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Show nn Wednesday Fa Automotive c Oct. 3, 1990 Your tires' enemies are lurking underneath and inside your car life. By The Associated Press The worst enemies of automobile tires are underinflation, wheels, and bad driving habits. Being aware of these problems can lengthen the life of your tires, according to experts at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. "Tires should be inflated to the pressure recommended by the manufacturer of your car," advises Frederick J. Kovak, vice president of tire technology of the Akron, d company. "The most important part of tire care is air." An underinflated tire generates excessive heat which reduces fuel economy and increases tread wear in the shoulder area, the company points out, adding that inflating but not over the your tires to maximum inflation pressure specified on the tire sidewall can improve fuel economy and extend tire Ohio-base- 7 life of tires, Kovak says. Some handling advice: Don't speed. ("Excessive heat is generated from the flexing of the , tire's carcass when driven at high, speeds. This heat increases thV rate of tire wear and reduces the. tire's durability.") Avoid fast turns on curves and. around corners, fast starts stops, riding on the edge of, the pavement, and driving over5 curbs, chuckholes or other obstructions. , Also recommended for automobiles and light trucks is tire rotation at 6,000 to 8,000 miles and again at 18,000 to 24,000 miles,, unless the vehicle manufacturer' advises otherwise. "Rotation a couple of times dur ing tire life usually will mean more even treadwear, particularly for front-wheand cars and light trucks," notes Fred Caraway, Goodyear's manager of product service. Basic rotation technique involves a simple "X" pattern, he explains. 1 On vehicles, the left rear tire goes to the right front and the right rear tire to the left front; front tires move straight to " the rear. The reverse applies, to vehicles. If the car is carrying extra weight, such as luggage on a vacation trip, a little additional air should be added to the tires preferably four pounds over the car manufacturer's recommended cold tire pressure. wheels definitely can rob tires of thousand of miles, Goodyear notes. "For a tire to run true, weight of the tire and wheel assembly must be distributed uniformly," Kovak cautions. "A heavy spot in the tire and wheel assembly must be counterbalanced by precision-mad- e wheel weights. "Improper balance could lead to 'cupping' and excessive wear of the truid at the heavy spot. The tread will eventually cup out to the point where the tire will no longer be usable." Driving habits can shorten the and-pani- el AP Laserphoto are now using air bags and other safety features to sell cars, something long emphasized by foreign car makers. U.S. automakers I J - . r Emph asizin gs afety feature is h eiping se omesuc car IB I By ALAN L. ADLER Associated Press Writer Automakers DETROIT (AP) are finding that safety sells. .. For years, U.S. automakers have resisted following their European cousins by shying away from advertising safety devices . in their cars. That's changing. U.S. government regulations have caused a big part of the switch by requiring passive restraint systems, such as air bags or automatic seat belts, on the cars driver sides of all U.S.-bui- lt .beginning with the 1990 model " year. Chrysler Corp. has taken the lead among U.S. companies in promoting safety features, especially air bags, which it supplies as standard equipment in all of cars. its North American-mad- e "Initially, it was tough getting customers to talk about safety," Chrysler Corp. spokesman Tony Cei'VOne says. "It becomes a discriminating factor in buying a car now." Chrysler is devoted part of its "Advantage: Chrysler" advertising campaign to testimonials by . 'Drive-thr- u' By JENNIFER MERIN Associated Press Writer Imagine yourself behind the wheel of your powerful new automobile, speeding along the Autobahn at 80 miles an hour. - That fantasy can become reality through various overseas delivery plans offered by European auto manufacturers, including Volvo, BMW, Mercedes-BenSaab, Audi, Volkswagen and others. - You order a European-mad-e car from your local dealer, travel to Europe to pick it up, and drive it around during your vacation before having it shipped home. European cars cost about 10 percent less in their countries of origin. The difference in price, plus savings on auto rental in Europe, might cover the cost of a European vacation or business trip. For example, you'll pay (20,931 d for a 1990 Audi Quattro sport sedan if you pick it up ir. West Germany, compared to the $22,800 list price in the U.S. Mercedes-Ben-z will offer you a 560 SEC sports coupe at $73,350, compared with the $81,500 U.S. price tag. The company estimates that if you rented the same car for a month, you'd pay $5,600. Some U.S. dealers offer deep discounts almost equalling European prices, but they can't match travel incentives. Overseas delivery plans, offered only to U S. residents, require customers to order and pre-pa- y before leaving for Europe, personally pick up cars (with documents and passport in hand) and, within a specified time period, ship cars home to local dealers, where cars can be picked up eight to 10 weeks later. : A key attraction is getting the most appealing make and model. But with varied overseas delivery plans, there are added factors to consider. Most plans cover factory prepaz, five-spee- - ration, short-ter- m registration, service and insurance in Europe (which may be extended up to one year at additional cost), inland shipping from dropoff points to port, conversion to U.S. standards and white instead of yellow head lights, for example), ocean freight, marine insurance, U.S. documentation fees, customs .clearance, and shipping to your dealer. U.S. duties mey or may not be covered, so it's worth checking. "Some plans provide free or dis wagen BMW and Volks- have long the United States, you have to be very attentive to what customers say they want in a car," says John Chuhran, a spokesman for Mercedes-Ben- z of North America in Montvale, N.J. In one television commercial, Mercedes, which sells about 75,000 cars a year in the United States, promotes its standard safety features. "Of course you want a safe car for your family. But what is safe? Well, only your authorized Mercedes-Ben- z dealer offers (a) . . . system with driver's-sid- e air k brakeaCii cV-bag afiu ery new model. Standard. That's safe," the announcer says. Automakers acknowledge that air bags add no safety margin to side or rear impact accidents. counted airfare, hotel accommodations, meals, maps, services, and other incentives to sweeten the deal. One of Volvo's plans provides one free ticket on SAS to Gothenburg, Sweden, with a second ticket available for $499 round trip. BMW and Mercedes-Ben- z also offer discounted airfares to Munich and Stuttgart, respectively. All three manufacturers provide an overnight stay in a luxury hotel, with continental breakfasts and luncheons, or rest and shower facilities at delivery centers. Purchasers also get factory tours. Some manufacturers have one pick-u- p point; others have several, some with additional charges. Similarly, numbers and locations of drop-of- f points for export vary. BMWs must be picked up at Freimann Delivery Center, about 20 minutes by taxi (BMW pays cab fare) from Munich, but they may be dropped off at 19 places in 11 countries. Mercedes-Ben- z delivery is at Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, but there are 28 free drop-of- f points around Europe. trip-planni- Volvo's Gothenburg center gives free car ferry transport from Sweden to Germany, Denmark or England. Or, at additional cost, Volvos are delivered at a dozen centers throughout continental Europe and Great Britain. Free drop-of- f points are at Gothenburg, Antwerp or Bremerhaven, with 20 additional at additional European drop-off- s charg". Darrell Mackey Customer Consultant Meet Darrell Mackey, your salesman at Rick Warner AP Laserphoto SUBARU'TOYOTA -ii .nTT- -' UflT .'Ifffl'T. 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CEMTER OREM 225-927- 8 NEW CAR WARRANTY 1533 SOUTH STATE (Behind Silo) OREM r::$3795 no hi Wa'ns Best" manual control tree nuos with brass control dial wneekng, cmome nousinj TOM MOST vt TRUCKS AND JEEP VEHICLES tmtmat miitnai N7411I r km NET Tht Ml TECH" wt laser cut itnjm wnyl coaled labnc mm and 5tanoard HUBS $44881 90 DAYS SAME AS CASH IMFITfVI TAILGATE & EMISSIONS I m PRO NaT CHROME w 1 And All Other Service Needs MITSUBISHI HYUNDAI ACURA CARAVAN VOYAGER COLT MAZDA ISUZU ,l,!ltftrVWffrl- do JAMHESE auto HONDA'NISSAN r at Osnabrueck. Peugeot delivers cars to Paris airports. Alfa Romeo delivers near Frankfurt to avoid Italian auto registration red tape. de- liver different car models: Vana-go- n at Hannover, Jetta and Passat at Wolfsburg, Cabriolet and Corra- - LUBE, OIL & FILTER O. rell will treat you fair and is a good man to buy from. Tires are often underinflated in winter because cooler air is not as dense as warm air. luxury car Volkswagen's various centers Chevrolet-Buick-GE- He's been serving customers in Irian for 30 years. Dar- ajiti-luC- 'pick-u- p' ic W all incorporated safety promotion into advertising, in part because buyers ask more questions. "When you deal with a small market niche such as ours i3 in 1990-mod- el trans-Atlant- carmakers European Mercedes-Ben- z, driv-er's-si- Europe, fRick Warner percent of cars are expected to have air bags, the institute says. survivors of crashes saying they owed their lives to air bags. General Motors Corp. recently announced it will equip all U.S.-bui- lt passenger cars with air bags by the fall of 1995, but the company has yet to adwork them into safety-relate- d vertising. Company spokesman Donald Postma says die upscale Cadillac division is expected to be the first to promote air bags. Ford Motor Co. has air bags in U.S.-bui- lt about half its vehicles, but the company doesn't go to lengths to promote them or motorized passive restraint seat belts. Under federal law, all cars made in the United States after Sept. 1, 1989, must have either an air bag or automatic seat belt for drivers and front-sea- t passengers. According to Insurance Insti- tuie for inghway" Safety inAr lington, Va., air bags were equipped in 1 percent of the estimated 10 million 1887 model domestic and import cars sold in the United States. By 1996, 90 See us for Pickups, 4WD, ATV ACCESSORIES INSTALLATION AVAILABLE HOWS KM llWMPMl' Si M-- F 10-- 3 SATURDAY FINAMItiG AVAILABLE |