Category Archives: Car Tips

How to Make the Most Out of Your Toyota Care

By Car Tips, Toyota

Whether you’re out and about driving around town on business or pleasure, doing so with peace of mind is the goal for Toyota. With their ToyotaCare program in place, you can drive with confidence any time you’re behind the wheel. 
About ToyotaCare
It doesn’t matter if you’re driving across town, across the street, or across the state. With ToyotaCare along for the ride, you never have to worry about being stranded on a busy highway or quiet back road in the event your vehicle breaks down.
Benefits of ToyotaCare
The ToyotaCare program is available for anyone who buys or leases a new Toyota. The program is no cost to you for the maintenance plan. It’s designed with driver convenience and safety in mind, providing coverage wherever you may be when traveling throughout the United States.
You can take to the highways and byways feeling secure in the knowledge Toyota has your vehicle covered for either two years or 25,000 miles. With the program, you’ll have access to state-of-the-art service facilities and professional technicians to handle normal maintenance checks to keep your vehicle running at peak performance. 

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How Maintaining Your Tires Can Improve Your Vehicle's Safety

By Car Tips, How To

When it comes to vehicle safety, the main things that impact driving conditions are the tires. Consider the following information for a safer journey wherever the road may take you. 
Tire Tread
Just like how your shoes connect you to the pavement, so, too, do the tires on our vehicles. This means the tread needs to be in good condition to grip the surface and avoid slipping and sliding the same way the soles of our shoes operate.
According to Consumer Reports, once the grooves measure at 1/16 of an inch deep, the tire is considered bald, which means the grooves no longer work at maximum capacity to eject water accumulating under the tread. When this happens, the vehicle can hydroplane and may not respond correctly to your attempts to control the vehicle via the steering wheel.
The potential for hydroplaning increases the faster your vehicle is traveling on wet roads. Add threadbare tires to the situation, and the risk of hydroplaning is greater. With increased speeds, water accumulates under the tires, leaving little to no traction as the vehicle skims over the wet surface.
This isn’t to say, though, that new tires will always prevent hydroplaning. It can happen at 40 mph in the right conditions. Bald or threadbare tires simply increase the risk.
Along with lack of vehicle control during hydroplaning, bald tires also decrease traction when braking in wet or snowy weather conditions. On a wet road, tires with degraded tread can take several to come to a stop. In snowy conditions, threadbare tires can also affect acceleration. Since the tire tread has degraded and doesn’t have the grip of healthy tires, it can take longer to achieve an appropriate speed. 

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What's New in the Toyota Safety Sense 2.0?

By Car Tips

toyota safety sense 2.0If you’ve owned a Toyota in the past, you probably know all about Toyota Safety Sense (TSS). For those who are unfamiliar, TSS was one of the first standard safety packages in the auto manufacturing world available on even the base trim level of all Toyota vehicles. It provided many sophisticated active and passive driver technologies, including lane departure alert and pre-collision with automatic emergency braking. Now, TSS 2.0 is making its debut, with all-new features to keep you even safer behind the wheel.

Full-Speed Version of Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC)

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) was available in the first version of TSS, but the manufacturer has made some potent upgrades to the technology. In particular, DRCC can now assist drivers at much higher speeds, with a full range of 0 to 110 mph. DRCC works by using radar and a camera to monitor traffic in front of you, slowing or speeding up your car automatically to maintain a safe distance while on the highway.

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4 Signs Your Brakes Need to be Checked

By Car Tips

Old Brake PadsBrakes are one part of your car you really don’t want to mess around with. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, brake-related problems accounted for about 22 percent of car crashes related to critical vehicle issues between 2005 to 2007. Therefore, you should always keep your brakes up to date to prevent a serious and potentially deadly incident. Here are the most important signs that signify it’s time to replace your brakes.

Screeching or Grinding Noise

If you’ve ever driven a car for a number of years, you’re probably familiar with the drawn-out whine that accompanies dying brakes. This torturous sound is created when your brake pad is beginning to wear down. If you ignore the sound and keep on traveling around town, you’ll eventually hear a grinding — this means you’re worn through your brake pad entirely and the metal of the brake caliper is rubbing directly on the metal of your rotor. Without timely replacement, this will also destroy your rotors, leading to a costlier trip to the mechanic.

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Savvy Ways to Use Your Smartphone When You Buy a Car

By Car Tips

Weiss Toyota of South County - 5 Savvy Ways to Use Your Smartphone When You Buy a CarOur phones go with us wherever we go, and we use them for almost everything, from research to directions to games, but did you know that they also come in handy when you go car shopping? Technology continues to evolve, and thanks to our phones, information is easy to access, whether you get it before you head to the dealership or while you are there. Here are some of the savviest ways to use your smartphone when you buy a car.

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