Safe and Stylish

You are driving down the road and see a Winnie the PoohTM sun visor pulled down with a little kid in the back seat, and you say to yourself, “I'm never going to be 'THAT PERSON' when I have a kid.” Then a couple years down the road, you become “THAT PERSON” and you wonder where your style went. Guess what, those cool extras: window tinting, DVD systems, remote start and keyless entry, back up camera and object sensors, suspension, tires, brakes, projector and LED lighting; not only makes the vehicle look better, but will make it safer.

Replace that pull down shade with window tinting. That's right, tinting is not for high school kids and guys with mullets anymore. Tinting windows not only improves the look of the vehicle, but blocks as much as 99.5% of all UVA and UVB rays. During an accident there isn't going to be a metal tube flying around the cabin. Not only helping keep yourself and passengers safe in event of an accident, you are helping them stay healthy. Since we are looking at the inside the cabin of the vehicle, lets take a look at the entertainment system.

We've all seen the DVD systems in big box stores selling for as little as $100, tethered to the backseat by over-glorified rubberbands. If you're going to have a DVD system, why not have it professionally installed? Once again it comes down to having one less thing flying around the cabin. Touching on aesthetics, its going to look neater if you have professionally installed screens. Some systems such as the ones offered by INViSiON have a warranty that follows along with your vehicle if installed when you purchase the vehicle, so if you have a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, you get the same warranty, if purchased after you paid for the vehicle, you still have a one year warranty and it doesn't cost extra.

The next two items are for convenience, but allow additional safety, remote start and keyless entry systems. With a two-way remote start system you can be wrapping up your shopping, hit a button, get the car started and warming up or cooling down before you even step foot out of the store with the kids, you can put the kids in the car and the shopping into the trunk or cargo area. If the child is an escape artist and thinks its fun to lock the car. Hello keyless entry!! He can lock the door, you hit a button and the car is unlocked which helps keep your child out of danger and out of mischief. If you find yourself in an area that doesn't seem so safe, the keyless entry helps you get in your car that much faster.

The last thing to look at on the inside of your vehicle is a backup camera or a object detection system. Stories on the news about a child being run over because he was playing behind a car show up more often it seems. The more likely scenario the kid left a bike or toy in the driveway and it is run over. Now you have a destroyed toy, a distraught kid, not to mention possible vehicle damage. Save untold aggravation and money by having at least an object detection system installed or something more complete, have a back up camera system installed. Back up cameras don't run all the time, they run when your vehicle is in reverse and in most cases the display is placed in the rear-view mirror so you can still back up properly and see anything in the blind spot behind your vehicle. Now that we've made it outside the car, lets take a look at the suspension.

Ever consider lowering the suspension on your vehicle? Most models do have enough clearance where you can lower suspension to decrease “body roll”, that feeling that the vehicle is going to tip over when cornering, you can also get stiffer sway bars. This will help two ways, the first being more comfortable cornering, and for children that have a propensity to get car sick, the lessened body roll reduces chances of needing to have the car detailed.

The next thing to look at are brakes. You aren't going to skimp on shoes for yourself or your kids, why do that for the vehicle? Now we are not saying to go out and spend 30 grand on a new brake system or 20 grand on tires. However, when you go to replace your brakes, take a look at ceramic instead of semi-metallic pads. Ceramics have the same stopping power with a fraction of the heat, this will not only extend the life of rotors, but will also make the drive more pleasant because you don't hear squeaking when you use the brakes.

Tires should be replaced when tread indicator bars (small metallic strips embedded in the tires that show when the tread is down to 20% of the original thread depth) are seen, or when the tread depth is 1/16” deep (you can tell this if you put a penny in the thread head first and you can see the top of Abe Lincoln's head), whichever is greater. When replacing the tires, always try to replace them as a set, if the budget only allows for two, place the new tires on the rear and move the least worn set of used tires to the front of the vehicle. That way the newer tread will help provide better traction; in front wheel drive vehicles, this reduces the chance of oversteering.

Finally, make sure you can see the road and others can see you, you can get Light Emitting Diode (LED) running lights and brake lights so people will be able to see you coming or stopping from further away; LEDs are brighter than their incandescent counterparts. Upgrading normal head lights to projector headlights that allow more of the road and shoulder to be seen without blinding oncoming traffic should always be considered when thinking about lighting.

Don't sacrafice substance for style. But if the car is not tuned up, the tires properly inflated, or not changing fluids according to the owner's manual, all the additional things are just expensive little things instead of making your vehicle more enjoyable or safer.