Outstanding!

Did you know that Bernard’s Garage builds their own gift baskets for all different types of functions and organizations. We custom build them to you dollar specifications whether it is for a personal gift, school fund raiser, church auction or car show we have them available.

We also have gift certificates available. Contact Siri, John or Mark at Bernard’s Garage for more information.

We would like to thank all the contestants who participated in the Facebook contest, keep checking our Facebook page  and don’t forget to like us for special deals.

What’s left people guessing, however, is exactly how far you can go when the gas light comes on, and since there’s no established standard for reserve fuel capacity, it varies with each automaker and model. But thanks to the website Tank on Empty, which has a searchable, user-submitted database, you can have a better idea of your on-empty range. 

According to the site, there are some surprising low-fuel winners: the mammoth Ford Excursion may guzzle gas like a cargo ship, but it also boasts one of the longest ranges, averaging 85.12 miles. That beats the eco-conscious Prius, which can run for 55.12 miles, or a Porsche 911 Carrera, which could quickly leave you stranded on the shoulder with its average of 23.82 miles.

But don’t get emboldened by the data to run your car on fumes, because continuously doing so can wear out the fuel pump. Most modern vehicles use an electric fuel pump, which is inside the fuel tank and relies on the gasoline to keep it cool; hence you’ll want to keep the tank at least a quarter full to prevent premature wear.

Plus, there are some imitations to the tool. The data doesn’t distinguish between different model years, so an aging Toyota Corolla with a bad oxygen sensor could skew the results against a new one that just rolled off the dealership. And since the data points don’t reflect how much further the cars could’ve gone, they’re more an insight into driver refueling habits than a reflection of a car’s on-empty range.

Such crowdsourced data may become obsolete as manufacturers use trip computers that indicate the miles left — it’s already not only in luxury BMWs and Audis, but also in entry-level compacts like the Subaru Impreza. Whether there’s still some padding in the trip computer’s range or not, that only means drivers can push cars further into empty.

Bernard’s Garage can provide a solution by matching the tread depth of the replacement tire to the tread depth of the partially worn tires that will remain on the vehicle by removing tread rubber from a new tire on a specialized machine that operates as a tire lathe. While this may seem counterintuitive, the value of the mileage sacrificed by the one replacement tire is considerably less than the cost of rebuilding worn driveline components.

Bernard’s Garage has offered a tire shaving service that has been primarily used for preparing competition tires for racetrack use. This same service can also be used to remove tread rubber from new pairs or individual street tires used on four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles to allow them to match the remaining tread depth of the other partially worn tires that will remain on the vehicle. In addition to providing equivalent tread depth to eliminate driveline stress, shaved tires will also better match the traction and handling qualities of the remaining worn tires.

While the cost of our street tire shaving service will range from $75 to $90 for each tire, it is significantly less than the cost of unnecessarily replacing the remaining two or three good tires with lots of mileage still available from them.

Four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles are equipped with additional differentials and/or viscous couplings that are designed to allow momentary differences in wheel speeds when the vehicle turns a corner or temporarily spins a tire. However, if the differentials or viscous couplings are forced to operate 100% of the time because of mismatched tires, they will experience excessive heat and unwarranted wear until they fail.

This necessitates that four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles use tires that are very closely matched. This is because different diameter tires roll a different number of times each mile as a result of the variations in their circumferences. Tire diameter variations can be caused by accidentally using different sized tires, tires with different tread designs, tires made by different manufacturers, different inflation pressures or even tires worn to different tread depths.

As an example of different tire diameters resulting from tires worn to different tread depths, we’ll compare two 225/45R17-sized tires, a new tire with its original tread depth of 10/32-inch and a second tire worn to 8/32-inch of remaining tread depth. The new 225/45R17-sized tire has a calculated diameter of 24.97″, a circumference of 78.44″ and will roll 835 times each mile. The same tire worn to 8/32-inch of remaining tread depth is calculated to be 1/8″ shorter with a diameter of 24.84″, have a circumference of 78.04″ and will roll 839 times per mile. While the difference of 1/8″ in overall diameter doesn’t seem excessive, the resulting 4 revolutions per mile difference can place a continuous strain on the tires and vehicle’s driveline. Obviously, the greater the difference in the tires’ circumferences, the greater the resulting strain.

This makes maintaining the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended tire inflation pressures and using “matched” tires on all wheel positions necessary procedures to reduce strain on the vehicle’s driveline. Using “matched” tires means all four tires are the same brand, design and tread depth. Mixing tire brands, tread designs and tread depths may cause components in the vehicle’s driveline to fail.

Mismatched tires or using improper inflation pressures for all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles can also result in immediate drivability problems. Some Control Trac equipped vehicles in 4Auto mode may exhibit a shutter on acceleration and/or a noise from the front driveline and transfer case while driving. Some all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles may exhibit axle windup or binding while driving. Some four-wheel drive vehicles (manual or electronic shift) with a two-wheel drive mode may refuse to shift “on the fly” into 4×4 Auto or 4×4 High at highway speeds.

Alot of the local dealerships and local auto repair shops have this normal pricing  where the service writer AND the service technician are both on commission, and you the consumer really don’t know what you are ”really” are being charged for, the “repair” or the “add on or upsale”. To many times people are being sold services they don’t really need to do just so the service writers can meet their quotas more so towards the end of the month, they get away with this practice by  ”recommending”  the service or using some kind of  “fear”  marketing like ” well your motor will blow up if you don’t do this service” or ” your brakes may not work if you don’t do the work”.

Here at Bernard’s Garage in downtown Milwaukie, our service writers are all on a fixed salary compensation plan, they get paid the same if they sell or dont sell any work. Their salaried position’s allow them to focus on the customers needs, the shop’s performance and not their paychecks, meaning when your vehicle is brought in for service or repair, it is evaluated by the service technician, the repair order gets turned into the service writer who then decides what the best plan for the repair will be without under selling or over selling the job.  We write a full estimate for repairs that are needed to correct the original problem, then if there are any other items that need addressed, we write those repairs up on a safety and priority order basis meaning what you need to have serviced next and what you can wait on. You can rest assured at Bernard’s Garage that we will never over sell a repair to boost the compensation factor of the staff. Here at Bernard’s Garage, we preach “maintenance is a good investment” do it right, do it once where we offer options for repairs.

WHAT’S IN A NAME. That first production model was called the 5T71. Galvin decided he needed to come up with something a little catchier.
In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix “ola” for their names -Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola were three of the biggest. Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola. But even with the name change, the radio still had problems:
When Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.) In 1930 it took two men several days to put in a carradio — The dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the ceiling had to be cut open to install the antenna. These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery, so holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them. The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions. Selling complicated car radios that cost 20 percent of the price of a brand-new car wouldn’t have been easy in the best of times, let alone during the Great Depression –

Galvin lost money in 1930 and struggled for a couple of years after that. But things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola’s pre-installed at the factory. In 1934 they got another boost when Galvin struck a deal with B.F. Goodrich tire company to sell and install them in its  chain of tire stores. By then the price of the radio, installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running. (The name of the company would be officially changed from Galvin Manufacturing to “Motorola” in 1947.) In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios. In 1936, the same year that it introduced push-button tuning, it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts. In 1940 he developed with the first handheld two-way radio — The Handie-Talkie — for the U. S. Army. A lot of the communications  technologies that we take for granted today were born in motorola labs in the years that followed World War II. In 1947 they came out with the first television to sell under $200. In 1956 the company
introduced the world’s first pager; in 1969 it supplied the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon. In 1973 it invented the world’s first handheld cellular phone. Today Motorola is one of the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world –And it all started with the car radio. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO The two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin’s car, Elmer Wavering and William Lear, ended up taking very different paths in life. Wavering stayed with Motorola. In the 1950′s he helped change the automobile  experience again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and,eventually, air-conditioning. Lear also continued inventing. He holds more than 150 patents. remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented that. But what he’s really famous for are his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot, designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system, and in 1963 introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world’s first mass-produced, affordable business jet. (Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.) Sometimes it is fun to find out how some of the many things that we take for granted actually came into being!
and It all started with a woman’s suggestion!

Now don’t think just because you have snow tires on your vehicle you can go 95 mph down 205 with ice or snow on the road and expect to come to a dead stop without incident. In fact it is recommended that you slow down and take it easy to take advantage of the most traction control the tire will allow at the best speed. There are alot of factors involved with proper control,  speed,  road surface and condition,  inclines,  traffic conditions,  four wheel drive,  2 wheel drive,  all wheel drive etc. etc. etc.

There are 2 types of “snow tires” studded and studless. Both tires have pros and cons. Studded tires have in my opinion the best traction and stopping option, however they are very bad for the road surface acting like a cheese grater chewing up the asphalt. Studded tires can only be run from November 1 to April 1. there is a steep fine if you are caught driving with studded tires during off winter times. With that schedule in mind, you can with proper care, get 5 to 6 seasons out of a set of studded tires.

Studless tire are great for not eating up the road, but they wear faster because they have a softer rubber surface and people tend to run them on the car year round shortening the life of the tire down to about 2 seasons. Studless snow tires are quieter and do not have that constant ticking noise going along the road surface like a stud has.  Studless tire are not cheaper than studded tires however they offer better control on dry surfaces in between storms.

It is always a good idea to purchase a set of take off snow wheels for your snow tires to be mounted on. What this gets you as the consumer is that it will cost less in the long run paying for the tires to be pulled off and remounted onto your stock or custom wheels, avoid scratching them or at worst breaking the expensive tire pressure monitoring sensor that is on the inside of the tire. It also shortens your time at the tire shop getting them switched over if they are already on snow wheels.

The bottom line here is that between common sense, personal decisions, the type of driving you plan to do, your budget and the recommendation of  your local repair shop, will most likley decide which tire and wheel you will want to purchase.  Bernard’s Garage has a complete line of snow tires and wheels for every application at a fair price. When you purchase snow tires at Bernard’s Garage, we will store them for you at our garage during the off snow tire season. This is a free service we provide to our local Milwaukie / Portland metro area, call the garage for more details.