The Wheel World : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Car Buying 101

December 22nd, 2008, 6:15 pm by David Walsman

Last night I got a phone call from a friend asking what I have been asked by hundreds of friends and neighbors: I want to buy a car this weekend, so what do I do? Having worked in automotive advertising for the last five years, I hear this question a lot. I thought it would make a good post for the Gazette.com’s automotive page.

This is what I told him.

Research, Research, Research

First decide what kind of car you want and how much you want to spend. Arrange financing ahead of time. There is nothing more disappointing than finding the car of your dreams and not being able to qualify for it. Call your credit union or bank and get pre-qualified. These quotes last up to a month, so there is no rush to buy the car.

Do not get locked into one type of car:

The auto industry, like any other, is based on supply and demand. If you must have that Honda Civic when supply is low, you will pay too much. Be flexible.

If you are looking at Civics, consider the Nissan Maxima, Toyota Corolla, or Mazda 3. If you want a Tacoma, also look at the F150 and Silverado. All cars are not the same, but you should not be fixated on one car if you want the best deal. Research all types of cars taking into account pricing and industry ratings. There are great research sites for comparing vehicles. Edmunds.com is my favorite.

Price should not be the only factor

Everyone wants the best deal. So do I. But lowest price doesn’t always mean best car. Certified used vehicles are a great example. Dealers have to pay the manufacturer money to certify their vehicle so they inherently cost more. They also come with warranties, lower interest rates, and peace of mind. This is not an endorsement for certified used cars but merely an example of why a better vehicle may cost more. Leather cost more than fabric, a Bose stereo is more than a standard, and if that dealer had to buy new tires, the cost is passed on to you. You, however, will not have to buy new tires in a month. Factor in these things when shopping.

Look at more than one car

Once you decide which vehicle you want, look through advertising to find specific vehicles that interest you. Do not drive up and down dealer row looking for that car. If you want new, believe it or not, the newspaper is still the best place to find the latest local specials on new cars. You’ll find interest rates, dealer incentives, and so forth. If it is not in the paper, consult the manufacturer’s website. For used cars, go online. Check out the Gazette.com’s automotive page, www.springswheels.com (shameless plug). Find at least three cars that you like, print out the details, and hit the road.

Pound the pavement

Physically look at more than one car. Go to the car you might like the most first, but don’t rule out the other three ads you printed. And don’t rule out a car if it is more than the others. Maybe it is worth more. If it isn’t, show the dealer the other ads you printed out and ask him to match it. You may be surprised when he does. Keep in mind that he is under no obligation to match another dealer’s price. The dealer owns the car and can charge whatever he wants. If he can provide a valid reason for charging more, than allow him to do so. If he cannot, walk away. But don’t automatically mistrust dealers because he sells cars for a living.

After driving all three cars, decide which one you like best. Find out what each car will be OUT THE DOOR!! Tax, title, and licensing fees are standard across the industry. Dealer Handling Fees are not. Some charge $299. Some charge $999. Find out what that fee is. If the car is $300 less but the dealer handling fee is $500 more, you did not save money. Make this part of your decision.

Buy the Car

Once you know what you want, begin the negotiation. If the car is more, show the dealer ads for similar cars (ie same make, model, year, equipment, mileage,) and ask them to match it. Keep this within 100 miles. Do not show the dealer a car in California that is $500 less than theirs. They will not like it and it makes you look dumb. They will tell you to go to California and buy the car. If the dealer will not match, then decide if the car is worth more money, or buy choice number two. Often, the car is already a great deal. No negotiation necessary. Buy it.

The oldest trick in the book

The oldest trick in the book is to bring in a cashiers check for $200 dollars less than the out the door advertised price. If this works, great, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

Dealer financing

There is a great misconception about dealer financing. It is not always best to finance the car through your own bank. In most cases the dealer can get you a better interest rate than your bank due to their high volume of loans. This will save you money, and the dealer makes a couple hundred bucks more on the side. It is a win, win. You can also use this as a negotiation tool. I know a lot of dealers who will cut you a break on the price of the car if you finance through them. Listen to them, and decide what is best for you.

Private sellers

Many people only buy from private sellers. This is a mistake. Do not assume you are getting a deal or can trust someone because they are not a dealer. Private sellers see what the cars are going for online or in the paper and match those prices. They do not, however, send that car through their shop to ensure nothing is wrong with it. They do not provide warranties, new tires, detailing, etc. What you see is what you get. I am not saying do not buy from private sellers, I am only saying that you should consider all factors when making a buying decision and weigh your options carefully.

Have Fun

This should be a fun process. Enjoy it. This can be a high pressure situation, but if you prepare for it, you can generally take away dealer ammo and enjoy the process. If you feel uncomfortable, walk away. You have the right to a good experience as you buy the car you’ll enjoy for years.

Posted in: Uncategorized | Post a Comment »

Oh deer!

October 16th, 2008, 11:42 am by phoskins

Deer migrate and mate in October, November and December, increasing the likelihood of you encountering one on the roadway. When a deer or a moose or elk meets up with a moving vehicle, there’s on average about $2,500 worth of property damage, though it can exceed $10,000, says State Farm Insurance.

Your chances of hitting a deer with your car stand at one in 173 in Colorado, The Gazette reports today.

You can prevent a collision with a deer, moose or elk. Here are some tips from State Farm:

* Be aware of your surroundings. Pay attention to “deer crossing” signs. Scan down the road and far off to each side. At night, use your high-beam lights if possible to illuminate the road’s edges. Be especially watchful in areas near woods and water. If you see one deer, there may be several others nearby.

* Be particularly alert at dusk and dawn when these animals venture out to feed.

* If you see a deer, moose or elk on or near the roadway and think you have time to avoid hitting it, reduce your speed, tap your brakes to warn other drivers and sound your horn. Deer tend to fixate on headlights, so flashing them may cause the animal to move. If there’s no vehicle close behind you, brake hard.

* If a collision seems inevitable, don’t swerve to avoid the animal; your risk of injury may be greater if you do. Maintain control of the vehicle. Report the accident to the police and your insurance company.

* Always obey the speed limit and wear safety belts.

Posted in: Driving tips • Links • Safety | Post a Comment »

Test drive: Honda Pilot

October 6th, 2008, 5:56 pm by phoskins

Honda made the 2009 Pilot bigger and more powerful than earlier incarnations of the vehicle, and SpringsWheels writer Kevin Carmody took one out for a spin.

Jump on the accelerator, and all six cylinders come to life to bring you up to speed. Once you reach cruising speed, the V-6 shuts down the entire rear bank of cylinders for maximum fuel efficiency. As you start up an incline, the engine moves from three cylinders to four.

You’ll never notice the cylinders dropping in and out, (Eric Taylor, sales consultant for Front Range Honda) says, unless you see the little green light come on the dash that says ECO, which indicates the economy mode.

I was surprised when I was entering Interstate 25 and looked down and the engine had already gone into economy mode, and I was passing other vehicles.

With seating for eight, the Pilot sports a 250-horsepower V-6 engine and gets 16 miles per gallon in the city and 22 mpg highway. Read the full test drive over at SpringsWheels. Or drive a new Honda Pilot for yourself at Front Range Honda, 1001 S. Academy Blvd.

Photo courtesy of Honda

Posted in: Links • Test drives | Post a Comment »

Get ready for Fall

October 6th, 2008, 10:58 am by phoskins

October is Fall Car Care Month . This fall, a few simple step can help prepare your car for the cooler days ahead.

* Check oil and fluid levels and change them according to your vehicle manufacturer’s recommendation.

* Consider checking your car’s belts for cracks and missing pieces and examine the hoses for bulges, cracks, soft spots or brittleness.

* Be sure to check the operation of the windshield wipers and washers and all lights.

* Examine battery terminals regularly. Remove any corrosion with a toothbrush and a mix of baking soda and water.

* Give your vehicle with a thorough cleaning and waxing. It may help provide additional protection from the changing elements.

Source: Rain-X

Posted in: Car Care • Links | Post a Comment »

Baby, you can drive my car

October 2nd, 2008, 2:46 pm by phoskins

Getting my driver’s license when I was 16 was a big deal, as I’m sure it is for teens today. Today, most people have to do their driver training on their own. They don’t have the luxury of a public-school-based program. But back when I was a teen, we had driver’s ed in school. We took six weeks out of P.E. to sit in the auditorium listening to Coach Gramer tell us the rules of the road — he even went so far as to show us a really scary movie about what would happen if we didn’t wear our seat belts. It’s one of the big reasons I wear mine to this day. We were even given a certain number of hours behind the wheel during school. This time with Coach Kerr, who made driving seem pretty scary just by sitting in the seat next to you. And I spent countless hours behind the wheel with Mom sitting next to me (stomping her foot on the floor, trying to hit the brake if she thought I was going a little too fast).

There was never any question as to whether I or my friends would get our driver’s licenses at 16. The only thing that held us back was getting in those practice hours. Now, before you think I’m getting nostalgic about the good old days, I want to remind you this was back in the day before air bags, when mid-size cars were bigger than today’s big sedans. When I got my license, I would haul four or five other kids to softball practice or the mall. Granted, we didn’t have cell phones to distract us, but imagine six teenage girls in a car together — talk about distracting.

Graduated licensing laws here in Colorado and in other states limit when teens can drive and who they can have in the car with them. The laws have helped lower teen crash rates around the country. But is it enough?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released a new report that focuses on the costs in terms of lives of allowing licensure sooner rather than later. The message is that licensing at later ages would substantially reduce crashes involving teen drivers. The same conclusion has been reached in other countries. Teens in Great Britain and most Australian states can’t get their licenses until they turn 17, for example. In most EU countries it’s 18. The Institute’s new report is being released at the annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Association.

“This is a tough sell,” says Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research, “but it’s an important enough issue to challenge the silence and at least consider changing the age at which we allow teenagers to get their licenses to drive. After all, graduated licensing has been successful ever since states began to adopt these programs more than a decade ago, and raising the licensing age is a logical next step to reduce driving by the riskiest motorists on the road, the youngest ones.”

I’m sure there are a lot kids in their early to mid-teens out there thinking this is a terrible idea. But there are also probably a lot of parents of those kids worried about putting their child behind the wheel. Whether we license drivers at 16, 17 or even 18, they still need plenty of behind-the-wheel time with an experienced driver before they take off on their own.

“Sixteen-year-old drivers have the highest crash involvement rate of any age group in Colorado and are nearly three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than the average of all other drivers,” says COTeenDriver.com. The Web site offers lots of tips for teens and their parents and all the information you need about Colorado’s Graduated Licensing Laws.

Posted in: Driving tips • Links • Rules of the Road • Safety | Post a Comment »

Test drive: Mazda5

September 26th, 2008, 1:44 pm by phoskins

I drove the Mazda5 a few years ago when it first came out. Back then, I thought, “You know, if I had to haul kids around — with all their friends and gear — I would definitely want a vehicle like this.” It’s not exactly a minivan, not exactly an SUV or crossover, as SpringsWheels writer Kevin Carmody point out in his test drive today.

“It’s part minivan, based on its six-passenger capacity, complete with three rows — two, if you like, thanks to 50-50 fold third-row seats. Equally as impressive are the minivan-style sliding doors on both sides.

It’s part sportscar, too, with a lively, 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine that powers the trendy Mazda3 and Mazda6, along with the crossover CX-7, just to name a few.

And, with fuel economy that nears 30 miles per gallon, the Mazda5 defies characteristics of both a minivan and sports car. I guess it’s part sedan, too.”

With up to 44.4 cubic feet of cargo space and seating for six passengers, it’s definitely a vehicle for the driver that needs to move people, gear or both.

The Mazda5 got a face lift for 2008, with an updated exterior to enhance its wedge-shaped body and a five-speed automatic transmission that yielded much better gas mileage. The 2009 edition receives only slight refinements, including a couple of color changes.

But it hasn’t lost Mazda’s soul of a sports car. It has the engine as the CX-7 — “Think what (that engine) can do with the lighter (by some 500 pounds) Mazda5,” says Carmody. It also uses the same fully-independent suspension as Mazda’s sports car models.

“Call it what you want: a mini-minivan, Eurowagon or multi-activity sports vehicle. However you slice it, the 2009 Mazda5 provides plenty of options, versatility, style and, of course, with any Mazda, fun.”

You can read the full test drive here. Or test drive your own at Bob Penkhus Mazda Motor City, 1101 Motor Drive.

Photo courtesy of Ford

Posted in: Lists • Test drives | Post a Comment »

Don’t get taken for a ride

September 24th, 2008, 12:27 pm by phoskins

Through unlicensed body shops, it is estimated as many as 30 percent of totaled vehicles are cleaned up cosmetically and put back into the used car market for sale to unsuspecting buyers, says “Encompass, The AAA Companion.”

Luckily, there’s a way to check to see if that car you’re considering buying has been totaled — or stolen.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau has created a free, searchable public database of totaled vehicles (3 million are totaled every year) using records supplied by insurance companies. Prospective used car buyers can go to the Web site — www.nicb.org — and click on VINCheck. Enter the vehicle identification number to determin if a vehicle has been reported as stolen, but not recovered, or has been reported as a previously declared total loss vehicle by cooperating NICB members.

Posted in: Consumer alert • Links | Post a Comment »

Test drive: Hyundai Genesis

September 19th, 2008, 6:13 pm by phoskins

I was pretty excited about test driving the all new Hyundai Genesis recently. I got a sneak peak of the Genesis at the Auto Show this past April and thought it looked pretty good.

Loaded with extras, like a heated and cooled driver’s seat, park assist, and proximity key, the test vehicle was also equipped with the optional technology package that adds a Lexicon Discrete 7.1, 17-speaker - no, that’s not a typo - surround sound audio system. The only other vehicle you’ll find that system in, master elite sales consultant DuWoyn Snipe tells me, is the Rolls Royce Phantom (which sells for more than 10 times what the Genesis costs). “You can feel like you’re at the concert while you’re in this car,” Snipe says.

Equipped with a 3.6-liter, V-6 engine, the Genesis pumps out 290 horsepower and 264 foot-pounds of torque, has quick acceleration and a smooth and quiet ride.

You can read my full test drive over at SpringsWheels. Or drive one for yourself at Phil Long Hyundai of Chapel Hills.

Genesis front seat

Park assist shows if something's in the way

Park assist and gauges

Genesis's Multimedia Controller

Back seat leg and headroom

Posted in: Links • Test drives | Post a Comment »

Tips for selling your car

September 17th, 2008, 1:11 pm by phoskins

The guys from Car Talk have a new feature over at their Web site — Click and Clack’s Tips for Selling Your Car. First, they have you take a quiz to find out if you’ve got what it takes to sell your used car. (I’ll give you a hint: If you answer “no” to any of the questions, you might not be cut out for the private sale.)

After you take the quiz, if you’ve determined you’re ready to sell your car yourself, they give you tips for preparing the car for sale, pricing it, listing it and negotiating the sale. They even offer some other resources to help you out.

And if you’re not the private sale type, they give you some alternatives, including information about trade-ins and donation programs.

As usual, Click and Clack offer up some really useful tips while managing to be entertaining. Although, if your idea of entertainment is more high brow, Tom and Ray may not be for you.

The Car Talk Web site has lots of information and resources for car lovers, people looking for help with their car or those desperate to kill some time. You can even listen to podcasts of their radio show.

Posted in: Links | Post a Comment »

GM turns 100, unveils electric car

September 16th, 2008, 12:42 pm by phoskins

General Motors unveiled the long-awaited electric car, the Volt, today.

GM said the Volt will cost about 80 cents to fully charge at a rate of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is about the national average. After that, the batteries will be recharged by a small gasoline engine that allows the car to travel hundreds more miles. GM said the engine will be able to run on E85 ethanol, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

“It’s proof that the century-old General Motors is alive and well and that it intends to lead in reinventing the automobile,” Wagoner said.

The Volt is due in U.S. showrooms by November 2010.

Posted in: Auto companies | Post a Comment »

Car Buying 101

Oh deer!

Test drive: Honda Pilot

Get ready for Fall

Baby, you can drive my car

Test drive: Mazda5

Don’t get taken for a ride

Test drive: Hyundai Genesis

Tips for selling your car

GM turns 100, unveils electric car

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