According to the National Institute for Highway Safety, the number and severity of auto accidents increases 10 fold between the hours of 11 pm and 3 am. Here are proven tips to decrease your chances of an accident. Some of this may sound like common sense, but you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t follow these tips.
1) Stay home. Don’t go out unless you have to. Even if you implement every safety tip below, you still run a higher risk of running into someone who isn’t following these tips or is driving drunk. Every night there are reports of people killed by a drunk driver that were on there way home – it isn’t worth it. If you don’t need to go out, don’t.
2) Don’t drink and drive. You may think you hold your liquor well, and that you won’t get arrested or be over the legal limit in your state, but it is a proven fact that any alcohol in your system will slow down or impair your reflexes. What if something happens where you will need to react quickly? Its not worth the risk. Get a designated driver. Everyday there are families torn apart by a drunk driver who thought they could handle driving. Alcohol also impairs judgement and will make you think you can drive when you shouldn’t. Don’t drive drunk – and don’t let others drive drunk. Contact MADD if you have questions on this.
3) Fix, repair, restore your headlights so they work like new. It amazes me when I see people driving at night with very dim headlights. If you can barely see, how safe do you think that is? Your headlights are the number one safety feature for night time driving. If you need new bulbs, get them (they only cost around $10 each). If your lenses are cloudy, scratched, worn get a headlight repair, cleaner, restorer kit (see the authors link below). These kits will return your headlights to like new condition and save you hundreds over replacements. Having worked on a volunteer emergency squad, dim headlights were only second to drunk driving in the number of accidents we dealt with – and they tended to be the most severe. There is no excuse for having dim headlights – get them fixed.
4) Don’t drive on bald or worn tires. This is especially true for driving in the rain. Bald or worn tires can cause your car to hydroplane and lose all control almost guaranteeing an accident. Take a penny and make sure you cannot see the presidents head, else replace the tire. Also have them properly balanced and rotated at least once per year. What good are good reflexes if your car won’t respond correctly?
5) Replace windshield wipers every spring. When it rains, especially at night your visibility is reduced. Ineffective wipers will further reduce your vision and increase your risk of an accident. Some auto parts stores will even install them for free – take advantage of this.
6) Have your battery checked at every oil change. This will reduce your chances of being left stranded on the road in the middle of the night. More pedestrian accidents happen this way. The other driver is less likely to see you and pedestrian accidents are awful. You will not win with a 3000 pound car going 50 mph. For emergencies pack a flashlight in your car and a reflective vest so you can be seen.
7) Take advantage of driving classes offered by local companies, the DMV and your local police.
Wear your seatbelt. Working for an emergency squad, you see the grimm results of victims not wearing their seat belts – being thrown from the car – this resulted in many deaths, paralization, severe burns and disfigurment, etc… I’m sorry if you find it uncomfortable, but if you are in an accident it will increase your chances of survival and decrease the severity of the accident. Wear your seat belt.
Many people think the police are just out to give tickets, but who would want to have to pick up severely injured children or worse. They see this stuff too often and then they have to go home to their families. When I was working at the volunteer emergency squad we found even the toughest cops would cry at some of the accidents we were called to. State Psychologists were sometimes assigned to help the police, emergency medical personnel, etc… as the accidents would be so traggic and they could have been easily prevented by some of the above tips. Please don’t drink and drive, wear your seat belt and drive safely.
David Maillie is a chemist and holds numerous patents including his recently awarded patent for headlight repair, cleaner and restorer. He can be reached at M.D. Wholesale:
MDwholesale.com
Every Dealership has their own finance department and they call their finance people different things but usually give them the title of Finance Manager even though many times they are simply a good salesperson that they sent to Finance and Insurance School to learn to sell the financial products and be licensed to do so. These people are well trained to take your money so you need to be on your guard, unfortunately many people think the danger is over once they get through the sales process. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The finance office is where they go after the back end add-ons like warranties, paint protection, rust proofing, and other virtually worthless items that just add profit to the dealer’s bottom line. This is in addition to ripping you off on the finance rate.
Many dealers these days rely on the back end profits because the front end profits are getting harder to maintain with increased competition. They will take a “short deal” on the front and make it up by making a killing on the back end.
This is another reason why you really need to know all you can about the car you intend to purchase. One of the biggest scams they will pull on you is to keep the rebate if you don’t know about it. Think about it, if the car you are looking at has a $2,000 rebate and you don’t know about it the dealer can just have you sign a form and keep the rebate as profit in the deal. Some cars these days have rebates as high as six thousand dollars. Wouldn’t it make you sick knowing you gave that away?
Another thing they will try to do is switch you to a lease. Beware of this; there are even companies that will lease late model used cars these days. If you aren’t prepared and haven’t got all the knowledge you need in order to negotiate a good lease deal don’t even consider it.
Don’t buy packages like rustproofing, undercoating, and paint protection from the dealer. You can get it much cheaper if you decide you want it from other sources, Dealers mark these up astronomically and you don’t want to pay the price.
Another thing they will try to push is the extended warranties and service agreements. Don’t buy these either. New cars come with great warranties these days plus they are built well. These extended warranties are a waste of money.
Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get quality car care products from http://www.stopwaxing.com
If you are an adult chances are you have had an experience at a car dealer that wasn’t among your best memories. If you take a look at some of the guidelines below it can help to deal with these tactics and keep your next experience from being a bad one.
First off, don’t be unprepared. Have all your research done and have everything written down before you go into a dealership. Know the actual wholesale value of your car, how much cash you have available, and what kind of financing you can obtain before you start shopping. If you have all these things in order the salesman won’t be able to lead you around by the nose and you will know exactly what you are looking for and can afford.
Do not commit to their “If I could would you” questions. They may sound harmless but they are designed to get you committed to buy. They know that most people will honor a commitment. An example would be, “If I can sell you this $20,000 car for $15,000 do we have a deal?” They can’t really sell it for that they are just trying to get you to commit to a figure, any figure. Just say “I don’t know”
Since you already have the information that will help you know if they are being truthful insist that they be straight with you. If you ask for the Actual Wholesale Value or ACV as they will call it, don’t let them give you the run around about trade allowance or trade difference. Find out exactly what they allowed. I personally would ask to see the appraisal. If they won’t show it to you get up and leave.
Don’t let your self get worked by one the “selling systems” out there. One of the most common is the Four Square. If you see the salesman take out a form split into four sections or he draws something out like that, just tell him outright that you aren’t going to play four square with him. Tell them what you will do and that they have one chance to earn your business, you aren’t going to play the back and forth game so if they need to get their manager get him now.
Keep things going in your sequence. Don’t let them control you, you control them. Make them appraise you car before you do a buyers order. This will drive the salesman and the manager out of their minds!
Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get quality car care products from http://www.stopwaxing.com
The car business is probably one of the only businesses left where sleazy sales tactics are still rampant. I know time share and siding salespeople are bad too. But it isn’t on near the scale as the car business is.
One of the bigger control scams out there now is the credit check scam, which starts just about as soon as you sit down at a desk with the salesman. It typically begins like this, they begin to fill out an offer form and then they will ask you for a deposit to show that you are serious about buying the vehicle. This line is used at just about every dealership and in many dealerships they will not even allow the salesman to do any kind of negotiation without a deposit.
So what is the purpose of the deposit? You may think that you are giving then a check in agreement to buy at a certain figure but to them it is just another means of control. And the thing about it is they aren’t shy about how much they ask for. They used to ask for a $50 deposit now they ask for $3,000 or $4,000! Even though this is a slick trick and they may even call it an initial investment it isn’t the worst thing they are going to try to pull.
The next slick little trick is for the salesperson to ask for you driver’s license and social security number and take down some information like your address and phone number, Now they have a little surprise for you, they are pulling what is called a 5-liner or short form credit report without you knowing and they use this to help figure out how much they can get away with charging you and still get it financed. Afterwards what the dealerships generally do is fill out credit applications in your name and fax them to several different lenders to see who they can get the best rate from. Again, they are doing all of this without your knowledge. What is the big deal you may ask? Every time your credit report is pulled it lowers your credit score and will cause you to pay higher interest rates.
It should be illegal but so far it isn’t. With all the changes in privacy laws and similar consumer credit laws it shouldn’t be long before this practice is outlawed.
Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get quality car care products at http://www.carcarewizards.com
If you’ve ever been to a public car auction then you’ll know that its very standard and simple. Upon arriving at a public auction you’ll be required to present some id and sign in. You’ll be given a number so you can start bidding on items during the day. Usually at public car auctions you’ll be allowed to inspect the cars before they go on auction.
When inspecting cars make sure you know a little bit about cars first. Each car will have an information tab that will tell you what’s wrong with it if there is a problem. These public car auctions have to tell you if the car is in good condition or not. But never fear if you buy a car from an auction and it won’t work even if it says its in good conditioning you’re covered under their terms and conditions.
Now if your serious about buying a car or cars from public auctions you should know how much you want to pay for each car. So do some research on cars and prices before you go to the auction so you can get a better idea on how much you’re saving. You might not always win al your bids so write down all the cars you want to buy and then decide which ones you want when you’re bidding for them.
Ok we now understand public car auctions but what about online car auctions and what’s the difference?
There’s not much difference between how the work however the biggest difference is that you won’t be inspecting the cars before you buy them so its like buying clothes on the internet not know if it fits right. However and this is a big however, you’re allowed to send any cars you buy online back if it has been misrepresented.
This means that if you’re buying a car from an online car auction and it says it comes in blue and you get the car in pink, you can send it back and get a refund. If you’re wondering that the benefits are of buying from cars from an online auction here it is:
- Search for cars without having to go to the auction sites
- Bid for them in your own time from anywhere around the world
- Your protected by the online car auction for misrepresentation
- There are 4 top websites that consistently have auctions going every week
So if you’re interested in buying cars from public auctions you now have two ways to do so.
Public Car Auctions and Online Car Auctions website reviews so you know how and where to find cheap cars online.