Car Maintenance
Whether you own a BMW, Ford, Citroen or a Mercedes, keeping your car in excellent condition is a must and something that needs to be worked on continually. This article will show you just what you need to know in order to look after your vehicle correctly.
Cleaning Your Vehicle
The first step in caring for your car is to keep it clean. The car body needs to be kept free of mud and dust which can cause scratches and damage to the paint. A good car wash is perfect, at least once every week. If you are going to wash your own vehicle, make sure that you get into all the crevices of the car body, around the spoilers, etc.
certain cars may have special accessories or features that need to be looked after differently. For example, if your BMW or Mitsubishi has blacked out windows, these will need to be cleaned with special cleaning fluids to avoid scratching them and leaving telltale marks in the tinting. Using a soft cloth that has been well wrung out in plain water is the best way to clean blacked out windows, but if you need something stronger, an alcohol based cleaner is fine to use.
If you have alloys on your car, you«ll need to make sure that they are also kept clean. It«s far easier to maintain the vehicle than to try and deep clean it once a year! Alloys need to be treated with care to avoid scratching them. Whenever you are going to clean your car, be sure to rinse everything first with water so you won«t be rubbing particles of dirt into the alloys or paint. It«s a good idea to use a protective polish as well, to keep them from getting too soiled next time.
Chrome is another part of your car that needs special cleaning. Be careful not to use abrasive cleaners that can scratch the chrome finish. There are plenty of cleaners designed specifically for cleaning chrome and they work far better than common cleansers.
Tires
Tires are definitely a vital part of your car and they need to be maintained in order to keep your car road safe. The best way to do this is to change your tires whenever they are wearing down and to ensure that they are always properly filled with air. It's always best to check the standards within the Highway Code regularly. You will save a lot on petrol this way, too, since under filled tires cause the car to burn more petrol or diesel. It may not seem like much, but it certainly adds up over time.
Petrol and Diesel
Another important consideration, whether you use diesel or petrol, is the quality that you are putting into your vehicle. Poor quality petrol can contain impurities and contaminants that will damage your vehicle eventually and can cause your car to run rougher.
For a smoother ride, you want to ensure that your tires are filled to the right pressure and that your petrol is clean. This will also help keep the exhausts in good condition. There will be fewer impurities to clog things up and you«ll end up with less issues over time.
It really doesn't matter what car you own, the basic cleaning and maintenance procedure is basically the same for all of them. You will need to make sure that the entire car is cleaned, tires filled, chrome polished and alloys cleaned.
Cleaning your vehicle on a regular basis will ensure that you don«t have too many problems. The build up of dirt and dust can be quite difficult to clean if left for a while, so regular cleaning is a must. Maintaining your vehicle isn't that hard if you stay on top of it and make sure that you use a good quality petrol to avoid contaminants.
By Martin Davis.
Visit the Blog about new citroen c4Citro‘n C5
My eyes donÕt work any more. When I dial a number on my mobile, itÕs only through sheer blind luck that I get through to the right person. And as for texts Š forget it. Then thereÕs the bothersome business of going out to eat. Most restaurants provide mood lighting, which is wonderful if you are dining with a moose but not so wonderful if Š as is normal Š the menu is printed in the sort of typeface thatÕs usually seen on microdots. Mostly, I just point and hope that IÕve managed to miss the marzipan pie with grated butter beans.
Of course, I should go to the opticians but IÕm afraid this isnÕt possible because, before giving me a pair of spectacles, they will look into my eyes with machinery . . . and here we hit on the problem.
IÕm not a squeamish man. I am never unduly troubled by scenes on the news that the BBCÕs editorial policy unit has deemed worthy of a warning about Ņgraphic violence and bloodshedÓ. I can kill a chicken. I could amputate a gangrenous leg. I can even graze the internet and not be constantly fearful that IÕm going to be so revolted by something that pops onto the screen that IÕll vomit into the keyboard.
But eyes? No. I canÕt even think about them without going queasy. When my daughter needed an operation to correct a squint, the doctor explained the procedure to me, after which I had to be brought round with smelling salts. I have to fast-forward Ņthat bitÓ in Kill Bill 2, and I have never once used eyedrops. It would be impossible.
As a result of all this, I buy my reading glasses from the only shops I ever visit, which are in airport departure lounges. This is not easy because the instructions you have to follow before deciding what sort of lens you need are printed in a typeface smaller than most bacteria.
Consequently, I usually end up with a pair of specs that require me to position a book six seats in front of where IÕm sitting on the plane. Or so close to my face that it actually squashes my nose.
And hereÕs the really bad bit. The glasses you buy over the counter are a big joke Š one thatÕs being played by the Chinese, I expect. They are held together with nuts and bolts so small that when they come undone Š and they do, all the time Š you need a carbon nanotube to do them up again. And of course you donÕt have a carbon nanotube with you because youÕre on a plane, and such things Š along with shampoo and tennis rackets Š arenÕt allowed on planes. WhatÕs more, you donÕt even have your reading glasses because theyÕre in four pieces on your left knee.
I wouldnÕt mind, but even if you are not squeamish about eyes, and you make regular trips to the opticians and have a pair of lenses that are perfectly suited to your particular condition, you will look like an ocean-going idiot.
Everyone chooses their specs to make a statement Š to make them look interesting or sexy or wise Š whereas in fact all spectacles do is tell the world that your body doesnÕt work properly. Choosing purple frames merely highlights that fact. ItÕs like being diagnosed with erectile dysfunction and then buying trousers that have no fly.
So maybe the only solution is that we do without glasses and spend the rest of our lives with a headache from the strain, eating marzipan and butter beans. Or that the worlds of industry and catering accept that half of their customers struggle with anything smaller than 72-point bold type, and that they reprint their instructions and menus to suit.
This brings me nicely to the dashboard of the new Citro‘n C5. My demonstrator had a 7in 16:9 television screen with a built-in GSM telephone, a radio, a CD player, iPod connectivity, a 10GB hard drive to store music and GPS navigation with traffic alerts and a birdÕs-eye-view map.
In addition, there was an electronic parking brake (complete with a system that prevents the car rolling back on hill starts), cruise control and an adjustable speed limiter. And then, in no particular order, I had parking sensors, electrically adjusted seats that vibrate if you stray out of your lane, directional headlamps, switchable suspension, ride-height adjustment, traction control, a dual-zone air-conditioning system, hazard warning lights that come on when you brake hard, an electronic stability program, an electrochrome rear-view mirror, rain-sensing wipers, dark-sensing headlamps, a trip computer, a tyre-pressure monitor . . .
This car made a Mercedes S-class look like the back end of a Cornish cave, and while thatÕs wonderful, unfortunately all of these things have to be operated with buttons that are mostly the size of pinheads because thatÕs the only way they can get them all in. It is therefore impossible to find them and even more impossible to read what any of them do, at least not without reaching for your reading glasses, which is tricky when youÕre on the move.
Honestly, in a whole week I was unable to activate the sat nav, and any attempt to set the cruise control usually resulted in Ken Bruce being replaced by traction control. To operate the horn you ideally need a head torch and a cocktail stick.
However, I could clearly see that the new C5 was a very handsome car. It sits among other four-door saloons Š from BMW, Audi, Ford, Honda and so on Š looking much like Angelina Jolie would while sitting in a Wakefield bus queue.
WhatÕs more, we are told itÕs no longer built by uninterested Algerians in a factory made from straw, and that as a result it is somehow German. Obviously thereÕs no way of knowing at this stage whether any of this is true, but I doubt that it is. The French have never been able to make a car that lasts, any more than the Germans have been able to make a soufflˇ.
What is certain is that the C5 is more comfortable than any German rival. My test car had hydropneumatic suspension, which really does isolate you from the pain of a badly made road. It also means it handles like a blancmange, although to get round that problem you can reach for the ŅsportÓ button Š which turns on the CD player.
I liked driving this car. I liked looking at it. I liked the sheer surprise of pressing a button and then trying to work out what IÕd done. ThereÕs one obstacle, however, that IÕd have to jump before I signed on the dotted line.
In the past few years Citro‘n has struggled to make its products popular in Britain. Or indeed anywhere where people walk on their back legs. So, to get round that, itÕs indulged in a business strategy that most experts would call Ņa bit daftÓ.
First, it has offered its cars at enticingly low prices and then garnished them with cashbacks, 0% finance and the promise of a Thai massage for everyone buying one before the end of May. I sometimes get the impression there are so many incentives on a Citro‘n C3, for example, that if you buy one the dealer will give you £40. And some of his daughters.
Of course, this policy doesnÕt really work for you because if you can buy a Citro‘n new for minus £40, whatÕs it going to be worth when you want to sell? And obviously it doesnÕt work for Citro‘n either, but that hasnÕt stopped the company. In about five minutes I found a Citro‘n dealer willing to offer me a new C5 with well over a thousand quid knocked off its list price.
By Jeremy Clarkson.
