The 100 Best Car Tips For Men(2)

26. Jump-Start a Dead Battery
If your battery terminals are corroded, crack open a can of cola and pour it directly onto the battery terminals. The acid in the cola will bubble away the corrosion, improving both your connection and the odds of a successful jump-start. Once you're home, run water over the battery to remove the cola residue and dry it with an old rag.

27. Avoid the Hot Seat
If you want to become a dad, don't turn up your heated car seats this winter. A study in Fertility and Sterility found that when healthy men sat in a temperature-controlled seat for 90 minutes, their scrotal temperature jumped as high as 99 degrees Farenheit, four degrees above the optimum temperature for sperm production.

28. Ace the Details
If you want to customize a new car without making it look like something out of Pimp My Ride, start with the wheels. A rim upgrade can be inexpensive ($1,500 or so) and quick (your car won't be laid up for a week). If you have a higher-end car, you don't even need custom rims—just get the wheels powder coated in a new color.

29. Roll 'Em Up
Nixing the AC lowers fuel consumption, but only if you're not driving on the highway. Otherwise, opening the windows uses more gas because of the drag you're putting on the car. Instead, run your AC in recirculation mode, which recycles some already-cooled air from inside the car, requiring less energy than completely cooling the air that comes in from outside. HOW TO...BEAT THE DEALER

30. Hit the �Net
Research your dream vehicle online and you'll spend 1 hour and 20 minutes less time at the dealership, according to a 2007 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. Build the exact car you want at a site like Edmunds.com, and then use the site to request quotes from at least three dealers.

31. . Start Negotiating
Your weapon: e-mail. Once you have quotes from multiple dealers, play them against each other. Don't set foot into a showroom until you know who's giving you the best deal. Remember: The dealer's first offer—even if it is that $12,000 discount—is always a bad deal. Tell him, "I need you to do better than that." See how low you can get the salesman to go before you give your opening offer.

32. Time Your Attack
Sellers are desperate to hit sales quotas at the end of the month, so pounce then. And shop early: Sales managers sometimes offer a bonus to the staff member who closes the first deal on a Saturday, according to a former salesman Michael Royce, founder of BeatTheCarSalesman.com.

33. Arrive Armed
Before going to the dealership, learn your credit score and check with your bank (as well as sites like bankrate.com) about loan options—or you'll be at the mercy of the dealer's finance office. Just don't take on a loan that will last longer than you'll own the car. As a general rule, if you have to stretch the payments beyond four years, you can't afford the car.

34. Skip the Discounts
"Buy now and save $12,000!" It sounds tempting, but you'd better really like the car (read: want to keep it for at least 5 years). Steep discounts now create horrible resale values later. The same applies to discontinued models.

35. Buy, Don't Lease
Leasing is more expensive because you're using up the best years of the car's life. A monthly lease payment is precisely calculated to ensure that you pay for every penny of that dizzying depreciation, along with interest and other fees. If you'll keep the car at least 5 years, buying is usually a better deal.

36. Choose From the Lot
Dealers use credit to pay for their inventory, especially cars that are on their lots for 3 months or more. This motivates dealers to sell their own stock first.

37. Hide Your Emotions
If a car takes on human attributes, you're more likely to evaluate it positively, according to Canadian researchers. That's why your salesperson calls it "she." Keep the talk technical and ignore the rep's attempts to humanize the vehicle. Similarly, the longer you sit inside a new vehicle the more you'll feel as if it's yours.

38. Skip the Trade-In
Learn your car's value at kbb.com. Sell it online if the dealer's offer isn't within $500 of the private-party price.

39. Go for a Spin
This is the last step. A test drive should only break a deal you've settled on, not serve as the basis of your purchase. "Dealers want you to drive the car as soon as possible," says Eddie Sotto, a showroom designer. If you have an emotional connection, you're more likely to buy.

40. Empty Your Pockets
The average guy spends 67 minutes each day behind the wheel. A thick wallet in your back pocket raises one hip above the other, twisting your spine and straining your lower back. Plus it can put pressure on your sciatic nerve, a common source of lower-back pain, says Stuart McGill, Ph.D., of the University of Waterloo, in Ontario.

41. Be Careful in the Country
Rural roads have a death rate 2.5 times higher than that of any other type of road. The reasons include dangerous, poorly marked curves, lack of streetlights, distance from medical care, and a higher percentage of alcohol-impaired drivers.

42. Forget Your Keys
On your next date night, leave your cars in the garage for a change and hire a car service instead. You'll ride in style to and from a restaurant, enjoy a night of carefree drinking and dancing, and you won't need to worry about staying sober for the drive home.

43. Beat Frost
Run the air-conditioning while defrosting the windshield. (New cars do this automatically, but in older cars, turn it on yourself.) AC air is dry, so it will take the moisture out of the air by dehumidifying as it cools. If you're cold, adjust the temperature so that the AC pumps out warm air.

44. Use Your Eyes
A bad driving habit is focusing on the road in front of you or at the bumper of the car ahead. Practice looking farther ahead. By the time you're in the turn, for instance, you should be looking ahead at your exit. It may feel like this will cause you to run off the road, but it won't. Your peripheral vision will keep you in line.

45. Ditch the SUV
They accelerate more slowly, they brake more slowly, and it takes them longer to clear intersections. (One study suggests they can create up to 20 percent more "lost time" at an intersection, and lost time is a huge factor in congestion.) SUVs also obstruct the view of drivers next to them and behind them, creating blind spots and causing other drivers to be more tentative.

46. Check Your Emissions
The Blade is an aftermarket device that attaches to your car's tailpipe and reduces CO2 emissions by up to 12 percent. It also improves fuel economy by up to 12 percent by shortening the duration of your car's wasteful cold-start period, when fuel burn and particulate emissions are both at their worst. Go to: bladeyourride.com.

47. Quickness Counts
Slipping a 5-speed's clutch—that is, pausing briefly as it engages a gear—ensures a smooth start, but it also generates heat that diminishes its life. So don't be bashful. Get in gear, then get off of the left pedal as soon as the car is rolling.

48. Wax Off, Then Wax On
Most old wax leaves a car on its own—in fact, three-quarters disappears after 2 months. But you'll want to apply an ordinary car cleaner prior to waxing to remove the rest. Anal-retentive pros also use a Silly Putty-like material called paint clay to remove any remaining residue. Find it at meguiars.com or griotsgarage.com.

49. Get Some Support
If your car doesn't have adjustable lumbar supports, buy your own backrest—or simply roll up a towel and place it behind you to fill in the small curve between your waist and hips. The more you support your spine, the less your back will ache. 

50. Forget Your Schedule
Trips usually take 10 to 15 percent longer than planned, says Leon James, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and the author of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. Accept this before you travel.

51. Lose the Junk
Every 100 pounds you remove improves economy by 1 to 2 percent, so clear our your trunk and your backseat before you leave home. Both of them are preferable to a loaded-down roof rack, however, which can fuel economy by as much as 5 percent.

52. Skip the Corn Nuts
Keep your blood-sugar levels under control by eating fiber-rich apples and pears and drinking water, says Monique Ryan, R.D., author of Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes.