Grand Rapids Auto Repair

Walk through any of the local stores and you will see the signs of back to school are everywhere. Backpacks and lunch boxes for the little ones and extra-long twin sheets for the dorm-bound college student. Along with all this busyness, getting your vehicles ready for students can be overlooked. College kids leaving with an older car and new drivers preparing for their first year of driving to school. Moms and Dads also have more driving ahead with school events, sports and music practice, etc. Before the college student leaves, get the oil changed, check the tires and have an inspection done for any needed maintenance. I recommend asking your service advisor about anything that may cause issues before the car returns home later in the Fall. Make sure your student knows how to handle certain scenarios. Car break downs, new noises, and changes in the way the vehicle drives are things that have to be addressed. Make sure they have a local towing company’s number ... read more

One of the things that many people ask is, “What is the number one thing I can do to prolong my car’s life?” The answer is to change your oil. Because I work in the automotive industry, I probably pay more attention to the messages relating to auto repair than the average consumer. I think sometimes people tune out the radio, online and magazine ads because they are inundated with ads to come to certain places to have your oil changed. If you asked your car, it would tell you to change its oil in the recommended increments with the recommended oil. It would tell you not to try to stretch your oil changes out too much, too often. Our family cars have a tendency to get in excess of 200,000 miles. Our 1999 Ford Expedition has 290,000+ miles on it. It went through three teenagers learning to drive and numerous biking and soccer trips. Sometimes it was not shown a whole lot of love in the maintenance department but it always, without fail, had the oil changed on time ... read more

We were! Every summer we have a company event where we can all get together with our families and have some fun. We feel very strongly as a company that spending time together contributes to the team atmosphere we have built. Getting to know family members is important for all of us for the same reason. Luckily Grand Rapids has some terrific options for entertainment. We’ve attended a Whitecaps game before as a group and decided to do it again this year. We have a mix of ages with some of our group having young children and some with teenagers. Or, the empty nesters, which Jeff and I have covered. While I’m not a huge sports fan I always have a great time at the Fifth Third Ballpark. The food is terrific, there are activities for pretty much everyone and there is always something happening on the field. Franky the Swimming Pig made an appearance and decided to shine up Jeff’s scalp, which we all thought was pretty humorous. Crash made his rounds and threw out it ... read more