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The information contained on this website may help save you and yours tens of thousands of dollars or more over a lifetime, which may be invested or used for other personal, familiar, social or environmental benefit or charity. Cheers and happy wheeling and dealing, or not, if you like.   To skirt the fenders and body work on the klunker Go To: | MainMenu | AutoBuyology© CARveat Emptor: Car Buyer Beware © Tricks of the Great American Car Deal© The CAR-nal Knowledge Website Drivers Ed for the Car Deal Challenged Home to the rEvolutionary Car Deal Sanity and Survival Strategies Car Deal Jiu Jitsu for the AmeriCanadian Auto Consumer. It's not Pretty. It's All Over the Road But it Kicks Car Deal Tailpipe for Village and Family Values Slide Behind the Wheel and Give'er a Spin   "The All New and Improved Consumer-Driven Vehicle for Driving Down the Costly Dings in the Downsized / Up-profited Auto Sales, Lease, and Service Deals along the Two-way Street of the Freely Traded, 'Gobble' Economy of the New Millennium..." Hold-on!n tight!   Deal Different: (Just Don't Do It! Don't have a CAR, man! and save $450,000 over a lifetime of average auto costs) Buying, leasing or servicing a car? "CARveat Emptor!" = Your Car Deal Ding Doctor = "The Consumer's Car Deal Anti-theft Device" (Can't Beat the Price -- its free, er., priceless...) NOW is the time to fix the dings in the "Great" American Car Sales, Lease and Service Deal, before you need another one. Just fix it, NOW!   Invest Your Savings From the all New and Improved Consumer-driven Down-sized Car Sales and Service Deals for your Retirements. "Swerve to Avoid Becoming Car Deal Road Kill "   Why have We (The People) permitted the automobile industry to continue to mistreat us over a product that has become so central to our way of life...?" Cultural masochism? Collective idiocy? Too busy getting or keeping a life...? Too busy making car deal and service payments? Too busy working for the Government's Corporate Welfare Division, Inc., four or five months out of the year, and for the auto industry for the remainder...?   If you think price is the only cost of buying, leasing or servicing cars, -- go figure, get a life, and then come back and help fix the dings in the Great American Car Deal-- before you need another new or used one or before you need to have your car serviced again... if you wait-- the most common car deal mistake, it'll be too late, and will only cost you more later down and up the road! Just do it, Now!   Fixing the Dings in the Great American Car Deal is a Basic 4 Step Process:   (1) Demand "Fair Car Sales and Service Practices Act" legislation be enacted at local, state and national levels to protect consumers, the industry and the economy from the high costs of unfair, manipulative and fraudulent auto sales and service practices which costs us tens of billions of dollars every year in America... home of the free (auto markets) and land of the brave (car consumers)... Fraud alone in auto sales and service practices costs us over $22 billion (a conservative estimate in our opinion) every year. Odometer fraud is a $10 billion / year auto industry business. Waste and abuse (unfair and manipulative sales and service practices) costs our friends and families tens of billions more in unearned "record industry profits" every year in America.   This is a hidden tax on our friends and families. Fairness regulations would be a bargain by comparison and would help boost consumer confidence. Auto industry fairness legislation would create jobs and improve the public reputation and integrity of auto sales and service businesses, if enforced effectively.   IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO PROTECT THE AUTO CONSUMING PUBLIC, DEMAND THAT THEY TO PUT THE ISSUE ON THE BALLOT, SO YOU CAN DO THEIR JOBS FOR THEM.   (2). Demand and support efficient public transportation as an alternative to the automobile, before we run out of oil, which is estimated to likely occur within the next 35 to 50 or so years given current (1998) levels of use. Even auto addicts benefit when others have auto alternatives or do not drive. The real costs of gasoline is closer to $8 or $9 per gallon when the cost of maintaining US forces in the Gulf for "cheap" crude oil is calculated. This does not include the real economic costs of air pollution and related health costs, in which case if it did, the likely per gallon cost for automobile gasoline would be closer to $15 to $25 dollars in our opinion.   (3). Go carless, Don't Have A CAR, Man! Practice Planned Car(lessness)hood, don't buy it. If you do not currently own and operate a car, don't start. Abstinence is the safest car deal sex. But if you do, negotiate lower car deal, lease, and service prices. Negotiate the manufacturer's profit on all new car deals, similar to the way savvy auto buyers used to negotiate the dealer's profit... including "no-haggle," or "one high price fits all" car sales and lease deals... Don't buy non-negotiable car deals or leases. Ding the dealer and the manufacturer on profits... -- Remember, everything is negotiable in a free market.   (4). Get car smart. CAR(Can Anyone Read): Erase Chronic Car Deal Illiteracy Syndrome (CCDIS). Downsize car deal, lease and service prices IN THE ALL NEW AND IMPROVED DOWNSIZED/UP-PROFITED ECONOMY. Pick up a book or two at your bookstore or library on car buying, ownership, and operation, and another one on negotiating principles and practices. There are several good ones (See/Select CARveat's Consumer Resources and References Page ) and caravansful of valuable information available to help consumers save $100s and $1,000s on car deals, leases, and service costs.   ARE YOU CAR (Can Anyone Read?) DEAL LITERATE? Chronic Car Deal Illiteracy Syndrome (CCDIS) remains at epidemic levels in America, even as the automobile celebrates its 100rdth birthday...are you car deal literate? IS YOUR BOSS? YOUR EMPLOYEES? YOUR STUDENTS? YOUR TEACHERS? CLERGY? FRIENDS? FAMILY? VILLAGE?   A lifetime of average car ownership and operation costs can easily exceed $450,000 (in 1997 dollars), more than the price of the median priced American home (X2+)... plan ahead and save! Practice Planned Carhood. Don't get addicted to cars. if you do not drive, don't start. But if you do, make car ownership and operation a part of your life-long personal and family budget and economics planning. Resist acquiescing to the more popular and costly deal-to-deal, nickel and dime planless strategy which most AmeriCanadian consumers use.   According to a story, "Start Now--Retire Early", in Readers Digest (Feb. 1998) by Deborah Rankin, financial author and TV commentator Jonathan Pond suggests that by holding on to a car for ten years instead of trading in every three years or so, consumers can save $400,000 to $450,000 over a period of 40 years, even considering the higher costs of repairing older automobiles.   If possible, plan or adjust your living and working situations so that auto ownership and driving is unnecessary or optional. Fairness in car sales and service deals? Whenever you're ready, America....! What good is Democracy, if only the loopholed, special interested and the corporate-privileged can use it?   An unsolicited message: " Loved your stuff. I'm a small dealer in Florida, and this industry needs more spotlights shining on it. Amazing how much nonsense goes on. Keep it up. " Another, more recent phone message: "Dealers do not do any of the "tricks" on your list. You made this stuff up. You must have gotten screwed." [How could we have gotten screwed if dealers don't do these or other car deal "tricks"? Must be some other car deal-sex the caller had in mind, eh? (:-)] CARveat Emptor CAR BUYER BEWARE Tricks of the Great American Car Deal aka DRIVE SHAFTS or Lemon-proofing car deals for the complete dummy and know-it-all... Driving Detroit Dingy "CAUTION!" Go Slow The Great American Car Deal is in for Major Service "Unscrewing The Great American Car Deal", Ahead! Toggle bookmark now, & share with family and friends Select-O-Matic sub-pages listed below - several long pages with trunk-loads of rEvolutionary consumer auto dealing info... Caution, Bumpy Road Ahead! The "Great American Automobile Deal" is Being Towed to the Repair Shop Sorry, No peeking, you cannot watch! ("Our Insurance Prohibits You From Watching Us Fix It") (:- )) PROFESSIONALIZING THE GREAT AMERICAN CAR SALES AND SERVICE INDUSTRY: "Hey, if there's no problem, what's the problem; with a little regulation and professionalism in the auto sales and service "profession"? Every other credible profession (doctors, real estate agents and brokers, lawyers, plumbers) is governed by a state professional regulatory agency; even hair dressers. In America we are more protected when we get a haircut then when we buy, lease or service automobiles... Why not train, test, license and monitor auto dealers and mechanics... similar to the way we regulate every other reputable trade and profession? Hint: ($$$,$$$,$$$.$$) What's the problem with repairing the costly anti-social and anti-consumer dings in the Great American Car deal? None, but if it's not done right, with proper oversight and enforcement, it could merely bolster consumer confidence to their peril and detriment and to the undeserved benefit of the auto industry. Lets just do it right! We knew we were on the right road, headed in the right direction in highlighting the shortcomings of the automobile industry when someone left a message on the answering machine, suggesting we were responsible for the economic and social problems in America for merely seeking fairness in car sales and service practices. (Some dealers have e-mailed that we are maligning their good names, although references and general information point to the industry itself as causal for its low public repute). Hum, well that makes perfect sense, improving the automobile marketplace for consumers, for manufacturers and for dealers would certainly be a dragster peeling out on the economy and society, now wouldn't it? (:-). Comments, excuses and apologies from industry apologists and satisfied and tricked consumers are welcomed. Inside dirt and favorite dealer or auto manufacturer tricks welcomed too. The absence of any credible visible industry or government programs or policies (please send us a copy if you find any, er, one) to police up the auto industry of its unfair, manipulative and fraudulent car sales and service practices that costs our friends and families (family values?) billions in unearned and ill-gotten profits, requires an affirmative consumer response! Don't wait for Speaker Gingrich and his party of Newtzis or even the Demublicans to help out, for they appear to believe that you and your friends and families are or will be better able to fight private corporate government (Corporate Hall vs. City Hall?) [Corporacrats] on your own without the assistance of fair consumer protection laws. Such laws properly enforced would help the automobile industry increase unit sales by improving consumer confidence, as much as it would help consumers avoid expensive and inflationary value-subtracted costs caused by the many Tricks of the Great American Car Deal. Even baseball has rules and umpires, and its only a game which costs far less to get into! A lifetime of new car purchases, maintenance, and loan interest costs equals or exceeds the average American home costs. We regulate the real estate industry. So why is the automobile industry so special not to be regulated similarly? Because consumers have not demanded that this industry be regulated, and because consumers have paid for the auto industry lobbyists who buy industry favorable legislation at Uncle Sam's factory outlet store. How long before American auto consumers wake up and demand their fair share of Uncle Sam's goodies. How much of the price of your last car deal or lease paid for industry efforts to prevent consumer and environmental protection and safety regulations for the automobile industry? How much paid for industry attorney fees to fight consumers? How much paid for excessive executive salaries? How much paid for emotionally charged "industry serving" advertising? Etc.? If you are not thinking about these sorts of questions, you may be part of the car deal problem...read-on...you don't have to repeat past car deal mistakes every time you buy or lease a new car! Paying more does not guarantee that your next new car or new car deal or lease will not become an expensive and frustrating lemon, or that you will not be dinged by the dealer on hidden or undisclosed damages, defects or repairs. (Bad or unscrupulous dealers are not in the habit of admitting to unfair or manipulative or fraudulent sales or service practices, and before the fact, good and bad dealers resemble each other in outward appearances, regardless of representations and appearances.). So, why pay more and reward this industry for its traditions of sham? Ding back, first! Bookmark now! Buying or leasing a new or used car? Car buyer be Very Wary!!! (VW?) By conservative estimates, fraudulent sales and service practices in the automobile industry alone last year cost America's friends and families $22,000,000,000.00 (22 billion dollars). Odometer fraud costs consumers $10,000,000,000 (10 billion dollars) every year in America ('...the home of the free (markets) and the land of the brave (consumers)...'?) Add up all the cost of auto sales and service fraud and the total costs to us approaches $75 to $100 Billion or more, and this does not include the costs of legal but unfair and manipulative auto sales and service practices which costs us tens of billions more in inflated profits for the auto industry. Our friends and families are robbed of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions more in inflated costs and profits by unfair and manipulative automobile sales and service practices every year. These practices unfortunately are often condoned by consumers, government and the industry. Over half a million (500,000) consumer complaints were formally filed by consumers last year with consumer protection agencies. The majority of these involved car purchase and service issues. Only 4% of aggrieved consumers even bother to complain about their mistreatment, and the few who do complain, do so ineffectively. Your (supposedly) government has not heard your voice about the Great American Car Deal Sham, and the costs of the free auto deal and service "market" to our friends and families. Speak up! Brought to you by the non-starters: Harvard Consumer School and Stanford School of Consumer Studies [Go for your Masters in Consumer Control Management (MCM) or Masters in Consumer Administration (MCA) today] Yeah, you wish...! (:- ) Tax Breaks for Bicycles, Carlessness or Reduced Auto Use? You'll know when we're really serious about reducing air pollution and traffic congestion...!!! It could happen, in your dreams... maybe! The "Great" American Car Deal Unscrewed: Loosening up the lug-nuts and tightening the screws on the Chassis of the Great American Car Deal Jalopy DRIVE SHAFTS: Under the Hood of this Jalopy, er., Rattle Trap... MAIN Car Deal Repair Order MENU Auto Alternatives Auto Options: "Don't Have A CAR, Man!" Drive Shafts Dealer Tricks (AbraCARdabra) Dealing With The Dealer Purchase Strategies / Options Hidden Auto Deal Profits They're in here somewhere... The Consumer-Driven Car Deal Driving A Hard Bargain / Consumer Tricks Auto Consumer Resources Ph.or.D. in Car Buying 101 Cases Against the Automobile Industry inCARhoots? A Consumer's Car Deal Repair Kit 10 Reason to buy from an Authorized Dealer Lemon-Proofing Cars and Car Deals Free CARveat Flyers (PDF files... Download, copy, post, circulate and share) Free CARveat Emptor Flyer (Copy, note, post and share or make your own.) Free C.C.D.I.S. Flyer (Copy, post, circulate, clip to course syllabus or presentation materials, copy and share.) Free CarBuyology Flyer California Motor Car Dealers Assn. Dealers Blame Chrysler for Laundering Lemons Dodging Chrysler's Lemons The True Costs of Driving The 15 Second Car Deal Lecture for Teachers, Professors, Students and Staff Chronic Car Deal Illiteracy Syndrome (CCDIS) "see 'dis" My LAST VW Mistake The VW Junkyard My Other Car Is Not A VW Legislative Alerts Support this Free Site Or other Consumer Protectors CARveat's Caveat (Disclaimer) Parallel Parking The Back and Forth Test I. Moanials Dangling Parts & LINKage Auto Consumer, Social & Misc. Sites / Links (Car Secrets Revealed) http://www.igs.net/carsecrets/info12.html American CarBuying Service© http://209.50.96.85/home_rrk.html ReDemocracy A Road Map to Reclaiming Representative Democracy, "It's the demockery, dammit!" We're reminded of the following ditty in this regard: Car Sales Ode (?): "...Times are tough Pleasures, small Take your time And screw 'em all..." (;- ) Well, grandmothers, first time buyers, and the unawares, anyway (by an anonymous salesperson) . Another car dealer joke: (No charge!) " ... Car dealers Jack you around And take your money... " So, you say you know Jack... about the tricks of the Great American Car Deal? "Hi there, I'm Jack:" && What's your ecarlogical footprint? Good CARma ... Your help in maintaining this "Free" consumer awareness / activist page is needed, welcomed, and sincerely appreciated. Non-tax deductible donation(s) or gifts of any amount from good deal tips, or $0.01 to an "Infinity", or merely a small percentage of the big bucks you save from your next car sales, lease or service deal or non-deal, are gratefully received by: Rand Knox POB 150763 San Rafael, CA 94915-0763 (415) 457-0592 Auto Alternatives | Drive Shafts | Dealing With The Dealer Hidden Profit$ | Consumer Driven Deals | Car Consumer Resources Auto Industry Cases | Car Deal Repair Kit | My Last VW Mistake "Ten Reasons" | Lemon Proofing Deals | CARveat's Caveat You Can Help | CARveat Emptor Flyer | VW Junkyard | Links My Other Car Not A VW | Legislative Alerts | Dodging Chryslers Mini Van Junkyard | Activist Flyers True Costs of Driving | Car Deal Illiteracy 15 Sec. Car Deal Lecture | Parallel Parking | Test-I-Moanials AutoBuyology © AutoBuyology© Tricks of the Great American Car Deal© CARbooRATOR, Rand Knox (AutoBuyologist). © Copyright 1995 - 2006, R. Rand Knox. All Rights Reserved. Not for use, reuse, sale, resale, or fee, in whole or part, without written release or driver's license issued from R. Rand Knox. All Rights Reserved. Safe-Car-Deal-Sex © Copyright June 1996-2003, R. Rand Knox, AutoBuyology © June 1996-2003, R. Rand Knox CARveat Emptor, All Rights Reserved. © June 1995-2003	What's In You? What's In Your Cells? GOT ASTHMA? Yet? GOT WAR FOR OIL? GOT TOXIC LOADING? GOT GLOBAL WARMING? GOT EXPENSIVE FOSSIL FUELS? Have you told your auto maker, or the auto industry to make more efficient and cleaner-air vehicles? Recently? (Flyer to copy and post). Have you asked others if they have? It wouldn;t kill you to do so! It may even help prevent or reduce asthma and global warming. Help Save Your Breath, Life, Money & Planet (The breath, life, money and planet you save may be your own.) For Healthier Air, Planet, & People: To Save Y'our Breath, Lives, Money & Planet... Tell Car Makers To Make Cleaner-Air Vehicles 1 Jump Start Ford For A Cleaner-air Future 2 Jump Start Ford Tell NHTSA to Improve Fuel Efficiency of SUVs Tell Car Makers To Get Their Gas In Gear Flyer 2-up Save Your Breath, Life, Money & Planet Flyer 1-up Don't Be A Fossil Fool - Fossil Fools Day Help Save Your Breath, Life, Money & Planet (The breath, life, money and planet you save may be your own.) Car Deal Literacy Self-help - Auto Consumer Resources: Troop Support - Up-armored Car Deals Real Conservatives Conserve (The money you save may be your own.)