Pennsylvania Auto Dealers

With many teenagers getting their permits and licenses this summer, your Pennsylvania dealers would like to take this time to reiterate some rules they should follow behind the wheel. If you are not a teen driver, these rules will still apply to you, too.

Always Buckle Up
Your seatbelt is one of the best lifesaving features your car has. Even if you have an airbag, your seatbelt is essential for safety. It’s also the law.

Leave Your Cell Phone Alone
Many states are banning handheld cell phones when you are behind the wheel of a car. But even if it is legal where you live, it is still dangerous. Consider a hands-free unit or, better yet, just wait until you pull over to do your calling and texting.

Obey the Speed Limits
Many accidents occur because drivers are going too fast for the conditions or too fast to maintain control of their vehicle. The speed limit is a rule, not a suggestion and it is there for your safety.

Turn Your Radio Down
Blaring your radio is not only distracting, but you also cannot hear emergency vehicles if it is turned up too loud. That’s dangerous!

Are you committing any of these driving “sins”? If so, your Glenside area Toyota dealers encourage you to be an example to your teen driver by avoiding these bad habits and showing them the safe way to drive. It may just save their life.

If you’re like me, you were always told that it is not nice to tattle on others when you see them doing something wrong. But when it comes to life and death situations, tattling is our responsibility to help keep others safe.

That is exactly the premise on which the Tell-On-Me.com program is operated. This new program is designed to keep teen drivers safe by asking other drivers to “tattle” on them if they are driving recklessly or doing something they should not be doing when they are behind the wheel.

Here’s how it works: Parents sign up for the program at a current rate of about $50 per year. They then receive a bumper sticker that they can put on the car that their teen driver usually drives. The sticker has a phone number that other drivers can call and report reckless behaviors. Parents can then log on to the Tell-On-Me.com website and see if their teen driver has been spotted doing things they should not be doing.

The program was started by Kelly Watson, a mother in Alabama who has a teen son who will soon be getting his license. Although it may be embarrassing or an invasion of privacy (as some may argue), the fact that the teen drivers know they are being watched is an incentive for them to be safe drivers.

Your Philadelphia area VW dealers want to encourage you to be the eyes of parents this summer by looking for teen drivers with these stickers. Report any bad driving behaviors you see if the car has one of these stickers. You could be saving a life by tattling on them.

Are you wondering where PennDoT is going to be working this summer so you can plan your trips accordingly? If so, you’re in luck. Your Conshohocken area Toyota dealer offers a brief list of some of the projects the state has planned that could but a monkey wrench in your traveling or commuting plans in the coming months.

One project that you may have already noticed is on Route 28 near the Slate Lick exit. Workers have set up cones in this area to do some preventative maintenance on the road to keep in tip-top shape. PennDot plans to do a lot of work on Route 28 and 422 because those are main roads.

“Our focus needs to be on the primary routes, not the secondary,” said district executive Joseph Dubovi. Much of the focus will be in District 10, which stretches to Butler, Clarion, Armstrong, Indiana and Jefferson Counties.

Workers are also planning to add turning lanes on Route 422 in West Franklin Township near Mushroom Farm Road. Officials have been discussing this idea for a couple years, though, so it may not happen this year.

Officials want to make improvements to sight distances near the Charapp dealership on Route 422 because of recent accidents in the area. In addition, workers have plans to do some preventative maintenance on bridges before they begin to deteriorate beyond repair.

Remember to look out for road workers and slow down to stay safe. They are just doing their job in trying to keep the roads in great shape and pleasant for driving.

Did you know if you live in a rural area and you have a teen driver in your household that they are more likely to be involved in a fatal accident? According to a recent study released by the Allstate Insurance Company, it’s something to look out for.

The study states that teenage drivers living in rural areas of the nation are at a greater risk in being involved in a fatal crash than teens in more urban areas. In fact, teen drivers in rural areas are more than TWICE as likely to get into a fatal accident than their urban area counterparts.

The Allstate study reviewed federal crash statistics for the years from 2000-2006. Researchers found that 51.47 out of every 100,000 teen drivers in rural areas will be involved in a fatal accident. For teen drivers in urban areas, that number dropped to 25.4 for every 100,000.

Your Allentown area VW dealer encourages parents to have a talk with your teen about their driving habits regardless of where you live. The 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are typically the deadliest for teen drivers with prom, graduation and summer going on. Get involved in your teen’s driving habits by creating a written contract between you and them and setting a good example when you are behind the wheel. Even one teen fatality is too many and we should do all that we can to prevent it from happening.

On Wednesday, we began a discussion about officials in Pennsylvania wanting to keep the state’s speed limits where they are at 65 miles per hour. Today, we would like to explore how drivers feel about that decision.

John Thompson, a 44-year-old resident of Emsworth, had this to say about the decision to keep the speed limit at 65 miles per hour rather than raising it to 70: “Five miles an hour is not that big of a deal.” He went on to say: “As a matter of fact, I am a firm believer it should be 75. I don’t think that’s too barbaric. There’s going to be accidents all the time, anyway. The real problem is sleepy drivers, drunk drivers and drivers who don’t pay attention when they use cell phones.”

Many drivers also do not understand why Pennsylvania officials are so staunch on their position to keep the speed limit at 65 mph. Bordering and nearby states like Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana have all raised their speed limits to 70 mph on some roads. Pennsylvania will be one of the last state in the surrounding area to do so if officials ever decide that it’s a good idea.

Your Doylestown area Toyota dealer cares about your safety and the safety of others around you on the road. If officials want to keep the speed limit at 65, respect the law and those enforcing the law. They are just trying to do the best job they can in keeping the roads as safe as possible.

Since it is summertime and the traveling season, we will be writing a lot of posts related to traveling, road trips and summer. This post is no exception. If you are going on a trip this season, you will want to bring along some great road trip songs to keep you excited and energized. Here are some things that make a song a great road trip song.

1. The song must be about a road trip or traveling experience. Some of the best road trip songs speak to the pioneer or explorer in each of us. Songs like Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and Rocky Lynne’s “Lipstick” are two of my favorites.

2. The song should have a peppy beat. Slow songs simply do not make great road trip songs. The only exceptions to this rule are songs that everybody can sing along to in a silly way, such as “Total Eclipse of the Heart” or Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

3. The song must be an average length. If the song is too short, you won’t have time to savor it. If it is too long (think Don McLean’s “American Pie”), you start to space out. Pick songs that are average length for best results.

Of course, these are just a few suggestions to follow from your Allentown area VW dealer when picking your road trip songs. The important thing is to pick songs that will help you have fun and stay awake when you are behind the wheel!

Were you hoping you could start driving faster on Pennsylvania roads and highways? If so, keep hoping because the state’s legislature has decided to keep the speed limit at the current 65 miles per hour despite changing trends of other states to increase their speed limits.

Ohio is becoming one of the latest of 32 states that have raised their speed limits to 70 miles per hour or faster on some highways. Officials in Pennsylvania, which borders Ohio, say there are no plans to go ahead with similar plans.

“I would suggest 65 is plenty fast enough,” explained Representative Joe Markosek, a Democrat from Monroeville and chair of the House Transportation Committee.

Some officials are worried about raising the speed limit any higher due to the aging infrastructure, narrow roads and deteriorating bridges throughout the state. They say a higher speed limit is just asking for trouble like more accidents and injuries among Pennsylvania’s drivers. Brian Newbacher, director of public affairs for AAA, had this to say about the state’s speed limit and road conditions: “It’s probably good where it is now, especially given the condition of some of the roads and bridges.”

Friday, we’ll discuss how drivers in the state of Pennsylvania feel about the legislature’s decision. Until then, your Glenside area Toyota dealers want to know how you feel about keeping the state’s speed limit at 65 mph. Do you think 65 mph is fast enough or would you like to speed it up and go 70 mph? Let us know your thoughts below and maybe some officials will take those thoughts into consideration!

Getting a GPS device is a great investment whether you like to take road trips or just drive around town. The good news is that there are several on the market to choose from which makes them less expensive than they were several years ago. Here are some benefits you can enjoy by having a GPS device in your car.

• Save Fuel
When you have a GPS device telling you how to get somewhere, you save a lot of needless driving around searching for your destination. The GPS device tells you (with incredible accuracy, by the way) how to get where you need to go in a turn-by-turn manner. This eliminates any guesswork, wrong turns and other problems that tend to occur when driving.

• Alternate Routes
Do you hate getting stuck in traffic jams? Some of the more sophisticated GPS devices offer alternate routes when a large traffic jam is reported. Imagine how priceless it is to get off the highway just a couple exits before getting locked in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

• Emergency Services
Some GPS devices offer a one-touch feature that alerts emergency personnel when an accident has occurred. As a result, they can be dispatched to the emergency faster than usual. They may even be able to pinpoint your location through your GPS device.

• Increased Value
If you have a permanent GPS device installed in your vehicle, you add value to it. Your Philadelphia area VW dealer can take care of that for you and get you on your way to a less stressful life of driving!

Your Philadelphia area VW dealer would like to take this time to congratulate Brian Malloy, a math teacher at Bodine High School, for receiving this year’s “Teacher of the Year” award.

Malloy was invited to appear on “Good Morning Philadelphia” as a result of his distinction. The area’s high school leadership team wrote a nomination letter that stated Malloy’s “dedication to student success is evident not only in the classroom, but also every morning at 7 when Mr. Malloy’s students congregate in his office to study together and receive academic coaching from their teacher long before his ‘contractual day’ begins.”

It’s nice to have teachers like this in our school systems in Pennsylvania. Too many teachers these days are just “putting in their time” and collecting a paycheck. Join us in congratulating Mr. Malloy for being more than just a teacher, but also for being a mentor and a person who cares about our kids and their education. Teaching is often a thankless job and it is probably one of the most difficult and underpaid jobs around. Thank you, Mr. Malloy, for your hard work and dedication in the Philadelphia area. We really appreciate it!

You can chalk this story up to a good old-fashioned sports rivalry between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins, but sometimes fans go too far.

Pat Mifsud – a diehard Detroit Red Wings fan – drove his tricked out car enjoys attending his team’s games. When the Wings make the playoffs, he enjoys following them on the road if they are close enough. The last couple years, he has gone to Pennsylvania to watch his Wings battle the Penguins for the Stanley Cup. The only catch is that he does not get warm greetings when he enters the state.

There may be good reason for that, though. His car is decked out with Wings colors. It even says “Detroit Red Wings” on the side in big, bold red letters. He even has a fog machine that emits fog from the Stanley Cup replica mounted atop his car’s roof. But he is more popular in Detroit than he is in Pennsylvania.

“As soon as we got across the border in Pennsylvania, we got a ticket,” he explained. “They said ‘no mud flap.’ We never heard that before. He went on to say fans of the Penguins often throw bottles and yell and scream at him as he is driving through the state. “They’re really upset,” he said.

Your Conshohocken area Toyota dealers want to root for the Penguins during these Stanley Cup Finals. But let’s try to keep it as a good natured rivalry instead of getting crazy and mean about it so everybody can have a good time.