
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991                   TAG: 9103150052
SECTION: AMERICAN WOMEN'S SHOW                    PAGE: AW13   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: ANNE PIEDMONT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAR-CARE CLINIC PUTS TROUBLES IN PLAIN TALK

It's any woman's bad dream come true: her car breaks down, far from home, in the rain, at night. How could this have happened? What could have prevented it? What can she do?

Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. will answer those questions Saturday at 1 p.m. with its "For Women Only" car-care clinic. Fran Wagner, the company's district manager, will conduct the free seminar designed to acquaint women with basic auto care, teach them how to assume responsibility for maintenance and how to get their money's worth from service centers and mechanics.

"Women are taking more and more responsibility for car care," Wagner said, noting that the trend involves well over 40 percent of the nation's autos. And she should know. She's been doing these clinics for close to 18 years and has seen the audience grow from 15 women to 150.

"Our clinic is designed to explain the working components of an auto in plain English," she said, and to teach women how easily they can perform such routine chores as checking oil, coolant level and tire pressure, as well as jump starting, refilling windshield wiper solvent and changing wiper blades.

Wagner will "de-mystify" the automobile by demonstrating on a real car. Her audience will have the opportunity to see a fan belt and a radiator hose and to watch her check the oil and add windshield wiper solvent. And, they'll have a chance to ask questions. Wagner enjoys "the give and take" of the clinics and hopes there will be a lot of questions.

Every woman attending the clinic will receive a handbook detailing the parts of an automobile, what to look for when problems occur, how to identify potential problems by recognizing the early symptoms and how to react if the car does break down. She noted that the easiest way to deal with the rainy night break down is to prevent it from happening.

Both the handbook and the owner's manual should be required reading for women who want to be involved with their own auto maintenance. That involvement can range from actually doing routine work to knowing what to say to the mechanic. "You cannot rely on a service station to check your car out," she said, explaining that the smart consumer should go to a mechanic or garage with a "shopping list" of work to be done and areas to be checked. At the least, women need to know such basics as how often to check the oil and when to add coolant.

The clinic includes "emergency tips" - such as using black electrical tape to temporarily patch a hose leak and how to prepare a "goody box" for the trunk. The box should contain extra oil and coolant, spare hoses and belts, and other handy items. It's not necessary to go out and buy a second set of new hoses and belts, she said. Simply ask for the old ones back after they've been changed. "There's nothing wrong with them, they're just old."

Wagner sees these car-care clinics as her "way of giving back" to other women. She's never been baffled by the workings of the automobile. Her father made sure his daughter - an only child - learned about auto maintenance and repair. She does the same for others. "Through our clinics, women become more comfortable, confident and competent in dealing with routine auto maintenance."

by CNB