Summer Car Care Tips

This is an important time of year to keep your car clean and to have routine maintenance done. Summer is a very busy time for everyone and a busy time for your car. Excessive heat can be a drain on many of the components of your car. If you are planning a vacation where you will be driving your car, don’t wait until the last minute to have your service facility check the car for your trip. Summer is the busiest time for repair facilities as well and the heat that takes a toll on your car, can also take a toll on the technicians that work on your car. Remember, proper car care and maintenance can prevent a breakdown.

Summer Car Care tips:

1. If you have not visited your service facility in the last six months, it is time for a visit. Ask for a safety check. A well maintained car also gets better gas mileage.
   
   
2. Have the oil changed. Regular oil changes can double the life of your car.
   
   
3. Check your tires. Summer heat can affect the performance of your tires. Ask your service facility to let you know how much tread life you have left on the tires. An extremely worn tire can make stopping difficult. Check the tire pressures so that you get the best wear for your tires and better gas mileage.
   
   
4. Don’t run the needle down to empty. You put yourself in a risky situation that you may run out of gas while driving. Imagine getting stuck on the beltway, because you run out of gas. You could do additional damage to the fuel system which could be very costly.
   
   
5. Don’t wait to have that noise checked. You drive the car everyday, if you hear a strange noise, get it checked. Small problems can turn into really big expensive problems quickly.
   
   
6. Come to a complete stop. When you are backing out of a parking spot and put your car in drive while it is still rolling, you are doing damage to the transmission. Make sure the car is stopped before changing gears.
   
   
7. Have your air conditioning system checked. A marginally operating air conditioning system is likely to fail during hot summer months.
   
   
8. A dirty, streaky or smeared windshield can be a hazard. Replace worn wiper blades and replenish windshield washer solvent.
   
   
9. April showers bring May flowers, but what do May flowers bring: Pollen! The pollen that is covering your car is also being circulated through your vents. Have the air filter and all other filters check or replaced.
   
   
10. The greatest number of breakdowns occur during summer travel is due to overheating. Check the level and condition of your coolant. Remember to never remove the radiator cap until the engine is thoroughly cooled.

Last but not least, give your car a good cleaning. Clean out all the trash on the floor and in the pockets, vacuum the interior and then wash it. It just feels so good driving around in a clean car, doesn’t it? And have a great summer!

Memorial Day Sale

Welcome To The Open Road - And The Beginning of Adulthood

By Brandon Gorrell

Everyone remembers their first car—not only the make and the model but how the steering wheel felt in our hands, the scent of the interior, the friends who rode shotgun. First cars make for more than just nostalgic memories, though—they’re often the first “big thing” we’re responsible for. And as with many firsts, our first cars were the tools of our learning experiences, from the minute we laid eyes on them before purchase to the moment we realized we had outgrown them and it was time to move on.

If you’re lucky, you’re looking at the Chevrolet Cruze, a vehicle that embodies everything that’s great about the journey, on the road and in life. And with the Chevrolet College Discount Program* for students and recent graduates, you can get a lending hand as you take your first steps and log your first miles in the real world.

First cars can teach us many things; here are a few that really stuck for me:

Responsibility. When you assume ownership of your first car and begin to do all the fun things that come with having your own method of transportation, you quickly learn that you’re not only responsible for its upkeep and your own safety, but you’re also responsible for the safety of your passengers and the fellow drivers in your immediate proximity. Your first car teaches you to be vigilant and mindful of yourself—and your surroundings—to ensure that the road is a safe place for everyone.

Budgeting. Gas and maintenance certainly aren’t free, and many of us got our first jobs to be able to afford our first cars. There’s really nothing like a healthy amount of financial obligation to motivate you into getting smart about your spending. Paying for your first car is one of your first lessons in money management, helping you on your way to becoming a budgeting pro.

Self-Reliance. Getting safely from point A to point B is easy when you’re riding in the passenger seat, but when you're driving your own vehicle, the job is all up to you. Whether it’s by changing your first spare tire on the side of the rod, learning how to replace your own oil, or figuring out how to read a map on your first long trip, your first car puts you in charge, building in you a self-reliance that’s an integral part of becoming an adult.

Selflessness. When you finally get your first car, you’re finally in the position to give friends a lift, offer a jump-start in the grocery store parking lot, help friends of the family move into a new home and more. In general, your first vehicle gives you the ability to help people out like never before. For this reason, your first car teaches you how to be selfless—it teaches you how to give to others what you can, when they’re in need.

Joy. There’s nothing like the open road to give you a sense of total freedom and joy, and to make you appreciate what a privilege it is to be able to get up, get out and drive anywhere you want to go. Your first car offers you these newfound moments of happiness—unconfined opportunity, a world that knows no bounds—and the ability see anything and do anything, as long as you know how to get there. Your first car is one of your first experiences with the expansive freedom that driving offers, teaching you the joy of the open road.

*Eligible participants for the Chevrolet College Discount include college students (from any two- or four-year school), recent graduates who have graduated no more than two years ago, and current nursing school and graduate students. Excludes Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Chevy Silverado - Lowest Cost of Ownership for Full-Size Pickups

Chevy Silverado Earned The Vincentric Lowest Total Cost Of Ownership Honor For Full-Size Pickups For The Third Year In A Row.

For everyone who owns a Chevy Silverado, you already know that you have the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickup on the road. Vincentric has now recognized Silverado for a third straight year as having the lowest total cost of ownership of any full-size pickup.

Just like a lot goes into making Silverado, a lot goes into calculating the cost of ownership. The Vincentric lowest cost of ownership award takes into consideration the costs of insurance, maintenance, fuel and more. So whether you are buying or selling, you are getting the biggest bang for your buck. On top of that, the 2013 Silverado 1500 also has the Best Pickup Coverage in America with its 2-year/24,000-mile scheduled maintenance, 3-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, and a 5-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty – 40,000 more miles than Ford offers – letting you know Chevy is keeping you in the drivers seat for as long as possible. Each of these things means that you save more money over time when you buy a Silverado. And that means a lot.

Now that you’re ready to head to the dealership and pick out your favorite color and style of Silverado, it’s important that you know all of the models that won this title. Every single one of the Silverado models, including the 1500, 2500 and 3500, has the lowest total cost of ownership of any full-size pickup in its class. The Silverado 2500 and 3500 were also given the 2013 Vincentric Best Fleet Value in America Award.

Like driving through the dirt? Want more money to get away and play? Then Silverado was made for you. Click here to view Silverado inventory at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet.

Chevy Tetris!

Have you ever played Tetris? If not, you must have not owned a phone in the early 2000′s! It’s such a simple yet addictive game that it’s long been the go-to free game included on everything from phones to calculators. People play it so much that they even start seeing how things fit together in real life. We here at Herndon Chevrolet want to show you that there is a use for that skill!  What is it you ask? Packing the car.

Check out the video below!

Easy Ways to Spring Clean Your Car

from Yahoo Finance

With the spring season in swing, now’s a smart time to give our vehicles some TLC. Our cars can take a real pounding in the wintertime, but taking a few measures to spruce up our wheels can help lighten the load in the coming months.

“In the winter, cars see a lot of cold weather, a lot of salt on the roads, a lot of water that’s splashed up in places it shouldn’t go. It’s important to get that out of there so it doesn’t lead to a lot of problems down the road, says Mike Allen, a certified automotive technician and founder of SaturdayMechanic.com.

Allen’s first tip is a simple one: hand-wash your car. “Hand-washing gives you a chance to look over every square inch of your vehicle. You get to see any nicks or cuts in the paint that need to be attended to before they get worse,” says Allen. It’s essential to wash underneath your vehicle, too, especially if you live in an area where it snows. The salt from the road can rust your undercarriage, and if left unchecked, can cost you thousands of dollars later on.

Next, Allen advises we pop open our hoods and check our car’s air filter, typically located near the front the car inside a box known as a cold air collector box.

“All of the air that goes into your engine goes through that filter,” says Allen. Lightly tap it on a hard surface to remove dirt or dust.  “Cleaning it facilitates your car’s operation. Replace if necessary.”

Now’s a good time to also check your tire pressure. According to Allen if your tire pressure is six psi (pounds per square inch) below the manufacturer’s recommendation, you’re likely paying 3 percent extra for fuel.

Cleaning your car’s weather stripping will also keep water, dirt and other contaminants from infiltrating the inside of the vehicle, says Allen. “It’s important to wash it off with some soap and water, and dress it with some silicone spray so they don’t stick together.”

Finally, keep your car light on its feet. Remove any heavy gear or objects you’re not regularly using. Get this: For every 50 pounds removed from your car, you can increase fuel efficiency by 1 percent.

So, if you find yourself spring-cleaning your home this season, don’t forget to tend to that hunk of metal in your garage. Your car will thank you for it – and so will your wallet.

6 Easy Ways to Get More Out of Your Driving Experience

Road Resolutions You Can Stick To All Year Round
 

New Year’s resolutions were born to be broken. Admit it: It doesn’t take a calendar shift to make solid life changes. It takes a priority shift. A mind renovation, if you will.

Even so, it’s important to set goals and stick to them, no matter what day of the year it is. And where better to start than your second home? (I mean your car, not your office.) Sometimes we treat driving as though it’s just a means to an end, when really it’s an experience. It’s a time to be alone with our thoughts, or a quiet opportunity to bond with our loved ones, or a chance to listen to our favorite satellite music station. All too often, those simple pleasures are eclipsed by little frustrations that are actually in our power to control. It’s easy to miss the joys of the open road if your car’s oil light is blinking incessantly and your CDs are sliding across the seat at every turn. Who wants that?

Drivers and passengers alike can improve the quality of their journeys and their state of mind by making resolutions for the road. Here are six foolproof ways to improve the time you spend on the move this year.

1. Clean out your car on a regular basis. This means recycling old water bottles, putting your flashlight back in the emergency kit where it belongs and returning that Bruce Springsteen album to its rightful jewel case when you’ve finished listening to it. Do you want to break Bruce’s hungry heart? I didn’t think so.

It also means having trunk space ready for your groceries, which equals zero anxiety when someone needs to sit in your back seat. There is no greater shame than the backseat of your car looking like you dumped the contents of your closet on it. Cleaning up a big mess feels overwhelming, but if you clean as you go there won’t be an opportunity for the junk and disorder to accumulate. Making an effort to never leave the car empty-handed goes a long way toward keeping your Pig Pen tendencies in check.

2. Keep your vehicle outfitted with spare tires and other equipment so you’re always ready for an emergency.You’re probably no Boy Scout, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. This will mitigate your stress when you’re in hot water, and it never hurts to be proactive when it comes to safety. When’s the last time you checked the air pressure on your spare tire? How long has it been since you checked the contents of your roadside assistance kit? Take care of that today.

3. Put your phone away when you’re on the move. Did you know that texting drivers are 23 times more likely to get into an accident? I don’t know about you, but nothing I have to say via text message is that important. The road deserves 100 percent of attention—and so do the drivers sharing it with you. If you need to call or text someone, find a gas station or a rest stop and talk while the car is parked.

4. Check your owner’s manual for suggested maintenance schedules. The suggestions exist for a reason! If there’s something up with your car, you don’t want to find out when it’s too late. Taking preventive measures pays off. Your local GM dealer will be happy to make sure your car is in tip-top shape.

5. Practice keeping your cool when other drivers get aggressive. You can’t control a bad driver or their actions; you can only control the way you react to them. Take a deep breath, count to 10 and change lanes if the culprit is too close for comfort. Throw on a little Sade if you really start to unravel; that always works for me.

6. See the USA—as you’ve never seen it before. Sometimes we become so focused on the clock or on a to-do list that we completely miss out on the journey. But the ride is why we love our wheels in the first place! It’s why we choose the car over a train or a bus. It’s why we take days and even weeks away from the humdrum of everyday life to go road tripping when we could just as easily fly. No matter what was happening when you departed and what you imagine will happen at your destination, remember to soak in the scenery and open yourself up to viewing the world from a whole new perspective.

Crazy Day One Day Only Sale!!

Construction Land Sales Event!

GM's Chevrolet Is The First To Finally Get Hands-Free Siri Integration In Cars

The integration will let roadsters make hands-free calls to iPhone contacts, play songs from iTunes and more.

General Motors' Chevrolet is the first to get hands-free Siri integration in its Sonic and Spark models. Now, iPhone-toting drivers on iOS 6 will be able to integrate Siri with the cars' in-vehicle infotainment system, Chevrolet MyLink.

The integration will let roadsters make hands-free calls to iPhone contacts, play songs from iTunes, listen to and compose iMessages or text messages, and add appointments to their calendar.

We've known for awhile that consumers were going to be able to drive Miss Siri in various vehicles from brands such as Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar, but GM is the first to get there.

Chevrolet Introduces "Find New Roads" Global Tagline

Chevrolet Will 'Find New Roads' as Brand Grows Globally Aligns around the world behind singular vision

Chevrolet is the world's fastest-growing major automotive brand and as it continues to expand its global operations it is aligning its engineering, design and retail operations behind a single vision and communications platform – Find New Roads.

The foundation of this new guiding principle is Chevrolet's legacy of innovation and commitment to doing the right thing for consumers. Find New Roads will be the touchstone for the brand as it develops new products and technologies for sale in more than 140 markets.

"Find New Roads embraces the spirit of ingenuity that has been in Chevrolet's DNA since the beginning and it will continue to guide every aspect of our business moving forward," said Mary Barra, senior vice president of Global Product Development. "We have sold Chevrolets around the world for almost a century, but this is the first time we have aligned behind one global vision.

"As we develop new products our designers and engineers will be empowered to find smarter solutions to address customer needs and make their lives better."

Since the launch of the Cruze mid-size sedan – the brand's first truly global vehicle – in 2009, Chevrolet sales have grown about 38 percent.

"This is the right time to launch this initiative with over 20 vehicle launches globally in 2013," said Alan Batey, vice president, U.S. Sales, Service and Global Marketing. "We are continuing to grow globally, especially in key emerging markets, and Find New Roads will help us drive even more consistency – both internally with our employees and externally with customers."

Chevrolet's approach to marketing and the retail experience is already aligning with this new global vision. Last year Chevrolet selected Commonwealth, a newly formed advertising agency, to service Chevrolet advertising around the world. The brand also has launched a program to train dealership personnel to approach every aspect of their business differently to improve the retail experience.

In addition to driving internal consistency for Chevrolet, Find New Roads also will be used in advertising around the world, beginning in the United States this quarter.

"Find New Roads will enable the whole company to rally around a consistent theme for the brand, and at the same time serve as an external message that works in all markets," said Batey. "The theme has meaning in mature markets like the U.S. as well as emerging markets like Russia and India, where the potential for continued growth is the greatest."

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world's largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design, and high quality.