is really nice? This is the kind of thing you could just kill miles and just sit here and live here, just not care the lane line bumps always a great indication to me of how good the suspension is in my car. You feel every lane line thought my mg and it's just tiresome. I mean this thing. You can barely feel them air suspension. Longevity, there's, obviously a concern who knows how long it's gon na last but well, you still have this thing under warranty to buying it new. It'S what you want it so nice truthfully. It feels like a big luxury SUV! That'S what it feels like when you're driving it like a like a really nice Durango or a really nice, whatever GL, or something like that, not quite on that level, but not that far off all the materials are so nice. You look around. Everything is surprisingly good for a pickup truck. All the noise is pretty much drowned out. You really don't hear all that much. You do hear the engine a little bit under acceleration, but that's kind of cool. You got the Hemi. You got it for a reason, but mostly you just don't hear anything. I mean this is just a serene place, which is hard to imagine saying about a pickup truck. It really really wasn't that long ago that the nicest trucks were like. Oh he's got leather in a truck, oh, they got wood trim. I mean that was 15 years ago and then the Denalis kind of started coming up and everybody started doing it. And now here we are driving a 65 thousand on a truck and it it's almost seems like the perfect combination of things. It'S like a pickup truck if you need a haul or tow, but it's also a luxury car and it's a family car, because it's huge back there I mean this is an s-class. The materials aren't that nice, but it's also nor near that expensive. But it's nice and it's got a ton of tech. I didn't really cover that much with, but it's got all the latest safety tech it'll it'll stop automatically if you're about to hit something and as radar cruise control, auto wipers, etc, etc. Even stop if you're in Reverse and you're gon na hit something there's a sensors back there and it'll break automatically, if you're in Reverse. For some reason, the turn signal stock doesn't come out far enough, so you have to kind of reach in to grab it. I mean I mean it's pretty much what you expect from from a real if it's pretty much what you expect if you're gon na pay sixty five grand for a truck at that point, you want it to also be a luxury vehicle. You want to be as quiet as one as comfortable as one and as well-equipped as one and that's exactly what this is. I mean you get a panoramic roof. You get cooled rear seats, you get. It recognizes the speed limit. The road you're on heated steering wheel radar cruise, but what else do you I mean this is everything, and so that's the 2019 Ram 1500 limited. The old Ram was fine, but it wasn't really built all that well and the design seemed like it had been around for ages. The new Ram is a totally different truck. It'S luxurious to drive it's nice and handsome to look at, and it's loaded with. All of the latest modern technology and gadgets - I love the Ford f-150, but this is the new best full-size pickup truck on the market, and it's a pretty damn good luxury car too, and now it's time to give it a dug score. Starting with the weekend categories and styling, the Ram 1500 is nice, but it's no beautiful sports car. It gets a 5 out of 10. Acceleration is surprisingly strong around six point four seconds: zero to 16 against a three out of ten handling is typical. To pick up. This truck is all about comfort and it's quite large, so the center of gravity isn't very low. It'S not exactly tight or precise, and it gets a 2 out of 10 fun factor. 2. Isn'T really the point of this truck and it gets a 1 out of 10 as for cool factor, it depends where you are, but the basic gist is that it's pretty cool to have a top-end truck like this, but otherwise it pretty much just blends in and It gets a 3 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 14 out of 50 next up for the daily categories, starting with features, and this truck is surprisingly well equipped for a pickup. It gets a 7 out of 10. Comfort is excellent. Just shy of range rover territory and it gets a 7 out of 10. Quality - is good. The materials are surprisingly nice, but of course, shoppers will be a little leery of christ'. The reliability with good reason, so we'll see how that goes. For now it gets a 6 out of 10. Practicality is strong, with a huge back seat and a big bed and back, and it gets an 8 out of 10. Finally, there's value. This truck is an amazing combination of a heavy duty, hauler a high-tech car on a luxury vehicle. So it's a great value, but with that said, it's still a $ 65,000 truck. So it's not gon na get an ultra-high score here, and indeed he gets a seven out of ten for a total daily score of 35 out of 50. Add it up in the Doug. Score is 49 out of 100 and here's how it ranks against some other big pickups. I'Ve reviewed this thing isn't that different league than the Nissan Titan it's far better and it's a bit better than the f250 Platinum. Unless you need that trucks, heavy duty, towing or hauling capabilities, but the RAM can't reach the Raptor, which scores impressively well in daily and weekend categories, so the raptor has a hefty price premium over the RAM.