Category: automotive

Check Your New Tires For This Code Before They Cause An Accident.

Ahh, the smell of burning rubber. Don’t you just love going into a tire shop and getting new tires? No? Me neither. Especially now that I have learned that a lot of the tires in those shops could be up to 12 years old already and still being sold as new. Know what happens to rubber as it ages? It starts to break down, which is exactly what you don’t want it to do while you are going 75 down the highway. And even if the tire looks fine when you buy it, the tread could actually become separated from the tire itself, causing you to get into a very bad accident. Luckily, I caught a TV show this weekend and learned to tell just how old my tires are, which will enable me to make sure I get new rather than “new” tires from now on when I go shopping. Turns out that accidents caused by old tires seem to be quite common, and I don’t want to be riding around on tires that are just waiting to shred.

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automotive

By David

GM Rewards Credit Card Now Good For Saturn Purchases Too.

If you hold a GM Rewards credit card and you were not interested in using your rewards towards any of the GM cars, you can now use it towards Saturn cars as well. Although Saturn has been part of the GM family since the beginning, I guess they were never in the rewards program. So GM card holders, your options just got bigger!

“Consumers who want to use their GM Card or GM Flexible Earnings Card toward the purchase of an eligible, new GM vehicle now have the option to purchase or lease a new Saturn under expanded program guidelines.”

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automotive

By David

We Bought A New Car To Prepare For Our Move.

In preparation of our move to the mountains, we went ahead and bought a brand new car last night – a Subaru Forester. We wanted something that gets decent gas mileage, has AWD, and scored incredibly well in safety tests and this car matched all three requirements. Add to that fact that we paid $600 under invoice price and there was a $2,000 rebate on top of that price, we walked away with a brand new 2008 Forester for $19,000 even. We had been looking at the Subaru’s for a while now and while we were initially looking at the Outback, once we drove the two cars we preferred the Forester much more. The process was OK because I did my homework before and arranged the pricing before even stepping foot in the dealership, and we were prepared to walk away if they screwed with the agreed-upon price at all. But it worked out OK and now it is parked out back. Our beloved Mini has been listed for sale and hopefully we will sell it within a few months – but if we don’t, it will just come with us.

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automotive

By David

Money Mistake Monday – Owe More Than It’s Worth Syndrome.

Have you ever gone to trade in a car you “own” only to find that you owe more on it than anyone will give you for it? I am sure a lot of people have; I have too. I once had a Volvo that while I had gotten a great deal on it at the beginning, was worth less than what I owed on it because I had not put any money down when I bought it. So when I went to trade it in on another car, I actually had to pay $1,500 to offset the difference! And before anyone says anything, I did try to sell it on my own but could not find a buyer. Thus, I had to trade it in.

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automotive

By David

Consumer Reports List Of The 10 Best Cars For 2008 Has Arrived.

And Toyota won every single category. Almost.

I look forward to this list each and every year just to see who is going to be make it. I watched a news segment on TV the other night that was discussing how the quality of American cars needs to really catch up with Japanese cars in order to compete, and the guy made a good point – Cars “from” both countries are made here in the U.S., so it’s not in the manufacturing where the problem lies. It starts way before that, in development and design. Just something to keep in mind. Anyway, here is the list of the 10 Best Cars according to Consumer Reports and how they are chosen:

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automotive