Don’t Fall Short on Car Maintenance

As we dig deeper into fall, it means one thing: Winter is just around the corner. Take time now to get your car ready for the bad weather to come. Otherwise, you could be stuck at home or, worse yet, along the roadside with a flat tire, a blown engine, a windshield you can’t see out of, or some other problem.

So before all the leaves are brown and the sky is gray, make sure you won’t have a problem with the following:

Tired of trouble

First, give your tires the eye test – or better yet, the coin test. Put a quarter into the grooves on several parts of your tires. If at least part of George Washington’s head is always obscured, you have more than an eighth of an inch of tread depth. Tires are considered legally worn out in most states when they’re down to one-sixteenth of an inch.
Now it’s time to check the air pressure of your tires. Here, there’s no eye test; the pressure will be really low if you can see it. Why does it matter? Heat can build up in underinflated tires and cause a blowout. An underinflated tire also will wear faster, and your gas mileage will suffer greatly. Tires tend to lose pressure when the weather cools.
You can find the car manufacturer’s suggested pressure on a sticker in your car door or in your owner’s manual. It’s possible the requirements will be different for front and back tires. You’ll need a tire gauge to measure it, and you should do it when the tires are cold. If the pressure is low, go to a gas station and add air. One thing to note – driving with overinflated tires also is dangerous.
Remember, when you’re checking tires, to include your spare. It won’t do you any good to put the spare on if it’s in bad shape.
Finally, rotate your tires if it’s time to do so – it will extend the life of the tires.

Oil things considered

Making sure you change your oil at regular intervals should always be top of mind. But there’s more to an oil change than changing oil. You’ll also want to check the levels of your brake fluid and, of course, your antifreeze.

Get all wiper about it

You’re heading into the season when you’ll need your windshield wipers. So change them to make sure your windshield stays clear of grime, snow and ice. While you’re at it, make sure you’ve got plenty of wiper fluid, too, and that it has a low freezing point.

Blinded by the lack of light

This is a good time to check to make sure your headlights, taillights, brake lights, signal lights, and flashers work property. As Yogi Berra said, “It gets late early out there.” In other words, you’ll likely be driving in the dusk and darkness more.
Check your horn as well, and make sure the heater/defroster is working properly heading into the season.

Power up

Check the battery terminals for problems, and check the battery itself to make sure it’s still good and strong. Chemical reactions that generate electricity are slower when the temperature falls, so it’s important that your battery is strong heading into winter.

Be prepared

Even if you take all these precautions, you could get caught in a jam as the weather gets colder. Review your emergency kit to make sure it has the proper supplies, or put one together if you don’t have one.
Here are some things it should include.

• Flares
• Boots
• Blankets
• Bottled water and high-energy snacks
• Jumper cables
• A jack and spare tire
• An ice scraper
• Flashlights
• A shovel
• A first aid kit
• Duct tape

There are other items you can include as they apply to your location or situation, such as medicines. But the important thing is to be prepared for the worst that can happen. That way, you can handle any smaller problems that occur along the way.

Grand Theft Auto Insurance?

Most people will have to buy an auto insurance policy at some point in our lives. It can be a sobering reminder of adulthood, but it’s an essential protection for one of your biggest investments. For a group of video gamers, the first time they purchase car insurance might be through the Grand Theft Auto V video game.

That’s right, the latest installment of the controversial Grand Theft Auto series, in its online version, allows players to purchase car insurance policies for their virtual cars. If their car is wrecked or stolen, they pay a deductible – much as they would in real life, and the auto respawns.

Criticism of the GTA franchise

For those unfamiliar with the game, here’s why the GTA franchise is controversial. The “game” allows players to immolate criminals and, as they try to climb to the top of the organized crime ranks, they kill other characters, steal cars, drag race, steal money, and commit a plethora of other crimes, including violence against women.
Critics have savaged the game since the original release in 1997. That, however, hasn’t put a dent in its popularity – the latest iteration generated more than $1 billion in sales in its first three days on the market.
Despite the game’s extreme level of violence, GTA V is exposing a generation of gamers to car insurance, which could be a good thing. The added element of the online game teaches players that in order to protect their cars, they need an insurance policy. So will exposing players to car insurance in the game make them more likely to purchase a policy in the real world?

Insurance outside the game

All states require some form of auto liability insurance. Despite that, the Insurance Information Institute (III) estimates that about 14% of drivers in the U.S. are uninsured.
Driving without insurance has some serious real life consequences. If you cause a wreck, you could be personally responsible for paying the medical expenses of the people injured in it. You also could be liable for their lost wages. Plus, you’ll have to pay to repair or replace the vehicles involved – including your own.
Even if you don’t have a wreck, you could end up with hefty fines, a suspended license and a damaged driving record. And when you finally wise up and purchase a policy, you’ll pay much higher premiums. That’s because you’ve had a lapse in coverage, and auto insurance providers hate lapses.

The long-term effects

Some GTA players have noted the oddity that a game filled with so much illegal activity would include something as mundane and real world as auto insurance. While it may seem out of place in a virtual world full of crime, it’s still one of the first games to include an option to buy an insurance policy. While it’s clearly a play for the video game developer, Rockstar North, to make money, it’s also pioneering the inclusion of insurance policies in video games, which could have positive effects on players.
Video games, such as Grand Theft Auto, have been under fire for promoting violent behavior. However, not as much attention has been paid to the potential positive effects. In a 2012 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Joshua Lewis, a computational analyst at the University of California in San Diego, said, “There has been a lot of attention wasted in figuring out whether these games turn us into killing machines.” Lewis, who has studied 2,000 video game players, added, “Not enough attention has been paid to the unique and interesting features that video games have outside of violence.”
Make no mistake, GTA isn’t a pillar of promoting positive behavior, but it’ll be interesting to see if the inclusion of car insurance translates to players becoming more likely to purchase real-world policies. If so, developers could begin including more of these real world aspects across the board. For many, video games serve as an escape from the real world, but the promotion of responsible behavior shouldn’t go unconsidered.