A not-at-all-trivial question: What's the most likely way to get injured in a snowstorm? Answer: Drive in it.

Driving in the sleet and snow is hard enough, so drivers should do themselves a favor by checking their cars and get them ready for the winter. Mike Calkins, manager of AAA Approved Auto Repair, has broken down this annual chore into three categories:

Q: I have a 1996 Plymouth Breeze, and ever since I had the fuel pump replaced with a used one, it doesn't start normally.

VICTORVILLE, Calif. - A souped-up Chevy Tahoe sports utility vehicle was declared the winner of a robot car race earlier this month after it traveled without help from humans for six hours and 60 miles around a California ghost town.

LANDOVER, Md. - The roars bounced off the walls of FedEx Field, home of the Washington Redskins football team. But the noise wasn't coming from the field, it emanated from the stadium's parking lots, where orange cones were used to set up two race courses.

Much about today's test car, the 2008 Volvo C30 2.0, is distinctly unlike Volvo, or at least the image many people have of the Swedish automaker's products. For example, consider its nifty teardrop aerodynamic shape, rugged rocker panels, and over-the-fenders muscularity. And then there's the fact that it is a small hatchback meant to run with the small European and Asian cars popular with young drivers and older enthusiasts.

Q: My 1999 Corolla's power window froze. I quit trying to work it for a few minutes, and then tried it again. It worked for just a minute, but quit once more. Now, a couple of days later, it is working perfectly. I am afraid to keep opening or closing it, because it might stick.

Motorists should learn the benefits of fuel conservation in order to spend less time at the pump. Not only does fuel efficiency save money, but it also reduces emissions of greenhouse gases into our environment.

The next time you are tooling down the highway in excess of 60 miles per hour, it might be good to keep in mind that your continued well-being depends on a 4-inch-thick cushion of air encased in rubber.

Hard to believe, but it's been four model years since Toyota launched its Scion brand, aimed at the youth market. Heck, some of those early buyers must be nearing 30 by now.

Q: I have a 1996 Ford Ranger that sat for about a year. I would like to fix it up. Everything was OK with it before it was left to sit. Now it has a rapping noise that I think is a stuck lifter.

With so many cars on the road, automobile accidents are an unfortunate fact of life. There are more than 6 million accidents each year, at tremendous emotional and financial cost.

Every year there are millions of accidents on the road. And every year during the holiday season when the freeways are packed with travelers, the public is reminded of the discouraging facts. According to car-accidents.com, roughly 115 fatalities a day are a result of traffic accidents in the United States - one death every 13 minutes.

Americans are clamoring for cars with diesel engines. But the automakers, who are quite used to selling diesels in Europe, seem content to offer these generally more fuel-efficient engines mostly in trucks for the US market.

This car snarls. It's really the only word to describe both the sound and personality of today's test car, the 2008 Volkswagen R32.

PITTSBURG, N.H. - We were not nice to this truck. On a trout-fishing trip in the brilliant fade of fall in northern New Hampshire, we filled it with firewood for a campsite, loaded it with kayaks as well as camping and fishing gear. We also expected it to protect our fishing rods and delicate collections of hand-tied flies. Then we ...

At the wheel of today's test car, the 2008 Corvette Coupe, is the ghost of Zora Arkus-Duntov, the progenitor of what has become an American-made, world-class, high-performance car - at a reasonable price.

While most of us may cringe a little when we write our monthly check for car insurance, the peace of mind and protection it buys is priceless.

Q: I took apart my alternator, looking to diagnose an intermittent-charging problem. Now I can't get it back together. Specifically, I can't get the voltage-regulator brushes back in past the lip of the case. They keep hanging on.

NASHVILLE - At a recent convention of Harley-Davidson dealers here, Delia Passi, a marketing consultant, was sharing the finer points of selling to women with her audience of about 150, many of whom wore boots, jeans, and tattoos. One wore a T-shirt that read, "Born to Party, Forced to Work."

Today's test car, the 2008 Saturn Vue XR AWD, is a crossover, both in terms of design and its heritage.