You know taking care of the interior in your car is important because you don’t want to break down on the side of the road or have your car fail to start on important days. What you may neglect is picking up the trash out of your car or wiping down the windows. Surely that’s not important enough as changing your oil? Dirty cars can mean emergencies just as damaging as engine failure. Here are a few tips to keep Pomona drivers safer through cleaning. 

The Beauty of the Open Road 

Long road trips call for fun songs, rolled-down windows and lots of stops to see the sights. They also call for meals on the go. Keep your meal in a shower caddy, so you won’t have to try to grab your burger out of the bag. To avoid that same burger wrapper flying into your face by an unexpected breeze (or worse, flying into another car’s window), keep a trash bag in plain sight of you. Remember to keep drinks in cup holders until you throw them away.

More Tips 

For a cheaper alternative to an air freshener, you can keep a box of dryer sheets at the ready to keep your call smelling great. That won’t save your life, but it will make your drive more pleasant. You should also be sure to clean your windows frequently — even when you think you can see just fine out of them. You may not have the visibility you think you do, especially if the weather changes.  

Going the Extra Mile 

Pomona, CA has THINK Insurance & Financial Services for when you need help on the road. If you need a new policy, or are buying a new car, we can get you the coverage you need. Call for a quote today and see what we can do for you. 

 

Safe driving habits can go a long way in preventing accidents, especially in areas with a lot of traffic. If everyone drove defensively accident rates would plummet, however in the real world this is not the case. While you will never be able to prevent every accident, there are a few things you can do to make yourself a safer driver, such as:

1. Do Not Drive Distracted

This means using a hands-free device in order to call people while you drive, and never texting while you’re on the road. Cell phones cause people to think more about who is on the other side of the line as opposed to what is happening on the road.

2. Always Keep Your Eyes on the Road

In the same vein as not texting and driving, keeping your eyes on the road is essential to being a safe driver. Looking away even for a second may cause you to not see a vehicle stopped ahead, resulting in an accident. Rear-end collisions are almost always the fault of the rear-ending vehicle, which, according to the professionals at THINK Insurance & Financial Services, can result in your insurance premiums going up.

3. Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Someone trying to speed through a red light and hitting you may be entirely their fault, but you can avoid an accident completely by just seeing what is going on. By just knowing what is going on in the area around the road, you can avoid many accidents.

4. Watch Out for Bad Road Conditions

Always drive a little slower when it is raining, or if there is fog since you may have a hard time seeing anything go out into the road, or the vehicle ahead of you stopping. 

 

Letting someone borrow your car is a big deal. Because it is something that you should not take lightly, there are a few things that you should consider before you ever let someone else drive your car. This is true even if they are a friend or family member. Consider these things before you let someone else take the wheel of your personal car. 

• Make sure that the person who is asking to drive your car is currently licensed to drive. Make sure that their license isn’t expired or suspended before you give them the keys.
• Understand their driver history. You will want to know what their driving history is. It will tell you a lot about how they will drive your car today. If they have speeding tickets or a lot of accidents, you should reconsider if you really want them to borrow your car. 
• Check your current policy to ensure that it is up to date as well as if it will cover another driver for your vehicle. These are two things to make sure of before you let another person drive your car. 
• Ask them how long they plan on using the vehicle. Using it one time is one thing but using it a lot in the future can be an entirely different ballgame. You may not even be able to let them use the car that frequently but it is also something to consider for insurance purposes. If they need to use it a lot, you may even want to consider adding them to your policy or seeing if they will add your car to theirs. 

Before letting someone else drive your car, it is important to know these things. Contact THINK Insurance & Financial Services serving Ponoma, California to take a look at your policy. 

Emergency situations can happen at any time while you’re driving. For instance, you could find yourself stranded on a back road with a flat tire or with a dead battery. The professionals may have a boatload of specialty tools for any situation, but you only need a few staples to fix some of the less complicated problems. 

1. A Light

Your car has many spots that aren’t very well lit or don’t have any lighting but are still important to the function of your vehicle. Not to mention, when it’s dark outside, this makes matters even worse because there isn’t natural light to work by. Always have an inspection light in your vehicle. It can help when you’re inspecting your car or when you’re working on it and need some extra light. 

2. Screwdrivers

You may not want to carry around your entire screwdriver set, but you should at least have one Philips and one flat-head screwdriver. You may even want multiple sizes of each variety of screwdriver. Add a Torx screwdriver if you have one. This is the star-headed screwdriver.  They aren’t used frequently, but they are used in the car and may be the difference between you fixing your truck and not having a way home. 

3. OBD II Code Reader

An OBD II Code Reader aids in the diagnosis process of an engine. When the check engine light comes on or your vehicle fails an emissions test, you can use it to find out the code for what’s wrong. Nowadays, they’re compatible with your smartphone. You might not be able to fix the engine problem, but at least you’ll know what could possibly be wrong and if it’s worth it to fix it. 

4. Jack, Socket Set and Wrench Set

Another tip is to always have a jack, socket set and a wrench set. 

Contact THINK Insurance & Financial Services to learn more ways to be a safe a driver or to purchase insurance. 

Even people with very organized and clean homes sometimes forget to keep their vehicles clean. In fact many people find their car to be a major clutter point. This is may seem inconsequential, however it may have more of an effect than you think. 

Reasons to Keep Your Car Clean

1. Cleaning the exterior of your car increases visibility out the windows, and even a small obstruction in your vision can cause a serious collision.  You may not even notice the film around your the swath made by your wiper blades any more but it is still reducing your safety while driving. 
2. People who regularly wipe down the interior of their car get sick less. Areas in the car that are touched often are likely to be overlooked when cleaning to avoid flu germs, however wiping the steering wheel, radio dials and handles often can go a long way in illness prevention. 
3. Saving money is an unexpected side effect of keeping a clean car. Dirt build up can damage the paint job of the car over time, as can ignoring small damages. Fixing a small scratch and keeping a vehicle clean and waxed can preserve the paint job and decrease repair costs while increasing retail value. 
4. Keeping the interior of your car clutter free actually increases your safety while driving because of decreased distractions and no chance of items rolling under the gas or breaks. It also increases your safety in an accident because flying debris can be deadly. 

For many commuters the car falls to the wayside after doing a great job at work all day and giving your all to your home and family in the evening. However it is important that your family car is kept tidy for safety and monetary reasons. Make sure you are saving all the money you can on insurance, while keeping your family fully covered with THINK Insurance & Financial Services. We can keep you safe on the road and financially no matter what life throws your way. 

With modern living in California, the risk of wildfire is becoming more and more of a reality. A home development and communities reach out further and further into areas previously just open land, the interface of high risk zones and property is becoming more of a reality. That involves all types of property as well, not just homes. The number of vehicles being caught up in fire areas as well as being damaged on affected properties is a grow reality as well. Even during an evacuation, cars will be exposed to falling ash, heat, flames, and debris, all of which cause damage small and large.

Fortunately, those with a comprehensive auto policy will find that their coverage can very well address a good amount of the exposure damage and restoration. Much depends, however, on the policy wording as well as the type of policy coverage a car owner had in place prior to the damage occurring. While some policies will deal with issues right from the start, others have deductibles that the car owner has to address first before the coverage kicks in.

For those in the Southern California area and near Pomona, CA, THINK Insurance & Financial Services is well aware of the growing wildfire issues in the general southern state area and can help. They can craft an auto policy that anticipates regional wildfire risk and keeps car owners and homeowners whole. Give them a call to find out more. Sometimes you have to run to get out of the way of a wildfire, but that doesn’t mean you need to take unnecessary losses in the process.