Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Tips in Buying the Right Used Car

Buying a used car requires more than just patience; it demands an excellent dose of wit to figure out the best used car you can have. To make things easier for you, we stumbled upon these tips for you to land on a reliable used car.

1) Find out the reason why the car is being sold. There are a couple of hints you need to be keen of. First, if the owner bought a newer model of the same car, then that means he likes the car and might be that he has other needs to take care of, hence more car features. This is given that the car owner is also of good reputation. If the owner, on the other hand, bought another model and hints on unreliability, then that means the car won’t be a good buy.

2) Ask for receipts of purchase of parts and for any repair or modification to find out what have been done to the car for sale. It’s not a good choice when the car has undergone a lot of modifications. It means that its makeup is not intended for hard use, except when there’s a greater purpose of use other than what the car can offer in its original makeup.

3) So how does the car look? Just make sure that the interior is clean and well maintained. No stains or worse holes on the car seats and the rubber mats are in place. No scratches anywhere in the interior. Try to check if there is overspray of paint on the outside then it might be caused by an accident. Also if there are considerable marks on the tire, that means it has been abused in acceleration, which is not good for the engine. A vehicle report can sometimes hide a couple of things about the car so it pays to be work around it.

4) Determine the market value of the car by doing research and car reviews. You can check on other dealerships for the price of the same model and relatively same condition with the car you want to buy.

With these tips, you can be sure of the right used car without having to pay more than what you deserve.

Source: http://www.leemyles.com

Monday, August 11, 2008

Top Ten Tips for Finding the Best Car Lease

1.Check for the car details.
The easiest way is to check the P11D price. The term is taken out from the form the tax man uses to record car details.

2.Check the payment system.
It's basic for whatever purchase you make. How much down payment you need to make and how many months left to pay the rent?

3. Check if the road fund licence is for the full term?
Full-time road fund licence should be included in the contract.

4. Ask if there is a delivery charge or what they call an administration charge.

5. Find out the name of the finance company behind the contract.
Your broker should tell you the complete details of the financing company as well as the contract and services they offer. If not, then he's bluffing.

6. Determine the coverage of maintenance.
Remember that it should cover all scheduled and remedial maintenance work, unlimited tires, batteries, and exhaust systems.

7. Figure out how mileage charges are calculated.
Some financing would use the two tier system: 5 per mile for the first 2,000 miles.

8. Verify how contract refurbishment costs are calculated.

9. A car's condition should be commensurate to the age and mileage. To make sure of the accurate measurements, refer to the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental & Leasing association) guide.

10. Don't forget to ask the financing company these questions: How much leeway can you get to vary from your contract? And also if you're going to buy the car at lease end, how is the buy-out price calculated?

Source: http://www.avail.co.uk

Monday, August 4, 2008

So What Is a Baby-friendly Car?

To make sure what’s the best car for your newborn, or your soon-to-be kids, you need to follow six steps to ensure that you have a well-suited car for your teeny-weeny Junior.

Here are the six steps:

Check on the car seat of your brand-new car. It may be better to buy a new car seat and fit it yourself to the new car; this is to make sure that you know how to do it. 80% of cars in the United States are said to have improperly installed car seats. This usually is the cause of death or injury of babies straddled on cars. A correctly installed car seat doesn’t move an inch. Almost all of the new cars have the ISOFIX system or the LATCH system. To double-check on the installation of your car seat, you can bring your brand-new car seat and install it at the dealership; let them judge if you did the right thing. You can check on the rear and front-facing installation for your convertible. If you doubt on the exactness of the car seat’s installation, you can check it out with a free child seat inspection center.

To make things easier in picking out the right car seat, you can avail of the baby travel system; it’s a prepackaged set that includes a car seat, baby stroller, and a car seat base.

The second step concerns moving your baby in and out of the car. For cars that have detachable carriers, try putting on some weight on the carrier, about 15-20 lbs or 7-9 kg, and pull it out and put it in the car again in this some kind of role play for travelling with a baby. If your carrier is not detachable, try to put a life-size baby doll on it and pull it in and out.

Try to choose a car that would allow the stroller to fit in snugly and leave room also for grocery bags and other stuff you do when you get to buy stuff with your little kiddo along. But that is just not enough; you have to make sure also that even with your baby and the other stuffs are inside the car, you can still move them freely.

Check out the rear windows. Avoid cars with deeply sloping windshields since this will allow sunshine to stream down on the baby at the rear seat and might cause heatstroke and sunburns.

Next step is to get into the role playing part again. Try to hoist that diaper bag on your shoulder; and do the getting in and locking and getting out and unlocking of the car with the carrier or stroller with corresponding weights on it.

Another scenario to be considered is when an extra adult wants to sit beside the carrier or the stroller. Putting yourself in the shoes of that person, you need to put in the stroller or carrier with the corresponding weights and sit beside it. Try to feel if you’re comfortable in that arrangement.

Choose a car with enough space in front to stand over and reach out for the carrier or stroller at the back of the car.

Sources:

http://cars.about.com

http://babyproducts.about.com