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EcoReport is your award-winning guide to green travel, green cars, and saving the green in your wallet on both.

EcoReport is written and edited by Evelyn Kanter, a professional journalist with a lifetime of experience a magazine and newspaper writer and photographer, radio and television news producer and reporter, and guidebook author and editor -- all focusing on travel, automotive, lifestyle, the environment, and your rights as a consumer.


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Valentine’s Day Love for your Car

RustyWreck_autoweek_ cash4clunkersYour car does not want flowers, balloons, or even candy this Valentine’s Day.  It  just wants a little love in the form of tender loving care, such as an oil change and tune-up.

There’s no debating the value of preventive maintenance to keep Old Breakdown from living up to its name, and to help you drive safely on your real Valentine’s Day date,  These care care tips from the Car Care Council are loving and caring year-round, not just on Valentine’s Day:

Change the oil and filter every 3,000 miles or three months, or whatever your owner’s manual recommends.  That will help keep your engine clean on the inside.

Check the tire pressure at least monthly, including the spare. Your car’s tires affect its ride, handling, traction and safety.

Schedule an annual tune-up to keep your vehicle at top performance. Think of it as the four-wheel version of the annual medical check-up you have for your own body.  A well-tuned engine delivers the best balance of power and fuel economy and produces the lowest level of emissions.

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February 2nd, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: How To, Safety and Health | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

Winter Weather Driving Safety Tips for Snow and Ice

Learning to steer out of a skid at the Porsche Winter Driving School

Learning to steer out of a skid at the Porsche Winter Driving School. Photo by Evelyn Kanter (c)

Winter driving requires more space between you and the vehicle ahead, more attention to changeable road conditions, more attention to the speedometer, and more time to get to your destination safely.  Winter driving also requires less speed on icy or slick roadways, less dependence on technology like anti-lock brakes and traction control, and less trust of other drivers.

Here are some rules of the road to help prevent spin-outs and accidents driving on snow, ice and other winter conditions:

Slow down.  The bigger your vehicle and the faster you are traveling, the more distance you will need to stop. Expect to need as much as ten times more distance to stop in bad weather. 

Photo courtesy AAA

Photo courtesy AAA

Accelerate and brake gently. Everything takes longer on icy and snowy roads. Start and stop slowly and smoothly to maintain traction. The only exception is when you are skidding out of control. If your vehicle has ABS brakes, jam on those brakes fast and hard, and keep your foot down firmly, to activate the system. The grinding noise tells you it’s working.

Watch the thermometer. Temperatures right around freezing are especially dangerous, because wet snow and ice are more slippery than the frozen solid variety. Most dangerous of all is so-called black ice, a thin veneer of ice on an otherwise dry road. It is not visible, and you can spin out without knowing why. Be aware at dips in the road and other shady spots, bridges and overpasses, where melt-down can freeze while the rest of the road is only wet. 

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December 9th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Safety and Health | One comment - (Comments are closed)