Our Expert Automotive Service & Collision Repair Blog

Updates: Changes to Colorado Traction Law for the 2019 Winter Driving Season

In December 2014 a winter storm snarled traffic on I70, causing Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to shut down the highway due to poor visibility and multiple spin outs. Two of our employees coming back from Summit County took 9 hours getting to Denver that night. I remember seeing a news clip during this storm of three people pushing a Honda Civic out of the Loveland parking lot with obvious worn out tires.  I said to myself why are they trying to get that car to the highway, were they planning to push it back to town?  

On Monday, September 12, Uber put 4 driverless Ford Fusion taxis on the road in Pittsburg.  They weren’t totally driverless because they had a back up driver and an engineer in the front seats.  The Fusions were modified with a great deal of hardware on the roof, developed by Uber and consisting of cameras and radar units.  The plan is to provide service to the airport within a few months and to service the whole metro area in a year.

Summertime is here and the rivers are flowing! Sounds like it’s about time to head up the the mountains for hiking, camping, fly-fishing or just about whatever your heart desires!  

I have written frequently about vehicle safety, (March 2010, May 2011 and October 2012).  I believe safety is more important than fuel economy, performance or reliability. In the past my focus was on how well various vehicles protect the occupant in a crash, but now there is evolving a whole new realm of safety features described as automotive accident avoidance.  Rather than protect an occupant in an accident, these systems help prevent an accident from occurring.   

On March 18, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) along with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced an agreement with all major auto manufacturers to have automatic braking installed on all new vehicles within 6 years.  Automatic emergency braking (AEB) can cut rear end crashes by as much as 40% according to an IIHS study.

Squirrel Eating Your Car Wiring!

We had a car in the shop that was towed in due to overheating.  We discovered an animal had chewed up the wiring in the right front corner of the engine compartment, including the wiring to the auxiliary coolant pump.  In addition the wiring for the air bag, ABS brakes, fog light and mass air flow sensor were chewed, damaged and broken.