Fresh motor oil is reassuring stuff. It pours from the bottle in a clear amber stream, looking clean enough to belong in a kitchen rather than an engine. A few hundred miles later, the dipstick can
Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive need little introduction. Then there is B. It sits on the shifter of many hybrids looking important but refusing to explain itself. Battery seems like the obvious
Winter rubber mats are excellent at catching snow, salt and the gray slush that somehow finds its way into every corner of a car. The temptation is to place them directly over the carpet mats alrea
There was a time when checking automatic transmission fluid involved a dipstick, a rag, and five minutes under the hood. Now the dipstick has vanished. The filler may be buried beneath the car, the fl
Set the cruise control to 70 mph and glance at the navigation screen. It may insist the car is traveling at 67. Increase the cruise setting to 71. GPS grudgingly moves to 68. The two displays can sp
There are dashboard lights that can wait until the weekend. A low washer-fluid warning, for instance, is hardly a reason to abandon a grocery run. The red oil-can symbol is not one of those lights.
A car can sit unused for several days without concern. Stretch that pause into several weeks, however, and the first signs of neglect may begin to appear. The battery loses charge, the tires remai
The word “premium” makes the expensive pump handle sound like the healthier choice. Better fuel, cleaner engine, more power. It is an easy assumption to make, especially when regular,
The Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman are gone, and that still feels wrong. Not “the market moved on” wrong. Not “well, it had a good run” wrong. More like Porsche had one of
Most people do not think about their tires until one of them does something rude. A warning light comes on. The car starts feeling strange. A road trip gets interrupted. Something looks low.