Mountain View Tire is proud to be affiliated with Goodyear, and here's another reason why.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has been named as one of the most socially responsible U.S. companies by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Reputation Institute.

In a survey of U.S. consumers, Goodyear earned a 74.4 rating, ranking it 32nd on the 2010 Boston College Corporate Social Responsibility Index. Goodyear is the only automotive or tire company listed.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Index captures public perceptions about the corporate citizenship, governance, and workplace practices of more than 200 companies in the United States.

According to a press release issued by the company, Goodyear is committed to nurturing an inclusive and rewarding workplace for its associates, fostering a high standard for ethical behavior, providing support for the communities it serves, and implementing sustainable environmental practices, all while bringing innovative tires to motorists around the world.

The company’s corporate citizenship has previously been recognized by inclusion on CRO magazine’s list of “100 Best Corporate Citizens,” Forbes magazine’s America’s most-trustworthy companies list, Fortune magazine’s ranking of America’s most-respected companies, and Newsweek magazine’s “Greenest Big Companies in America” listing.

(This is a slightly abridged version of an article written by Hannah Elliott for Forbes.com.)
 
We compiled our list of the best ways to keep your kids safe in the car with help from NHTSA, the traffic-safety arm of the Department of Transportation.

The number one thing to remember when it comes to children and cars? Teach them well. Rollaway deaths, backover deaths and trunk entrapment can all be significantly mitigated by teaching them not to play in or around cars, and to move away from a vehicle when a driver gets in and when the car is started.

An important note: Although many cars come with detection devices like backup cameras or radars that emit sounds when they sense an obstruction behind the car, they cannot compensate for the act of circling the vehicle to make sure everything and every one is out of the way.

Installing Child Seats

Safety seats are another big component of safe driving with infants and toddlers. Using them in passenger cars reduces fatal injury by 71% for infants and by 54% for toddlers between the ages of 1 and 4. In pickup trucks, fatalities are reduced by 58% for infants and 59% for toddlers.

Vitally important is ensuring the seats are installed correctly; nearly 75% of them are not, according to NHTSA data. You can find a safety-seat inspector close to your neighborhood by clicking on the NHTSA website. Parents should know that children progress from rear facing, to front facing, to booster seat to seat belts--in that order, and according to manufacturer directions for height and body weight. And all children under the age of 13 should ride in the back seat.

The biggest factor here for parents is resisting the urge to "graduate" their kids prematurely, says Debbi Baer, a labor and delivery nurse in Baltimore who instructs new parents in how to attach a safety seat.

"We've got to get the public out of the feeling that a developing move is moving the kids to the next stage," Baer says. "Every time you move down a step [to a larger seat], you're actually decreasing the protection."

Even very small infants must be in a child seat, not a sling, soft infant carrier or harness. ("Nothing is safer than a rear-facing seat," Baer says. "The survival rates are absolutely astronomical.")

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the safest place in the car for an infant is facing the rear in the middle of the back seat, with the front tilted at a 45-degree angle to help support the baby's large head and weak neck. (If the baby's head slips forward, place a rolled towel under the front edge of the baby carrier and use rolled towels on each side of the baby's head for extra support.)

Beat the Heat

A final precaution: Never leave children or babies unattended in a closed vehicle, even for a minute. The heating and cooling process for toddlers is vastly different than it is for adults, and that makes them particularly susceptible to overheating in a locked car or trunk.

According to NHTSA, even cool outside temperatures in the 60s can cause the car's interior to hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit and higher. (The inside temperature can rise almost 20 degrees within the first 10 minutes.) What's more, children's bodies overheat easily. Infants and children under four are among those at greatest risk for heat-related illness, and children are less able to lower their body heat by sweating. That means that inside a hot car, a toddler's body temperature can rise three to five times as quickly as that of an adult, which can lead directly to heatstroke and death.

Isn’t freedom a wonderful concept?

If you own a vehicle that’s still under warranty, you’re entitled to a freedom you may not be aware of: the freedom to have your car serviced and repaired at any automotive service facility of your choosing.

No, you are not bound to the dealer until your vehicle’s warranty has expired. That’s a common misconception. You can take it anywhere you’d like. It’s the law. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, specifically.

Among many other things, that act states that a manufacturer cannot void a vehicle's warranty simply because service was not performed by a dealer.

The Car Care Council – the organization that inspired this blog post – suggests that you “keep records and receipts for all maintenance that is done to the vehicle and adhere to scheduled maintenance requirements. If a warranty claim arises, these records will provide proof that maintenance has been done in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and requirements.”

Are you considering buying a set of used tires to save some money? 

If so, you probably think that used tires are perfectly safe as long as they have enough tread and no obvious damage, but Jim Smith, Editor at Tire Review magazine, reports that, most of the time, that's not the case.

In his article at TireReview.com, Smith cites the disturbing findings of a U.K-based consumer education group called TyreSafe. He writes...

Birmingham, England officials investigated the quality of used tires sold by local firms. In all, the investigators bought and checked nearly 200 tires, and found that nine out of 10 failed to meet minimum legal standards. Some 30% had physical defects (embedded nails, exposed cords, excessive wear). Some had required markings buffed off, and most failed to carry a mark identifying the tire as being used. One in particular was all of 17 years old.

And these were tires sold by tire shops - not at yard sales - by tire experts, I suspect, who pride themselves on having a keen eye for these kinds of things. Like American dealers.

Oh, it gets worse. TyreSafe did a deeper examination of six of the tires, using X-ray equipment to look for internal damage. All six showed clear signs of impact damage, exhibiting “unstable stress points” or “fatigue in components” that increase the likelihood of a blowout.

As TyreSafe noted, these highly dangerous defects would not be visible under normal inspections that used tires should undergo before [being put] on sale.

Did you know that the air we breathe is 78% nitrogen and only 21% oxygen? (We’re not sure we want to know what the other 1% is.) So, yeah, nitrogen is pretty important stuff to us. And now we know it can be beneficial when it comes to tire care.

Inflating tires with nitrogen improves fuel economy. Because nitrogen molecules are larger, they take three to four times longer to pass through a tire. That helps tires maintain their proper pressure longer, reducing rolling resistance, and improving gas mileage.

Oxygen reacts with metal at high temperatures and pressures. Nitrogen is a dry, inert gas that runs cooler and doesn’t oxidize. That means it won’t cause damage to the inner liners and belts in tires. It produces no condensation, so nitrogen won’t lead to rusty rims. And tires filled with nitrogen are less likely to fail prematurely, making them safer and less costly to own.

OCTOBER 11th UPDATE: Twenty-seven Mountain View Tire stores now offer nitrogen. (Only our Chino and Montebello stores do not have it.) Visit our Locations page for addresses, maps, and more.

At Mountain View Tire, we've been promoting the benefits of properly inflated tires for a long time. But now, the State of California has a more formal interest in your tire pressure.

As of July 1, 2010, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) requires drivers having their vehicle serviced at an automotive repair shop, oil change center, or smog check station to "either agree to have their tires inflated at the facility or to do it later on their own."

According to a press release issued by CARB, proper tire inflation is estimated to annually:

* Eliminate 700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions
* Reduce the state's fuel consumption by 75 million gallons
* Extend the average tire's useful life by 4,700 miles

CARB estimates that 38% of the vehicles on California roads have underinflated tires. Low tire pressure can result in shorter tread life, reduced handling, and increased rolling resistance which causes a car's engine to work harder and consume more fuel.

All Mountain View Tire locations offer a free check and fill service. Just pull into any one of our stores and we'll check all your tires and fill them to the correct pressure if necessary.

(This is an abridged version of an article that originally appeared at www.edmunds.com. It was written by Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor.) 

Many people feel uncomfortable challenging the authority of the numbers written on the window sticker of a new car. This is exactly what the dealer wants. The sticker is supposed to look official. People tend to believe things that are written down. Allen Funt, in the TV show Candid Camera, proved this by closing the state of Delaware. He put up a sign at the state line that read, "Delaware closed." Motorists stopped and angrily asked, "How can Delaware be closed?" Funt just said, "Read the sign."

So the sticker price is really a tactic to build profit into the deal. The dealership and car salespeople use many such tactics to increase the profit when you go to buy a car. But, as Herb Cohen points out in his book You Can Negotiate Anything, "a tactic perceived is no tactic." In other words, if you realize what they are doing to you with various sales ploys, these tactics will no longer work on you.

Why do many car buyers seem reluctant to make a low offer? I often hear people say they are afraid the salesperson will laugh at them. Or become angry or insulted. And yet, if you think about it, they do the same thing to you - but in reverse. Here's what I mean.

At Edmunds, we had a writer named Chandler Phillips go undercover as a car salesman. As part of the training process, he was repeatedly told to quote very high prices, then come down slowly. "Hit 'em high," he was told, "then scrape them off the ceiling and make a deal." In other words, if you start very high, there is a lot of room to drop the price and still make plenty of profit.

I recommend Cohen's book on negotiating, but to get a good deal on your next car, you don't have to be an ace negotiator. You just have to follow a few simple rules.

• Don't buy a car in a hurry.
• Eat before you go to the dealership. You might be there for four hours or more, and you want to be able to think clearly.
• Check all the numbers and get as much information as you can before you begin negotiating.
• Don't enter negotiations with someone who intimidates you. It should be a win-win proposition, not a matter of one person controlling another.
• Take risks. Treat negotiating as a game, and know that the car salespeople are doing the same.
• Always, always remember to walk out if you don't reach a deal you like.

And finally, know your style of negotiating and use your unique qualities to your advantage. After all, you won't get what you want unless you ask for it. Negotiating is just another way of asking for what you really want.

We have a few for you! If used motor oil is disposed of improperly it can pollute soil, ground water, rivers, and streams. Even if you pour it into a sealed container and toss it in the garbage, the oil can leak out over time and cause environmental damage.

Motor oil never really wears out. According to CalRecycle (California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery) used motor oil can be collected, cleaned, and reused. That process helps to conserve a natural resource - oil - and reduces the need to produce new oil.

Mountain View Tire is a State of California Certified Used Oil Collection Center. You can bring your used oil to any of our southern California locations for recycling. Just drain the oil into a clean container, making sure that it doesn't mix with any of your vehicle's other fluids, water, or any other liquid. If we can answer any questions about motor oil recycling, please give us a call at 1-877-688-4737.

It's easy to understand why automotive service centers are often considered "intimidating environments" by anyone who doesn't know a lot about cars. 

• A customer may be presented with unfamiliar concepts or technical jargon.
• A customer may feel as if he or she is "at the mercy" of the technician with no choice but to replace expensive parts.
• A customer may feel self-pressure to "do whatever it takes" to get back on the road and avoid further inconvenience.

Add to those reasons the fact that most auto service center employees are men and you can see why women, especially, might rank having their car repaired just below going to the dentist for a root canal.

But at Mountain View Tire, we're working to change all that. We've always focused on providing "the WOW experience" to each customer, but now we've taken specific steps to make sure every one of our stores is a female-friendly environment.

Our entire staff has been specially trained by the team at AskPatty.com, an organization that's dedicated to improving the car buying / maintenence / repair experience for women. More than ever, you can trust Mountain View Tire for honest and accurate evaluations, upfront estimates, and friendly customer service that you'll want to tell your family and friends about.

Whether you're shopping for a new vehicle or you'd just like to see how well your current vehicle is likely to fair in the event of an accident, check out this list from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Researchers at the Institue rated cars, SUVs and mini-vans based on how well they protected their drivers in head-on and side-impact crash tests, and against other types of accidents. The page also features links to test details, ratings criteria, and other information on how the researchers arrived at their ratings.