Jamie Little - Essential Car Care for Women

ESSENTIAL CAR CARE FOR WOMEN

ESSENTIAL CAR CARE FOR WOMEN

Essential Car Care for Women

Copyright 2013 by Jamie Little and Danielle McCormick

Photos of Jamie Michael Voorhees

Snow chain illustrations Tim McGrath

Photos on pages 112, 117, 120, 123, and 124 Courtesy of Thule, Inc., www.Thule.com

Published by

Seal Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

1700 Fourth Street

Berkeley, California

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Little, Jamie, 1978

Essential car care for women / Jamie Little and Danielle McCormick.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-58005-449-2

1. AutomobilesMaintenance and repairAmateurs manuals I. McCormick, Danielle,
1978- II. Title.

TL152.L54 2012

629.28722dc23

2011045604

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover and interior design by Kate Basart/Union Pageworks

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Women today are hands-on, go-get-em, take-charge ladies. Women have proven they can do anything they set their minds to. Whether were becoming doctors, engineers, fighter pilots, sports reporters, or simply juggling a career while being wives and/or mothers, we are doing it All! This includes taking on the common tasks men are known for doing... like taking care of our cars.

Women own 50 percent of the cars on the road today. They play a more significant role in deciding on the family car than men do, yet the stigma remains that we girls just dont know as much about cars as men. The fact is, we are just as smart as boys. Its all just a matter of education, and its time for a change, ladies! Aside from a house, a car is the second-biggest investment you are likely to make. If you dont take care of it properly, it can end up becoming a money pit, and that can greatly affect the price when it comes time to sell it. Taking control and maintaining your car can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in a time when everyone is looking for ways to save money.

This book is designed to teach women and girls everything they need to know about owning and maintaining a car. Inside, we explain how a car runs, and we list key terminology. Now, the next time youre watching a NASCAR race or find yourself talking to a mechanic, youll be educated and prepared, and you will have a better understanding of the automobile.

Essential Car Care for Women will educate you on everything from how to maintain your car to extend its life to how to save money on mechanics.

We give you step-by-step instructions on how to handle car trouble, such as changing a flat tire and what to do when youre involved in an accident. Lets face it: Not everyone has access to AAA or roadside assistance. And when it comes time to sell your car, you will know exactly what to do, thanks to our helpful buying and selling guide.

We hope you find the following pages empowering and helpfulon the road and in your car.

When it comes to cars, the common belief is that women should just leave it to the men. But why should that be? Anyone who went to school with boys will know that we girls are just as capable as they are, if not more so. Whats more, the notion of leaving it to the men assumes every woman who has a car also has a reliable man in her life.

Your car is a piece of machinery, and as with most machines, there are things you are supposed to do to it along the way to make sure it works properly. You wouldnt get into an aircraft that hadnt been regularly checked by an engineer, would you? Yet every day, millions of people get into cars that havent had any maintenance in years! By the time smoke is coming out of your engine, you have probably done a lot of expensive damage and significantly reduced the amount of money you will get for the car when you want to sell it.

Knowing what to do to look after your car is not hard. As with anything in life, the information is all there; you just need to know how to find it. Essential Car Care for Women is designed to teach a woman everything she needs to know about her set of wheels.

I recommend that you read through the book once so you can learn all about your car and the things you have to do to keep it in prime condition. Then stash the book in your glove box so it will be right there when you need it, and so you dont have to go running to find a man!