Tips

Boston Used Cars

Boston consumers, more than ever, are considering used cars as an affordable solution for their next car purchase. Every week, thousands of cars are coming off lease and used cars represent an attractive choice for consumers who have seen car prices and values decline.

Used car dealers in Boston have seen demand increase while at the same time, these same dealers have seen inventory levels decrease.  Prices at Boston used car auctions have been on the rise for the past 12 months and car dealers are actually looking for quality trade-in vehicles. 

Consumers can leverage their current car at trade-in knowing that well maintained cars are in high demand.  We contacted a few used car dealers across the United States and Kris Cox, selling used cars in Bradenton Florida remarked, “We have been able to keep up with the spike in demand for quality used cars but its not easy.  We actually locate the used cars for our customers and simplify the used car buying process.”

Car dealers are finding that locating the exact car that a local Boston car buyer wants is paying off in customer loyalty.  West Herr Auto Group, selling Buffalo used cars, has found that stocking the right mix of used cars has been the winning formula for West New York car buyers. In fact, since they utilize the latest tools for marketing pricing, West Herr used cars are often the lowest priced Buffalo cars in the market.

On the opposite coast, Carson Toyota, selling used Toyota cars in Los Angeles, has seen a similar spike in demand.  Consumers have found that late model Toyota cars with low mileage are the perfect alternative for a California Toyota purchase.  In fact, Carson Toyota has seen their used car sales volume surge as they offer the best deals in Los Angeles for used Toyota cars and certified pre-owned Toyota vehicles.

Massachusetts Used Cars

Consumers seeking exceptional values on new and used cars in Boston should also know that they can shop and compare cars from multiple local dealers by visiting www.cardealersale.com .  The website only lists cars from car dealers and not individual car sellers who can not offer any warranty or guarantee on the car that is for sale.

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Boston Massachusetts Auto Extended Care Warranty

If you are a car owner in Boston Massachusetts living in the greater Boston Massachusetts area, you can now receive free auto extended care warranty quotes online. Auto Extended Care offers the most affordable extended warranty programs for consumers looking for the best coverage. Our insured and experienced warranty providers help us provide you with the best possible price.

All of our extended warranty plans are backed by A-rated insurance companies. By only working with A-rated insurance companies, we can assure you that claims will be processed and paid for in a timely manner. Additionally, our warranty plans allow you to go to the mechanic of your choice. It’s hassle-free warranty coverage when you need it most.

Our company only deals with Major warranty companies that have been handling claims for over 25 years and has the financial strength for long time coverage. We offer 5 levels of coverage so you can choose a plan that’s customized for you. Whether you need full coverage, bumper-to-bumper, or just powertrain, our comprehensive extended warranty options can suit your needs and your budget.

Our no-risk sample contracts allow you to see all of the benefits of choosing Auto Extended Care before you sign up for our services. You can give us a call and we will email you with a sample contract based on your individual needs.

We also offer warranty financing for 18 months. With 20% down, you can finance the remainder of your warranty over the next 18 months. Call now to inquire about our varying levels of warranty coverage and receive a sample warranty plan to review.

Call 888-498-2864 or visit us online at http://www.autowarranty1.com

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Beware of Extended Warranty Scams

In the past year consumers are getting frequent calls from automated voice recordings stating that their car warranty is about to expire.  Is this a scam or are these calls from their local dealer?

Others have remarked that they have been receiving generic postcards in the mail reminding them to renew their warranty coverage.  Are these factory warranty reminders?

Many of these offers are scams just to generate extended warranty leads.  Be on the lookout for the address and logo of the brand or dealer that you bought your car from. If their logo is not on the mailer or postcard, throw it out.

Businesses can purchase motor vehicle records which has consumer names and addresses and the cars that they own.  Since they know the year, make and model of the car, they can calculate when the manufacturer warranty expires.

These companies are calling or mailing to sell you a third party car warranty.  Third party warranties are not a scam but you have to be very careful on who you trust with your dollars. 

If you select a good third party extended warranty plan, you will want to choose a company that will not go out of business anytime soon.  So, you must check out their financial stability and credit ratings.

Factory Extended Warranty Plans

Buying a manufacturers extended warranty plan may be a little more expensive than a third party warranty but you have the strength of the manufacturer and all their dealers behind the warrantycoverage. 

A factory warranty is honored nationwide at all dealer locations REGARDLESS where you purchased the warranty.  Purchasing a factory warranty online can save you up to 35% off what a local dealer will charge you.

Here is a list of manufacturer extended warranty plans that you can buy online at discount prices:

• Infiniti Extended Warranty
• Toyota ExtraCare Warranty
• Nissan Extended Warranty
• Ford Extended Warranty
• Jeep Extended Warranty
• Chrysler Extended Warranty
• Dodge Extended Warranty

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Cars That Made The “Top Safety Pick” Award for 2010

Subaru is the only manufacturer with a winner in all 4 vehicle classes in which it competes. This automaker earns 5 awards for 2010. Ford and subsidiary Volvo have 6 winners, and Volkswagen/Audi has 5. Chrysler earns 4 awards, continuing a recent trend of improving the crashworthiness of its vehicles. Two new small cars, the Nissan Cube and Kia Soul, join the Top Safety Pick list for 2010.

“With the addition of our new roof strength evaluation, our crash test results now cover all 4 of the most common kinds of crashes,” says Institute president Adrian Lund. “Consumers can use this list to zero in on the vehicles that are on the top rung for safety.”

Good rollover ratings: A new requirement for strong roofs winnows the list of Top Safety Pick winners from a record 94 in 2009. The addition of this criterion recognizes manufacturers with vehicles that provide good protection in rollovers, which kill more than 9,000 people in passenger vehicles each year. The first rollover ratings were released in March. Vehicles rated good have roofs more than twice as strong as the current federal standard requires. The Institute estimates that such roofs reduce the risk of serious and fatal injury in single-vehicle rollovers by about 50 percent compared with roofs meeting the minimum requirement.

“Cars and SUVs that win Top Safety Pick are designs that go far beyond minimum federal safety standards,” Lund points out.

Missing the mark: Not a single model from the world’s biggest automaker by sales is represented among this year’s winners. Toyota and its Lexus and Scion subsidiaries had a strong showing in 2009 with 11 winners but were shut out for 2010. Four other manufacturers whose vehicles have earned Top Safety Pick in the past didn’t have a qualifying vehicle for 2010: BMW, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Saab. The Honda Accord picked up the award the past 2 years, but the 2010 didn’t earn the required good roof strength rating to qualify (the roof is rated acceptable). The Ford Fusion is another midsize car that dropped off the list for the same reason.

“Honda and Ford would have to make only minor changes to achieve good ratings for roof strength, as the Accord and Fusion just missed the mark,” Lund explains.

The midsize Toyota Camry would have qualified with good ratings, except for its rear crash evaluation. This car’s seats and head restraints are rated marginal for protection against whiplash injury. A change to good would have earned the Camry a Top Safety Pick for 2010. Other automakers have improved head restraints to win. For example, inadequate head restraints kept earlier Chrysler models from earning awards, but in 2010 the Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Avenger and Journey, and Jeep Patriot all earn good ratings and Top Safety Pick. Likewise, General Motors upgraded the seats and head restraints in the Chevrolet Malibu to win.

Volvo glitch: The Institute identified a problem with the Volvo XC60 in the side test. A piece of plastic trim on the driver seat pushed against a service release button for the safety belt, which then detached from its anchor during the test.

“This would be a serious issue if it happened in a real crash, but it’s not likely to happen and it’s fixable,” Lund explains. “Still, belts shouldn’t come loose in a crash test. Volvo is fixing the problem so it won’t be an issue with XC60 models produced after November 2009. Top Safety Pick applies only to these modified XC60s.”

Consumers who own 2010 XC60s already on the road should see their Volvo dealer for repairs, Lund advises.

Improved protection: Front and side impacts and rollovers killed 24,056 passenger vehicle occupants in 2008. Rear-end crashes usually aren’t fatal but result in a large proportion of crash injuries. Neck sprain or strain is the most commonly reported injury in two-thirds of insurance claims for injuries in all kinds of crashes.

“In safety terms, we’ve come very far, very fast in just the past decade,” Lund says. “When the Institute began conducting frontal tests for consumer information in 1995, few vehicles earned top ratings. Now almost all do. Most cars failed the side tests we added in 2003. Test results in that initial round were so bad we nearly broke our budget for repairing the crash test dummy, but now most vehicles ace the side test thanks to side airbags and stronger side structures. Factor in improved head restraints to protect against whiplash and electronic stability control to prevent crashes, and consumers are the clear winners.”

Safety equipment is increasingly standard. Ninety-two percent of 2010 model cars, 99 percent of SUVs, and 66 percent of pickup trucks have standard side airbags with head protection. Electronic stability control is standard on 85 percent of cars, 100 percent of SUVs, and 62 percent of pickups.

“Now that roof strength is a priority, we think manufacturers will move quickly to bolster roofs to do well in our roof strength test. This means consumers likely will have more Top Safety Pick choices for 2011,” Lund predicts.

Keep in mind vehicle size and weight, he adds, because larger, heavier vehicles generally afford better protection in serious crashes than smaller, lighter ones. Even with a Top Safety Pick, a small car isn’t as crashworthy as a bigger one.

The Institute awarded the first Top Safety Pick winners to 2006 models and then raised the bar the next year by requiring good rear test results and electronic stability control as either standard or optional equipment. Early this year the Institute alerted auto manufacturers to the new criteria for roof crush and asked them to nominate candidates for testing.

How vehicles are evaluated: The Institute’s frontal crashworthiness evaluations are based on results of 40 mph frontal offset crash tests. Each vehicle’s overall evaluation is based on measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury measures recorded on a Hybrid III dummy in the driver seat, and analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system controlled dummy movement during the test.

Side evaluations are based on performance in a crash test in which the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph. The barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV. Ratings reflect injury measures recorded on 2 instrumented SID-IIs dummies representing a 5th percentile woman, assessment of head protection countermeasures, and the vehicle’s structural performance during the impact.

Rear crash protection is rated according to a two-step procedure. Starting points for the ratings are measurements of head restraint geometry — the height of a restraint and its horizontal distance behind the back of the head of an average-size man. Seat/head restraints with good or acceptable geometry are tested dynamically using a dummy that measures forces on the neck. This test simulates a collision in which a stationary vehicle is struck in the rear at 20 mph. Seats without good or acceptable geometry are rated poor overall because they can’t be positioned to protect many people.

In the roof strength test, a metal plate is pushed against 1 side of a roof at a constant speed. To earn a good rating for rollover protection, the roof must withstand a force of 4 times the vehicle’s weight before reaching 5 inches of crush. This is called a strength-to-weight ratio. For an acceptable rating, the minimum required strength-to-weight ratio is 3.25. A marginal rating value is 2.5. Anything lower than that is rated poor.

ALL 27 WINNERS

Large cars
Buick LaCrosse
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80

Midsize cars
Audi A3
Chevrolet Malibu built after October 2009
Chrysler Sebring 4-door with optional electronic stability control
Dodge Avenger with optional electronic stability control
Mercedes C class
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Volkswagen Jetta sedan
Volkswagen Passat sedan
Volvo C30

Small cars
Honda Civic 4-door models (except Si) with optional electronic stability control
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube
Subaru Impreza except WRX
Volkswagen Golf 4-door

Midsize SUVs
Dodge Journey
Subaru Tribeca
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90

Small SUVs
Honda Element
Jeep Patriot with optional side torso airbags
Subaru Forester
Volkswagen Tiguan

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Car Buying Tips

Here are some great car buying tips from AOL Autos:

1. Buy when you don’t have to

The best way to get a great deal on a new car is to avoid being in the position of having to replace the one you’ve got because it just broke down and it’s beyond fixing (or you just don’t want to put any more money into it). Desperation rarely results in a good deal — for the buyer, anyhow. Smart shoppers anticipate the need for a new car and begin looking at what’s available long before they actually need a new car.

2. Shop for money first

Unless you are buying a new car with cash, you should think about new car financing (and interest rates) before you think about what color to get. Many buyers forget that the cost of money is just as important to the bottom line as the new car price. Whatever you saved up-front on the new car price can easily be lost over the course of the loan if you sign up for a loan with a higher rate than you could have/should have paid.

Check with several potential auto lenders — including credit unions, banks and the automakers’ captive financing arms (GMAC, etc.) — then buy a new car. This way, you can focus on one thing at a time instead of two things at once. You will know you got the best deal you could have on at least one of them.

3. Compare incentives

To jump-start sales, many automakers offer various incentives (cash back, “customer loyalty” discounts, special financing deals, etc.) that can be worth several thousand dollars off the new car price. If you’re considering two similar (but different brand) vehicles, incentives on one of them could be all the incentive you need to make the choice between them. You can also use incentives on one brand as a negotiating point for the purchase of another. Point out to the salesman that you could buy new car brand “x” for $2,000 off the sticker and ask if there’s anything he can do to make his brand more cost competitive — such as tossing in a no-cost extended warranty or free oil changes for two years, etc.

4. Know what you’re buying

Most models of new cars (and trucks, SUVs and minivans, too) come in several trim levels, with your choice of engines, transmissions, safety equipment and other features. You should always know at least as much about your next new car as the salesman does so you can talk about the car knowledgeably with the salesman. You don’t want to get pushed into buying a new car with things you don’t really need or end up with one that lacks some things you end up wishing you had bought. Information is readily available: see the automakers’ Web sites and read as many expert reviews as you can find.

You should also take a thorough test drive of at least two hours before buying a new car. Make sure the vehicle is comfortable and there are no design problems (excessive blind spots, uncomfortable seats, noisy engine/hard to shift transmission, etc.) that you might hate to have to live with if you actually owned the car. You may save yourself a big headache and a lot of money, too.

5. Know how much your old car’s worth

A big mistake made by many buyers is to focus on the new car, and its price, while forgetting to know just exactly what their old one’s worth. It doesn’t do you much good if you save $2,000 on the new one but lose an equivalent amount on your trade-in. The exact value of every used car is vehicle-specific, there are almost always significant differences in condition, equipment and mileage.

However, you can still get a very solid “ballpark” idea by checking current trade-in/resale prices for cars like yours in the classified ads and in trade guides such as Kelley Blue Book and the National Automobile Dealer Association’s used car price books. You can adjust the value up or down for things like higher-than-normal mileage, excellent (or just average) condition and so on.

Be aware that there is a difference of about 10 percent in retail vs. wholesale prices. “Retail” refers to what the used car would be advertised for by a private seller or dealer; “wholesale” refers to the offer the dealer would make you for the car as a trade. The difference reflects his profit margin as well as the costs involved in cleaning up and otherwise “prepping” the vehicle for resale.

6. Don’t wear your heart on your sleeve

Getting emotional about a new car or truck is fine, once you get home. But when you’re buying a new car, you’ll almost certainly do better if you can remain as aloof and detached as Mr. Spock. Never portray more than casual interest in a car; salesmen react to emotional buyers like sharks react to blood in the water. If you feel your heart might get ahead of your head, bring a spouse (or a good friend) along to keep you out of trouble. You should convey a “take it or leave” it impression — and the more convincing your performance, the more likely you’ll drive home a deal.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking to budget for your total cost of ownership, don’t forget to add in extended warranty costs.  If you are looking for OEM factory warranty plans make sure you check prices on third party extended warranty costs as well.  If you plan to keep your car over 3 years, an extended car warranty can make to be a smart investment.

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