Among the many tools that mobile enhancement technicians use, one of the most valuable is ProDemand from Mitchell1. If you’ve spent any time in the automotive service industry, you’ll recognize the classic brown-and-yellow Mitchell service books. The information in these paperbacks is now available to automotive and electronics technicians through a web interface. Let’s look at why it’s smart to choose a retailer who has access to ProDemand’s vehicle information service.
Vehicle Information Access Improves Efficiency
Whether you’ve bought a new car audio system or a remote starter or are having a blind spot monitoring system installed, the technicians working on your car will need to complete several electrical connections to make the product function properly. ProDemand provides the location and color of the wires required to complete the installation. This information eliminates the need to test multiple wires and can help ensure the reliability of the products you’ve purchased. Access to this data is as important to a tech as owning a good digital voltage meter and a set of quality wire strippers.
With vehicle manufacturers working hard to reduce buzzes and rattles, it’s harder than ever to disassemble a vehicle. ProDemand provides technicians with step-by-step procedures for removing panels. Images typically show the location of retaining clips and screws and the correct disassembly order to access radio tuner packs, amplifiers, body control modules and much more. This saves time and dramatically reduces the chance of anything being damaged.
Automotive Electrical Troubleshooting
Imagine that you’re getting ready to leave for work and you see that the factory backup camera on your Ford pickup truck is foggy and washed out. Many dealership service departments charge as much as $800 for a new backup camera. Worse, you still need to pay to have it installed, and its design has proven that it may fail again. A mobile enhancement retailer who has access to vehicle information resourced by Mitchell1 ProDemand can typically integrate a new backup camera into your factory display for dramatically less than a dealership would charge.
General Service Information
Every now and then, a problem with a vehicle can be confused as a side effect of an aftermarket upgrade. Take, for example, the General Motors ignition switch recall in early 2014. More than 12.8 million vehicles worldwide were susceptible to spontaneous engine shutdown because the ignition switch could move out of the run position too easily. Imagine the number of enhancement retailers who had installed remote starter or security systems, only to be blamed for vehicles not functioning properly. ProDemand includes a feature that allows technicians to look up problems common to a vehicle. If your Cobalt or G5 had shut down, but 100 other similar vehicles without any aftermarket equipment reported the same problem, it would likely have been a vehicle manufacturing defect as opposed to a product or installation issue. Armed with this information, you would have known that the dealership needed to fix the ignition switch.
Dedication to Customer Service
You should treat the process of choosing a mobile enhancement retailer to work on your vehicle the same as if you were choosing an artist to paint a portrait or a photographer to shoot wedding photos. You want to qualify their skills and make sure that they have the right tools to deliver the project on time with a level of quality that meets your expectations. Many retailers who use ProDemand include a brief demonstration of the information available to potential clients as part of their shop tour. A retailer’s investment in this resource is a definite sign of their commitment to quality and excellent customer service.
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Do you wish you could keep an eye on your kids when they borrow the family car or know where your fleet of work trucks are at any time? A GPS-based tracking system is an easy way to keep tabs on your vehicle. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the options for vehicle locating and tracking systems and, of course, explain how they work.
Some
For business owners, knowing how your vehicles are operated is as important as knowing their location. Many commercial solutions include accelerometers that log aggressive acceleration and abrupt stops. Smooth driving reduces wear on the vehicle and improves fuel economy. Many systems provide audible warnings to the operator to coach them in improving their driving habits. Commercial tracking solutions can typically generate reports that will identify idle time to reduce fuel consumption further.
From a business owner’s perspective, knowing where your vehicles are and how they are being used lets you manage your assets reliably. If your staff knows that they are being monitored, they typically drive more 
One product that most 
Aftermarket sound deadening products work the same way. Most sound deadening is sold in sheets or rolls. The material is very dense and has one surface that includes a strong adhesive. Your installer can apply the material to flat metal surfaces like the doors, floor, roof, firewall, rear fenders and trunk of your vehicle.
First, by simply reducing the background noise in your car or truck, you improve the effective signal-to-noise ratio of your stereo. What does this mean? Having less background noise makes it easier for you to hear the quiet parts of your music. Imagine if you were listening to a track at a volume level of 100dB. If you have background noise level of 95 dB, any portion of the song that is around the 95dB level will have to battle with the background noise to be heard. If you can reduce the noise level in your car to 90 dB, you can hear more of your music.
If you watch TV shows like “Detroit Muscle,” “Truck Tech” or “Overhaulin’,” you’ve undoubtedly seen the guys apply a thorough layer of sound deadening material to the floor of some of the coolest hot rods ever. Not only do these materials help keep your vehicle quiet, but they also help block heat from the road, engine, transmission and exhaust from heating up the interior of your vehicle. Dynaliner from Dynamic Control of North America, D-Mat from Design Engineering and the aptly named Heat Barrier from Thermo-Tec are specifically designed to prevent heat transfer into the interior of your vehicle.
There are two common problems that occur with damping materials. First, they simply may not have a strong adhesive or they require extensive surface preparation to stay adhered to a panel. Some damping materials will stick to slightly dusty surfaces without any problems. The second and more important concern is that the material itself is thermally stable. You don’t want the deadening to peel off when it gets hot in the summer. We’ve heard of many cases where vehicle carpets and headliners have needed to be replaced because damping materials turned to a liquid and contaminated them.
People choose to have their car, truck and SUV 
The sun produces a great deal of energy. This energy includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared energy, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays. UV radiation is broken down into three subcategories: UVA, UVB and UVC. UVC radiation has wavelengths between 100 and 280 nanometers and is blocked almost completely by the ozone, water vapor, carbon dioxide and oxygen in our atmosphere. UVB energy ranges from 280 to 315 nanometers. The atmosphere blocks roughly 90 percent of UVB energy. UVA ranges from 315 to 400 nanometers and, because of the high levels that reach the surface of the planet, is responsible for the majority of the skin damage we experience.
Our skin naturally produces a dark pigment called melanin when exposed to UV radiation. Melanin serves as a shield against UV damage. If the UV exposure is prolonged, the layer of cells in the upper skin layer is killed. The result is that your skin turns red in a process called erythema. Contrary to the term “healthy tan,” there is no such thing.
Automotive window films from companies like 3M, Llumar and Scorpion block between 95 percent and 99 percent of ultraviolet radiation. This protection is the equivalent of wearing a lotion sunscreen with an SPF rating of 1000. You get the same exposure to UV energy after 1,000 minutes as you would in 1 minute without the tint. That’s impressive.
The answer to the question “Does darker tint protect better?” is both yes and no. Within a specific series of window films, you may find that their lightest shade of tint (say, a 50 percent tint) blocks 95 percent of UV energy where the darkest films (around 5 percent) blocks 99 percent. Both are quite excellent and offer exceptional protection.
UVA and UVB energy are also responsible for causing the color of textiles and leather to fade. The process of breaking down the chemical bonds in the dyes used in these materials is called photodegradation. Dyed textiles are particularly susceptible to fading. Having your windows tinted with a quality film will help maintain the appearance and value of your vehicle for many years.