Strategies for Smart Car Buyers
Maintenance
August 28, 2008
There's something convincing about hard copies. When something is printed out, it lends substantially more validity to a subject than just the spoken word. Nowhere is this more true than when you're in the heat of battle. That is, when you're at the dealership negotiating the price for your new set of wheels.
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- johnnyturbo August 28, 2008, 2:01 PM
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- Buying New Cars, Maintenance, Negotiation, Tip of the Day
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- Edmunds TMV, Pricing Report
August 21, 2008
This has been mentioned before on our site, but it bears repeating. If I prevent one person from wasting 5 quarts of perfectly good oil, using 5 new quarts of a finite resource and frittering away $25-$50, it's all worth these keystrokes...
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- johnnyturbo August 21, 2008, 1:36 PM
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- Driving, Maintenance, Tip of the Day
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- Oil Change
August 13, 2008
It's common knowledge that tires must be replaced when the tread has been worn down (the penny test is a great way to check your tires' tread depth). But it's a lesser-known fact that tires have a shelf-life after which they can be dangerous to drive on, even if they're brand-new or have plenty of tread left.
Experts say 6 years is the maximum that tires should be in use, provided they were stored properly after they were manufactured. The problem is that, as tires age, the tread is more likely to separate from the rest of the tire, which, if it happens on the road, can cause a sitation much more difficult to recover from than a tire blowout. (Check out this dramatic 20/20 report on the subject to see footage of a tire losing its tread and how dangerous it can truly be, plus hear the stories of people it happened to.)
So, how do you know how old your tires -- or the tires you'd like to buy -- are? You've gotta crack the code.
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- Bryn MacKinnon August 13, 2008, 12:00 PM
- Categories:
- Car Safety, Maintenance
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- Car Safety, Tires
August 7, 2008
Back in May, we instituted a company-wide experiment to see how much gas we could save if we properly inflated our tires. On average, our employees' tires were 7-percent under inflated, which is much better than the government's estimation of 26-percent under inflation for the average American. However, if the nearly 250 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States (according to a 2005 Department of Transportation study) were only 7 percent under inflated, and brought their tires up to the specified level, together they would save about $23 billion per year. Think about how much we could save if that 26-percent number was used.
Who would've thunk it possible that we here at Edmunds would be ahead of the political curve? When a woman at a town hall meeting asked Sen. Barack Obama about what sorts of steps normal Americans can take to lower their energy costs, he suggested making sure their tires are properly inflated. Within hours, the McCain campaign starting arguing that Obama's new energy plan amounted to nothing more than keeping your tires inflated and Sen. McCain himself mocked it as a ridiculous notion. The McCain campaign is even selling tire pressure gauges with "Obama's Energy Plan" written on them. Could they possibly get more snarky?
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- JRiz August 7, 2008, 11:31 AM
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- Fuel Economy, Maintenance, Tip of the Day
August 6, 2008
Bumpers have become prime real estate for pricey technology such as night-vision cameras, adaptive cruise control and proximity sensors. But the leading edge of a vehicle is also frequently the first to sustain damage, and even a small fender bender can create a huge repair bill when high-priced gadgets get caught in the carnage.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that bumper tests conducted by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety show that the average repair cost is $4,500, and auto-body bills are even higher for tech-laden luxury cars. The IIHS concluded that the cost to repair frontal damage on the Infiniti G35, for example, can run in excess of $5,200 -- almost five times that of a Chrysler Sebring.
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- Doug Newcomb August 6, 2008, 5:00 PM
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- Maintenance
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- Auto Repair, Crash Tests, Vehicle Technology
May 13, 2008
When shopping for a vehicle, most people tend to buy the most vehicle that they can afford, with the highest monthly payment that their budget allows. Often, buyers haggle over that last $10 per month without looking into other monthly expenses that they may be facing. Some of these expenses hurt their bottom line, if they are not considered ahead of time.
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- Lee Scott May 13, 2008, 4:58 AM
- Categories:
- Buying New Cars, Buying Used Cars, Financing, Fuel Economy, Maintenance
April 24, 2008
For the past six model years, VW has had a basic warranty that was more akin to the ones offered by luxury car makers, rather than one associated with the "people's car." Bumper-to-bumper (B2B) coverage was for 4 years or 50K miles, which ever occurred first. Most competitors offered only a 3 year/36K mile basic warranty. It was one of the factors that made VW's more attractive than other mainstream manufacturer's vehicles, along with helping to mitigate reliability concerns that have been plaguing VW's for the past decade.
However, for the 2009 model year, beginning with the introduction of the VW Tiguan CUV this summer, VW is shortening its B2B warranty...
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- Lee Scott April 24, 2008, 5:03 AM
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- Buying New Cars, Maintenance
March 18, 2008
While it is not required to service your vehicle at the dealership in order to maintain your warranty coverage, I prefer to do it this way and here is why...
While conventional wisdom suggests that independent shops or chains are less expensive for maintenance service, like oil changes, I have found that my local dealers is very price competitive. This is especially true when I use the service coupons I often receive in the mail. For example, I recently had the Nissan dealer change the oil in my Murano...
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- Lee Scott March 18, 2008, 4:57 AM
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- Maintenance
March 2, 2008
We try to cover topics that we think you might find beneficial. However, there may be questions you have that we have not yet answered. So, post questions you would like to have answers to, and we will try to address them in future entries.
What's on your mind?
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- Lee Scott March 2, 2008, 9:39 AM
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- Buying New Cars, Certified Used Cars, Driving, Financing, Fuel Economy, Leasing, Maintenance, Negotiation, Question of the Week, Selling cars, Tip of the Day
February 13, 2008
In this time of rising fuel prices, I have received more than a handful of questions regarding the need to use premium fuel, even in vehicles that require them. Most modern vehicles that require premium fuel can run fine on regular gas. However, you will see reduced performance and fuel economy as a result.
First, let me give a brief and simplified explanation of how vehicles that vehicles that require premium fuel extract extra power...
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- Lee Scott February 13, 2008, 7:20 AM
- Categories:
- Driving, Fuel Economy, Maintenance, Tip of the Day
February 6, 2008
We bought a 2005 Jetta TDI for our long term fleet several weeks ago. Everyone loved the car but hated the rear window tint. Looking out the back was like being in the middle of a bad dream, those dreams where you can't quite see what's going on but you know it's important. Here's what it looked like:
I did a Google search for "window tint" in Long Beach, CA, and got a dozen hits...
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- Philip Reed February 6, 2008, 10:29 AM
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- Maintenance
January 7, 2008
A woman who has been leasing a 2005 Audi A6 contacted me to ask a simple question: when is enough ENOUGH?
Basically, this woman has been to the dealership 11 times over the past two and a half years for a variety of electrical problems. The nav screen went out while she was in an unfamiliar area and it was replaced twice. She has been through two batteries and replaced the tires at about 20,000 miles. The car's central computer system went out and was replaced and a host of other electrical problems kept the car in the shop.
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- Philip Reed January 7, 2008, 10:16 AM
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- Maintenance
December 14, 2007
In an earlier blog I talked about how hard it is to keep your tires inflated up to the right pressure. I got a lot of readers responding with tips on how they stay on top of this important maintenance task.
I stopped in at my local auto store to see if they had any new products in the tire aisle. I bought a set of these Tire Minders. I put them on my tires and one showed that it was a little low already.
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- Philip Reed December 14, 2007, 9:29 AM
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- Maintenance
December 6, 2007
Please excuse the sensational headline but I wanted to get your attention. Soon, we'll be posting an amazing story about tire pressure monitors. I don't want to scoop our own website so I'll just tell you that it's very eye opening about the safety effects of low tire pressure.
The green folks are always telling us to fill our tires to help fuel economy...
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- Philip Reed December 6, 2007, 11:02 AM
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- Maintenance
September 21, 2007
(Cell phone picture of a Long Beach, CA, service bay.)
It worked like a charm.
Our long term 2007 Chevrolet Silverado was overdue for its oil change and tire rotation at 15,000 miles.
I looked at our Maintenance Costs section and saw that the oil change, tire rotation and a list of inspections should cost $156. I printed this out and took it with me to the dealership...
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- Philip Reed September 21, 2007, 8:16 AM
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- Maintenance
September 20, 2007
Here is the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander from our long term fleet after three trips to the service department and four days off the road for a minor repair. The remote key fobs stopped working and they had difficulty finding and fixing the problem.
Or did they? What if the problem was that the technician was a.) too busy to get to it, or b.) incompetent, or c.) lazy...
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- Philip Reed September 20, 2007, 11:26 AM
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- Maintenance
March 20, 2007
An interesting story in The Wall Street Journal talks about the decreasing life span of modern batteries -- despite their ever-improving design. The reason is simple, and one you can probably guess at -- today's cars put more demands on batteries than ever before. What with in-car entertainment, cupholders that heat and cool drinks, not to mention all the gadgets people typically stuff in the power outlets, can anyone feign surprise? It's not uncommon for me to have both my radar detector and my cell phone plugged in at the same time. And if I happen to have my portable Sirius satellite receiver with me as well...
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- Karl Brauer March 20, 2007, 2:33 AM
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- Maintenance
June 6, 2006
Despite what we think, cars are not people. They are just machines. But at times they seem to have a soul. That's never been proven...
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- Philip Reed June 6, 2006, 8:46 AM
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- Maintenance
March 31, 2006
My two sons were on their way back from Santa Barbara on a Saturday night, cruising along in the fast lane of Southbound HWY 101. They were cresting a long incline when the 2000 Mitsubishi Galant they were driving died. No warning, no smells, no sounds. Just dead in the fast lane...
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- Philip Reed March 31, 2006, 11:31 AM
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- Maintenance
March 21, 2006
It's probably happened to you before. Steam pours out from under the
hood, lights, usually the red, warning types, on the instrument panel
start to blink, and you hear all sorts of noises that cause
concern. Something broke and now you're calling AAA to tow you to
the nearest mechanic. The next day, the repair estimate comes back, and
suddenly you're looking at $2000+ to fix your ride. Right around now is
when the tears start to form...
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- March 21, 2006, 10:59 AM
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- Maintenance
January 19, 2006
Alex wrote about how he liked the free maintenance from BMW. One of the comments I got talked about getting maintenance from an independent auto mechanic. Both of these tactics avoid that feeling that you are being ripped off -- not a good feeling. Here's a dirty little secret.
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- Philip Reed January 19, 2006, 9:12 PM
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- Maintenance
January 18, 2006
While reading Phil's post earlier today I was reminded of how much I enjoy the free scheduled maintenance program BMW offers on all their vehicles.
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- January 18, 2006, 2:38 PM
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- Maintenance
How many times do we have to learn this painful lesson? What is the best way to set up a service appointment? If you screw up you can be ripped off big time.
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- Philip Reed January 18, 2006, 9:55 AM
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