Car loans are certainly less costly than home mortgages, student loans, or other kinds of loans. So why do so many people end up defaulting and losing their cars? Find out these hidden dangers:
Biggest Hidden Car Loan Danger: The Inherent Money Pit

Unlike home mortgages, student loans or other big-ticket loans, car loans are inherently money pits. A house can build equity; higher education can increase earning potential; even jewelry can sometimes be re-sold for as much as was paid for it. If you borrow to buy one of those things, you may eventually get a return on investment. But every single car loses significant value and keeps losing it as time goes by.

Solution: spend as little on your car as possible.

Of course, in order to spend as little as possible over the life of the vehicle, you need to get a well-made, fuel-efficient car, rather than the one with the lowest price on the windshield.

But a pickup truck, SUV, sports car, or “luxury” model is a guaranteed money-loser. Dont worry about what other people will think. Think about it: when was the last time you saw an expensive automobile and thought, “I really like and respect whoever owns that!”

The best buy? Many economists actually recommend buying a used car that’s a year or two old. That way you can actually benefit from the fact that cars only drop in value. Even a car thats just six months old may offer you a substantial savings. Just have it inspected thoroughly so you don’t lose what you’ve saved on maintenance payments.
Hidden Car Loans Danger: Dangerously High Monthly Payments

Unfortunately, most people never figure out the total cost before signing on the dotted line. They end up staying up late at night trying to figure out how to make ends meet. They live in smaller houses. They skip going out at night. They dont go on vacation.

All that sacrifice to have a brand-new SUV in the driveway!

Take a hard look at your finances, and figure out how much you can pay total each month for your car. Be sure to take into account insurance, tax, maintenance, and fuel. Usually, when people actually do calculate the total monthly cost of the car theyre considering buying, theyre amazed by how high it is.
How Much Car Debt Can You Afford?

1) Make a list of your average monthly non-car expenses, and subtract them from your earnings.

your monthly after-income-tax income

any other taxes

housing (including any fees and property taxes, and utilities)

food

health insurance or HMO

life insurance

debt payments

401 (k), IRA, or other long-term savings

short-term savings

telephone, cellular phone, cable, internet, etc.

entertainment and fun stuff (be honest!)

cost of yearly vacation(s) divided by 12

other expenses

what you can spend on a car

2) Subtract your monthly car-related expenses from the amount you have left over from your other expenses.

What you can spend on a car (from above)

Amount youre spending per month on gas (raise or lower this figure depending on whether you are getting a car with higher or lower gas mileage).
Monthly maintenance (remember: your new car wont stay new long, so maintenance will be an issue).

Monthly insurance (remember that for a new car, your insurance premiums may go up).

Tax.

Maximum monthly loan payment.

Now plug the number above into a vehicle loan rate calculator to figure out big of a car loan, and how much interest you can afford.
Final Hidden Auto Loan Danger: Unnecessarily High Rates

If you simply take the first loan the dealer offers you, you are probably paying too much. Do some comparison shopping on the internet, and bring a list of the best loans with you when you negotiate loan terms with the dealer.

Dont let the dealer cheat you by shifting the cost from the car loan to the car price to the deal on your trade-in. Make sure you get a good deal overall.

Congratulations! You now are far better prepared to stay out of an auto loan money pit than the vast majority of car buyers.

Categories: Car Deals
30 Aug 2010

An oxygen sensor is a vital part of your Suzuki vehicle. After all, it is mainly one of the important parts responsible for keeping a vehicles gas mileage low. If you have not known yet, oxygen sensors are also known by other names. It also goes by the names O2 sensor, lambda sensor, lambda probe, lambda sensor, lambda sond, or EGO sensor which stands for exhaust gas oxygen sensor.

What is the oxygen sensor? It is a small sensor. This is found inserted into the Suzuki vehicles, or any vehicles for that matter, exhaust system. This is usually found in vehicles which have petrol engines. What this part does is it measures the concentration of oxygen that is found in the exhaust gas. By doing such, it actually allows the vehicles electronic control unit, or much known as ECU, to control the efficiency of the combustion process in the engine.

According to manufacturers of oxygen sensors, this part of the vehicle is one of the key components of the total performance of a vehicle. These parts may be small, just around the size of a clothes pin, but they do a great deal by monitoring the engine exhaust of your vehicle. And the engine exhaust is one of the most common causes of air pollution if not monitored well.

By continually determining the amount of oxygen in the exhaust, it also monitors the exhaust gases. The engine computer is then alerted to adjust the air and fuel ratio so much so that the gasoline combustion is complete. In the same process, the harmful emissions are lessened. Also, the engine performance and efficiency is improved.

According to Church Ruth, the general product manager of Bosch which is one of the manufacturers of oxygen sensors, Studies shows that two thirds of all vehicle emissions test failures are a result of worn out oxygen sensors. Those numbers are staggering when you consider that oxygen sensors are easy enough to replace and that the vast majority of them are also inexpensive, costing roughly 20 to 50.

The common signs and symptoms that your vehicle needs an oxygen sensor replacement? Well, you will notice that your Suzuki has excessive fuel consumption. It also gives off high emissions of gas. The engine surges or hesitates. Also, there is a premature failure of the catalytic converter. What you should do is try to look at the oxygen sensor itself. If you notice that there is a shiny deposit on the heat shield or any kind of gummy or gooey deposit, it simply means that you should replace your oxygen sensor already.

High maintenance costs can be actually avoided by purchasing top of the line body parts from auto parts sources like Auto Parts Discount. They actually have been in the industry for years and it has certainly proven client patronage. Assistance is also available for customers who are in the dark regarding their oxygen sensor purchases, Suzuki parts purchases, or any other products that they have in store.

Categories: Car Deals
23 Aug 2010

You recall your first car? Was it a hunk of junk or a nice one? You may have resorted to the local newspaper for your car information in order to find that inexpensive, little jalopy. Or perhaps you were lucky enough to receive one is the gift or be able to afford one yourself. No matter where you searched, one thing was for sure; you wanted a good deal. In the past, this could often prove a difficult task. If it was bought from a dealer, he could make up any outrageous price that he wanted to, and if you went to an individual that had a car for sale you could end up with a junker and not know it until a month later and then you would be totally out of luck. This is really that big of a deal now a days. A deluge of car information is at your fingertips online.

I still remember my first car like it was yesterday. It was a 1978 Fiat Spider convertible. I got it from a college kid for 1100. It was a pretty decent first car. I mean I wasn’t expecting a Porsche for 1100. It was one of those cars that you couldn’t just let sit around not using it. You had to start everyday so it would turn over when you took it out for a spin. I recall one instance where I had not started it for three consecutive days. Big mistake, but fortunately I could always pop the clutch. While this wasn’t the greatest car in the the universe, I definitely knew one thing, the seller provided all necessary car information upon my test drive so there wasn’t any confusion. He has all the paperwork in order including service and maintenance records. It would be nice if everyone was as prepared.

If you’re heading out to a dealership to find that new family van, or sports car, it’s always a good idea to do your homework online first. The Internet is a vast reservoir of knowledge and information. It truly is a priceless resource. The car information online will save you plenty of like work. You know that you want a safe vehicle, and you know you want to avoid getting ripped off. Well, with the car information found on the World Wide Web, your worries should be subsided. The dealers no longer have the upper hand, that now belongs to us, the consumer. But the advantage is only hours if we choose to use it.

When you step into that dealership, you know what the vehicle sells for. The Internet will prevent you from being ripped off by exorbitant pricing. With your PC you can check out the numerous car sites in your area to see who’s offering what. There are even online sales that can be found on auctions such as Ebay and other state and federal auction sites run by government agencies. The buyer is now the one in charge when purchasing that new car. With car information so accessible, finding that ride of your dreams is a synch.

Categories: Car Deals
16 Aug 2010

. To call a car or any product an Edsel is to provide the worst of insults. The Edsel was a car designed and manufactured by the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn in the late 1950s. 157, 1958, 1959 to be exact. The debacle of the Edsel was both one of the most spectacular and worst failures to befall the vibrant American automobile industry of that day. To call a car or any product an Edsel is to provide the worst of insults.

Some authorities will state that the reason for the Edsels failure was just poor market timing, not a poor product. Timing can be said to be most everything vital for the success of failure of any product. In those days, before computerization allowed for rapid sharing an interchanges of design and the car design process everything was done on paper. It took great amount of physical logistics and delays for the paperwork and blueprints to be sent and coordinated among the various players in the automobile design process. On top of that it seemed that everyone seemed to despise and those further down the line. The designers disliked their bosses and the engineers. The engineers hated the parts people etc etc etc. On top of that the name Ford was on the door signifying the ultimate authority in the car designs and marketing process. The Edsel project was initiated during a time of big cars from G.M. the market leader , yet introduced many years later when the concept of a second car , a compact car, for the wife to drive the family and kids around was beginning to be established in the automobile marketplace

Other authorities will state that the reason for the poor market showing and demise of the Edsel was that it was just a poor product poorly designed and poorly built. To further corroborate this viewpoint it is now known that the actual workers building the Edsels were none too happy building this model. The Edsel was not built on its dedicated Ford Division production line but rather the Edsel was built (or shared space) on Ford Mercury Division production line. These Mercury Division employees considered themselves as the luxury end of the Ford Car company entities and indeed saw themselves as a cut above the run of the mill Ford employee and workers.

They both resented the intrusion into their turf as they say it and as well felt that a Ford product was muscling into their terrain that of more prestige vehicles. In the end the marketing and sales failures of the Ford Edsel can be said to be a combination of both factors.

Interestingly enough the unspoken order from the Ford family was that the new product the 1958 Edsel was to be named anything but Edsel. The late Edsel Ford was the founder Henry Fords only son and the grandfather of the then current patriarchs commanding and directing the Ford Empire. The senior Ford even stated that he did not want to see his late grandfathers name spinning around on hubcaps. The design development process had worked with the E or Experimental Car. Since it was such a major and revolutionary product of Ford many assumed that the designation E car had of course stood for Edsel. How better to honor such a major figure in the Ford family and empire. Imagine if the name had not stuck. Would it of made a difference in the ultimate success or failure of the sales and marketing of this automobile product.

Categories: Car Deals
9 Aug 2010

Owning up to an overall length of only 160.4 inches for the hatchback version and only 166.8 inches for the sedan version, the Daewoo Lanos has been considered to be one of the smallest cars in the business. But do not think it is much smaller than one of the smallest cars, the Mini Cooper. The Daewoo Lanos is not that small.

The Daewoo Lanos has actually been crafted in two versions, as mentioned, the hatchback and the sedan. The hatchback holds two doors while there are four doors for the sedan version. The wheelbase of the vehicle is some 99.2 inches, and it stands 56.4 inches and is 66.1 inches wide. Its fuel tank can take in some 12.8 gallons of gas and both versions can actually seat and take in five passengers.

Manufactured by Daewoo, the Daewoo Lanos has been in production starting from 1997. However, this vehicle lines saga ended after a couple of years in 2002. When its production was halted, the space and niche that it left blank was filled in by the Daewoo Kalos late in the year 2002. It has been said that its competition were actually the Toyota Echo, the Hyundai Accent, the Suzuki Swift, the DodgePlymouth Neon, the Ford Focus, the Ford EscortZX2, the Honda Civic, and the Kia Rio. The Hyundai Accent was considered to be the Daewoo Lanos main competition.

The Daewoo Lanos is indeed a subcompact car. The design and style that it sported was the masterpiece of Giorgetto Giugiaro. The power of this vehicle came from the GM Family 1 D-TEC engines. These engines ranged from a 1.5 L SOHC to a 1.6 L DOHC. These engines were dual-overhead and held four cylinders. Each were offered to work with either a five speed manual shift transmission system or the optional four speed automatic transmission system.

It has been said that the Daewoo Lanos is a small car. However, this was possibly on the basis that it is the smallest vehicle of the trio of passenger cars that came out to the automobile market in the year 1999 from its manufacturer, Daewoo. It was a front wheel drive vehicle and it was made available in three trim levels which comprised of the S, the SE, and the SX. The latter was considered to be the top of the line trim level among all three levels of the Daewoo Lanos.

Categories: Car Deals
2 Aug 2010