7 On Your Side advises drivers to clarify what tune-ups entail

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Triple AAA predicts this year will be the busiest summer travel season in a decade, so if you're driving, your car may be due for a tune-up.

Getting a tune up may be something that's a bit out of date, and that's because the term has a flexible meaning.

Most car owners think of getting tune-ups as just part of maintaining their cars, but many drivers may not be aware of what a tune-up entails.

"Tuned-up means change the oil, check the tire pressure, check my breaks," said Anthoney Azzollini, of San Francisco.

A tune-up means different things to different people and sometimes it means nothing at all.

"There used to be such a thing as a tune-up for a car, but today? Unh-unh," said Tracy Virtue, vice-president of AutoMD. "So tune-up, in the old days, we had a carburetor and we had distributors and you would manually adjust the air and the fuel mixture. So that was what you were tuning the vehicle, that is how the mixture went. Those were replace with fuel injection and electronics and now that is all computer control, so you don't have to touch it."

Mechanics are probably doing plenty to your car, but you need to ask.

"So, if you are going to a repair shop and they are trying to sell you a tune-up, ask them what are they going to do," Virtue said

"So that's like the 97 point tune-up, those points are just the things that they do to make it sound like they are doing something," said San Francisco resident David Moore.

Tune-up is a generic phrase that customers need to define before dropping off their cars. To make sure you aren't being overcharged, consider going to AutoMD or other websites that offer specific pricing information.