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In the conventional world, renting cars requires a reservation, confirmation, and even a credit card. With as little as a pair of comfortable walking shoes, a laptop computer (or even a really good pda phone), and a bit of patience, its possible to save more money that you would have reserving online. And you don’t even have to have any risk in doing so.Car rental agencies want you to think they have very rigid price scales. “it costs this much to rent a car, period.” Truth is they change the prices all the time. A trained eye and a bit of watching can spot the deals from the dunces. The technique I am about to tell you is basic, easy, and in no way violates any rules that the rental companies want to claim. So take notes and pay attention.1. If you are planning a trip, go-ahead and book a reservation, the best deal you can find that has no cancellation penalties. Most car rental agencies do not have any cancellation penalties except during peak season and for specialty cars. If you are trapped due to an unexpected change in destination or you changed your mind on renting at the last second, skip this step.2. Bring or wear your most comfortable walking shoes with you on this trip. Also, bring your laptop computer and a smile.3. When you land, bust out your computer and hit hotwire.com or any other discount websites. most of these websites will not let you book any reservation within 2 hours of your expected pick up time, so you will have to be prepared for a possible last second delay (bring a book or plan for a light lunch or dinner at the airport, just in case). At the hotwire site, pick out a reservation for a rental car for the desired amount of time. Choose the car class just below you want if your asking for a normal sedan.4. Hotwire, unlike Priceline, will give you the dollar amount of the best deal they can offer you right there. Use that as your baseline for your bargain hunt. At this point, if the hotwire price is more expensive, or relatively close to your reservation, it may be better to take the reservation price.5. Take the reservation price, the hotwire estimate, and start going door to door, counter to counter for each and every agency. Your goal is to negotiate, smile, snivel, discount your way into a car for a price that is better than or equal to the best price you have. Car rental agencies report their walk up traffic statistics to the airport authority. The authority uses this data to determine which agencies will get on airport locations and the highest walk up traffic agencies are given the most prime locations. The authority gets a cut of all the business done at the airports and the best company in the best spot traditionally will give them the best revenue.6. Don’t give up, hit em all, play off one against the other. Statements like “national gave me an offer of 18 dollars a day, can you beat that?” are NOT taboo and are very effective in getting the agent to keep you in their company. After all, a walk up is a commission paid event. If you buy from them and you have no reservation, the agent gets a nice tidy check.7. If your original reservation is the best option, nothing lost except for 15 min of time. Simply go pick up your reserved car and begin your trip. But if your reservation is left in the dust, call and cancel it, and get ready to accept an offer at another location. Notice I said “get ready to accept.”8. As a final attempt at a better car, say “Ill take that offer if you can give me the next car class up for the same price.” People don’t realize that this is perhaps the EASIEST thing for a car rental agent to do. Upgrades for free are almost always “personal” decisions by the agents. *note, this obviously does not work when the location is extremely busy or sold out. This works best when there is no one around and lots of cars to be had.As you can see, there is an easy way to get better deals for rental cars even in the worst of circumstances. Some people simply give up and get “whatever” they can find. The truth is, if you plan for it, expect for it to happen, build your travel plans around attempting this, its not nearly as hard or tiring as it seems. The car rental agencies take advantage of traveler’s mental status all the time. Be ready, be prepared, and save save save!

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Whether you are buying a new or used car you can bet that some time before your hand is shaken and you pull out of the car dealership, someone will attempt to sell you an extended warranty. It’s as inevitable as the sun rising. And surprisingly, whenever I write about extended warranties I always get strong responses from people in the car business. I guess you can question ethics, conduct and business principles, but don’t mess with the extended warranties! But, I am going to risk the ire of the auto industry and do just that, write about auto extended warranties.To begin with, I want to stress that I am not anti-extended warranties. I think they can be very beneficial for the right customer; my problem is that extended warranties sold by car dealers usually cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars more than similar warranties sold by internet companies. That’s why I recommend using an outside source if someone needs an extended warranty.The subject of this article is the scam many dealers commit with extended warranties. As the Auto Insider I want to arm you with the tools you need to ensure a car dealer can not pull the ‘forced extended warranty’ scam on you. The reason unscrupulous dealers love this scam is because its easy to do, its surprisingly easy to get people to fall for the scam and it’s highly lucrative (each time this scam gets pulled off successfully the dealer makes at least $500 and often thousands of dollars). So, if a dealer is ‘ethically challenged’ the extended warranty scam is probably one of his favorite scams!To pull the extended warranty scam off it is usually conducted by the dealership’s F&I manager (F&I stands for financing and insurance - after you have agreed on a car and it’s price you move into the F&I phase of the sale). Once the unsuspecting customer is in the F&I office he or she is informed that the only way they will get financed, or the only way they will get financed at an attractive rate is if they take an extended warranty. What the customer is told is, “the bank is requiring you to take the extended warranty to complete the deal.” If the F&I manager is asked why he or she will respond with a lie like, “The bank is concerned about you maintaining the vehicle during the period of the loan.” Don’t be fooled, this is a lie! If you have bad credit or sub-prime credit the odds of this type of scam being attempted on you increases greatly, so be extra vigilant!The forced extended warranty scam has been around for as long as they have been putting tires on cars and there’s one other constant: it was a lie then, it’s a lie today and it will be a lie long after we’re all gone! If anyone attempts to pull this type of forced sale on you during your car-buying experience feel free to tell them, “that’s funny, I have a friend in the auto business, he’s an Auto Insider and he told me that a bank would never try and force me to buy an extended warranty. He said it’s a scam and in many states this is an illegal sales tactic. So, lets put this little bit of unpleasantness aside and proceed like it never happened, OK.”That should stop 85% of the scam-pullers in their tracks, but for the real persistent your follow-up response should be, “OK, now I know you benefit financially if I purchase an extended warranty and I know the bank does not. (Take out your cell phone and extend your hand now) So, if you are telling me the truth please give me the phone number of the lending agent. I want to call them on my cell phone, confirm their decision to commit this scam and capture their phone number on my cell phone so when I contact the state’s Attorney General about this matter they can quickly stop this type of auto scam from happening again! At this point you should have no problem continuing the car buying process, or if the sleaze is too nauseating you can bring your business to another dealer.Be warned, like any long-running con, the forced extended warranty scam is conducted under many names with slight differences. Don’t be surprised if instead of the word ‘Extended’ the F&I manager might use terms used like, wrap-around, additional, bonus, extra, supplemental, mandatory to name a few. Also, they might attempt to fool you by using words like, protection, coverage, certificate, contract, guaranty, surety in place of the word ‘warranty. So you can see there’s a long list of pseudonyms for the term ‘extended warranty’ so you can not rely only on the name the F&I manager uses. What I recommend you do is keep in mind that the only requirement a bank makes when they agree to extend a loan to you is the completion of their paperwork. When they agree to lend you the money for a car the only other expenditures you are required are items like: licensing (plates and registration as needed by state) and insurance. The bank is not concerned about the car’s long-term condition, just your ability to repay them! So don’t be fooled, if you are on your toes the forced extended warranty scam is an easy one to avoid!

Every year, there are thousands of drivers who get to trouble because of numerous over speeding tickets they get when driving in the major roads and highways. For quite some time, people have been envisioning traffic police as law enforcers who are in hiding, waiting to possible speeding violators in the highway.Through the years, some car owners have been heavily relying on the usefulness of devices called radar detectors. If you are a car owner and driver who is aiming to reduce or totally eliminate accumulation of over speeding ticket on the highways, there is definitely a need to invest in a radar detector.What is a radar detector? To simplify the definition, a radar detector is radio transmission device that alarms a driver traffic police are around the area or are already chasing him. This way, the driver would always be tipped if there is a nearby officer, eliminating the incurrence of ticketing for over speeding.The popularity of the radar detector has always been on the rise especially when several initial users testified for the advantages of using the devices.There has been speculation that car insurance firms are working closely with the traffic police to gain favors. Though reports have not been compared, there are talks that insurance firms are providing the traffic police free radar guns, which are able to intercept and provide signals to radar detectors.In case you have overlooked the situation and the possible gains insurers would have, be aware that when drivers accumulate more speed driving violations, they make auto insurance policies more expensive for them. Thus, in the end, the car insurance companies get to benefit the most from this setup.There are inevitably doubts over the usefulness and advantages of the radar detector. However, analysts assure consumers and drivers that the car accessory and device is still very much useful in the general strategy to help improve driving discipline and possibly make the driver forget all about over speeding tickets.However, here are several tips on how a radar detector is used as an advantageous tool to eliminate incurring of over speeding tickets.1. There is a strategy to make radar detector be negligible to any of the police’s radar gun or detector. That is to put the radar detector high on the car’s windshield. Remember that the higher the radar detector is placed in your car, the more its ability becomes to escape or sniff out police signals.2. A radar detector will always make corresponding sounds for different radar threats. It would be more advisable if you would learn and familiarize your self with those sounds so that the next time you encounter any detection from the traffic police, you would easily take heed and tip from the sound of the radar detector.3. Always make sure to use your radar detector. Do not practice the idea to use the device only on long trips or on vacation travels.4. Do not slow down when the detector alarms or indicates detection from a traffic police’s radar gun. Slowing down would make the brake lights turn on and blink and would further catch the attention of the police. This will give them the perception and impression that you are admitting your guilt to over speeding. Drive as if nothing happened.

Do you have a used car that you do not drive anymore? That old vehicle may be filling up and using up so much space in your garage. Did you know that you can make them more useful? Why not consider car donation?For quite some time, car donation has been a good and widely adopted practice. There have been numerous car owners who face the problem of disposing their old cars. Selling can be a good option but doing so may incur additional and costly charges in the form of taxes.You do not want your old auto to fill the junk shops do you? Through auto donation, you are helping charities and institutions get on and raise further funding for the humanitarian initiatives.There are still other reasons why owners of old cars would rather do car donation these days. The government is offering hefty and attractive tax breaks for every car donation.While it is true that you would not generate any income or revenue from donating your car to a charitable institution, some people still are not aware that auto donation is rewarded by the government through the appealing tax incentives given to donors.If you decide to take a car donation initiative, you surely would be able to save on taxes. As you know, every car donation has specific and appropriate procedures. The most usual is that you fill out forms and provide basic documentary information and details to the charitable institution, which would be your car donation’s beneficiary.Those documents would not only facilitate voluntary surrender of ownership. Such documents also act as information source for the procedure of tax incentives to be provided to the donor.Think about it. You are entering into a win-win situation when you decide to go to a car donation procedure. You are filling up a noble role of helping out other people in dire need, while at the same time you are helping yourself generate huge savings through the tax break package provided with the car donation transaction.If you are planning to donate an old car, it is time you start the procedure by calling up different charitable institutions of your choice. There are numerous charities to choose from. You may choose by sticking to an advocacy, say assistance for cancer patients or funding aged care centers.By communicating with such charities you would be instructed on the right an appropriate procedure on how to get on with your car donation.What’s more? Car donation is now made more convenient. You may not need to drive the old car to the charity. Personnel would be sent by the institution to pick up or tow the car.All you have to do is to wait for those people, surrender your key and accomplish the necessary documentary papers. After that, you are all set to voluntarily transfer the ownership of your old car to the chosen charity.

How many people have something to hide? More to the point, how many cars have something to hide? It is reported that one in three used cars has something to hide. It might just be a poor maintenance record from a lazy owner (and aren’t we all lazy sometimes?) Or it could be something more serious, such as damage from an accident or flood. Or it could be a stolen car.Yes, thanks to the increasingly common practice of “used car cloning”, you might by a stolen car without even knowing it. Thieves take the vehicle identification number or VIN from a legitimate vehicle and slap it on a stolen car. Because each VIN is unique, the stolen vehicle becomes a clone of the legitimate one. Add some fake papers, and the thieves are ready to sell you a vehicle that looks perfectly legal.Here are five tips to protect yourself from becoming a car clone victim:1. MAINTENANCE RECORDS: You should also inspect all maintenance records, which are not only a good way to see if the car was stolen, but also will give you a hint of how well the car has been taken care of. Checking the mileage over time on the maintenance records is one good step to ensure that the seller did not tamper with the odometer.2. LOW

As oil prices continue to increase amid depleting supplies and rapid growth in demand, all economies globally are feeling the setbacks of the need to curtail excessive consumption of fuel.For quite some time, research and development has been actively finding ways on how problems regarding very high demand could finally be eliminated. With the advent of the hybrid car, car owners and users all over the world are now finding relief that indeed there is hope.A hybrid car is a specially designed and manufactured vehicle that combines the power of the conventional gasoline engine and electricity. In the past, many have referred to hybrid vehicles as electric vehicles.Technically, a hybrid car could not be classified as purely electric because only about 40% of the energy consumption of the vehicle is from electric sources, in the form of stored electricity in batteries.Though the wide use of hybrid cars provide hope that in the future, when oil supplies finally and completely runs out, the transportation industry would not feel the drawback. Yes, for now, driving a hybrid auto could equate to a lot of savings on the part of the car owner.At least, the overall consumption of oil could be significantly lowered. Research is still ongoing so that in the near future, further better versions of the modern hybrid auto could be developed and launched into the market.However, just like many other predecessor technologies, there are actual setbacks to owning and using a hybrid car. Many people hope that in the coming months or years, people could finally realize a better and more effective hybrid car. Here are the most practical and obvious of those drawbacks.1. Because the hybrid car technology is still a relatively new car technology, it is just logical that the vehicle is expensive. On the average, a hybrid car these days costs more than the regular and usual cars by around $2,000 to $5,000. That is just right and is expected with the high demand for the car as more consumers get excited about it and manufacturers continue to produce the vehicle models on a limited ability.2. Any hybrid car needs to allot a significant amount of space for battery. Because the hybrid car needs batteries to keep it going and for the use of some if its functions, the overall weight of the car gets more and more.3. There are several states in the

Car renting is an art, not a skill. People seem to think “yeah I’ve done it before, I can do it again, better.” The truth is that very few car renters truly leverage every trick out there to get the best possible deal. Our goal today is to change that.Take for instance, upgrades. When you rent a specific car class for pickup on a specific day, in reality unless its a specialty car, you are just renting a car, not the specific car class. Let me explain.Car Rental Agencies spend a great deal of money studying the human mind and how it works. They want to be able to predict what people will do on any given day so that they may best utilize their investment (cars). One thing has shown in these studies is that people are always looking for a bargain, or a perceived bargain. They have it down to a science. The problem is, not all of their agents are as in tune with the game plan as the computers.First, some basics. Car rental agents work on commission. Yes, they get a hourly wage, but they supplement it with sales, or more importantly, upsells, of products that the car agency sells. This metric, or measurement category, is relayed in the form of a number, Dollars per rental day. To break that down, if you were renting a car for 10 days and they upsold you from a compact car to a full size car for 10 dollars per day, that agent’s “dollars per day” upgrade number would be $10.00. Each agent is required to maintain a specific dollar amount to avoid sanctions, but usually that number is set low. Usually they driven by greed. The more upgrades, the more money they get. If they reach certain benchmarks, their payouts hit “multipliers”, if an agent averages$5 per rental day, instead of paying out a commission at normal level, the company may pay them 1,25x the normal commission level.Now that you know how how they get paid, its time to learn how to turn this to your advantage. It is advantageous to upgrade as many people as possible to higher class cars on most occasions. Since smaller cars are easier to rent, agents want to keep those available for another type of commission payout, the “walk-up customer.”. More on that later.Most agents will try and offer an upgrade at anywhere from 10-25 dollars per day for an upgrade. Upgrades could come from any car class to any other car class above. You could go from a subcompact to a full size, a full size to a van, a mid size to a convertible, it really doesn’t matter. They will often quote the same price. Pay attention to the market. If you really wanted that convertible, but they were renting at 75.00 per day online when you booked your subcompact at $40 per day, taking a convertible for $10 a day upgrade is a GREAT deal. At least it appears on paper.What MOST people don’t know is that 10-25 dollar upgrade number is pure fantasy. As far as the rental car company is concerned, operationally it would be better to get that convertible off the lot rather than let it sit there waiting for the right price customer to come by. Each and every car sitting on the lot is costing the rental car company at least 15 dollars a day to sit idle. Since the car you are currently reserved for is likely an easy sell to other people (and often overbooked intentionally to take advantage of this fact), they are willing to take ANY dollar amount for that car.Sure, there are agents whom are literally too money hungry to give up the car at low ball rates, but it is indeed possible. This works especially well at the end of the month when agents are just barely below the next threshold for their multiplier. Giving up a little on their average revenue per rental day in exchange for sheer volume could push them over the top and double, or triple their monthly commission.Oh, and one more thing, any agent, and I mean any agent, can give you any car on the lot, pretty much without any risk of penalty. Sweet talking agents, bribing them with food (even a well placed gratuity) can get you into a much costlier vehicle on the cheap, especially if you are a regular renter at that facility. Some agents have lists of who’s naughty and who’s nice. If your on their “nice list”, I see the hottest cars for cheap in your future.

As we fill up with gasoline every day, a lot of us sit back and wonder how exactly is the gasoline price determined? In this article, we are going to explain a few factors that play a part in determining the gas prices. Hopefully after you read these points, you’ll better understand the gas industry and how gas prices are determined.Amount of oil producedOil comes from all points of the world and as you may know by now, a majority of the

It is true that driving is a very dangerous activity. Any trouble in driving would not only endanger his own life but also the life or lives of his passengers and other drivers and passengers at other cars in the road.Through the decades, people have witnessed some of the most tragic accidents by road. It is in this regard that there is a need to further popularize defensive driving.Defensive driving refers to a form of road driving training that is aimed at helping a driver take an important intellectual and safety approach that helps save brakes, fuel, tires and of course, lives.Defensive driving skills are necessary to lower if not totally eliminate the risks of driving vehicles through the anticipation of dangerous driving situations even at the face of adverse conditions and inappropriate driving practices by others.There are seven general rules that are generally observed when a driver is acquiring and practicing the skills to defensive driving. Here are those general rules.1. Pick and purchase the right car.Of course, the basic requirement before acquiring and using defensive driving skills is to make sure you are driving the right vehicle. No matter how cautious and safe you are as a driver, you would inevitably encounter challenges and road accidents if you are driving an unsafe and accident-prone car in the first place. So how could you select and purchase the right car? There are some basic tips on car purchase.First, when purchasing cars, avoid bland and dark colors. Gray, tan and silver are bland colors that look like urban camouflage. Thus, other drivers would have a hard time taking distinct and immediate notice of the car.Likewise, dark colors like black and red are very hard to see especially in dim light. Then, make sure the car’s center of mass is low and the four-wheel drive system has a differential center balancing forces between rear and front. It would also help if you would avoid purchasing or driving cars with heavily tinted windows especially in the front.2. Inspect the car thoroughly before driving.Check all the components and parts of the car prior to driving. As an unwritten law, drivers should make it a habit to inspect the good quality and condition of tires, engines, lights, brakes and oil and water levels especially in preparation for a long trip.Major car accidents usually happen because some components and parts of the car are not in good condition, most especially the brakes. Make it a must to have the car sent for a mechanical condition check with professionals at least once a year.3. Focus on the road.Defensive driving skills center well on focusing on the road. When driving, always scan the highway or road for any tell-tale signals from other vehicles like turn signals and brake light indicators form other cars.Usually, vehicular accidents occur because drivers fail to take heed and recognize the light indications and warnings from other drivers. Moreover, it is also imperative for you to make sure your headlights or daytime running lamps are turned on while driving in a busy and rapid road to avoid other cars from crashing into your car.4. Always assume the worst in other drivers.It may be a little paranoid, but one of the distinct defensive driving skills is the ability to always assume that other drivers are the worst drivers. As such, do not rely heavily on light indicators from other cars, as drivers have the tendency to change minds on the last minute about taking a turn. Also, expect that other drivers at your back might not be able to see and interpret the stop signals and other tail light indications you may do.Beware when you see drivers talking to their mobile phones while driving as they are more prone to accidents. Do not always assume that in intersections you will always have your right of way.5. Keep an exit route.When driving in the highway, always remain in the outer lane especially on freeways. That way, the need to cross the lane to get to the shoulder in cases of problems would be eliminated. Have space on either side of the vehicle.6. Avoid danger.Avoid driving at danger sites, like near large vehicles or cars that are defective. Visibly damaged cars should also be avoided as it can be safely assumed that their drivers are not skilled enough to drive safely.7.Observe precaution when approaching or passing by vehicle break-down and crash scenes.When being awed by such vehicular cases, stay focused on your own driving. If not, you may risk running at wandering animals or pedestrians. Worse, you may run across obstacles or other road accident-causing sites.