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Tint-sel Town

Temecula Window Tinting Laws

A few years back my younger brother graduated from high school. His gift? A new, all black, Hyundai with tinted windows and moon-roof. The car was beautiful, sleek and luxurious, with only a handful of previously owned miles on it. In my own envious state (I had a white car at the time and had been itching to get my hands on a black one), I watched, anxious for the moment that I could get behind the wheel and give the car a whirl. I didn’t need to wait long, however, that very night I found myself dropping my brother off at his grad-nite in his new car, and as we flew down the highway, with the nearly blacked out windows rolled up and the music going it felt like we were in nothing short of a rave.

Screen Shot 2015-06-23 at 4.45.39 PMUnfortunately, the excitement over his new car was short lived. He received his first ticket only a short two weeks after the car was gifted to him, and a second ticket shortly after. The citation? Not for speeding, running stop signs, or parking illegally, no his tickets came from a very simple, unsuspecting law: his windows were too dark. Having bought his car from a dealership in Temecula, my mom and dad were shocked to find that they would sell a car with windows tinted too dark, leaving them footing the bill for the ticket. Living in southern California, it’s somewhat surprising to find that the Temecula window tinting laws are as strict as they happen to be. With a hot sun that often causes damage to not only the car’s interior but to the person’s skin, it’s unfortunate that windows follow such stringent rules.

However, stringent or not, the law is the law, and perhaps, by following these tips of the Temecula window tinting laws, you won’t find yourself in the same position as my own family. Continue Reading

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Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

Being A Magnet for Cracked Windshields

A small factoid about me: I am constantly traveling the southern California coast. Growing up in San Diego, then moving an hour north to the OC, meant that I was close enough to visit every weekend, while far enough to wreak havoc on my gas mileage. Factor in the small nuisance that I could not find a job within the year I took off between undergrad and graduate school, and you’ve got a full-blown commuter on your hands. This doesn’t even begin to describe my time in graduate school where I had to commute twice a week to Los Angeles from Orange County (a solid hour north), while picking up shifts at my old job in San Diego, all while trying not to completely burn up mentally from all of the road time.

IMG_5566Admittedly, I have a lot of respect for the people who commute farther and more often than myself, because it’s very draining on not just your energy levels, but your gas mileage as well. Flash forward to my last year of graduate school, in 2014, and my husband and I would up making our first big-kid purchase as a married couple: a new car. Sleek and black, our Mazda CX-5 2014 four-door is large enough for our future family, has these really pretty cream-colored leather seats (with butt-warmers!), and has some pretty killer gas mileage. On the road in this beauty and I was bound to be a warm-tush-touting force to be reckoned with.

That was until my excitement was dimmed less than 24-hours after driving away from the dealership. Everyone dreads the day that their new—or even old—car gets dinged with its first dent, or swiped by its first scratch, or in my case plowed over by a massive rock that came flying from nowhere at my brand new windshield. Okay, okay, I’m exaggerating, the rock was probably pretty small, and I never actually saw it, but the resounding crack was a total let down. Staring at the crack in my windshield of my brand-new car, I cursed myself for buying it. How could I? Why did I purchase a new car? Then, as my husband reminded me, I realized it was because of the gas mileage, and that lucky for me there are a multitude of ways to help out a cracked windshield, old and new alike. Continue Reading