Purchasing A Vehicle? Do Your Homework FIRST Before You Commit To Buy.

Whether it’s new or used, purchasing a vehicle should never be a spur of the moment decision. Take the time to get full information first on total cost, warranty information, state (local?) sales tax, reliability, recalls, insurance costs, financing costs and terms, gas mileage, etc. Below are a few thoughts and websites to get you started with some of the information needed. Your newspaper(s) might be a good source of information on local dealers' current pricings and offerings. Many dealerships have their own websites.

Edmunds has a lot of information on their site, (recalls and technical service bulletins, etc.), it will show both the MSRP and Invoice prices (as well as with options you choose) and lots more. www.Edmunds.com

Kelley Blue Book also has a lot of information on new and used cars – you’ll find MSRP, Invoice, reviews and ratings, incentives and rebates, etc. http://www.kbb.com

Here’s yet another website with helpful information. When you click on this website be sure to also go to the Theft and Fraud Awareness link. That will give you access to the Flood Vehicle Database link. https://www.nicb.org

Now, you might find more discounts with ownership, as well. Or not. Once you have determined what you might buy, call your insurance company and ask about your selection(s): How will your choice(s) of vehicle(s) affect your premium and especially why, if the premium will be more. What features on your particular vehicle choice(s) will reduce the premium? (If you have your homeowner’s insurance with the same company, do you qualify for any further discount?)

Once you make your choices and have all your other information (and before you make any commitments with a dealer) check your local financial institutions (credit unions or groups you belong to) and determine what way is in your best financial interest to finance the vehicle. Most dealers can finance your car, but are often higher priced than you can obtain by your own efforts and the terms of financing might or might not be as flexible. Know the total costs of the loan privately obtained or dealership financed and compare them.

Once you purchase a vehicle, state (and/or local taxes) on the vehicle are due. The dealership should have state (and perhaps local, if any—ask first) authorization to collect taxes, but it’s always better to make out your own check directly addressed to the taxing body(ies) and then give that to the dealership.

Fry Pans Can Get It, Why Not My Car

The virtues of the Teflon fry pan are many, but non-stick seems to be the biggest benefit. Imagine the time that we could all save if none of the ice would stick. It took us about two hours per car that were left outside during the heavy snowfall with hours and hours of freezing rain and more snowfall. We might have to make do with brown and silver colors at first, but surely, colors we like could be made available.

I had thought of spraying my car with Pam before this last heavy snowfall and freezing rain hit us, but wasn’t certain if it might just grease up the windows and make a tough situation even worse. The storm hit with full force where we are (on top of a big hill), and one of the cars had a broken windshield from the sheer weight of the ice. The ice covering was a good 1/3 to 1/2 inch and in some places an inch thick. The severe cold made it almost impossible to work outside for so long and remove the ice.

Fortunately, we had a big collection of ice scrapers that weren’t left inside the cars to use to remove the ice. It was a lot of work. Years ago my car was parked in an outdoor lot in town. An ice and snowstorm had turned the lot and all the cars into quite a mess. It was getting late and there was one other woman who couldn’t get into her car because her locks were frozen. I had my lock de-icer handy and we both were able to open the door locks but the doors wouldn’t budge. Pulling on the handles any harder would have ripped them off. Somebody should have had a camera to take movies of us getting our cars open – In total frustration, I finally decided to body slam the door. When I got my door open, the other woman decided to give that a try that as well. We were both successful.

Keep a little can of lock de-icer with you instead of in the car and if you carry a tote bag, a bigger spray bottle of de-icer is helpful as well as a short heavy scraper when you are out and the weather threatens your ability to get into your car. It’s best to get a better scraper so it doesn’t break easily from heavy use.

There has to be an easier way instead of using a garage that goes down a slope and into the back yard that would have required a tremendous amount of shoveling to get the car out and up the driveway. That would have been just as big an ordeal.

Besides the slick teflon-like coating on the cars, I would like to suggest to the manufacturers that every four-door vehicle have locks on each door. It would provide us a much better chance of one of them opening.

Any ideas?