Drive - Automotive Blog - Page 4 of 6 - Blog featuring car and bike tips

Mobility-Friendly vehicles give You the Freedom You truly deserve

If you’re one of the fortunate people that have a circle of friends and family willing to take you anywhere and everywhere that you need to go, Motability probably isn’t on top of your mind right now. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people relying on public transportation, taxis, and flaky handlers to get their day to day errands taken care of. While this works for a while, there comes a point where you want to do more than just exist, living from one shopping trip to another. There’s only so many times where you can get excited about buying milk, for example.

The Motability allowance gives people the freedom to finally take their lives back through consistent, reliable transportation. Having a motability allowance is powerful, as long as you have options in terms of how to spend your allowance. You want to focus on the future, and being able to get something that’s going to serve your needs well. In addition to this concern, you want to take your allowance to a reputable place. Sadly, there are plenty of bad schemes out there that prey on the sick and disabled, which always breaks our hearts when we hear about it.

That’s why we were excited to check into Inchcape Volkswagen. They are very used to working within the framework of the Motability program, and they can give you more than just the keys to a leased vehicle. They can give you a solid place to get repairs, handle the insurance and road tax issues, address maintenance concerns, and even give you the structure to get a new vehicle every three years. Continue reading “Mobility-Friendly vehicles give You the Freedom You truly deserve” →

Flex Your DIY Muscles and replace Your Car’s Radiator

Every car buff has a moment where they fall down what we like to call the DIY rabbit hole. In other words, they get so wrapped up in fixing things on their car that they feel like they can ditch the garage and do a lot of things on their own. If you’re itching for a project, you may want to consider replacing your radiator.

Here’s the deal: leaking coolant sooner or later becomes a major problem that can actually ruin that big nice engine that you just had dropped in. Most people don’t think about the radiator, until they start smelling a smoky sweet smell in the air. That’s your coolant leaking out of the vehicle, and you’re going to have to park the car and figure out what’s wrong.

Popping the bonnet will almost seem like a silly idea, because you may not see anything noticeable for a while. If you get back to your DIY spot and you need to handle the radiator, here’s what you need to do.

First and foremost, look up the radiator just to be sure you’ve got a good source in case you do have to replace it outright or just apply sealant (you know, if you get lucky to avoid the costs). We recommend Advanced Radiators, because they have just about every radiator you can think of. Not only that, but they helped found the Independent Cooling Experts Group, a national entity devoted to upholding standards across the industry. After all, it makes sense: you want to buy from a company that understands exactly what they’re selling and how important it is to maintain quality. Continue reading “Flex Your DIY Muscles and replace Your Car’s Radiator” →

Give Propshaft Maintenance a closer look

Propshafts. If you’re a car enthusiast, you already know that the propshaft is what helps bring the drive train to life, and therefore driving in general. It’s all about the torque, baby. But if you aren’t careful, you have to make sure that you keep a good eye on your propshafts, because they are susceptible to a lot of stress. You have not only shear stress, but torsion as well. Everything also has to be weighted properly, because if a driving shaft is too heavy, it would drag on the other components of the drive train too much.

But enough physics. You need to know how to protect your prop shaft more than you need to know about how all of the mechanics work. There are a few tips that you ought to keep in mind when you’re trying to keep the parts working well for a long time to come.

What’s the top protector of prop shafts everywhere? Why, grease of course! If you’re working on a vehicle that is going to take a heavy beating day to day, then you need to keep those shafts as lubricated as possible. Remember that so much of your vehicle’s movement is going to depend on how well your drive shafts are working. Continue reading “Give Propshaft Maintenance a closer look” →

A New Name Fitting for a Regional Leader

When consumers start to enter the market for a new car, where do they go? Generally speaking, they go back to a company that they’ve already done business with, or one that they trust through the recommendation of a friend. It’s this spirit that is driving a acquisition in the car dealership industry, with Lookers plc acquiring Benfield. The newly-acquired dealerships will now be known as Lookers, and there’s quite the awareness campaign going on.

It goes a bit deeper, of course. Both companies are driven by close customer interaction, family traditions, and a long history. Lookers is focused on easing people slowly into the new name, while maintaining the processes and customs that customers count on as they make their purchasing decisions.

Nigel McMinn is the Managing Director for Lookers and offered a few choice statements on the acquisition as well as the rebranding campaign, saying, “Benfield is a strong regional brand, steeped in family values and history. It has therefore been essential, since our acquisition, that our name-change and rebrand plans have followed a phased approach to take our customers on a seamless journey to the new Lookers brand and values.”

From a business standpoint, the move to acquire Benfield was a very clever one indeed. Benfield was the company behind over 30 dealerships scattered throughout the UK. There are also some retail outlets, both types of property are located primarily in Northeastern England, West of Scotland and Yorkshire. Continue reading “A New Name Fitting for a Regional Leader” →

Cancelling Your Travel Plans this Easter – You’re Not Alone

Everyone loves a good bank holiday, as long as you’ve planned ahead of time. This is usually a great chance to see family and friends, since most will have time away from the office whether they like it or not.

Yet if you’ve been thinking about cancelling your travel plans due to traffic concerns, you’re not alone. It goes without saying that when there’s an increased number of motorists on the road, the chances for an accident increase dramatically. Add to it the usual stress people have of trying to get where they need to go with a limited amount of time, and the risk for accident climbs even higher. Who wants to miss Easter dinner because they were on the road? Continue reading “Cancelling Your Travel Plans this Easter – You’re Not Alone” →

Go From Zero to Zoom-Zealous With This List of the Fastest Cars on the Market

Step into the realm of fast cars, where only business tycoons, old money playboys, and lottery winners get to dwell. What would you drive if you could drive anything in the world? You might be inclined to go super exclusive, picking up the Koenigsegg Agera One: 1. This is a car that has a top speed of 273 mph, with plenty of horsepower to back it up. But we call it super exclusive since there’s only six of them available. Already sold out, you say? You betcha!

Check out the infographic from Drive Benfield below for more awesome, out of your reach cars…but there is a silver lining if you read the whole thing. Hint: there are actually some fast cars out there for the non-millionaires among us. Being in the 98% never felt so good.

The Fully Electric Bus is Here, Which is a Good Thing

We talk a lot about consumer cars, which is fine because that’s what we’re all looking at. But sometimes it’s nice to see what type of technology is powering our transportation on a bigger level. Public transportation has its fair share of detractors, but that doesn’t mean that this is something that you should avoid. Not everyone can afford to operate a car. The true cost of ownership for a vehicle may be a lot more than you think. Why? You have to add up all of the expenses that are involved with owning and operating that car, form the purchase all the way to handling fuel and repairs. Insurance is another expense that has to be calculated. Did you know that your insurance can go up every year based on a wide variety of variables? If the insurance company feels that your area has gotten more dangerous, they could raise your rates just on that alone.

But let’s get back to the fully electric bus, the topic of today’s article. We think that getting off a fuel dependency is a good thing, especially when that fuel is petroleum-based.

Ryan Popple is formerly of Tesla Motors, a company already well known around the world for electric vehicles. But Popple is stepping away from consumer EVs and looking at a fully electric bus. The specs so far are incredible: 200 miles on a single charge, and a full recharge in roughly ten minutes. The 0-20mph acceleration measure is incredible, outpacing many electric sedans despite being forty feet long.

The company behind Popple is called Proterra, and they’re focused on building the best electric bus possible. The current model is considered to be one of the lightest in its class, without sacrificing the performance of a heavier transportation vehicle. The company was founded by Dale Hill, who innovated with buses first before looking at other vehicle classes. The bus is still one of the core vehicles in their arsenal to this day.

Proterra has plenty of competition, even if it’s not Tesla right now: global firms are looking at how to bring the electric technology to fruition without having to use biodiesel as a fallback.

What’s exceptional about Proterra is that the buses are connected to wireless charging stations at specified stops. This lets passengers unload and come on the bus without having to pause for recharging aside from the stop. The buses are making their way across the US, from LA and Seattle to Lexington (KY) and Dallas, TX.

There are other pitfalls looming, despite the electric bus’s promise. For starters, the traditional diesel-eater is cheaper, because the battery powering the all electric bus is still expensive. But the battery packs are indeed falling in expense, which increases the overall appeal. We think that even if the diesel type is cheaper, the all electric is still more appealing. Remember that cities have to look long term in terms of investments. Betting on all electric technology is a wise move that will pay off handsomely for many cities.