Can You Answer These Common Sense Car Questions?

If your rear end starts to step out while you're driving over ice, you should counter-steer to correct the unwanted drift. For example, if you're going around a right-hand bend and the rear of your vehicle steps out to the left, you should turn your steering wheel to the left to correct the drift.

Pick a point on the road ahead. As soon as the vehicle in front of you passes that point, say to yourself, "Only a fool breaks the two-second rule." If you can finish this saying before you pass the point you initially picked, you should be a safe distance behind the vehicle ahead of you. If it's wet, repeat this saying twice.

It's almost impossible to stall a modern automatic car if it's mechanically sound. If your vehicle doesn't have a reverse inhibit feature and you put it into reverse while moving forward in drive, you may stall the engine.

Jumper cables are always black and red, and for good reason. The black cable always houses the negative (-) part and the red cable always houses the positive (+) part.

Understeer occurs when your front tires lose traction while cornering. If you're carrying too much momentum when trying to turn, your car will keep traveling in the same direction even as you turn the steering wheel.

On front-wheel-drive (FWD) the front tires generally wear out faster than the rear. This is because the front tires need to deal with accelerating, turning and the majority of the braking.

The term "roadster" was an American term given to two-seat cars which offered no weather protection. Now, however, the term is used internationally to include two-seat convertibles.

Twilight, or the short time preceding the sunset, can be quite a dangerous time to be on the road. Visibility is greatly reduced yet many people don't switch on their headlights. To combat this, you must legally switch on your headlights 30 minutes before sunset in all states.

Normally you are never supposed to cross a solid white line on a highway. But, sometimes, traffic conditions may require you to cross a solid white line. For instance, if there was a collision in the lane ahead, you may need to cross the white line to keep traffic moving.

Unlike a solid yellow traffic light, which generally means slow down and stop, a flashing yellow light means to proceed with caution. The traffic facing the flashing yellow light has the right-of-way, whereas cross-traffic will have a flashing red light.

A broken yellow line indicates that passing is allowed. However, you can't just pass whenever you want and must ensure that oncoming traffic is far enough away for you to complete the maneuver safely.

A Breathalyzer is a device used to test someone's blood alcohol level (BAC). If it shows that you're over the legal limit to drive, then you could be convicted.

You need to turn on your indicator and signal a turn at least 100 feet before the turn. This gives other drivers enough warning that you're about to initiate a maneuver.

A V-8 gasoline engine has eight cylinders. Each cylinder on a gasoline engine has a spark plug, so a V-8 powerplant has eight spark plugs.

As you drive over a wet surface, the treads on your tires essentially kick the water out to the side. This means that the part of the road your tires are in contact with is slightly drier and therefore has more grip.

A car's ABS (anti-lock braking system) stops the wheels from skidding when they begin to lose grip. This maintains tractive contact with the road surface and ensures better braking performance.

BMW has a cult-like following, so of course it has some nicknames. "Bimmer" is just one of the many nicknames for a BMW, another popular one is "Beamer".

When you pull the choke on a carbureted engine, it restricts the airflow to the air/fuel mixture. This enriches the mixture which will then combust more easily.

Orange triangular signs are placed on slow-moving vehicles (or smv). SMVs are vehicles which are being towed, or which are unable to reach speeds over 25 mph.

An odometer, also known as an odograph, measures the distance that a vehicle has traveled. This is something you'll always want to check on a second-hand car to see if it's had a long life on the road.

To qualify as a pickup, the vehicle must have an enclosed cab and an open cargo area with a tailgate and low sides. In America, Ford's F-150 has been the best-selling pickup for more than 40 years and the best-selling vehicle for over 30 years.

FWD stands for "front-wheel drive." In FWD vehicles, all the engine's power is sent to the front two wheels.

It's true that it's possible to hydroplane below 35 mph. However, it's not very likely. Your chances of hydroplaning go up considerably once you hit 35 mph, and continue to rise if your speed increases beyond that.

If your brake pedal drops to the floor, there's a chance that it's just lost pressure and you can build this pressure up by pumping the pedal repeatedly. If this works, it will hopefully provide enough stopping power to bring you to a complete stop, but you shouldn't drive again before fixing the problem.

Skids on black ice are the result of change. This could be a change in direction or speed, so the last thing you want to do is hit the brakes.

You need to quickly engage a car's clutch in order to bump start it. Automatic cars don't have a manual clutch, therefore you can't manually engage it.

RWD stands for "rear-wheel drive." In RWD cars, all the power is sent to the rear wheels.

The Corvette is possibly the most recognized American sports car ever made. And you don't get to be so popular without picking up some nicknames along the way. So this model is sometimes affectionately known as a "Vette."

When a car oversteers, the rear wheels lose traction. This is more common on rear-wheel-drive cars, and generally happens when the driver applies more power than the tires can handle.

Doing the "ton" means traveling 100 mph or above and originated from the British café racing culture of the '60s. Achieving the magical 100 mph mark was a dream for the "Ton-Up-Boys" who tuned their motorcycles to go as fast as possible and usually rode a Vincent twin, Norton or Triumph.

If a vehicle is "4X," it has a four-wheel-drive system. Not so long ago this would've been described as "4X4," but has lost the last "4" recently.

A quarter-mile is the most common distance most people associate with drag racing. However, racing over an eighth-mile track is becoming more and more popular, and the premier drag racing classes run over 1,000 feet.

In the automotive world, when we talk about RPM we're referring to revolutions per minute. Specifically, this measures the number of times your engine's crankshaft makes one full rotation per minute.

The Mustang was revealed to the public at the New York World's Fair in 1964 and proceeded to dominate the American muscle scene. The 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 deserves a special mention with its 7.0-liter V-8 engine which pumped out a whopping 355 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque.

Most modern engines have EFI (or electronic fuel injection). With this system, injectors directly deliver the fuel into the combustion chamber.