Prevent Pandemonium For Perfect Performance

Drivers have a lot more distractions today than they did just a decade ago, and those attention-stealers are to blame for crashes that are costly in terms of both money and lives. Thankfully, the people who see the damage caused by in-car diversions have thrown together this list of tips for managing and avoiding them.

Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville, Illinois is in the business of trying to reverse the mistakes that some people make on the road. At one point, a driver only had an AM radio to distract himself with. Now, any number of vehicles has enough high-tech electronic gadgetry to pilot a space shuttle, and they can all diminish the concentration of a driver.

Following the following tips can reduce the chance of a crash by a large margin and make a trip less stressful for everybody in the vehicle.

•   Do Not Text And Drive – Figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that the risk of a crash is twenty-three times higher for people who are sending and receiving text messages while they drive. That isn't very hard to imagine, since a car going fifty-five miles per hour will go the length of a football field in the four and a half seconds it takes to type or receive a message. Driving while you text is even compared to driving while drunk. The good thing about a text message is that it will be sitting there in your inbox for when there is time to pull over and read it.

•   Limit or eliminate cell phone use while you are driving – A study by Australia’s Monash University Accident Research Centre found that handheld devices like a cell phone raises crash and injury potential by four times what it would be otherwise. If a passenger in the car, let that person do the conversing while you do the driving.

•   Go ahead and use a hands-free device, but only for necessary calls – Carnegie Mellon used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to keep track of the brain activity of people answering a series of true/false questions while simulating driving on a computer screen. They uncovered a 37 percent decrease in the brain’s ability to figure out spatial relationships (such as between the car at speed and other objects) when the “driver” focused on answering the questions. This information suggests that a conversation with a person not in the passenger compartment will diminish the driver’s reflexes behind the wheel.

•   Program your global positioning system before setting out on a trip or errand – Portable and in-dash GPS devices are immensely helpful for getting us where we would like to go, especially if they call out the step-by-step directions. However, don't forget that they are only useful if the driver does not attempt to input information while the vehicle is moving. Most GPS devices even display a legal warning against this sort of action before they can be used.

•   Learn a vehicle’s instruments and adjustment knobs before you even leave the garage – The cars of today have dozens of little control keys, switches and handles that you might need to activate or deactivate while you're on the road, and a driver has to be familiar with them if they really want to avoid distraction. Adjusting the windshield wipers, headlights, radio settings, climate controls, seat height, steering wheel angle, emergency flashers, or any number of other gizmos could be the distraction that causes your car accident.

•   Save eating and drinking for the rest stop – Americans, it seems, have perfected the art of eating and driving, which is why cars made for the U.S. market frequently have more cup holders built in than seats. In fact, NHTSA points out that a driver’s morning cup of coffee and muffin are about as distracting as a cell phone conversation may be.

•   Keep children and pets in the approved seats or areas for them – Crash-test engineers have determined the safest placement for children of various sizes and ages in automobiles. Following applicable federal and state laws also decreases a parent’s chance of diversion while driving because the child will not be as likely to get injured or into trouble in a moving car if restricted. Letting animals roam free within a moving vehicle is not only a terrible idea; but it is illegal in some states as legislators try to crack down on distracted driving.

Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville, Illinois, also fixing cars in Edwardsville, Troy, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, and Highland, want you to know that there are a large number of ways to reduce the amount of dangerous distractions within a vehicle. These tips address just a couple of the easiest ones for people to fix. Anything a driver does to concentrate on the road will improve their chance of a safe arrival.

For more tips on driving and collision repair, visit www.auto-body-maryville-il.com. CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts gives high-quality, reliable repair service in 32 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Just call 618-345-4519 when you need a vehicle repair, and they'll quickly send a tow truck, contact your insurance agency, arrange for a rental car and repair your vehicle.

There Isn't A Magic Wand For Everything...

On the surface, a scratch repair pen might seem like an absolutely wonderful idea. What’s not to like about making easy repairs to your car’s finish by just drawing a line along the damage? It turns out, the outcomes aren’t always like what you might see on TV. Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville, Illinois, also serving folks in Edwardsville, Troy, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, and Highland, are happy to offer these very interesting test results.

For one thing, we found that they absolutely will not work on anything but minor surface scratches. And, all things considered, they may make the damage look worse.

Marketed as a lightning fast way to avoid expensive auto body shop expenses, manufacturers say that anyone can get results from the pens that look entirely professionally done, which cost ten dollars or even less. We sampled three to see if the claims were in fact true.

What we tested

The Simoniz Fix it Pro ($10), DuPont Pro Fusion Color ($8), and Turtle Wax Scratch Repair Pen ($10) are commonly available on the internet or in just about any auto parts stores. Claimed to work with any color of paint that your vehicle may be, they contain a totally permanent clear coat sort of like the protective outer layer used on vehicles that are rolling out of the factory. However, what their packaging doesn’t make entirely clear is that these pens are only for surface scratches within the clear coat. If the damage goes into the paint beneath, you’re simply out of luck.

We also found that the pens may be pretty difficult to use, and that it’s not easy to get the thin, even line that you will want to neatly fill up the scratches without overfilling it. With applicator tips that're about as wide or wider than a typical scratch, our sampled products make it hard to stop yourself from applying too much filler, and leaving a visible residue that’s a lot more overt than the problems you’re trying to repair. And getting rid of that gunk might require sanding and buffing it out, and maybe even some touch-up paint.

As a general rule, these products won’t help with any scratches that are deep enough to feel with a fingernail, or if you can see primer or bare metal. For damage of that nature, you’ll need more than clear filler and an incredibly steady hand. The way to repair damaged paint can only be with more paint.

How we tested

For our testing, we used exactly the same lab-grade black test panels that you buy for car wax testing. These panels are painted and clear coated with automotive finishes to perfectly simulate the exterior of a car. We also tried them on two different types of vehicles that had pre-existing light scratches: a silver Toyota Sienna minivan and a dark blue Honda CR-V.


We put scratches in the test panels with both keys and bolts, and then used the products as outlined by the instructions of the manufacturer on the panels and vehicles. To do this, we washed and dried the damaged area, shook the pen to mix the contents, dabbed the end on a piece of paper towel so that the product would start flowing, and carefully drew the pen along the exterior area of the scratch. After applying the products, we moved the samples onto the roof of our building where they weathered for four weeks.

The results

All three of the products did in fact fill up the scratches, and we saw no distinguishing feature worth mentioning between them in ease of use or effectiveness.

From some angles, the repairs looked exactly as advertised in the TV ads. However, other angles were significantly less flattering; they revealed a ridge of noticeably excessive clear coat. The results looked like a very unprofessional job at the very best, and often the repair was even more noticeable than the original scratch was. The Simoniz and DuPont products suggest that you wipe off any excess of the substance that you may see with a paper towel, but we found this made things look even worse by smearing the paint over the undamaged surface.

We advise that you save your money and skip these 'easy' fixes for small scratching or try a cleaning polish instead.

For deeper scratches, a visit to Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville may be your best bet.