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Archive for June, 2011

How to Buy a Used Car

Don’t sign anything before you drive. If the owner won’t let you drive it or inspect it carefully, he’s probably got some thing to hide, and hidden things will end up costing you money.

Use your eves for more than admiring a low price. Check for rust, especially in hidden or hard-to-see areas of the car body. A car that’s starting to rust probably indicates a car that was not affectionately cared for, and may indicate more serious problems, especially if attempts have been made to conceal the rust with fresh paint. At the very least, rust lowers a car’s resale value.

Open the doors. Open the hood and trunk lid. All should open and shut easily.

Climb in the car. Sit in each seat to check for things like broken springs. Look for tears in the headliner, worn carpets, missing floor mats, worn pedals, or missing control knobs. Any of these can indicate hard usage.

wPush, pull twist and slide. Every control on the dash. Otherwise how will you know if they all work? and don’t forget to try the heater-even if it’s summer. Check all lights. you’ll have to fix any that don’t work if you buy the car. Check the tires, including the spare, to see if they’re badly worn. If any have to be replaced, that’s extra expense for you.

Check the shock absorbers. Stand at a corner of the car and repeatedly push it down. Keep doing this until you’ve got that corner of the car rocking up and down virgorously. Then realease your hands on a downward push. The car should rebound once and stop. If it continues bounding up and down, that shock is bad and must be replaced. Repeat this test at each corner of the car.

The engine shuld start quickly and idle smoothly. An engine that is hard to start is an engin tht needs work done on it.

Raise the hood. Check the oil level. If the oil level is low, that may indicate an oil-burning problem.

Rub your fingers across the dipstick and feel the oil. It’s okay if the oil is dark; that’s normal after a few hundred miles, even with fresh oil. But if you can feel sludge and grit with your fingers, that’s not normal. That can mean a lot of things, none of them good. Also if the oil is extremely thick, that can mean a heavier oil has been added to conceal knocks and squaks the owner doesn’t want you to hear.

Check all the fluid levels. If any are low, that means, at the very lease, that the previous owner didn’t pay much attention to his car. At worst it can signal an expensive problem.

Take the car out for a drive. Check the brakes when you’re driving. They should not pull the car to one side when you depress the brake pedal.

Find a level, isolated stretch of raodway. When you release your grip on the steering wheel for a few moments, the car should not pull to either side. If it does, this indicates a wheel misalignment problem. Also there should be no shimmy in the front end or vibration in the steering wheel.

Find a bumpy section of road.. The car should not “bottom” as you ride over bumps. Nor should it sway excessively when traveiling around smooth or bumpy curves. If it does, this indicates bad shocks.

While traveling along an isolated level stretch of road at about 30 mph, release and depress the accelerator quickly a couple of times. Listen for noises. If you hear any, especially coming from underneath and to the rear, this may indicate excessvie wear in someparts of the drive train.

Check the automatic. In a used car with an automatic transmission you can tell something about the condition of this improtant unit by niticing if the car accelertes properly on a normal upgrade. Slipping is cause for futher checking. In addition, try backing the car up a short grade to see if this action is smooth.

An automatic transmission should shift smoothly. There should be no clunking or jerking as the transmission shifts up or down. And the transmission should not “hang” in one gear for an excessive amount of time.

With a manual transmission, or stick shift, notice how far in you have to push the clutch. If it goes in all the way, there isn’t much clutch left. The pedal, however, should have about an inch of play when it’s completely released.

Remember, when you’re buying a used car, any parts that require immediate replacement add to the cost of the car. Unless the seller is willing to slash the price to allow for this cost, you’re going to end up paying a lot more for the car than you should.

If in doubt about anything, have a mechanic check it out. The few dollars he’ll charge can save you a lot of dollars in the long run.

When you buy on the installment plan, have the seller put in writing all the terms of the transaction, including down payment, monthly payments, interest charges, etc. All repairs and accessories that are promised to you should be itemized on the bill of sale or contract and should be acknowledged by the seller’s signature. If you’re offered a service gurantee, make sure you understand it, since such guarantees can be trickey, seeming to mean one thing and actually meaning another.

After you have made a check-list of all of the above and you are satisfied that this is the deal of the day, get behind the wheel and enjoy the ride!

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The Thing With Car Insurance

One part of a car that many drivers especially in the poorest parts of the world tend not to change when it is due for change is the tire. In fact, in some markets in sub Saharan Africa there are shops that resell fairly used tires to poor drivers who can not afford new tires-or so they claim. The problem with tires however, is that, they can not be managed. If your tire is worn out and due for a change, then you had better change them before it is too late.

You can imagine a van used for commercial purposes conveying poor folk to their various destinations in the morning and its raining cats and dogs. Because the tires are seriously worn out and the road is wet, the tires fail to grip on application of brakes forcing the vehicle to skid off the road to a fate that is far from pleasant. This is an example of what a driver who fails to change his worn out tires stands to gain. However some whispers over the grape vine have it that some of the owners of these commercial vehicles are the ones refusing to buy new tires all in a bid to maximize profit like all business men. How tragic you might say.

If you think the picture I have painted here is an extreme one, then consider this truth; some drivers driving there own cars also think they can manage their tires-or at least stretch their luck until a time when they can not manage these tires any longer. What a big risk they are taking because a tire that is worn out can explode into shreds at any minute most times with dire consequences on the driver and passengers. I have often wondered how to sell the idea of getting car insurance to some one who is reluctant to change his own car tires then I realized there could be an interrelationship here between the driver who fails to change his car tires and the driver who fails to get his car insurance. The truth is they are all heading for serious regrets.

One thing is for sure driving with worn out tires is like testing to see if a drink of arsenic can kill a man-worse still is if you test all this and you have not gotten your car insurance it is a double tragedy if you ask me. The fact is getting your car insurance is as vital and as sensible as getting new and good tires for your car. Just as the new tire will prevent you from skidding off the road as a result of lose of grip, your direct car insurance will prevent you from wallowing into financial regrets when your car gets involved in an accident.

Here it does not matter if you bashed the other car or it was the other driver that bashed your car depending on the kind of car insurance you choose all these can be sorted. All you need to do is get a hold of the insurance services offered by the different car insurance companies in your area and simply chose the car insurance cover that suits you the most. The basic service all car insurance companies render is to pay you a certain amount of money when your car is involved in an accident or is stolen, they make you weather through situations that could otherwise prove very traumatic.

It is also important to stress here that there are available a number of low cost car insurance covers on offer for those of us who cant afford the high paying car insurance cover .If the service is available in your area, all you need to do is go online and get your car insurance online or even get all the general car insurance information you require to make a final choice of your car insurance.

Advice To Pay Attention To For Hiring The Right Car Shipping Service

Before you decide to hire any company to help you with this, you first need to know some advice that it is important for you to pay attention to that will ensure you hire the right company to help you make the move as easy as possible.

The following is the advice that will allow you to make the decision that is the smartest for you.

1. Multiple companies – Always be smart and give yourself time to check out multiple companies. With so many companies available these days, this is imperative to making the right decision.

Locate and research thoroughly each of the companies you are interested in to be sure they are dependable, reliable and that they provide you with the best cost possible.

Don’t just hire the first company you come across because this is usually a mistake and can lead you to problems that you don’t need at this time in your life.

Be smart and do your homework on the different companies so you will feel confident with the decision you make about which one would be the best choice for you to hire.

2. Free quotes – There are many reasons that transport companies offer free quotes. You have to be wise and take advantage of these quotes.

Get as many of them as you are able to and then take time to compare them for imperative information like the services offered, the transport options offered and the cost that will be charged.

If you are serious about making the right choice about the company to hire, then this information is essential.

3. Ask questions and be sure you get the answers – There will always be questions that come to mind when you search for a company to hire. Write down the questions so you can remember them as you think of them.

This will help ensure that you get answers for all of them, which is vital to do before you can make the final decision that is the best choice for you.

Now that you know this advice, be sure you pay attention to it and you will soon find that hiring the right car shipping service is not as difficult as it may seem. Just be sure you take some time to make your final decision about the company to hire because this is the best way to make sure you are making the wisest decision possible for getting your vehicle moved safely.