Back to School Car Care in Shreveport, From a Family Owned Dealership

Late August in the Ark-La-Tex does not hand you a gentle transition. Caddo and Bossier schools are back, the Red River bridges are stacked up again by 7:15 in the morning, and the heat is not going anywhere until October. Anything you own with wheels on it notices.

Shreveport and Bossier do the back-to-school season differently than a single college town does. Students here mostly commute. LSU Shreveport, Bossier Parish Community College, Centenary, and Southern University at Shreveport all pull from across both parishes, so a class schedule around here is really a driving schedule. Add the families who moved in over the summer on a Barksdale assignment and are still learning a new district, and August turns into a lot of unfamiliar miles.

Get the Family Vehicle Checked Before the Routine Locks In

Short trips in high heat are harder on a vehicle than a straight run out I-20 toward Dallas. School driving is nothing but short trips: drop-off, pickup, practice, then back across the bridge.

Four things worth handling now:

• Air conditioning. A refrigerant charge that was adequate in May can be marginal by the end of August. If the air cools but takes a block or two to get cold, get it checked before you are sitting in a pickup line in September with it blowing warm.
• Tires. Tread and pressure both. Heat pushes pressure up through the afternoon, so check in the morning while the tires are still cold. Penny in the groove, Lincoln’s head pointing down. If you can see the whole head, that tire is done.
• Brakes. Bridge traffic and pickup lines are stop-and-go, which is the quickest way there is to go through a set of pads. A squeal, a pull, or a soft pedal gets looked at now, before it takes the rotors with it.
• A multi-point inspection. Fluids, belts, battery, wipers, lights, and whatever the last pothole on Bert Kouns did to your alignment.

Service runs Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. That Saturday morning block is the first thing to fill in August, so call early in the week if that is the only time you have.

Anything that gets replaced gets Genuine Mopar parts. On a Jeep or a Ram that matters more than people expect, because parts cut for the vehicle fit the vehicle.

Shopping a Dependable Vehicle for a Commuting Student

A student at LSUS or BPCC is not parking a car for three months at a stretch. They are driving to class, driving to a job, and driving home, five and six days a week. That is real mileage on something that has to start every single morning, usually at an hour when nobody wants to be jumping a battery.

Which is the argument for a certified vehicle over a private-party car with a history nobody can document. To carry Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, or Ram certification, a vehicle has to be five model years old or newer, show under 75,000 miles, and hold a clean title with no frame damage. Then it goes through a 125-point inspection, and anything replaced along the way is replaced with Genuine Mopar parts. Every one comes with a CARFAX vehicle history report.

If the number has to come in lower than that, start with the pre-owned inventory and work the price filter down. Go look in the next two weeks rather than the last week of September. Dependable used vehicles at the low end are the fastest-moving thing on any lot in Louisiana right now.

A Family Owned Car Dealership, Three Generations In

Hebert’s is a third-generation family business. The founder started selling cars in Shreveport, his son came into it after Louisiana Tech, and the third generation works in the store today. Same family the whole way through.

What it buys you is accountability that does not route through a call center in another time zone. A trusted family dealership in north Louisiana has to keep seeing you. At the store, around Bossier, in the stands at whatever your kid plays on a Saturday morning. A dealer group headquartered four states away does not have that problem, and that is exactly the problem.

Get On the Schedule