Warm weather is on the horizon. For some of you, little buds of color will be popping out of the ground any day now. Others still have a month behind the snowblower. Regardless of your locale, the season will change, and so should your air filter.

If you're in an area that sees snowfall, you know all too well the endless cloud of salt spray that makes your car look like Boy George on three days with no nap. It looks awful all over your car's paint job, but the same fine dust that powders the outside of your ride is being sucked into the inside! Luckily, your air filter is there to make sure you aren't salting the inner workings of your engine, but at the end of a snowy winter, the filter is getting clogged.

A clogged air filter has a number of downsides, including reduced gas mileage and slower acceleration. Neither of those are good news, and with gas prices staying on the high side, there's never a good time to sacrifice gas mileage. The good news is that replacing your air filter is a 10-minute, 10-dollar job. The rewards of letting your car breathe are well worth it, just don't let it stop to smell the flowers on a 70-mph interstate.