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Best places to get your car maintained and repaired

In this era of rampant inflation and high interest rates, the challenges of acquiring a car or SUV have been well documented. And so it has never been more important to protect that expensive investment by maintaining it. In recent months, Autoblog has shared Consumer Reports' evaluation of the least and most expensive car brands to keep running, as well as tips to prolong a car’s useful life. Especially since the pandemic, a number of factors have impacted these costs: more complex vehicles, new materials and manufacturing methods, a shortage of qualified technicians and replacement parts. Since 2022, repairs costs have jumped each year by about 10 percent. This month, Consumer Reports is offering a useful primer on keeping your ride in great shape, suggesting what might be the best options for searching out a repair shop, depending, as CR says, “on your car and your situation.” Author Ben Preston identifies three basic types of repair facilities: dealership service departments, independently owned repair shops, and chain repair shops. Building up trust with a specific shop and feeling comfortable going there is important. Preston quotes John Ibbotson, chief mechanic at Consumer ReportsÂ’ Auto Test Center: "You might be able to save a few bucks by going to whichever shop offers the cheapest prices, but if you want consistent, reliable service, itÂ’s best to find a repair shop you trust and stick with it,” Ibbotson says. The story goes on to evaluate each type of service facility. HereÂ’s a breakdown of CRÂ’s findings: Dealerships These work well for owners of newer cars, especially for covered warranty work. But the disadvantage is the high labor rates common to dealer service. Satisfaction ratings for dealer service departments range from very good (Acura, Lexus, Mazda, and Volvo) to not-so-good (Jeep and Kia). Dealers are best for: Fixing infotainment system glitches: "If the screen in the center of your dash has a habit of freezing up, or the touchscreen-activated climate controls arenÂ’t working, the dealership is the most likely place to find someone with the know-how to fix problems that maybe only a factory-authorized technician can access," Ibbotson says. Safety system recalibration: "Anything from a crack in your windshield to a minor fender dent can upset the calibration of the sensors that make features like automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control work," says Ibbotson.

FCA's Pentastar V6 gets more power, efficiency for 2016

Already a vital member of FCA's powertrain lineup, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 is receiving major efficiency improvements for 2016. Thanks to a massive amount of new tech attached to the mill, fuel economy is up six percent, and torque below 3,000 rpm jumps nearly 15 percent. The updates arrive first in the 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but they should proliferate to other models eventually. At least in the Grand Cherokee, the tweaks push power up five horsepower to 295 ponies. FCA's engineers went through the Pentastar from top to bottom to eke out as much efficiency as possible. For example, there's now a two-speed variable-valve lift system that can run in low- or high-lift modes. This upgrade is responsible for 2.7-percent better economy, the company claims. A new intake manifold with longer runners and updated variable-valve times also helps boost the torque output. Further improvements come from pushing the compression ratio to 11.3:1, from 10.2:1 before. Perhaps most impressive is that despite all of the innovations, the latest Pentastar actually weighs four pounds less than the current version. Beyond the Pentastar improvements, all of the FCA US gasoline engines, except for the Viper's 8.4-liter V10, will be E15-compatible for 2016. The company says that it wants to be ready for the higher ethanol content fuel's greater use in the near future.

2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio vs. 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk: On-paper sibling rivalry

Pricing was revealed for the 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, and with its $81,590 price tag, it's within range of yet another high-performance SUV from Fiat-Chrysler: the 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. The Hellcat-powered Jeep is more expensive than the Stelvio at $86,995, but depending on options, the price advantage might go either way. This left us wondering, how similar are these two high-powered SUVs? Besides sharing the same number of words in their very-long names, we took a look at some of their performance specs and put them in the spreadsheet below. As always, if you want to compare either of these with other speedy SUVs, be sure to try out our comparison tools. As far as outright speed, both SUVs are surprisingly close. The Trackhawk is just a bit quicker in a straight line, hitting 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds as opposed to the Alfa's 3.9. The Jeep's 180-mph top speed is also 3-mph quicker than the Alfa. But neither of these differences is especially huge. What makes this interesting is how different the paths each SUV takes to get to its results. The Trackhawk accomplishes the task with pure grunt. It has Dodge's Hellcat supercharged 6.2-liter V8 making 707 horsepower and 645 pound-feet of torque to overcome its hefty 5,363-pound body. The Alfa, on the other hand, makes do with less power and torque, 505 and 443, respectively, from its twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter V6. It has less weight, though. Exactly how much less we're not sure, since Alfa hasn't revealed that number, but a regular Stelvio weighs right around 4,000 pounds, so we would guess the weight is similar, possibly a little more. View 14 Photos The differences in how each SUV achieves its performance should result in pretty different driving characteristics, and probably different buyers. Each SUV's bragging points also indicates this. The Trackhawk boasts an impressive 11.6-second claimed quarter-mile time, something that American muscle car fans everywhere care about. The Alfa brags about how it's the fastest production SUV to lap the Nurburgring, something sure to impress fans of foreign cars and those that value handling over straight-line performance. So really, although these two SUVs have performance similarities, they're also very different, and the right one for you depends on what you value. View 29 Photos Also, as an afterthought, we wonder if the guys that attempted a Viper record at the 'Ring would be up for trying to break the Alfa time with the Jeep.