User manual BUICK PARKAVE 2004

[. . . ] 2004 Buick Park Avenue Owner Manual Seats and Restraint Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-57 M Driving Your Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Canadian Owners You can obtain a French copy of this manual from your dealer or from: Helm, Incorporated P. O. Box 07130 Detroit, MI 48207 GENERAL MOTORS, GM, the GM Emblem, BUICK, the BUICK Emblem and the name PARK AVENUE are registered trademarks of General Motors Corporation. [. . . ] The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the alcohol in one drink. What if there is an emergency, a need to take sudden action, as when a child darts into the street?A person with even a moderate BAC might not be able to react quickly enough to avoid the collision. There is something else about drinking and driving that many people do not know. Medical research shows that alcohol in a person's system can make crash injuries worse, especially injuries to the brain, spinal cord or heart. This means that when anyone who has been drinking -- driver or passenger -- is in a crash, that person's chance of being killed or permanently disabled is higher than if the person had not been drinking. {CAUTION: Drinking and then driving is very dangerous. Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness and judgment can be affected by even a small amount of alcohol. You can have a serious -- or even fatal -- collision if you drive after drinking. Please do not drink and drive or ride with a driver who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if you are with a group, designate a driver who will not drink. 4-5 Control of a Vehicle You have three systems that make your vehicle go where you want it to go. All three systems have to do their work at the places where the tires meet the road. Braking Braking action involves perception time and reaction time. It might be less with one driver and as long as two or three seconds or more with another. Age, physical condition, alertness, coordination and eyesight all play a part. But even in 3/4 of a second, a vehicle moving at 60 mph (100 km/h) travels 66 feet (20 m). That could be a lot of distance in an emergency, so keeping enough space between your vehicle and others is important. And, of course, actual stopping distances vary greatly with the surface of the road (whether it is pavement or gravel); the condition of the road (wet, dry, icy); tire tread; the condition of your brakes; the weight of the vehicle and the amount of brake force applied. Sometimes, as when you are driving on snow or ice, it is easy to ask more of those control systems than the tires and road can provide. Some people drive in spurts -- heavy acceleration followed by heavy braking -- rather than keeping pace with traffic. Your brakes will wear out much faster if you do a lot of heavy braking. If you keep pace with the traffic and allow realistic following distances, you will eliminate a lot of unnecessary braking. If your engine ever stops while you are driving, brake normally but do not pump your brakes. Once the power assist is used up, it may take longer to stop and the brake pedal will be harder to push. Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) Your vehicle has anti-lock brakes. ABS is an advanced electronic braking system that will help prevent a braking skid. When you start your engine, or when you begin to drive away, your anti-lock brake system will check itself. [. . . ] 5-62 Tire Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-67 Tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-39 Torque Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-41 Towing Recreational Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ]