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As winter creeps ever closer, experienced car owners know it’s important to get their vehicles ready for the snowy season. Peter Gard, the owner of Goldwing Autocare, an Ottawa wheel and tire specialty store, offers these expert tips on preparing your car for the months ahead:

Install winter tires
It might seem like a no-brainer to install winter tires for when roads are at their slickest, but Gard says lots of drivers hold out until they see snow and ice for the first time, but by then it’s too late. He says that tires need to be switched over when the temperature hits +7 Celsius. His rule of thumb is to do it within a week or two of Halloween. With more than 1,500 sizes of tires and hundreds of models on the market, Gard suggest car owners consult with Goldwing or other tire professionals to be “the tour guide through the

Roof Rack Vs. Roof Box

A debate we hear in our Ottawa showroom is often whether a exposed roof rack or an enclosed cargo carrier is best to carry your Winter snowsport gear. While there is no easy answer, we're laying out some pros and cons to each snowsport carrying solution so you can make an informed decision in selecting your rack system. The most popular brand of snowsport rack we carry is Thule so we'll be keeping this blog post pertaining to that brand only. For our take on other makes that we carry such as Yakima, Sport-Rack, and Rhino Rack, just call or visit the shop and ask!

Rooftop Ski Racks Sportracks that attach to crossbars are the most accessible and affordable form of snowsport racks. These often require model-specific Thule foot-kits to attach directly to your vehicle's roof. These racks cater to both skis and snowboards so your entire family can take their gear to the mountains, without the mess in the back seats. Our premier product in this line is the Thule Snowpack L. Pros: These are versatile and are suitable for hauling a wide range of equipment. Mounts are available that ca [...]

Earlier This Month Peter and Andrew from our team traveled down to San Antonio, Texas for the annual XPEL Dealer Conference. The conference itself was multi-faceted, featuring prominent sales and paint protection speakers from across North America. We were also joined by shops and installers from Germany, Japan, Sweden, and China! The event was a ton of fun for our team and we were happy to make a few important connections with other professional Canadian XPEL film installers from across the Country. A Great Experience The weekend was just as informative as it was an opportunity to share with others our installation, marketing, and customer-service expertise. A few take-away tid bits we learnt: Most XPEL dealers are either entirely retail or entirely wholesale, few incorporate both B2B and B2C into their business model The social media tool most used by installers and installation centers is Instagram Live feeds of installation bays are becoming more and more popular as a passive marketing strategy The Competition At the XPEL Dealer Conference our head installer, Andrew was invited to participate in two XPEL installation competitions. The competitions involved both the XPEL Ultimate paint protection film and [...]