Super Gas Saver » Car Buying Secrets

How Will President Barack Obama Change What You Drive?

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:20:12 +0000

America has a new President, Barack Obama, who has a very different set of ideals and views than those that have come before him. Weather you agree or disagree with him, he is our President, and as was his mantra throughout his election, change is on his agenda.

That change may extend into all facets of your life, including what you drive. President elect Obama has some very ambitious targets. His programs are, to date, a bit short on specifics, yet long on promise. One thing is for sure, the old wheels will undergo a bit of transformation in the coming 4 years if our new President has his way. Just how will those changes affect what you drive to work every day?

A brief glimpse at his agenda sheds some light on the subject (President Obama’s proposals in bold)–

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards.

Questions – Fuel economy standards are already set to increase substantially in the next revision of the CAFÉ standards that are due to phase in completely by 2020. The revised CAFÉ standards provide for an increase from the current 27.5 mpg to 35mpg. Is Obama proposing an acceleration, a further increase, or is he just referencing those standards already set to take affect?

Development lead times on vehicles currently 2 – 5 years. That is for vehicles using current technologies. A radical revision of fuel economy standards would require advanced technologies, and subsequently longer development times for vehicles using them.

Americans have shown a propensity to desire larger, safer, more practical (until you have to park them) vehicles. They have also demonstrated a willingness to pay the extra in fuel costs is takes to drive them up to a point. The point was exceeded about late June of this year as drivers fled large SUVs and pickups like voters running away from the Republican Party in November.

This increase in fuel economy will have a negative effect on tax revenue, as I discuss further below.

• Get 1 Million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the Road by 2015.

This is an extremely ambitious target, especially given the current state of the automotive landscape. The first plug in hybrid on the horizon is the Chevy Volt, set to debut in 12 – 18 months. This should be followed in short order by the Toyota Prius plug in. If you’ve looked at these vehicles, you’ve found they are not inexpensive.

The Volt in particular is far out of reach of the average car buyer, who stands to never recover the $18,000 difference between that and the 4-cylinder Chevy Malibu (by most accounts a pretty nice car). The Malibu gets 25 mpg, so it isn’t really a gas guzzler for a car that comfortably seats 5 adults.

One will note that vehicles rushed through the engineering stage tend to exhibit more flaws, technological glitches and malfunctions than those that have a longer technological gestation period. That’s something to think about when having a target of 1 million such vehicles on the road in only 6 years.

• Create a New $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Vehicles.

This would doubtlessly offset some of the budget crunch Americans will feel when purchasing the much more expensive advanced technology vehicles. It also brings up another question, to whit – where is the money for this going to come from? There are currently generous tax incentives for such purchases put into place by President Bush. These new ones proposed by Obama are about 90% higher that the existing tax credits. This will cost taxpayers quite a sum of money.

It will assist the development of some new technologies by increasing consumer demand, but at what cost? You could watch for a healthy Federal gas tax increase to both make advanced technology vehicles more attractive to drivers by increasing the price of fuel, and help fund the tax credits. Fuel has a relatively inelastic demand, so revenue tends to rise as tax levels increase.

Hybrid and other advanced, fuel efficient cars will also drain from the nations coffers in another way. Currently, roads are largely financed by users in the form of motor vehicle fuel taxes. That is basically fair. The more you drive, the more you pay, and the heavier and harder on the road your vehicle, the lower its fuel economy, and the more you pay.

President Obama will probably have to push for Congress to increase the Federal fuel tax rate in order to avoid a drop in aggregate motor fuel tax revenues. Many politicians are loathe to do this, especially after the high fuel prices the nation endured this summer. No matter how they feel, the politically astute among them are well aware how raising gas taxes looks when the next election rolls around.

High motor fuel taxes are not conducive to rebuilding the economy, as it costs businesses, and thus consumers, dearly. It will also cost jobs, because when they are confronted by price increases in one area, businesses look to cut costs in others. The largest cost component of almost every business is labor. That means it is also the most likely to be cut when other costs increase.

• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
• A “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases.
• Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas.

The extent of which this occurs will go a long way to determining three things; maintaining low fuel prices, national security due to increased supply reliability, and the reduction of our dependence on foreign oil.

In addition, does anyone think other areas of the world are actually more environmentally conscious than we are in the US when exploring for and extracting oil? That would mean that the more oil we pull out of the ground here at home, the better off the world is environmentally. In addition to the lower environmental cost of production, there is a lower environmental cost of transporting locally produced oil.

One more thing to examine is the tremendous number of different environmentally required gasoline blends currently in use throughout different areas of the United States. That incurs increased transportation costs, poses a greater environmental impact, and lowers delivery efficiency. It also drives up fuel prices and causes localized availability problems. This is one area that stands to be looked at and in the spirit of the new Obama administration, changed.

So, how will President Obama change what you drive? Who can tell for sure, but here’s what it could be like:

It will get much better fuel economy, possibly through much more advanced hybrid technology.

Power plant for the Obama car – A very small, algae-biodiesel fueled (this would help meet his targets for lower carbon emissions) turbo diesel that would run constantly at its most efficient RPM and be used only to charge batteries. In many cases it wouldn’t run at all and the car would be driven solely by its advanced electric motors. They would be used for greater efficiency and lower weight. Advanced technology batteries could be charged from a standard 220 or 110 volt wall socket if needed.

Weight is the enemy of fuel economy so look for advanced materials in everything from power window motors (rare earth magnets) to body panels (fiber composites). In addition, you’ll be leaving your boat at home, since vehicles large enough to tow them may be levied a special tax in order to help consumers decide not to drive them. Such a tax exists now, but isn’t applied to trucks and SUVs, only cars. This policy could change.

Look for tires and wheels to get lighter in an attempt to reduce rolling resistance and rotational inertia. This will help increase fuel economy, vehicle performance, and ride quality.

Cars will get smaller, but safety targets won’t, so look for advanced safety technologies to be used, as long they don’t substantially increase the weight of the vehicle. Radar and Lidar proximity sensors will be coupled with stability control, inertial sensors, and GPS systems to help avoid crashes.

Advanced materials will be required to maintain the structural integrity of the passenger safety cage, while reducing the size of heavy, energy absorbing crumple zones. The crash energy will still have to absorbed and dissipated before reaching the hapless passengers trapped inside the vehicle, or deaths and injuries will rise.

The light weight vehicles and high torque electric motors could give us greatly enhanced fuel economy with pretty spritely 0-40 times. This will be great fun around town, but it’s possible that the heavy hand of government knowing what’s good for us may step in to limit our fun – in the name of fuel economy, environmental responsibility, and safety, of course.

We will drive some advanced vehicles, but we’ll probably live in interesting times.

Used Cars for Cheap – How to Buy a Good One

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:58:56 +0000

Buying a used car for cheap, especially one that saves gas, is at the forefront of many people’s minds. Well, let’s revise that a bit. People dream of buying a used car for cheap, but they are afraid of getting a total piece of crap. When you’re trying to buy a car it’s all too easy to get a cheap used car that’s, well, cheap. You may be driving one of those now! If you’re afraid of ending up with another, here’s how to get a used car for cheap that’s not a rust bucket pile of crap.

There are some important things to look at.

How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 1

Just what are your requirements in a vehicle? Driving yourself 40 miles a day to work? That will pile up the miles in a hurry. A Chevy Tahoe is probably not your best choice, unless you’ve got a hell of car pool and the weather really sucks where you live. On the other hand, if you take your extended family of on ski trips while towing your trailer, a Tahoe would be just the ticket. You can save a ton of money by getting what you really need in a vehicle, and foregoing what you really want. It bites, but you’ll save a pile of money, and that’s what buying cheap is all about.

After you decide what type of vehicle suits your needs, narrow down which vehicles in that category you’d actually be caught dead driving. Typically less picky equals more savings. If you’re the easily satisfied type here, that helps. If details such as colors, brand, and features, don’t matter to you all that much, the easier it will be to get a great used car, cheap.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 2

Think beyond how much money you’ll save today and consider total ownership cost. Getting nickel and dimed to death probably isn’t what you had in mind, is it? A few attributes you shouldn’t overlook are safety and reliability. You, and possibly your family, will depend on this car, your lives are at stake every time you ride in it, so cheap should not mean it’s a deathtrap. Just remember the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s report a few years back on the Ford F-150 before it was redone in 2005. Ouch!! The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does some very good tests to determine the vehicle safety in a variety of different collision situations, far beyond the required U.S. Government DOT crash tests. Check them out as well. Two more great resources to narrow down your shopping list are Consumer Reports and MSN autos. Both have great reliability reports for used vehicles. MSN even breaks it down so you can see where potential reliability areas lie in various vehicles.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 3

After you’ve determined what works for you in a used car, you can start actually looking for your new, used car (isn’t that an oxymoron?). A great tip about how to find a used car for cheap is to look for some of the less popular, but still functional, reliable, and safe brands. You’ll save some money for example, by foregoing a Honda for a Nissan, or skipping a Toyota and landing in the driver’s seat of a Mazda. Unlike in days gone by, today’s vehicles hold up remarkably well with far beyond 100,000 miles showing on the odometer. In fact, they can still look and run almost new at this figure. So, don’t let a few miles scare you. You’re buying the car for what it has left, not what it shows on the odometer.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 4

It’s finally time to check it out – what to check for. Once you found a car that seems to fit your requirements, there are some things you should check to make sure you are in fact getting a good, cheap car, not just a cheap car. Finding one that has been well taken care of is too important to ignore (or even gloss over a wee bit). Today’s cars are remarkably robust, but they do require regular maintenance. If that’s been neglected you can’t really be sure they’ll provide the years of service of that you’re hoping for.

Modern cars run like Swiss watches, with their highly engineered, internal parts spinning about in a fine, choreographed ballet. However, that example of modern engineering could turn into a pile of very expensive crapola if it doesn’t get the care that makes it feel warm and fuzzy inside. After all, ballerinas blow out their knees almost as often as NFL players. The component parts for modern cars are sit down, you’ve got to be freakin’ kidding, expensive. It’s pretty typical for a transmission to cost between $2,500 and $6,000. A new engine may cast close to $10,000 (an excellent argument for used engines, which are far cheaper, but can come with nice guarantees). The takeaway is that a bit of snooping now could save you a very expensive problem down the road. Be like a horse trader in the old west; look the horse in the teeth make sure you really want it sleeping in your barn.

You should definitely check the vehicle’s history. You could discover all manner of horrors hiding in it’s sordid past. There are all to many cars that sat out the last hurricane in 4 feet of water knocking around this great land of ours. Carfax works very well for this, with their vehicle history reports. Bring a laptop or mobile device to access the web while you’re shopping. You can get unlimited uses for a month for a pretty reasonable price, so you can check out a large number of prospective vehicles as you’re shopping.

When you’re actually looking at the car, kneel down and sight down the car’s body lines. If they are wavy or you can see obvious imperfections in the paint, chances are the car has been damaged and repaired at some point. Another trick is to bring a small magnet with you. If the car has metal body that’s been repaired with body filler putty, the magnet will not adhere to the repair as well as it does to the other parts of the body. The less it sticks, the thicker the Bondo. Crawl under the car and check the frame or unibody members for any signs of bending, corrosion or other damage. See if it looks like the car’s underside has been places you wouldn’t take a car you loved.

Pop open the hood. Pull out the dipstick to check the oil. See if the oil is between the “add” and “full markers, and if it’s black or a nice, golden brown. If it’s thick and black, the oil probably has been neglected. Check to see of there’s any white substance mixed with the oil. That’s usually engine coolant. It’s not supposed to be in there with the engine’s oil. If it is, there’s a blown gasket or an even more serious engine problem. That won’t be an inexpensive car, but it may be a cheap one.

Check the tires for uneven wear. If the tires need to be replaced soon, that may not be a trivial expense on many cars. You could spend $350 – $600 on a new set of Goodyears, mounted and balanced. The car’s tires are extremely important to vehicle safety, handling, braking and acceleration however, so don’t skimp if you do have to put on a new set. Be sure you use the fact in your negotiations.

Uneven tire wear may also be indicative of a greater problem, such as a suspension or alignment issue. It could also mean the car has been wrecked in the past and not repaired correctly. With unibody vehicles the quality of the repair is even more important than with traditional body on frame vehicles, and it’s much more difficult to do, especially without the proper equipment. You’re not going to correctly fix a badly damaged, unibody car outside Uncle Larry’s house, under his oak tree.

You need to decide where you want to look for your car. You can choose a private party. You can often get a great deal from a private party. Try to ascertain their reason for selling the car. Some insight here may determine if you have a highly motivated seller and give you the upper hand in the negotiation. Another benefit to a private party is that you’ll often get the car’s service records. These can boost the resale for you later and shed light on any past problems.

You can obviously buy from a dealer. There are hundreds of lots brimming with shiny used cars in most metro areas. You won’t get as good a deal from a dealer (?) in most cases, but you won’t have to meet 46 different sellers either. In addition, you can possibly get some kind of warranty of the dealer offers one. If you do elect to avail yourself of a warranty, read the entire contract like you’re an attorney (if you’re actually not one).

If you’re trading in your existing car, remember that in many states you’ll get to deduct the value of your trade from the sales tax and could realize substantial savings. If they’re giving you a good value for your trade in (I know, fat chance) that could add up big. For example, if you’re in an area with an 8% sales tax and they’re giving you $10,000 for your trade, that’s $800 less you’ll pay because you don’t pay taxes on the $10,000 of trade in value. So, if you’re buying a $15,000 used car, you’ll only pay taxes on the difference between your trade and the sales price. Instead of paying $1,200 in sales tax, you’ll only pay $400. Consider that when making your decision about where to buy your used car.

You can buy your cheap, used car from an auction. There are many different kinds of vehicle auctions. Many law enforcement agencies sell off vehicles confiscated according to property forfeiture laws. These laws allow the agencies to keep property of those arrested for a variety of crimes, particularly drug crimes. If the perp had pride in his ride, you can get a very nice vehicle. Other auctions are held to dispose of vehicles seized by customs officials, abandoned at towing yards, or to satisfy tax liens. You can also find fantastic deals at auctions held to liquidate vehicle fleets of large businesses, such as phone and utility companies. It’s not uncommon for vehicles to be sold for far lower than they would in any other marketplace, often at only pennies on the dollar..

The downside of auctions is, you guessed it, you know nothing, nada, zero, zip about these cars. To make matters worse, you can’t drive them in most cases. In the cases where you can drive them, you’ll only be permitted to take them for a slow spin around the auction yard. Another downside is inventory selection at many vehicle auctions. The selection can range form outstanding to very limited. You know what, though? Many used cars on dealer lots are found at auctions. The dealers keep this little secret tucked safely away inside their little book of tricks. If you could get your new car at an auction you could pay what the dealer’s pay, sometimes less.

Next time you need to buy a cheap, used car, remember there is one for you out there somewhere. You just need to find it and check it out before you get soaked. So, it’s true, you can find used cars for cheap!