Description:
Your car or truck is making a funny noise--what do you do next? Motor Trend AutoTech can save you hundreds of dollars in unnecessary car repairs by clueing you in to what's wrong before you take your vehicle into the shop. With support for more than 600 vehicle models and an intelligent database of dozens of potential symptoms and diagnoses, this CD-ROM will put you in control of the maintenance and repair of your car. Particularly useful features include a database for tracking the repairs made to your vehicle during the course of ownership, plus safety, value, and other ratings for hundreds of cars made from 1983 to 2000. Should you lease or buy? There are simple calculation features that let you compare the cost of your next car for both options. But it's the diagnosis feature that makes this program really useful. Through a series of questions about what's going wrong, AutoTech arrives at the likely source of your car's problem and possible remedies. (Basic automotive skills such as checking your oil are demonstrated with full-color photos.) This help database is based on input from expert mechanics, and you can use it to distinguish small problems you can fix yourself (like adding more oil) from real problems that need professional attention. By acquainting yourself with the possible source of your vehicle's problem, you'll save embarrassment (and likely some money) by appearing more knowledgeable when you visit a mechanic. As an added perk, this program will remind you when maintenance is due for your car, based on the number of miles driven per year and its make and model. (You can track multiple vehicles easily--up to 15--by creating different profiles for every car in your garage.) Especially for the automotive novice, this program may pay for itself several times over by minimizing unnecessary repairs and improving preventive maintenance of your car so that it will live a longer, healthier (and less costly) life. --Rich Dragan
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