It’s used to be easy to parody a car dealer. What I mean is that, the car dealer always seemed to be viewed as dishonest, or even shady in the past. However, times are changing.The days, of “What can I do to put you in this car, today” are gone. Everything is transparent and the image of the Cincinnati Honda dealer as “foe” is quickly turning into “friend”. Why the change? One biggest reasons is the availability of information and prices on the Internet. There is no doubt that consumers are much more knowledgeable than ever before because of the massive amounts of information out there. In addition, with the continued growth of social media, Superior Honda customers can easily have nearly instant access to us through networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs like this one.
Why is social media so important? Take a look at the facts:
Using social media as a resource in looking for and making your new Honda purchase should be included in your research. Why? This is your chance to take control of your purchasing process and start transparent dialogue. Building a relationship with the dealer of your choice through social networks will make your buying process that much easier.
Think of it this way. Why are blind dates so stressful? Easy, you have no idea what you are getting into. Having prior contact with someone helps ease stress and when you finally do get into the dealership, your salesman knows your name, what you are looking for, how much you want to spend, how you plan on spending, where you are from, where you went to school and even your favorite movies.
Want an easier purchasing experience? Find Superior Honda on a Social Network. It’s just over there on the right side of the screen. Follow us and have instant access to Superior Honda, anytime, anywhere.
Has anyone used a social network to start the buying process? How was it? Was your experience less stressful?
It is a shame that so many teenagers and young adults don’t know how to drive a manual transmission. With more cars being produced these days, kids learning to drive are really only learning partially. The idea of how the gears work in relation to the propulsion of your new Honda may not be as easily achieved by someone who has learned to listen to the car itself. The whining when you need to gear up, or the low moan of a gear that needs to be downshifted. I learned how to drive on a manual transmission, and all though I drive an automatic now, it’s still a lot of fun when I get to drive a stick.
I think about strange scenarios whereby you NEED to know how to drive a standard. For example, my children might be driving with someone that drives a manual and an accident occur where my children need to drive their car to get them somewhere for help and they can’t. Or, vice versa. What if your child was in an accident and needed to be driven somewhere, but the person that was in the car with them couldn’t drive a manual transmission. These are things that I think about.
…and just to prove that I’m not crazy about this, recently on an episode of The Amazing Race, one of the tasks involved driving a car with a manual transmission, which proved to be an Achilles heel for him.
Below is a great video that can help teach you and or your teenagers and friends how to drive a manual transmission. Just think about all the fun you could have in your new or used Honda!
Driving a car with manual transmission requires a good balance between engine power and the throttle, as the clutch is pressed to disengage the engine power during gear shifts, and it is gently released while the gas pedal is pressed. Drive a manual transmission vehicle with instructions from an ASE-certified technician in this free video on driving.
Well, what did you think? Good teaching tool? If you want to come and test drive a Honda with a manual transmission to really feel what REAL driving feels like.
When was the last time you had your Cincinnati Honda detailed? Think about it. I’m not talking about an exterior wash, or even a little Armor-All on the dash. I’m talking about the works, total odor elimination, a surface so spotless it looks like it came off the showroom floor. Seats so clean you’d swear the were new. Don’t you think you owe it to your car to put a little love back into it?
We talk all the time about the importance of changing your oil, air filters and fluids. We have yet to write about an often overlooked, yet necessary responsibility of car ownership, and that’s deep cleaning your upholstery. When was the last time you did that? Never?
Most car owners do the once over at the “do-it-yourself” with the vacuum and they think that does the job on the seats. That’s not really the case. Dirt, dust and grime gets pounded into the fibers of the seat making a deep cleaning necessary. Check out the video below.
So, you can see the importance of paying a little attention to your fabric sets. Just like leather ones need conditioning, fabric upholstery need to be deep cleaned to really get any residual odors out. If you think it’s time for a deep upholstery clean…and believe us you probably need it…just give your Cincinnati Honda dealer, Superior Honda a call and we’ll set up an appointment to bring your car back to showroom beautiful.
You may consider yourself one of the safest drivers in the world, but once you hit the road in Cincinnati in your new Honda, there is always that small chance that you will be in an accident. It might not be your fault, but at some point you will have an accident. We see it all of the time here at Superior Honda. Weather, road conditions, and other drivers can all lead to getting your car into a bad situation. While there may be a lot of adrenaline and scattered thoughts that come after the accident, it is important to know which steps to take if it happens to you.
I found a great checklist from about.com in regards to the steps you should you be involved in an accident. Memorize this check list. No doubt that if you’ve been in a accident, you will be in a little shock, so try to clear your mind and remember this list.
Determine the Extent of Damage or Injuries Try to stay calm. Panic can make others panic and the situation worse. There needs to be a calm person to determine the extent of damage and to determine if there are any injuries that need immediate medical attention.
File a Car Accident Report with the Police Even in a minor accident it is important to make sure there is a legal accident report. Do not leave the scene until the police file a full report.
Discuss the Car Accident Only with the Police With everyone all shook up it can be hard not to talk about what just happened, but that can also lead to you not thinking clearly and accurately about what happened. It is important to limit your discussion of the accident and not to admit any fault or liability. You should talk about the accident with the police and your insurance agent only.
Get the Facts This is the part most people know to do, but often forget to after the accident for one reason or another. It is important to get names, address, and phone numbers of everyone involved in the accident. A description of the car and license plate number can also be helpful, but make sure you also get their insurance company and the vehicle identification number of their car. Don’t just assume the license plate number will do because most insurance companies only record the type of car and the vehicle identification number, not the license plate number.
Call Your Insurance Agent Call your agent or insurance company’s 800-number immediately, even at the scene with the police if possible. Sometimes the police officer can give your insurance company more accurate information rather than information you may not be recording properly because you are upset by the accident. This can save you a lot of time later waiting for your claim to be processed.
Curious about what happens during a crash? Grab your cup of coffee and watch this:
Remember, stay calm and let the authorities and your insurance company do their jobs to let things go by smoothly. No matter if it is your fault or not, being angry or argumentative will not help the situation. Accidents are called accidents because no one means for them to happen. Just make sure you and everyone else involved is OK and follow the steps above.
If your car is involved in an accident, be sure to swing by your Superior Honda Store and we’ll help you get out on the road again as soon as possible. Remember that the best way to stay accident free is to always drive safely and be aware of your surroundings.
Don’t count out a hard winter freeze just yet. Superior Honda has heard of a cold front moving across the US as I write this and when it gets here, it could create some extremely hazardous driving conditions. Now we all know what black ice is and we all claim to know how to navigate it, but we see more body shop repairs after an icing that anytime during the rest of the year.
We should all know how to drive on black ice but just in case you need a refresher course, or want to share some tips with your teens here are a few tricks to avoid ending up on top of a curb, car, or ditch while attempting to drive on black ice, or ice in general.
When your car starts to slide on black ice, take your foot off the gas. Go extra slow when you’re driving on black ice or in any other winter road conditions. The last thing you want to do is hit the gas or the brake. Just don’t panic.
Look for and be aware of trouble spots ahead like bridges etc. If you have an idea that there may be black ice ahead (if you see other cars fish tailing and sliding, for example), downshift to a lower gear before you come onto the black ice. It’s good to be prepared. Seeing as our winters are usually pretty crazy chances are you know where the trouble spots are but there could always be new ones.
Turn the wheel in the direction of the skid in the event your car does begin to slide around on the ice,. This is very hard to remember when you are sliding all over the road but this helps steer your car back on the right track.
Don’t tailgate, be sure you keep plenty of space between your car and the car in front of you. Stay well behind the car in front of you (at least a couple of hundred feet). Just cause you think you can handle doesn’t mean they can.
You are not invincible just because you drive a truck or a big SUV. While 4-wheel drive vehicles are great for driving in heavy snow, you’re on your own when it comes to driving on black ice. In fact, 4-wheel drive vehicles have no advantage over regular cars when it comes to driving on black ice, so be sure to take the necessary safety precautions no matter what type of vehicle you are driving.
Have you been driving around in your Superior Honda lately with an odd smell following you around? Did you drop too many french fries between your seats. Is is so bad that you may even wonder if everyone else can smell you driving down the highway. Well it could be a number of things…not just those french fries. Actually, it’s more than likely your car.
Do you smell gasoline? Well that could be a defective evaporation control canister; leaking or disconnected vapor or fuel line.
Do you smell exhaust in the car? It’s more than likely a puncture in the exhaust pipe under the passenger compartment.
Burning Rubber? It’s probably a hot tire more than likely from a locked brake shoe. Or it’s the rubber hose coming in contact with your hot engine. Either one.
Smell burning plastic? It could be a short circuit in your electrical system.
You might want to get that smell checked out at Superior Honda, because it could be a lot more serious than you think!
Do you know the one thing that we all really hate here at Superior Honda, but probably do it more often than we think about it: Tailgating. The act of following another vehicle at an unsafe distance and speed. tailgating is really dangerous and regardless of your reason for doing it, in a rush, bad day, someone cuts you off, it’s never acceptable to tailgate. Failure to maintain the proper distances can and often result in easily avoidable accidents. Everyone has heard probably 10 different ways to judge speed and distance while on the highway.
Here are some guidelines to help you determine a safe distance when traveling on certain road conditions:
1. The Two-Second Rule - If you are on a dry and clear road, count two seconds to safely gauge the distance between you and the car in front of you. When the car in front of you drives past a sign or pole, you should reach the count of two before you pass the same sign or pole.
2. Four-Second Rule -This is for when the roadways are wet and rainy. In these conditions, you should employ a four second gap between you and the car in front of you. Meh, go ahead and make it 5 seconds.
3. 10-Second Rule – Use the 10 second rule in icy and snowy conditions when the roadways are at their worst. This may seem like a large distance, but every winter there are an enormous number of weather related accidents. I’d argue that that distance isn’t long enough. Better to be safe than sorry after an accident.
So, what’s your worst driving habit? What are your thoughts on tailgating? Of course, if you’ve been in a tailgating accident recently, you can always bring your Atlanta Honda by Superior Honda any time.
This is by far the best video I’ve seen in regards to diagnosing the various suspension noises. When we get a vehicle in at Superior Honda with a customer’s pre-diagnosed suspension problem we go about the exact same processes that you will see in the video below. If you take the time to perform the simple tests in the video, it will help you service guys out find and fix you suspension with ease…the first time. Thanks to Ericthecarguy.com for this excellent and thorough video:
So before you bring your car into Superior Honda for suspension service, do a little self diagnosis first. A little help from you will help us help you faster and with more accuracy.
I’m sure that not everyone reading this post has had the misfortune of being in an accident where your airbags deployed. If you have been, however, you know just how hard and fast they do deploy, and yet it is still amazing to all of us here at Superior Honda of how many people have a misconception of the air bag and how it actually works.
For those people don’t understand how it functions, the air bag is literally a contained explosion of nitrogen gas to generate the pressures necessary to immediately inflate the bag in time for it to be of any use in a crash. That explosion will generate quite a bit of concussive force that can cause serious injuries that can easily break bones and can cause cause trauma to internal organs. Watch the video below to see what I’m talking about.
However, for the pain that an expelled air bag can cause, air bags have saved many thousands lives. In fact, according to safecar.gov it saved 25,782 to be exact between the years of 1987 and 2008. So there is no doubt that the air bag is a vital line of defense in the protection of both drivers and passengers. However, airbags are not the first line of defense if you ever get into an accident. Wearing your seat belt is. In fact, it’s your seat belt that will ultimately protect you from the explosive nature of your air bag.
If you have any questions or concerns about your air bag, don’t hesitate to contact your Superior Honda Store.
So, I was just hanging out here at Superior Honda, I thought I’d look around YouTube for any new Honda videos, or walk-arounds. You know, some new models to share with you. What I did find is a sneak peak at a new Ad that is supposedly running during this year’s Super Bowl. Now for those of us that remember Ferris Bueller’s Day of, which should be everyone if you were alive in the later 1980′s, this great commercial covers all of the main scenes of the original film with the added bonus of seeing Honda’s new CR-V. They are calling it, “Matthew’s Day Off”.
Good job Honda, not only do we get to see the fantastic new CR-V, but you’ve managed to take pop history and really use it well.
Hi, I am Chris Heck and I am the General Manager at Superior Honda in Cincinnati OH. I am a husband, father, automotive enthusiast and an all around fun guy. I wanted to start this blog for a few different reasons. 1. So that you will have the latest Honda news at your fingertips, 2. so that you can learn more about your vehicle whether it's a Honda or not and 3. It just sounded like fun!
If you have any comments about this blog or would like to send some suggestions on a topic you are interested in feel free to send me an email at superior_honda@yahoo.com.
It’s used to be easy to parody a car dealer. What I mean is that, the car dealer always seemed to be viewed as dishonest, or even shady in the past. However, times are changing.The days, of “What can I do to put you in this car, today” are gone. Everything is transparent and the image of the Cincinnati Honda dealer as “foe” is quickly turning into “friend”. Why the change? One biggest reasons is the availability of information and prices on the Internet. There is no doubt that consumers are much more knowledgeable than ever before because of the massive amounts of information out there. In addition, with the continued growth of social media, Superior Honda customers can easily have nearly instant access to us through networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs like this one.
By Chris Heck
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