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At Jeff Smith Kia, we want to help you easily navigate all driving situations you will encounter in our city and beyond. We happily offer tips today that can help you share the road with bicyclists.

All driving situations require your full attention, so never text and drive. Keep your eyes on the road. Importantly, cyclists have an equal claim to the road. When no bike lane is present, bike riders may use a car lane's full width. You can pass cyclists, but always leave a three-foot buffer, and never pass in a way that would impede other lanes…

Want to get your tires ultra clean? Then you’ll need a few tools to ensure that your car’s wheels get a nice shine. Your car tires can suffer from tire blooming or turning brown if you don’t wash them carefully. Each week, you should use a garden hose to clean out your tires of any grime first. Once you use clean water to rinse them, you can go over your tires with a professional grade tire cleaner. 

When washing your car, make sure that you start with your wheels first. This will save you money in the…

Your safety is important to us and we hope that you will avoid being distracted while you are driving so that you can stay safe. It is important that you keep your gaze and your attention focused on the road while driving.

If you are looking to keep from being distracted while driving, you should put your phone out of reach before you start up your vehicle. You do not want to be reaching for your phone and checking it constantly when your focus should be on the road.  

At Jeff Smith Kia, we care about your safety. For couples with children, one of the foremost concerns with a vehicle involves child restraints. A seat belt can always be used to install a child seat, but the LATCH system can help with proper installation. The LATCH acronym stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) evaluates each vehicle's LATCH system and assigns it a rating. There are five areas related that the IIHS evaluates. First, they look at the accessibility of the lower anchors.  

Winter survival kits can be lifesavers in the case of a home disaster, auto breakdown or auto accident on the highway, especially in the cold winter months. At Jeff Smith Kia, we want you to be an informed driver and ready to safely tackle the winter months. Come see us and let us help you supply your winter survival kit.

When making your survival kit, you want the most important things to keep you not just safe but also occupied, especially if you have young children.  

At Jeff Smith Kia, we want all drivers to be safe when driving during the winter months. With the right winter tires, you can safely navigate all roads with confidence. Winter tires come either with studs or without studs. Studded tires are ideal for icy road conditions as they dig into it and provide additional traction.

However, it may not be necessary to buy tires with metal studs in them. This is because they can damage the road when not covered in ice, and they also have a tendency to create a loud and rough ride.  

When it comes to the world of motor oil, there are a lot of myths and half-truths flying around. As such, the team here at Jeff Smith Kia has decided to correct the record so that our friends and neighbors can be as well-informed as possible about the running of their vehicles.

It is not at all uncommon to hear people claim that synthetic oil can cause oil leaks. However, this simply isn't true. Though some instances of leakage were noted when synthetic oil was first introduced in the 1970s, improvements in oil technology mean that this just isn…

While there are so many critical components in a vehicle, tires are some of the most important. There are a few things you can do to make sure they're ready to take you around town and beyond.

With the correct tire pressure, you'll be able to drive safely and efficiently. If a tire is underinflated, the outside edges will be working harder than they should be. If a tire is overinflated, the load won't be evenly distributed across the entire tread. In just a few seconds, you can use a tire gauge to check your pressure. 

Have you ever heard your mechanic say that your differentials need to be checked? What does that mean? The differentials are located at the front or rear axle assembly. These parts are important pieces that help your car’s wheels rotate around so you can drive properly. While differential oil doesn’t need to be replaced as often as oil, it’s important to have it checked, especially if it feels rough turning your car. 

All cars have moving parts. To keep these parts separate, oil is used as a lubricant that creates a thin film of protection between moving parts. Without the lubricant, the parts would grind together and break. No matter where you look inside your engine, the moving parts demand oil to keep them from breaking. Manufacturers of automobiles test their engines to find the right viscosity, or thickness, of oil to lubricate the parts properly.

The Society of Automotive Engineers began testing oil viscosity in 1911. The Society passes oil through a "viscometer" to determine its viscosity.