“Hey what’s that?!”

That’s usually what you hear when people see the Smart Car Fourtwo in the Seattle area. The size, the way it handles, and overall appealing looks makes the Fourtwo a unique vehicle for the road.

To protect your car, we turned to a few local auto experts. At a local Shucks Auto, the sales clerk, Jon, indicates that “wind shield wipers, wiper fluids, car batteries and de-icers” all start to pick up this time of year.  

On windshield wipers, Jon notes that “the sun and icy winter tends to crack the rubber blades,”  so it’s important to regularly change wipers. Keeping your visibility intact, especially during the wet and dark winter months is a necessity for safe driving. Most auto stores have a guide on which blade to buy or you can simply ask for new blades at your next oil change. Tip: On especially cold days, pull your wipers up, as you would when washing your car, so they don’t freeze and stick to the window in the morning.

Batteries commonly faily during the winter, which many know firsthand, can lead to the embarassing scenario of begging for help and fumbling with jumper cables. While most modern cars have maintenance free batteries, it’s “still a good idea to get them checked now rather than finding out the hard way”, says Jon. Places like Shucks, Les Schwab and Sears all offer free battery checks.

“Antifreeze is important too,” Jon adds, noting that keeping your coolant topped helps enture your engine run at a consistent temperate. Cooling systems are under more stress during extreme hot and cold weather and are the most common cause of engine failure.

One thing Jon doesn’t mention are lights, which are often overlooked by drivers due to the difficulty in spotting a burned out bulb. “I never even realized my headlight was out,” says David, a Redmond resident, who was pulled over twice in one day due to a busted headlamp. Checking your car lights is as simple as turning them on and walking around your car and is an important safety precaution. Studies have shown that cars with daytime running lights are in fewer accidents, as lights help other drivers with identification. Thus, keeping your lights functioning in the winter is paramount to reducing your risk.

Apart from preventative maintenance, we talked to Ben Wolters at Auto Seattle, whose company specializes in custom accessories for new cars, for advice on keeping your car clean. ”Floor liners, floor mats and garage liners,” says Wolters. He notes that a popular seller with Seattle buyers are Husky floormats, which are durable for our wet weather. For those who want to protect their investments, Wolters recommends hood deflectors, as the can “keep any debris off the car, such as rocks and salt.”  
With the economy down and customers getting a bit more tight on their wallets, stores like Auto Seattle have felt the pinch as well. “But,” Wolters adds, protective accessories makes a lot of sense “for those who want to take care of their thirty, fourty or fifty thousand dollar investment.”

Next in Part 2, Good Tires and Managing Your Driveway

When it comes to gadgets, the person with the most toys wins. It can be the difference between the average car to that of “pimped out fly ride”.

However it’s hard to determine how effective certain gadgets are until they’ve been on the market for while. These gadgets have been around a few years. Some are useful, while others just bump up the sticker price.

You decide.

Intelligent cruise control:

The Next Generation in cruise control. Using laser technology, Infiniti offers a cruise control that understands the “cushion” between cars. The laser actually measures and determines how close you’re getting to the vehicle in front of you and decreases the acceleration accordingly. The “intelligence” will also maintain that preset distance between cars. Now if they could only get the computer to honk the horn and give that slow-poke a dirty glare while passing, that’ll be REAL intelligence. 

This is one that people seem to really enjoy,” explains Frank Hasselbeck, a luxury motors dealer in Kirkland. “It automatically spaces things out, it just makes driving really nice.”

Voice-recognition system:

Cars have been talking for a long time. But now, Infiniti’s Q45 takes voice recognition to the next level. They try at least. Taking commands like making a hands-free phone call has been very doable over the years. But now they’ve improved the other functions like, changing CDs, adjusting the temperature, or navigating the GPS. And you’re English doesn’t even have to be that good. The system understands 50,000 words in 150 dialects and even learns the sound of your voice. It has gotten better over the years. There were certain commands that hardly ever worked, but the 2009 version seems to be the best. However, it’s hard to believe that everything goes smooth with voice recognition. There are still certain 4 letter words, it probably doesn’t understand.

Limp-home mode:

Cadillac will try and get you home. In their Cadillac Northstar engine? Blowing a radiator hose doesn’t mean you’re instantly calling a cab.  The Northstar automatically goes into limp-home mode, shutting the gas supply off in certain cylinders and reducing the use of the engine. It’ll make the car just operational enough for you to…limp home. It will also save the engine. However, if you’re already paying for AAA, why not just use that?

Night Vision:

A couple of years ago Mercedes Benz offered the Night Vision feature in their S Class vehicles. It actually turns the dash display into an enhanced image of the road. It allows drivers to see about 50-100 yards further than with their regular headlights. They have improved the feature each year, and while it was an extremely well engineered piece of hardware, and it truly defined luxury in an automobile, it’s not exactly getting bang for the buck. 

“It’s one of the more expensive features,” says Hasselbach. “For some people it takes some time getting used to it. When it’s dark, it’s tough to take your eyes off the road to look at the dash display even if it’s an enhanced version of the road itself. I’ve had people tell me there’s a learning curve to it. But the people who are accustomed to it seem to like it.”