Posted on 4/3/2013
There was a time when the family car was the preserve of only the family dog. Only he or she would be invited out to sanguine family picnics, trips to the park and the most exciting place of all—the local Pet Store Parking Lot! But now, thanks to many new restraint and safety apparatus for all types of family pets, you can take most any pet in the car, truck, SUV or even in a sport coupe safely. That is not, of course, to say that Fido has been left out of this equation. As follows are our ten choices for best pet friendly 2013 vehicles by category. Most Pet Friendly Sporty Car—2013 Hyundai Veloster/Veloster Turbo: The reason the Veloster sport coupe is so pet friendly comes down to one simple and unique engineering feature—its highly useful third, human sized door. No dog likes to hop into the back of any sport coupe and you try restraining a cat in the back of your Porsche 911 without throwing out your back. We ... read more
Posted on 3/27/2013
We're often asked why our customers should take their cars to Convoy Auto Repair and not one of our competitors. Our answer? We're have some of San Diego's best auto mechanics. While we can't necessarily speak to the abilities of our competitors, we can speak to the abilities of our mechanics and the kind of atmosphere we create at Convoy Auto Repair. Our auto repair technicians are all master trained technicians - we hire from the best auto mechanics in San Diego. In addition to being ASE certified, our auto repair technicians live, eat and breathe cars and car repair. They really, truly love what they do and go out of their way to help their customers. Watch our video for more about what makes Convoy Auto Repair attract San Diego's best auto mechanics, and why it's such a great place to work (or bring your car in). You can also check out our YouTube channel and find our other videos and some f ... read more
Posted on 3/19/2013
Even if you're one of the lucky ones who loves your job, getting on the road every morning with thousands of other drivers all trying to balance shaving and polishing off a breakfast burrito isn't easy. The stop and go, getting cut off, and being honked at when it totally wasn't your fault can put the most positive people in the wrong frame of mind for starting the work day. And getting back home is no walk in the park, either (if your daily commute does involve a walk in the park perhaps you're already in a calmer state of mind). Either you can learn meditation techniques in Burma from a Buddhist Monk or you can just listen to your favorite driving songs that soothe, inspire and make you want to sing along like an idiot. You can deny you sing along to music in the car all you want (we know the truth), but we're sure you won’t deny that the following ten songs are a terrific remedy for workday stresses. Best Driving Songs “Let it Be”—The Beatles A truly beautifu ... read more
Posted on 3/8/2013
Belts and hoses are two auto parts every car make and model has under the hood, and they're two of the most problematic parts, no matter what car you're driving. They're delicate yet crucial, which means your car could be stopped in its tracks if your belts and hoses snap. Belt and Hose Replacement Invest in belt and hose replacement at service intervals (based on your car's manual), before they cause you a huge hassle. In the following video, Convoy Auto Repair owner David talks about these necessary little bits and the trouble with belts and hoses. Have a look at the video to learn what you need to look out for before finding yourself stranded on the freeway with a car that won't go
Posted on 2/27/2013
With each new year brings a new round of auto shows around the world, and each new car model offers car makers a fresh chance to wow the world. Car evolution happens so quickly now that car features that were luxurious just a few years ago now come standard on even the most base models of cars. Ten years ago you were lucky if your mid-level sedan came with AC, power windows and locks, and a CD player. Now, you'll never see a car advertised with those things because they're all expected - and cars now have an adapter for your iPod in addition to the standard CD player. It also makes us wonder what luxuries we see now will become standard in the next 5 to 10 years (a cooler in the back seat for chilled champagne, anyone?). Top 10 Standard Car Features that Used to be Luxury Airbags: Someone, somewhere, decided that the wealthy shouldn't have greater safety than the rest of us. Which is great. By law, all cars must have had ... read more
Posted on 2/19/2013
To those who may not be aware, we have our very own YouTube channel! It's loaded with videos both from us and from other awesome car sources around the web. Both informational and fun, our YouTube channel is something any car owner will be wise to subscribe to. The whole Convoy Auto Repair YouTube channel is here, which has our playlists, our recent featured video, and a few car ads we liked, just for fun. In our top video, we meet owner David Ely, who has been behind the wheel (heh heh) at Convoy Auto Repair for more than 30 years. We're pleased to introduce the driving force (heh heh) behind our successful auto repair shop - an owner who is himself an ASE certified auto repair technician and who takes an active interest in his customer's needs. As a born and raised San Diegan, David loves his city and loves meeting his neighbors. He encourages his mechanics to go above and beyond whenever possible and will him ... read more
Posted on 2/14/2013
Car owners and manufacturers are always trying to stand out from the crowd, and understandably so; we all know someone who drives a blue Honda Civic. Some car features are the result of a safety idea, like the seat belts that slide across the door frame and buckle themselves (look ma, no hands!). Other features sound good in theory but are impractical, some scream ridiculous wealth, and some are just plain silly (fake bullet hole stickers, we're talking about you). Here is our list of those more ridiculous car features: Top 10 Most Ridiculous Car Features We'll start with an easy one: The Nissan Cube's headliner. The designers of the rectangle on wheels decided to think outside the box when decorating the interior. The juxtaposition of circular ripples on a car that shares its name with a uniform 3-D square is obviously a bit ridiculous. If you thought the Cube's headliner was out there, check out the Rolls-Royce starlight headliner. Not too sure on what the selling poin ... read more
Posted on 2/5/2013
New years mean new auto shows, and new auto shows mean lots of snazzy new rides. The auto shows this year were far from being an exception. By looking at the newly released vehicles by many auto makers, it's clear that style is the main focus. Even economy car brands like Hyundai and Kia are creating great looking new cars. Economy is still important to American car buyers, and fuel efficiency and low maintenance are still valuable aspects of new cars, but that's not the first thing anyone is going to notice. Here are the top 5 Cars Unveiled at Auto Shows in 2013: 1. Hyundai HCD-14 Genesis: The Genesis has been around for a few years now, and car buyers have pretty much stopped looking at Hyundai as a throw-away car. The future-release Genesis concept has "old fashioned power and glory" that's all about performance now. And if this car passed you on the highway you would be forgiven for thinking ... read more
Posted on 1/29/2013
In the last of our New Year's Resolution series, we'll show you how you can use your car to learn something new and reach that goal of self-improvement. Learning something new, trying a new activity, branching out and getting more out of life are all variations of the same resolution theme: to inject more excitement and enjoyment into your life. Learn to speak a new language: Yes, this very popular New Year's Resolution can be done in the car! Get an audio book or download a language learning app and start driving. You know how you have every word to "Livin' On A Prayer" memorized? It was just an awesome song to rock out to while learning to drive. Repetitive listening not only makes it far more likely that something will stick around in your memory, but when you apply it to learning a new language it will also help immensely with the pronunciation. You'll be oui-ing and si-ing in no time ... read more
Posted on 1/22/2013
Our third New Year's Resolution post in the series touches on another very common pledge: to take a vacation. However, people don't always literally resolve to take a vacation (although Americans are notorious for forgoing our hard-earned vacations in favor of working overtime), but they may resolve to learn to take it easy this year, or simply take a break. Sometimes we resolve to get out there more, to enjoy life more, or to live for something other than your 9-5. Vacations provide a ton of mental and emotional benefits that in turn transform into new benefits, like a clearer head to take on a difficult task, a fresh perspective, or even just a new experience you'd never have had otherwise that ends up helping you down the road. But what about the benefits that involve your car? Too often a vacation - especially a road trip - is seen as a stressor for your car. While this certainly can be true, there are other benefits tha ... read more