One of the major concerns we constantly hear about from our customers here at BA Auto Care is how to keep their newly licensed teen drivers safe on the road. Is there a car model or size that will ensure a safer driving experience for their son or daughter? Should the newest driver in their family drive a larger, heavier, slower car loaded with high tech safety features?

Solving intermittent car problems can be challenging for both the customer and the auto mechanic.

Not long ago, I walked into the reception area at our auto shop and greeted two long-time customers. After chatting for a while, we eventually got around to the reason why they were there. The wife shared with me that she had noticed a constant scraping noise coming from their car that got worse while braking. Then the husband held out his hand and displayed a tiny jagged stone about ¼ inch long.

Recently a customer brought in their 2010 Lexus GX 460 because the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) light was on. The customer had checked each tire with a gauge and found that every tire was determined to be at the correct pressure. The BA auto mechanic who worked on this case was Jon.

Here we are at the winter solstice, December 21, 2016. It’s the shortest day of the year. We are commuting in the dark or driving when the sun is low — at dawn in the morning or dusk in the evening — making visibility difficult. Couple this with fog, mist, ice and snow and driving becomes a real challenge.

There are a lot of distractions for drivers these days — from GPS systems to mobile phones to all kinds of computer display panels. Get distracted long enough and you just may end up hitting a road obstacle — it could be a median strip, a pot hole or some debris in the roadway.

It seems that articles about self-driving cars (autonomous cars) have been all over the press lately.  What you may not realize is that you don’t have to wait another five to ten years to experience what it’s like to sit behind the steering wheel and have the car drive itself.  In fact, my wife Jen, who is not extravagant when it comes to cars, recently decided upon a 2016 Acura RDX.

I don’t know about you, but I glimpsed a lot of people sporting their winter coats this past weekend.  Snow has already hit Maine (no surprise there), but it’s hit Tennessee and South Carolina too! Yes, the winter weather is already here in some parts of the country. It’s best to be prepared for it.