Author Archive: Chad Baus

Winter is hard on cars. The following tips can help your vehicle (or even you!) last longer through harsh cold weather conditions…

• Let your car warm up before you begin driving. Allow your vehicle to warm up two to three minutes before taking off.
• Have a trusted car repair facility check your anti-freeze to ensure it’s good.
• Check for proper air pressure in tires, and if you need tires, change them so you have good traction for the winter.
• Replace your windshield wipers & fill your washer fluid jar with a fluid that contains anti-freeze.
• Repair any large chips in the windshield. If you don’t, when you turn on your defroster, a stone chip can turn into a major crack necessitating an expensive new windshield.
• Have your brakes checked before the roads get slick.
• Check for a leaky exhaust. If an automobile has an exhaust [...]

Did you know that the average monthly payment for a new vehicle was $483, and that the gap between the average monthly payments for new and used vehicles during the second quarter of 2015 reached an all-time high?

That’s the word from Experian Automotive, and it has the experts saying more consumers will be driven to reconsider the cost of paying for a brand new vehicle:

“As the price of new vehicles continues to rise, and the gap between monthly payments for new and used vehicles widens, we see more and more consumers looking for ways to keep their vehicle payments affordable,” said Melinda Zabritski, Experian’s senior director of automotive finance. “This could be especially true for consumers who have the financial ability to pursue a new vehicle but may have sticker shock at the rising prices and don’t want the accompanying high monthly payments.”

At CAR 1, we have often said that our primary customer is [...]

If these cars could talk, right? Well, soon they will. [Recently], transportation secretary Anthony Foxx announced the U.S.’s largest vehicle-to-vehicle pilot program. The $42 million project will roll out in New York City, Tampa, and Wyoming to cut down on traffic problems, and crashes.

The vehicle-to-vehicle technology has been in development in Ann Arbor, Michigan, since 2012, and uses a network of sensors that communicate over the wireless spectrum. The sensors can be added to vehicles and nearby infrastructure like traffic lights and stop signs.

The sensor-enabled vehicles will lead to an “unprecedented” amount of anonymous data, which could help to build smarter cities in the future. And in the meantime apps using the data could alert drivers if there’s a vehicle in their blind spot or when cars are braking up [...]

Amazingly low monthly payments might make leasing seem like a no-brainer. But a closer look at the related costs of leasing (and its long-term expense) might convince some people to return to a good used car.

Leasing is presented as a quick, easy and affordable way to get into a new car. …But there are some fees that people often don’t take into account, and those can quickly add up. Furthermore, at the end of the lease term, you have to decide whether to start a new lease cycle. You might eventually become a “serial leaser”: someone who always has a car payment. Over a lifetime of driving, this can be costly.

Here is a list of other points that might make you choose used-car buying over new-car leasing.

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With autumn’s shorter days, cooler temperatures and inclement weather drawing closer, now is a good time to get your car ready for the demands of the coming driving season.

Although some seasonal car maintenance will require the assistance of a qualified car mechanic, here are five, simple do-it-yourself car maintenance projects to make your auto better prepared for fall and save you the labor cost of having these services done by a mechanic.

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The idea of prohibiting the sale or rental of cars under recall has been bandied about by consumer advocates at both the federal and state level for some time. The most recent federal attempt, known as the Blumenthal Amendment for the Connecticut senator who sponsored it, was attached to a federal spending bill but didn’t get out of committee before Congress adjourned this summer.

The fundamental problem with the proposed prohibition is that all recalls are not created equal. Not selling a car because it has a defective airbag, or brakes that are known to fail, is one thing. Not selling a truck because it has has a typo in the owner’s manual, or a running board that’s not properly bolted on, is quite another.

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To insist that a car or [...]

Credit score has been a common topic of conversation over recent years. However, many do not understand exactly how credit can impact their life. The better your credit, the more likely you’re able to finance at a lower rate. Your credit score affects everything from financing or buying a car to buying a house. Here’s a look at how a good score can affect your life.

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Divorce is often the catalyst for landing an ex-couple’s credit scores in the toilet. Last year Credit.com surveyed 526 divorced adults and found that more than 31 percent suffered a credit score drop following the break-up of their marriage. Especially for a lesser-earning spouse, or a spouse who did not work at the time of the split, securing a loan with attractive terms can be a real challenge. This can seem overwhelming if you are low on funds and need to buy a new car.

Even for those with severely damaged credit or no credit, period, all hope is not lost, says Matt Jones, Edmunds.com senior editor. “Even if your credit is wrecked in the divorce, you still have options for financing a car,” says Jones. “People with no credit are not always raked over the [...]

In the near future, cars will communicate with one another on the road, partly or entirely drive themselves and be packed with more entertainment options than most computers.

But could technology also offer a solution for a scourge that kills nearly 10,000 Americans each year — drunken driving?

Regulators and the auto industry hope the answer is yes, and recently the Department of Transportation unveiled the latest steps toward developing anti-drunken-driving technology that would allow a car to detect drivers impaired by alcohol and stop them from turning on the car.

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