By Hailey Uhler

Let’s face it: we’ve all had (ahem) not so POISEd moments when it comes to our cars and their batteries. Whether we forgot to turn off our lights, left the radio on, or simply didn’t close our door quite hard enough, the result is an un-startable engine. And while this embarrassing set-back usually sends us running for the help of an über-handy man, we here at POISE fashion feel that the young women of today are capable of conquering any situation with a little know-how. Sure, you may have no idea what to do with those clampy things in your trunk (a.k.a. jumper cables), and you may not be able to tell an engine from a battery, but read on, so you can learn how to stay POISEd when you need to make like Doris Day in “On Moonlight Bay” and jump-start your car - the boys will be impressed, we promise!

1. Pull the vehicles as close to each other as possible, but don’t let them touch! Batteries can jolt more than 300 volts of power, and the last place you want to be in on the receiving end.
2. Turn off both vehicles and pop the hood of each. Don’t forget to turn off your radio, air conditioner, cell phone charger, and anything else that might be drawing from your car’s battery as well.
3. Get to know your jumper cables. These bad boys are conveniently color coordinated, usually black and red. One is positive (+) and the other is negative (-). Determine, usually by the obvious (+/-) symbols, which is which and don’t mix them up!
4. Look at the battery. There are two large bolts located on top. One should have an orange or red colored plastic protective cover, and the other will be black or not have a colored plastic cover at all. Starting with the dead battery, attach the positive (+) red clamp to the correctly colored bolt, while not allowing the clamps on the opposite end of the cables to touch (you might want to have your friend hold the other two apart).
5. Now, attach the other positive (+) clamp to the positive bolt on the good battery.
6. Next, attach the negative (-) clamp to the negative bolt of the good battery.
7. Then, attach the negative (-) clamp to a solid metal part of the engine on the dead car. Do not clamp the negative (-) clamp to the negative (-) bolt of the dead car! If you do, there is a pretty good chance that the dead battery might explode. Make sure you do this part correctly!
8. Start the good car’s engine, and let it run for about a minute or so. After about a minute, try to start the dead car. If it doesn’t start right away, turn both cars back off and try again.
9. Now that you’ve got your car running again, make sure that you follow these directions to take off the jumper cables properly:

• Disconnect the negative cable from the engine of the car that was jumped
• Disconnect the negative cable from the battery of the good car.
• Disconnect the positive cable from the battery of the good car.
• Disconnect the positive cable from the battery of the car that was jumped.

Last step: Congratulate yourself! A minority of women know how to properly jump-start a vehicle!