Nobody ever wants to be stuck in a situation where a survival kit is needed. But once you find yourself in this type of predicament, it’s too late to wish you had put together some necessities beforehand. But do you know what you should include in an emergency kit for your certified Ford? Here are some suggestions to keep you safe until help arrives.

1. Water is the most important necessity. Keep a gallon of water or a few bottles of water in your trunk at all times. If you live in a region that gets cold during the winter, empty out some of the water or else the bottles could bust open when they freeze.

2. Food comes next. Canned foods that offer protein (beans, vegetables) are great if you keep a can opener in your car as well. Or, if you prefer, keep some beef jerky or other non-perishable and easy-to-eat foods in your trunk.

3. Keep some soft materials handy as well as a change of clothes. You might get out and explore where you are  once you get stuck. If it’s snowy or rainy outside, you’ll want to change clothes afterwards so you can stay warm. The soft materials serve as makeshift pillows and blankets. 

4. Emergency equipment is essential, too. Keep a pair of jumper cables with you at all times as well as a flashlight, a fresh supply of batteries, matches, candles, and a shovel for digging out your vehicle.

5. Keep a first aid kit in your trunk. Bandages, medication, gauze and other essentials will come in handy if you get stuck somewhere with an injury.

6. Even if you don’t like to have a regular cell phone, you can still get an emergency cell phone that will only call 911. This is a great item to keep with you in your vehicle. It could get help to you in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days.

Don’t be stuck in the middle of nowhere without the supplies you need to survive. A few minutes of preparation might just save your life.

You can hardly discuss the auto industry today without mentioning the new hybrids and eco-friendly technologies implemented into the vehicles. Everybody wants to help the environment, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Ford is one of the leaders in hybrid technology. The automaker continues to produce vehicles that are safe for the environment, building on a practice begun when the company created the first hybrid model with the Ford Escape several years ago.

The automaker further cemented its dedication to “green” this week when two of its vehicles earned certification by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Focus won recognition as one of the Top 12 Greenest Vehicles of 2008. The Ford Escape took its rightful place on the council’s Greener Choices 2008 list.

The Ford Focus has a reported 34 miles per gallon as a result of its 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine. That’s one of the best mileages you’ll find in any vehicle on the market today. With the Ford Escape, you can get 500 more miles out of a single tank of gas than you can on any other vehicle, thanks to its electric motor and 2.3L engine. Even if you don’t care about the environment, who doesn’t want to save hundreds of dollars a year on fuel?

Making it to the ACEEE’s lists is nothing to sneeze at. The council places a great deal of importance and emphasis on the selection process when deciding which vehicles to add to its list. So when you see that these two Ford vehicles have made the list, you can be sure they are some of the best environmentally-friendly products on the road.

For your green Ford, visit our Ford dealerships - St. Louis MO or your Waterloo area Ford dealers.

With spring approaching fast and thoughts of snow-free roads dancing in our minds, you might be wondering what to do with those bulky snow tires on your certified Ford. If you live in a cold climate where it snows a lot during the winter, this is probably an issue you deal with each year. If you’ve always wondered about the best way to store those tires when you’re not using them, here are some suggestions to take out all the guesswork.

1. Make sure you store the tires in a cool and dry place that is also well-ventilated. Basements are a great place if you have that as an option because they tend to be cooler than a garage during the warmer months.

2. Try to keep the tires away from devices that create ozone. Motors, generators and furnaces can cause harm to your tires after a while.

3. Don’t place your tires on the ground when storing them. Instead, place a flat piece of clean wood on the ground and lay the tires on top of it.

4. Most people think it’s best to store tires on their sides, but that’s wrong. It can cause the tires to become distorted and possibly to wear unevenly. Instead, stack them upright as if they were on the car.

5. Store the tires in a place where water can’t reach them. Water can damage tires if present for a while. It can also bring mosquitoes and other problems.

6. Make sure the white lettering on the tires isn’t rubbing against the black rubber of the tires. This can cause the letters to become faded or even unnoticeable.

I blogged about the Ford Work Solutions just a week or two ago. But I love this idea so much that I thought I would write about it again. For about seven years of my life, I was a delivery person. We had cargo vans that we used for our deliveries, but our employer didn’t even supply so much as a cell phone for times when problems arose. So when I read about the capabilities of the Ford Work Solutions, I imagined how much easier my job would’ve been if we had this technology back then.

Here are a few things you can expect if you get a new Ford F-Series truck or E-Series van equipped with this package.

• The Tool Inventory System allows employers and employees to scan tools and enter the information into a computerized database so it’s easier to keep track of them. The system also tells the worker where each tool is located on the truck so you never have to search for it again.
• The Tool Selection feature allows workers to simply enter the jobs they want to complete to receive a computer-generated list of tools they’ll need to finish them.
• The LCD in-dash screen gives workers access to the Internet. That makes it easy to pull over and look up maps to their next jobs within a matter of seconds.
• Employers can track the location of each worker, so if an emergency job comes up, they know which one is closest to the site.
• Workers have remote access to the office files, so they can view blueprints, manuals or other information that make each job easier and quicker.

Can you imagine how much more efficient a business will be with these capabilities on Ford vehicles? I’m jealous that I never had a chance to use this technology when I was a delivery person.

You might think that your battery will last forever and you don’t need to do anything to maintain it. I used to think that. But that’s definitely not the truth. In fact, your battery can fail completely if you don’t take some precautions in its care.  Hopefully, we can help you prevent that with the following tips for your battery maintenance.

1. Secure the battery to the proper mounting bracket. If your battery bounces as you’re going down the road, it could become damaged or even fall out if you hit a big bump. At the least, it might cause short circuits in your vehicle’s electrical systems.

2. Make sure the cables are connected properly. Corroded or loose connections could cause unexpected problems at any time while you drive. If you notice corrosion, you can clean the connections with water and baking soda. Or, if you’re unsure, have a professional clean them.

3. Check the fluid level. Some batteries are “maintenance-free,” which means you don’t need to check their fluid levels. But if you don’t have one of these, simply add distilled water to your battery when the fluid is low.

4. Make sure you have the right battery for your vehicle. A variety of problems could occur if you have the wrong size battery.

5. Keep the case clean. This might not seem like a big deal, but dirt can damage or discharge a battery. A simple water-and-baking soda solution poured over the case can keep it clean. Use a nylon brush to wipe any of the really dirty spots.

If you want to get the maximum number of years out of your certified Ford, follow these tips to ensure your battery lasts a long time. It’s one of the most vital parts of your vehicle.

For more than three decades, the Ford F-Series trucks have been the bestsellers in their category. But with all the hype about the trucks, little is said about the other bestselling Ford vehicles.

The Ford E-Series vans have also led the industry for many years. In fact, they’ve been the bestselling vans since before the 1980s. But the automaker is also adding some new and exciting features to make the 2009 model vans even more attractive. The full-size vans got a makeover for last year’s model. This year, the biggest body change will likely just be doors that open wider.

On the inside, though, the Ford full-size vans are getting the preferential treatment. With the company’s new Work Solutions package, drivers have access to an interior computer complete with Internet access and many other technological advances. In addition, the new vans have a revamped instrument panel and auxiliary switches.

The dash also includes a new navigation system as part of the Works Solutions package. The new technology is perfect for people who own businesses and have fleets of vehicles out on the road. With computers and online access, individual workers can look up directions to their next jobs or find whatever information they need while they’re away from their offices. It’s virtually an office on wheels with all of the accessories included!

With all of this, it’s almost as if you could live in the van and still have all of the amenities of home. The only thing missing is a bathroom.

For your Ford truck, visit your Ford dealer in St. Louis MO or our Ford dealerships - Waterloo.

If you have a quality certified Ford, you might not know that you can add many aftermarket accessories to it. By doing so, you can get a lot more enjoyment out of your vehicle for years to come. If your used vehicle doesn’t come with a factory-installed GPS, you can get one installed. In fact, many car owners prefer an aftermarket GPS for several reasons, including:

• An aftermarket GPS is typically less expensive than a factory-installed unit. Manufacturers often increase the price because it seems like such a small expense compared to the overall price of the vehicle.

• Aftermarket units have more feature options.  You can find ones that offer live traffic reports, weather reports, satellite radio, MP3 player integration and several other features.

• You can transfer add-ons to other vehicles. This comes in handy if you often rent vehicles or if you want to lend your GPS unit to somebody.

• Mapping updates are generally less expensive for aftermarket units than they are for factory-installed units.

• Aftermarket units are typically more intuitive because they reflect the latest technology.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to an aftermarket unit, but luckily the disadvantages are fewer than the advantages.  These factors might make you think twice about getting a GPS unit installed after you purchase the vehicle:

• Finding a place to mount the unit might be difficult because it can’t interfere with the airbag deployment.

• An aftermarket unit is easier to steal. You can hide it when you get out of your car, but the mounting bracket shows that you have a GPS unit somewhere in your vehicle.

The Ford Motor Company might be taking its luxury Lincoln brand to the global market in the near future.

In an interview at the end of last month, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said the company is considering distributing the brand in Asia and Europe. Right now, Ford markets it  in the Middle East.

Last year, the automaker sold more than 130,000 units worldwide, but the North American market accounts for 99 percent of those sales. That’s why the focus at this time is on the domestic market. But that doesn’t mean the automaker can’t look to the future in hopes of increasing its brand throughout the world.

Ford’s competitors have tried to expand their brands to a worldwide market, too. Those attempts have been less than impressive, giving Ford pause about putting too much effort into the expansion at this time. GM tried to expand its Cadillac brand to a global market last year, but experienced about 10 percent of its sales outside of the United States.

These talks also come at a time when Ford is lessening  its focus on the Mercury brand vehicles. While the sales volume decreases for Mercury, Ford hopes to increase the volume for the Lincoln. It won’t take the place of the company’s upscale options, which used to be Jaguar and Land Rover.

The Dearborn automaker is also considering taking the Lincoln to the Russian market, where its other Ford vehicles have enjoyed a great deal of success. Hopefully, this will be another way to put the company back on top of the auto market where it belongs.

Have you ever thought about adding spoilers to your certified Ford? Chances are that you’ve seen these contraptions on other cars traveling down the road. And you’ve definitely seen these if you’ve ever watched a NASCAR race. But you might not know exactly what they do (besides make a car look uber cool).

Spoilers typically help make cars go faster. They do this in a couple of ways. First, they break through the air resistance that vehicles encounter at higher speeds. With dissipated resistance, your car can break through the air with less effort. This also increases the vehicle’s fuel efficiency because it takes less effort to move. You probably never noticed, but there are also spoilers underneath the front bumpers of some vehicles to break through the air resistance.

Spoilers also give the driver more control over the car. By adding weight to the back of the car, they keep the rear wheels on the ground at higher speeds. This gives the car better traction and performance when making fast turns.

You can find specialty shops that will install spoilers on your Ford. Many sports cars already come with these devices, too. But now that you know exactly what they do and what they are for, you can decide if you want to install an aftermarket spoiler or not.

Is anybody else as excited as I am at the announcement that Knight Rider might be returning to the airwaves as a series?

Probably not.

But last week, NBC aired a made-for-TV Knight Rider movie as a test to see if the popularity was still there for the talking car. Apparently, it is. The network aired it again less than a week later and attracted an impressive number of viewers. I was one of the millions. Were you?

David Hasselhoff is still cool and hip, but he’s getting a little too old to do the moves that Michael Knight needs to do. But the driver isn’t the only new element of the 2008 Knight Rider.   There’s also a new car named KITT, a Shelby Mustang selected from a variety of other Ford vehicles to be the co-star of the new movie. Hopefully, NBC will keep the model for the TV series, because it made a huge splash on the screen.

Here are some statistics to give you an idea of how popular Knight Rider was during its first airing last week:

• It got a 5.0 rating and a 12 share in adults from the ages of 18-49. That means that of all the people in that demographic watching TV at the time, 12 percent of them were watching Knight Rider.
• It got the highest rating for this demographic of all other TV movies in nearly three years.
• The movie garnered the network’s biggest overall viewership for this time slot (except for sports) since the 2006 Emmy Awards.
• More than 12 million viewers tuned in to see the return.

Look for an official announcement in April that NBC will add the TV series to its fall lineup. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.