I’ve spent years cutting through marketing hype and making practical recommendations in the world of tools and machinery — and choosing a padel racket for play in the UK deserves the same clear, experience-based approach. Whether you’re picking up padel as a new hobby, upgrading from a...
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Maintenance
I recently changed the pads on my daily driver and, as usual, opted to bleed...
Maintenance
I’ve lost count of how many times a concerned driver called me to say their...
Buying Guides
When I traded SUVs in the past, I learned the hard way that the number a dealer...
Maintenance
I remember the first time my ABS light came on: I was running errands, pulling...
Winter changes everything about driving a front-wheel-drive (FWD) car. Grip levels fall, visibility drops, and the way your car behaves in a turn or on a slope can surprise you — often at the worst possible moment. Over the years I've lived...
I remember the first time a check engine light started flashing on me while I was merging onto the highway — that instant adrenaline rush and the frantic scanning of the dashboard. A blinking or flashing check engine light is one of those signals...
City driving changes the way I look at cars. Tight parking, stop-and-go traffic, potholes, and the need to keep running costs low mean that a compact car for urban use has to be more than just small — it has to be reliable, cheap to maintain, and...
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been called out or stood in my own driveway scratching my head at a car that won’t start even though the battery reads “perfectly charged.” It’s maddening because the obvious culprit—the...
I’ve spent years wrenching on cars in my garage and coordinating repairs with shops, and one thing keeps coming up: drivers often do small, daily things that quietly shorten the life of an automatic transmission. Unlike engines, which often give...
I’m sharing a job I’ve done more times than I’d like to count: replacing a corroded wheel hub bearing. It’s one of those maintenance tasks that looks intimidating at first, but with patience, the right approach and common tools you likely...
Buying a lease-return Volkswagen can feel like a smart move on paper: relatively low mileage, dealer-serviced history, and a price that’s often below private-sale levels. I’ve inspected dozens of lease-return cars over the years, and while many...
I spend a lot of time eyeballing tires — in my garage, at the shop, and on the road — because tire wear tells a story about what’s happening beneath your car. If you learn to read that story, you can catch alignment, suspension, and inflation...
I was cruising down the highway the other day in a midlife SUV I’ve had for years when that familiar buzz started around 70 mph. It wasn’t subtle — the steering wheel and seat vibrated, the radio sang a slightly different tune, and I felt my...
I’ve taken older diesel pickups on long trips enough times to know that a weekend tow or a half-day roadside repair is far more likely when you leave the basics unchecked. Preparing an older diesel for a long haul is part mechanical, part common...