Spring is here (yes, according to the calendar it IS actually springtime now) and in the spirit of spring cleaning, we’re going to dedicate this week’s blog to make sure that the nice spring air that you are breathing when you drive around is untainted by nasty smells, pollen, dust, dirt… you get the picture. Take a look at our tips for making sure that your air vents are squeaky clean and smelling great!

The first things you need to tackle are the vents in your car, the ones that blow air onto your face and feet that you probably adjust either all the time or never let anyone touch because you’ve got the perfect angle. You’ll need cleaning solution, white vinegar, a vacuum, and some Q-tips. Give your vents a vacuum to get any loose dust out. Then you want to take a Q-tip that’s been dipped in a cleaning solution and really work it into the crevices and hard-to-reach spots. When the Q-tips you’re using come back clean, you know you’ve gotten all the grime. Then, take another Q-tip dipped in white vinegar and go over everything again to get rid of any lingering odors. The vinegar smell doesn’t last long, and when it disappears it takes gross odors with it. Give the vents one last vacuum and you’re done! Make sure you’ve gotten them ALL, including the one that’s right up next to your windshield and the ones at your feet. Don’t forget the back seat!

The next step is to take a look at your cabin air filter. Your owner’s manual should cover how to access it, and if not there’s always YouTube. The cabin air filter is your barrier against everything that’s floating through the air that you drive your car through – pollen, dust, smells, odors – and it’s often a forgotten part of the vehicle. Take a look, and if you think it needs changing then schedule an appointment with us to have our service department take care of it!

Finally, if you still smell something reminiscent of dirty socks in the car when you run the air, you might have mildew in your A/C evaporator. It’s easy to dry that up! Just drive about a mile away from home (that’s enough time to warm up your engine, you see) and then roll down all your windows and turn the air on full blast. Don’t use the A/C! Just regular old air will do. Keep it running for a minute or two, and that should be enough time to circulate air through the evaporator and dry up any residual moisture.

Guys. GUYS! It’s that time of the month again… we’ve got awesome specials on your favorite new Kia models! Check them out, and then schedule your test drive online today!

First, we have the 2018 Kia Forte LX*. This great compact sedan is perfect for everyone, and by “everyone,” I mean anyone who isn’t me, as I am a 6-foot 6-inch giant of a human being. But I digress! Wherever you’re headed, you know you’ll enjoy getting there behind the wheel of the Forte LX. And even though it’s a brand new 2018 model, you can lease it for only $99 a month for 24 months with a down payment of just $999! This is an incredible deal on a car you’ll love!

Next, we’ve got the 2018 Kia Sportage LX*. Have you guys seen this SUV yet? Talk about a mean-looking SUV, perfect for both city and highway driving, and one that won’t have my knees crying for mercy at the end of the drive. With a pretty sweet 23 MPG in the city and 30 MPG for all that highway driving up and down the Northway, it’s easier than ever to be the center of attention on the road with its amazing price point – you can lease the Sportage LX for only $199 a month for 24 months…with only $999 + some fees due at signing.

For those of you who care about the environment a bit more than the Average Joe, the 2017 Kia Optima PHEV* is the perfect choice for you. Because it’s a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, you’ll be getting an astonishing 103 MPGe, and will never have to worry about stopping to fill up the tank. The best part, though? You can lease one of your own for only $248 a month for 36 months, with literally nothing due at signing.

If any of these great new vehicles appeal to you, head down to Destination Kia today and take a test drive! It’ll be a match made in Kia-Heaven!

*All specials expire on 3/31/2018. See specials page for details.

Even though winter’s just about over, there’s still time to make a change! We recommend, as a cure for that cabin fever you’ll be feeling soon, a good old-fashioned garage cleanout! Take a look at the steps to revamp your space and you’ll be all, “what? It was that easy?”

The first thing is to have a garage, which hopefully you’ve got if you’re reading this blog. The next thing is to take EVERYTHING out of that garage. Literally everything. Car, junk, trash, stuff you need… get it all outside into the driveway or onto your lawn and leave your garage totally empty.

Now, sort everything you’ve just taken out into two piles, one for things that you want to keep and one for things that you’ve been meaning to throw away/forgot about/are just trash. Throw those things away right now. Dispose of chemicals like paint safely, but just get it GONE.

With your garage empty, you should give it a nice sweep and vacuum. Really get into the corners and make it sparkle… or get it as close to sparkling as possible. It is a garage, after all. If it’s a nice day, you could even hose down the floor! If you’re feeling super adventurous, consider applying an epoxy garage floor kit. It’s a lot of work and a lot of waiting, but it’s worth it if you’re looking for a hardcore makeover.

With the space clean, it’s time to assess your storage solutions. If you don’t have shelves or wall storage, consider getting some! It’s a great space-saving hack to store things vertically. You can even store bikes on wall racks, which saves a TON of space.

Finally, get everything back into your garage, organizing as you go. You’ll probably spot some things that you thought you wanted to keep but are really junk that you can just go ahead and throw away. You don’t need that in your life. When everything’s back in place (or has found a new home), park your car back inside! Look at the progress you’ve made, and remember these tips for the next time your garage organization goes belly-up. It’s okay, it happens to all of us!

Spring is right around the corner (can you feel our excitement?!?!?!?) and with the change of seasons comes the change in our personalities that makes us go from lazy winter slobs bundled up in blanket burritos every night of the week in front of the Netflix – hey, we do it too – to beautiful springtime butterflies that love to clean and feel the fresh air on our faces. Understandably, we want you to be prepared for when you decide to spring clean your vehicle, which is absolutely something you should do. We don’t discourage that at all. But we do want to make sure you do it right, and that you don’t damage your vehicle unintentionally. Take a look at how to give your vehicle a fantastic spring clean, especially after this winter we’ve had, and then get to work!

1. Tackle your carpeting and upholstery by vacuuming the crevices in your seats, wiping your seats down with a damp cloth, and shaking out and vacuuming your carpets. Get the hose of the vacuum into all the crevices on the floor, as well, and really make sure to shake all the dirt out of your mats.
2. Wipe down your console and vacuum out the cupholders. Don’t get the electronics wet, but make sure you clean off any grime or stickiness that’s collected.
3. Organize everything in your glove box and other compartments. That’s a good place to stash trash in an emergency and then forget about forever, so make sure you take care of those spots.
4. Clean the insides and outsides of your windows, including your windshield. Fingerprints, dust, and frost marks can collect over the winter and now’s the time to get rid of all of that.
5. Clean out your trunk – winter debris and various other things can collect in your trunk and you don’t need to deal with that in the spring.
6. Wash your vehicle! Use a good vehicle shampoo and a warm day and make sure your vehicle is looking great. Spray down the undercarriage as well to knock loose salt. If you’re more of the full-service car wash type, then treat your vehicle (and yourself) to a nicer car wash that includes a protectant and undercarriage wash. Check out the Hoffman’s and get anything including and above the Ultimate Exterior (or Ultimate Full Service) wash!
7. Check out your wheels, including checking the tire pressure, cleaning your wheels and wells, and making sure that your tires are in good shape and your wheels and rims aren’t bent or broken anywhere.
8. Clean out your engine bay by getting rid of any dead leaves, debris, and dust that have collected in the bay and checking for animal nests (especially if you live in a more rural spot).
9. Consider applying a protectant like a spray or wax to your vehicle after you wash it. If you do choose to do this at home, then do it in the shade. Direct sunlight is never a good idea when you’re applying protectant.
10. Replace your wipers with ones that haven’t seen the ravages of winter. The salt, dirt, and other debris that gets thrown at your windshield with snow and road slush can do a number on your wipers, and with those spring showers that are coming, you’ll need your wipers to work well.

There’s a gene that all of us have that tells our brains that danger is fun and that we love to live on the edge. Even if it’s not as prevalent in your specific circumstances, I am sure that you’ve lived on the edge before! A great example of that danger-seeking instinct is when you don’t get gas often enough and then you end up driving your vehicle with the gas gauge pointing to “E.” Yeah, that’s dangerous. If you were thinking earlier that you weren’t a thrill seeker, well, you probably are.

Why? There are a few reasons it’s never a good idea to drive with the gauge on empty. The first is that it can totally burn out your fuel pump. The gas from your tank acts as a coolant for your fuel pump, so when there’s no gas all your pump has to use is air. This creates a lot of heat and burns out your fuel pump much faster than if you gave it enough gas to use.

Your gas gauge isn’t even fully accurate, to begin with. If you are familiar with the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer test drives a car with the gauge pointing to “E,” then you know that this could mean anything from 50 miles to .5 miles of gas left. A good practice is to never let your tank get below a quarter full.

Finally, a fact of life is that sediment collects at the bottom of every gas tank in the world over time, including yours. When your gas level goes down, the more likely it is that the sediment at the bottom of your tank will go through your fuel system. So, when you drive on empty, you’re stirring up that sediment and then sending that disgusting gas through your engine, which strains your fuel injectors and fuel lines and can make a total flush of your fuel system necessary.

The thing I want to leave you with today is a healthy fear of running on empty, and the understanding that you should never let your tank go below a quarter full. Capisci?

You’re a curious person, I know. That’s why you clicked on this blog! I am so happy you did. I have some great information for you that might satisfy your curiosity bone for a little bit. It’s about gasoline. You’ll love it.

The first thing I am about to tell you is about the numbers on the gasoline pumps. It is that they mean something that you are about to learn. They mean the octane level of the gasoline, which is something you should know about. Octane is a hydrocarbon, which is a tiny molecule inside of gasoline. It is left over from the time that they made oil into gasoline, and a fantastic part of this is that octane is the most important molecule inside of the gasoline. There are other molecules, but they are not as desirable because of their lower combustion temperature. Octane has a higher combustion temperature which means that it is the best for engine performance and that it does not create a knocking sound from exploding too early.

If you are now asking why not use the higher number gas, don’t you do it. Unless your engine tells you specifically that it only drinks high octane fuel, give it the regular stuff. It will save you Dollars and Cents and keep your engine happy. If you use high octane fuel in a regular octane engine it does nothing but waste your Hard-Earned Taxable Income and will not turn your engine into a Formula One Powerhouse.

You may also wonder in your heart and mind why gasoline must tell you that it is unleaded. In the olden times and up until the 1990s, there was lead in gasoline. Scientists in the 1920s decided that even though it killed everyone, lead was something good to put in gasoline because it increased the octane level at very low cost. Everyone kept dying from lead poisoning, but they didn’t have to pay that much for gasoline so they were presumably okay with the trade-off. In the 1990s, people finally wised up and decided to say “No” to lead poisoning. After this, the level of lead in American blood as a whole decreased by 75%.