Follow these easy tips, and avoid these common mistakes, to help ensure you get exactly what you need the first time.

Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Vermont, even Arizona, and many other state and city government fleets have held naming contests for their winter service vehicles. But who has the best?
We read the astrological signs and predicted your automotive future.
You don’t need to do anything—but if you do, there are only a few things worth doing.
Shop Press is the news and idea hub for everything related to working on cars and trucks, focusing on repair, technology, and wrenching lifestyle. With interesting stories from around the world, features on creative people and solutions, and all kinds of other stuff that’ll make you use your mind and your hands.
Auto care news and advice you can use.
Smokin’ tires and smokin’ stacks!
An auto repair shop in Georgia went viral for paying a former employee in hundreds of oily pennies. Then the Department of Labor stepped in.
If you’re using needle-nose pliers like I did for years, there’s a better way.
The in-dash cup holder on certain late ’90s to early 2000s F-150s, Expeditions and Navigators tends to break, but it’s easy to repair.
One man’s tragic death led to a device that transformed the automobile from a luxury fascination to something everyone could own and use regularly.
Are you a wrench and a writer? A counterperson and a communicator? A service writer and a scribe? Get paid to share your experience and expertise with thousands of Shop Press readers.
Auto care news and advice you can use.
What do you check during drum brake service?
Beam-types have a few advantages that keep them relevant. If your arsenal doesn’t include one, you might want to think about acquiring one.
I learned a trick from an old racer that works real well to bleed that rarely leaves me repeating my work.
Bleeding brakes is one of those jobs most of us know how to do, but when a hard-to-bleed system pops up, experienced techs have a few additional tricks up their sleeves to help get the job done.
Vehicle diagnosis is no walk in the park. Proper diagnosis is critical and difficult, and it shouldn’t be done without doing the work.
Does the shop retain right of first refusal, or is moonlighting A-OK?
From Colonel Hogan to Mr. T to Fonzie, here’s a completely unscientific list of television wrenches.
ID Jeeps generation by generation with a few easy tricks.