Prevent Pandemonium For Perfect Performance

Drivers must deal with many more distractions today than they did a decade ago, and those attention-stealers are a direct cause of crashes that cost valuable money and lives. On the brighter side of things, folks who see up close the damage inflicted by in-car diversions have assembled this list of some tips for managing and avoiding unwanted distractions.

Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Peters, MO is a leader in the business of fixing the mistakes people make while there on the road. All a driver had to distract himself at one point in time was an AM radio. Now, most vehicles have enough high-tech electronic gadgetry onboard to pilot a space shuttle, and they can all diminish the concentration of a driver.

These tips are designed to substantially reduce the chance of an accident and make a trip less stressful for anyone that is involved.

•   Adopt no-text policy with absolutely no exceptions – Figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) prove that the risk of a crash is twenty-three times greater in magnitude for people who are sending and receiving text messages while they drive. A car traveling at fifty-five miles per hour will cover the length of a football field in the time it takes to type or receive a message. Driving while you text is in many ways the same as if you were to drive while intoxicated. The great thing about a text message is that it will be waiting right where you left it for whenever you have the time to pull over and read it.

•   Limit or completely eliminate cell phone use while driving – A study by Australia’s Monash University Accident Research Centre revealed that the use of cell phones increases crash and injury potential by four times. A passenger, if on board, can conduct the conversation while you drive in most cases.

•A hands-free device is acceptable, but only for calls that you deem to be necessary – Carnegie Mellon used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to view brain activity of those that they chose to answer a series of true/false questions while they simulated driving on the screen of a computer. They found a thirty-seven percent decrease in the brain’s ability to examine spatial relationships when the “driver” focused on responding to the series of questions. This information gives us the indication that any conversation with a person who isn't in the passenger compartment diminishes the driver’s reflexes behind the steering wheel.

•   Program your GPS receiver before starting your next trip – Portable and in-dash GPS devices are both seriously helpful when it comes to getting us where we want to go, especially those that give us step-by-step directions. They are only helpful, however, if the driver doesn't try to go and input information while traveling. In fact, most GPS devices will display a legal warning against such action before they can be used.

•   Learn a car’s instruments and adjustments before pulling out of the driveway – Modern cars have dozens of buttons, switches and handles that may need activating while on the road, and a driver should have the ability to quickly access them to prevent distraction. Adjusting the windshield wipers, headlights, radio settings, climate controls, seat height, steering wheel angle and emergency flashers can be incredibly distracting to a driver, so much so that it may lead to an accident.

•   Save eating and drinking for the next rest stop – Americans have seemingly perfected the art of eating and driving at the same time, which is why vehicles designed for the U.S. market often have more cup holders than they do seats. According to NHTSA, a driver’s morning cup of coffee and muffin very well may be as distracting as a cell phone conversation.

•   Keep children and pets in the right seats or areas for them– Crash-test engineers have figured out that the safest placement for children of different sizes and ages changes from vehicle to vehicle. Following federal and state laws also greatly reduces the distraction of a parent while driving since the child is not as likely to get hurt or into trouble in a moving vehicle if restrained. Letting animals roam freely about in a vehicle isn't simply a terrible idea; it is illegal in many states because legislators are trying to crack down on distracted driving.

Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Peters, Missouri, also fixing cars in St. Charles, O'Fallon, and Lake St. Louis, MO, want you to be aware that there are a number of ways to decrease the amount of dangerous distractions within a car. These tips cover just a few that are really easy for the majority of people to fix. Anything a driver has to do to concentrate on the road will simply serve to improve the chances of a safe arrival.

For other tips on driving and auto body collision repair, visit www.auto-body-st-peters-mo.com. CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts offers high-quality, reliable repair service in 32 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Just give a quick call to 636-939-4199 when you have to have a car repaired, and they will quickly send over a tow truck, contact your insurance company, arrange for you to get a rental car and repair your vehicle.

There Isn't A Magic Wand For Everything...

A scratch repair pen may appear to be the perfect plan to start out with. After all, what could someone possibly have against the ability to make quick repairs to a car’s finish by simply drawing a line across the damage? Come to find out, the outcomes aren’t always what you see on TV. Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Peters, also serving folks near St. Charles, O'Fallon, and Lake St. Louis, Missouri, are happy to be offering you these most interesting of test results.

To start out with, we found they won't work on anything but the smallest of surface scratches. On top of that, they may even make the damage look worse then it did to start out with.

Marketed as the easiest way to avoid the expensive bills of an auto body shop, manufacturers will claim that anyone has the ability to get expert results from the pens, which cost as much as ten dollars. We employed the use of three to see if the claims were valid.

What we tested

The Simoniz Fix it Pro ($10), DuPont Pro Fusion Color ($8), and Turtle Wax Scratch Repair Pen ($10) are widely available online or in your local auto parts stores. Alleged to work with any paint color that you can metaphorically throw at it, they have a permanent clear coat much like the protective outer layer used on new cars that are coming straight from the factory. But what their packaging does not make entirely clear is that pens of this nature are strictly for minor surface scratches in the clear coat. If the damage goes down through the paint below, you’re just going to be out of luck.

We also discovered that the pens may be a lot harder to use than other pens, and that it’s not a simple task to get the thin, even line necessary to neatly fill your vehicle's scratches without overdosing on the stuff. With applicator tips that are as wide or wider than your typical scratch, our sampled products make it incredibly hard to avoid putting on too much filler, and leaving a very noticeable residue that’s probably going to be more noticeable than the damage you’re wanting to get repaired. And getting rid of the residue might require sanding and buffing to get the stuff out, and you might even have to use some touch-up paint too.

Remember that these products will never help on any scratch that’s deep enough for you to be able to feel it with a fingernail, or if you can see primer or bare metal on the scratch. For damage of that extent, you’ll want to have more than clear filler and a steady stroke of the hand. The only way to actually repair damaged paint is with more paint. Period.

How we tested

For our analysis, we got the same lab-grade black test panels we buy for car wax testing. These panels are painted and clear coated with automotive finishes to simulate the exterior of a real car. We also tried them on two different vehicles with minor scratches: a silver Toyota Sienna minivan and a dark blue Honda CR-V.

We scratched the test panels with a key and a bolt, and then used the products exactly as instructed by the manufacturers' directions on the panels and the pre-scratched automobiles. Washing and drying the damaged area, shaking up the contents of the pen, dabbing the tip on a piece of paper towel to get the product flowing properly, and moving the pen along the surface of the scratch were all involved in this process. After applying the products as instructed, we moved the samples to a place where they were able to weather for four straight weeks.

The results

The three products filled up the scratches perfectly, and we recognized no noticeable difference between them in terms of ease of use or effectiveness.

From some of the angles that we observed the repair at, it looked just as good as was advertised in the television ads. But other less flattering angles revealed a ridge of noticeably excessive clear coat. The results looked like an amateur job, at the very best, and often the repair was more noticeable than the original scratch was. The Simoniz and DuPont products advocated for wiping off any excess with a paper towel, but we discovered that this only made things look worse, as it smeared the paint over the undamaged surface.

Our advice is to save your hard-earned money and skip these quick fixes for minor scratches or try a cleaning polish in their place.

For deeper scratches, a visit to your local Jungerman CARSTAR in St. Peters, Missouri may be your best option.