How to Change a Flat Tire

Imagine driving you car down a rural road on your way home from work.  Your favorite song is blaring on the radio, and you finally feel a sense of ease from a busy day.  At your favorite part of the song, you hear a loud pop, then the slow roll of a popped tire as you cruise to the median.  First, you make sure that you’ve steered clear of any hazards.  Then, you realize that your front left tire has become a disheveled piece of rubber.  Hands on your hips, foot tapping the ground, you take a long sigh, but not one of relief, one of frustration.  Darn! A flat tire.

Now, if you own a vehicle with run-flat tires or a low tire pressure warning system, you most likely won’t have to deal with these frustrations, if you don’t own those options, you’re in luck.  We’ve got a step-by-step guide to helping you change that tire.

1.    Get your tools – find your car’s spare tire, jack and tire iron.  The spare is usually in the trunk under the floor mat, or in a minivan mounted on the back of the tailgate or underneath the vehicle.

2.    Check air pressure- if you have an air pressure gauge check the tire’s pressure on the spare, hopefully it should be fine.

3.    Remove flat tire- MAKE SURE CAR IS IN GEAR OR PARK, and that the emergency break is set. Also, make sure your car is on a flat surface.

4.    Use the tire iron- (the L shaped bar that fits over the wheel lugs) to loosen each lug.  They are usually very tight, so use a little force, they should loosen after a couple tries.  Leave the lugs loose and move the jack under the car (shown on directions of jack).  Raise the jack until it contacts the car’s frame.  Continue to expand it.

5.    Once the tire is completely raised off the ground, remove the wheel lugs completely.

6.    Take the spare tire and line it up over the wheel studs, you’ll have to hold up the tire and try to line up the holes in the wheel. One tip is to balance the tire on your foot while you move it into position.   Once done, the lugs should screw on easily. Once each of them is snug and you can't tighten them any further by hand, use the tire iron to finish the job.

7.    Lower the jack- carefully, and then pull the jack away from the vehicle.  Once the spare tire is on, carefully lower the jack. Pull the jack away from the vehicle. The final step is to tighten down the lugs completely. The reason you tighten the lugs now is that the tire is on the ground and it won't rotate around like it would if it was still hanging in the air.  

Congrats, you’ve just changed a flat tire!!

How to buy a car like a celebritaunt

When it comes to celebrities and their automobiles one would assume that the only vehicles that your favorite movie star drives, would be a Bentley or Rolls Royce.  It might fascinate you to know that our “celebutantes” like Katy Perry and guys like Robert Downey Jr, and Mark Zuckerberg drive the cool and practical vehicles just like you.  So what are their buying patterns?  What would make them choose vehicles in this category?  Do you think that these individuals lease or pay cash for their cars? Are celebs as concerned with insuring their vehicles as you might be? In this blog, you might discover some points on how and why celebrities make their choices.

One of the choices a celeb makes is to buy or lease their cars.  One reason they might choose leasing over buying is tax deductions.  They have huge incomes and need the write-offs.  So what better way to get a tax deduction than to lease your car?  Besides the idea that they have very busy schedules, and not much time for servicing their cars, they are able to write off a large portion of the vehicle. The other aspect is the warranties on leased vehicles.    With leasing programs vehicles are never out of warranty. This is one less thing for them to be concerned with.   If you haven’t leased a car yet, you might want to find out how to never pay for scheduled service again by leasing your car.  Celebs are very smart on leasing or purchasing their cars, or so it seems.

How is it that they are so smart? Most of these individuals have accountants and financial planners and although money may not seem like an issue and we would guess that then can purchase whatever they want.  However, the fact is their entourage of executives supporting their careers maintains their financial status. They do this by saving them as much money as they can.  We can learn a lot about the auto world by following the famous or their CPA’s.   These braziliant peeps pay cash for used vehicles too.  If you were researching a vehicle for your boss,  “The Biebs” you might learn that a vehicle depreciates in value by 20%.  So your advice to the teen heartthrob would be possibly paying cash. Bieber might give you a raise if you were still trying to save him money. However, advising him on insuring his car is equally important?

When it comes to insuring a car, high achievers have to follow the same rules as well as the rest of us. Just because they have star power doesn’t mean they get away with breaking the law. But what you may not have known is they often have to pay higher insurance rates because of their famous status.  Besides people like Lindsay and her many car accidents, these individuals are often chased by paparazzi making them high risk motorists. On the other hand, these wealthy individuals often pay higher premiums due to auto theft.  Auto theft is more prominent in this demographic.

So not only are these normal individuals, they have the same types of concerns and issues as you do when it comes to purchasing, leasing, and insuring a vehicle.

Here is a list of some celebs and their smart not stuffy auto’s. Perhaps your brand is included?

Mark Zuckerberg can often be seen in his wife’s Acura TSX

Katy Perry drives an Audi A5

Skater Rob Dyrdek just gave away his “Urban Assault Vehicle” Chevy Tahoe

Sarah Jessica Parker drives her children around in a Honda Odyssey.

Jeff Bridges is the Spokesperson for Hyundai

Transformers Josh Duhamel tools around in his GMC Sierra truck.

Angela Lansbury likes to shop in her Kia Soul

Robert Downey Jr. gets serious with the Nissan GT-R

Andy Garci was just on the British show Top Gear for test driving a Suzuki Aerio

Julia Roberts enjoys trips in her Toyota Prius

As flamboyant as these famous people can be, they are also savvy, smart, and practical just like you! 

Watch for our blog next week and don’t forget to like us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. 

Our Favorite Instagram Photos of All-Time

Once in a while, a photo comes along that defines our brand, our goals and our automotive tenacity to the tee.  

For those not familiar with Instagram, Instagram is an online photo-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take a picture, apply a digital filter to it, and share it on a variety of social networking services, including its own. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras.

By December 2010, Instagram had 1 million registered users.[50] In June 2011 Instagram announced it had 5 million users[51] and it passed ten million in September of the same year.[52] In April 2012, it was announced that over 30 million accounts were set up on Instagram.

In today’s blog, we’re providing our choice for the TOP Instagram photos of all time: