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Uparmoring Car
Deals - Do-It-Yourself Troop Support
Tell Car Makers To Make Cleaner-Air Vehicles
Tell Ford Motors Company to Get it's
Gas in Gear
Americanism
means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity,
and hardihood-the virtues that made America. The things that
will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price,
safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and
the get-rich-quick theory of life. - Theodore Roosevelt
Is freedom
needing or having to have a car? Are we free if we need a car
to meet 75% of our living needs? Are we free if we need a car
that pollutes the air we breathe and contributes to global warming
and climate change?
Troop Support -
Uparmoring Consumer Car Deals
Auto Consumer and
Misc.:
References
& Resources
Partial List
(Also see AutoBuyology's
Links
page)
(AKA: More cases against
the Auto
industry: or, Why Americans enjoy a warm and personal relationship
with the Great American Automobile Industry... (:-)
Name
any other so-called legitimate industry with such a wonderful reputation that
libraries and books stores have whole sections addressing its
shortcomings and offering advice and aid to consumers in avoiding
the hundreds of "tricks of the Great American Car Deal?...).
"Relying
on a single source for auto sales, lease or service deal information
is a car buyer's second mistake, and this is especially applicable
if that single source is an auto industry "professional."
Look both ways before crossing, shop and negotiate prices and
proceed with caution, only if you cannot avoid buying a car,
after lengthy reflection. Although the auto industry has paved
only one lane (with y'our rmoney), the Great American Car Deal
is a two way street.CARveat Emptor." This is one right-of-way
every auto consumer and the carless should insist on.
Tell
YOUR auto maker to help clean up our air and make vehicles more
cost effectcively fuel efficient
Tell
auto makers to help clean up our air NOW
Let
your automobile manufacturer know how you feel about high fossil
fuel emission vehicles polluting the air you and your family
breathe.
Ford
Motors, The American Road, Dearborn, MI 48126
Daimler Chrysler. 1000 Chrysler Drive, Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2766
General Motors, 30009 Renaissance Center, POB 300, Detroit, MI
48265-3000
Honda, 1919 Torrance Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90501
Toyota, 19001 S. Western Avenue, Torrance, CA 90509
Let
Ford Motors Company, et al., one of the most successful high-end
SUV pollution unit sellers know how you feel about its high-octane
efforts to dilute government regulations pertaining to automobile
fuel emmission standards. You may want to ask how it is that
auto manufactuers can rake in tens of thousands of dollars per
pollution unit in profits and straight-facedly work to weaken
clean air standards, claiming excessive costs would need to be
passed along to the consumer. Mail your letters to : President/CEO,
Ford
Motors, The American road, Dearborn, MI 48126
More Auto Industry Contact
Info for your convenience:
Bill Ford, Chairman and CEO
Ford Motor Company
Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126
Dieter Zetsche, CEO
Chrysler Corporation
PO Box 21-8004
Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004
Rick Wagoner, President and
CEO
General Motors Corporation
General Motors Headquarters
300 Renaissance Center
PO Box 300
Detroit, MI 48265-3000
The Detroit Project (Anti-SUVs Site)
Books and other references to help us become better auto consumers.
For SUV
Alternatives
"An
Analysis of Traffic deaths by Vehicle Type and Model"
"Car
Free"
by
J.H. Crawford
Massachusetts Consumers Car Smart Buyers Guide
American
Scientist Magazine/.Journal, April-March 2005 - "Fuel Efficiency and the Economy:
Input-output analysis"
shows how proposed changes
to automotive fuel-efficiency standards would propagate through
the economy by Roger H. Bezdek, Robert M. Wendling
"High
and Mighty: SUVs -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How
They Got That Way" by Keith Bradsher (Available in September 2002)
[Apparently dangerous for occupants and other drivers and passengers
in other vehicles on the road]
"Don't
Get Taken Every Time You Buy A Car," by Remar Sutton
"Buying
A Car For Dummies" by Deanna Sclar
"Auto
Repair For Dummies" by Deanna Sclar
"The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car" by Jack R. Nerad
"How
to Buy or Lease a Car Without Getting Ripped Off" by Pique Lyle
"Prevasive
Prejudice" by
by Ian Ayres, a soon to be new book showing disparites in automobile
pricing for white women, white men, black women and black men,
etc.
"Asphalt
Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America, and How We Can
Get it Back"
by Jane Holtz-Kay
"Taken
For A Ride," a documentary film about the wrecking of 28 municipal
rail systems by Big Auto, Big Tire and Big Oil, by Jim Klein
and Martha Olson-Karocki. (Distributed to Education by sale and
rental through New
Day Films)
--'Why do we spend so much time [money & gas] sitting in
traffic? Why does America have the worst public transit in the
industrialized world, AND THE MOST FREEWAYS [earth graffiti]?
TAKEN
FOR A RIDE
reveals the tragic and little known story of an auto and oil
industry, led by GENERAL MOTORS, to buy and dismantle streetcar
lines. Across the nation, tracks were torn up, sometimes overnight,
and diesel buses placed on city streets. -- The highway lobby
then pushed through Congress a vast network of urban freeways
that doubled the cost of Interstates, fueled suburban development,
increased auto dependence, and elicited passionate opposition.
Seventeen city freeways were stopped by citizens who would become
the leading edge of a new environmental movement. -- With investigative
journalism, vintage archival footage and candid interviews, TAKEN
FOR A RIDE presents a revealing history of our cities in the
20th century that is also a meditation on corporate power, city
form, citizen protest and social and environmental implications
of transportation.'
Redefining Progress -- The Real Cost
of Driving
"Don't
Get Taken Every Time You Buy A Car," by Remar Sutton [Unless you want to? ]
This book may include discussion of the dealer's best weapon
against consumers: "System Selling". Check it out before buying another
car or lease deal, and shift System Selling into reverse -- System
Buying, and burn some dealer, er., car deal rubber. If you do
one thing in life, make sure your teachers, students, associates,
clients, friends and families (near and far) know about his one.
If you
are a professor or school teacher, let your students in on this great
little secret. It could save them gobs of cash over a lifetime.
They may not remember the hoary details of your best lecture,
but they will remember the best car buying tip around today.
Vroom... swoosh! The AutoBuyology tip is to auto consumers what
"break a leg" is to thespians. Buying, leasing, or
servicing a car... Don't! But if you must have one, go to your
library first and learn the rules of thear deal road before being
taken for your next car deal ride mistake. CARveat Emptor!
"How
to OutNegotiate Anyone: (Even A Car Dealer)," by Leo Reilly, (If you buy one
book on negotiating, especially car deal or lease negotiating,
this may just well be the one to get. It may also be available
at your library. If not, get a copy and donate it to your library
immediately after reading it and passing it around to ten of
your best friends and family. Mr. Rielly is an attorney, accomplished
negotiator, and articulate spokesperson for negotiated settlements.
He presents seminars on negotiating and is well recommended,
and apparently deservedly so. This book contains sub-chapters
on "Buyer Remorse", and more importantly from
a consumer's perspective, "Seller's Remorse."
This book will benefit its readers in many life experiences besides
car buying, leasing or servicing.
AutoBuyology
and this book
(along with rehearsal and practice and car deal test drives over
a lifetime) will give you the basic weapons and ammunition in
which to wage a relatively successful guerrilla auto consumer
campaign against the most formidable car deal fortress and forces
marshaled in the automobile marketplace against American consumers
-- our friends and families.) Go get 'em tiger or tigress, er.,
Mr. Mrs.or Ms. Car Deal Guerrilla!
All
vehicles do not pollute equally. ACEEE (American Council for an Energy-Efficient
Economy), 1001 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC
20036, publishes "Green Guide to Cars and Trucks,"
which offers detailed information about he fuel economy and air
pollutant emissions of specific makes and models of cars, vans
and trucks along with a rating system. Since even you and your
family and friends must breathe the air you pollute while driving,
consider not driving, or driving greener cars, vans and trucks.
If you need to keep up with the polluting Jones... try the new
Ford Polluterator-Global Blast Furnace (largest SUV yet - 1999)
or better yet get an eighteen wheeler and join the cream of the
polluters.
"Divorce
Your Car" by
Katie Alvord, by New Society Publishers; 305 pages. Paperback:
$16.15
"Car
Buyer's and Lessors Negotiating Bible," by W. James Bragg (friends don't let friends
buy or lease cars without it?)
"Everything
Women Always Wanted to Know About Cars," by Lesley Hazleton
[Everything?]
"Lease
Your Car For Less," by Richard L. Kaye [or leave a big tip?]
"Auto
Insurance Handbook," by Consumer Reports
"What
Auto Mechanics Don't Want You To Know," by Mark Eskeldson Also
see what Ford is doing to its customers through its lease deals...
[Have you been driven by Ford lately?]
"What
Car Dealers Don't Want You To Know," by Mark Eskeldson
"Consumer
Information Catalog," [Just Get It!]
(1-888-878-3256) or fax (1-719-948-9724)
free with SASBE to:
Consumer
Information Center
Pueblo, CO 81009
(offers the following brochures for $0.50 each and other consumer
materials free:
"How
to Get A Great Deal On A New Car";
"Keys to Vehicle Leasing";
"How to Find Your Way Under the Hood and Around the Car";
"Glove Box Tips";
"Buying A Used Car";
" Buying A New Car";
"Child Transportation Safety Tips";
"Automotive & Home Inspection and Safety Guide";
"Air Bags & On-Off Switches"; and etc.
"The Lemon Book" by Ralph Nader and Clarence Ditlow
"The
Complete Car Cost Guide" by
Peter Levy of IntelliChoice (800) 227-2665
"The
Car Book"
by
Jack Gillis, for good used car buying tips.
Carfax, for used car's original title in most
states (1-800-346-3846; $20. fee) or obtain this from the seller
or other avenue such as your State Department of Motor Vehicles,
or don't buy the car. Title searches are advised in order to
determine any hidden repair or service problems. Beware of title
washing, another car deal trick, not to be confused with lemon
laundering.
From
you library, lender or insurance office:
"Kelley Blue Book's Used Car Values"
"Edmund's Used Car Prices"
["Official"] Used Car Guide," by the National Automobile Dealers Association
"Send
This Jerk the Bedbug Letter, or "How Companies, Politicians,
& the Mass Media Handle Complaints & How to be a More
Effective Complainer" by
John Bear. Publisher: Ten Speed Press. $12.95 or possibly free
at your library.
NHTSA (Submit
your auto safety complaint to NHTSA)
NPS 21
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-0846
(800) 424-9393 (Ask for , "How to buy a safer car",
and request a safety complaint form... keep it on file, copy
it and share it with others.
"How
To Buy A Car"
by
James R. Ross [Are you listening, yet? [Give a copy to Aunt Sadie
and Uncle Merle...]
"In
The Driver's Seat" by
W. James Bragg
"Little
Secrets of The Automobile Industry: Hidden Warranties" by Clarence Ditlow and Ray Gould
"What's
Wrong With My Car?" by
Bob Cerullo, Plume Books/Penguin ($11.00)
"The
World's Most Complete Auto Troubleshooting Guide" by Alden G. Zimmer, Vantage Press ($10.95)
"The
Answer: Getting More and Paying Less for Auto Service" by Jeff Shumway, Preston House Book
Publishing, ($14.95)
"Lucille's
Car Care"
by Lucille Treganowan, Hyperion, ($19.95)
Paint
Prep / Body Repair / Rust Repair (Videos), from Triangle Productions, POB 972, Dept. MT,
Glen Ellen, CA 95422 (800) 562-8855
Center
For Auto Safety,
Clarence
Ditlow, 2001 "S" St., Washington, DC 20009 (Sent us
a stack of quality and satisfaction complaints and safety related
reports on VWs, etc.) Send a self-addressed, stamped, business
envelope along with the make and model of vehicle you are interested
in receiving safety related information on.)
Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), (703) 247-1500) rates bumpers, crash tests, and
head restraints against whip-lash injuries, and other insurance
cost factors). Obtain their latest mini-van crash test results
for good ding list material for negotiating a lower mini-van
price or for avoiding mini-vans with abysmal off-set front collision
test ratings. Also has some info on air-bag safety considerations.
Mailing address: c/o
IIHS
1005 N. Glebe Road
Arlington, VA 22201
Highway Loss Data Institute
1005 North Glebe Road
Arlington, VW 22201
(703) 247-1600
(IIHS -- November 11, 1997) rated 11 small car models according
to its criteria for highway crashworthiness / safety. None made
their "good" rating, three rated "poor",
seven "acceptable", and two VW models as "marginal".
(IIHS's -- November 1998) rating of hey-Sport Utility Vehicle
crash tests is now available. Only one rated "good."
IntelliChoice
- info on cars, the auto
industry, and car dealing and buying:
And remember, don't pay too much for recommended buys. Dealers
and manufacturers will want to try to use consumer ratings to
inflate negotiated prices. Don't buy it. A car model should get
a good rating and every make and model has its fair share of
lemons. Do your homework. Learn how to negotiate... its a science
and an art... practice and perhaps sometime before you die, you'll
be able to purchase an automobile in American without getting
dinged by the dealer or manufacturer.
Consumer
Reports' New Car Price Service (Manufacturer's
invoice price {dealer's costs?}), POB 8005, Novi, Michigan 48376,
(313) 347-5810 (Nominal fee considering that you may be able
to save $100s or $1000 off the dealer's mark-up or window sticker
price [also known as the MSRP -- Manufacturer's Suggested Retail
(rip-off?) Price])
ROAD
RAGE:
A site dedicated to credentialling Road Rage Therapists -- Consumer
Reports also has a page entitled to Avoiding Road Rage... see
links above.
CAR TALK
RADIO,
Tom
& Ray Magliazzi, 1-800-332-9287, #1 Car Talk Plaza, POB 3500,
Cambridge, MA 02238 (Encourage Tom and Ray, Click and Clack,
the tappert brothers, to support local, state and national Fair
Car Sales and Service Practices consumer and auto industry integrity
protection laws and CARveat Emptor)
Check
out your local junior colleges or vocational-technical schools.
Some
offer classes or instruction in buying or maintaining cars. Request
your children's high school include car buying and maintenance
classes as part of its standard curriculum. Make sure your HS
guidance counselors, teachers and college professors share the
CARveat
Emptor CAR (Can Anyone
read) Deal Literacy
tip with
their clients, staff, students and associates... something they
all will remember and appreciate for a lifetime of car deal mistakes...
The Gift That Keeps On Saving....
Buy
America
(You mean there's some left to buy?) (if you do this at home
alone, do so very carefully!) Foundation, POB 82, Abington, PA 19001 (215) 886-3646 .
If all politics "is" local, perhaps economics "are"
too...? Charity begins at home... but quality sometimes travels?
Be patriotic, but also be product quality and price savvy. Or
better yet, just "Don't Have a Car, Man!" and
pocket the $450,000 or so which on average is how much it costs
for a lifetime of average (not SUVs or luxury models) automobile
ownership and operation. And reTIRE early.
AARP [excuse us] (American Association of
Retired Persons), 601 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20049
(202) 434-3930, (AARP supports [too timidly in our opinion] consumer
protection at federal, state and local levels. Request a copy
of AARP's consumer protection policies, and request that AARP
strengthen its support for Fair Car Sales and Service Practices
consumer and auto industry integrity protection legislation).
AARP prints several consumer brochures to
help educate seniors about various consumer issues. "Deals
on Wheels," is a particularly enlightening one, available
from AARP, Consumer Affairs, 601 "E" Street NW, Washington,
DC 20049.
NICE (National Institute For Consumer Education),
Eastern Michigan State University, 207 Rackham Blvd., Ypsilanti,
Michigan 48197 (313) 487-2292, (313) 487- 7153 (fax). NICE is
also on the WWW.
"The
Betsy,"
by Harold Robbins (A novel about the inner mechanicals of Detroit's
auto industry / "culture")
"Rivethead:
Tales From the Assembly Line," by Ben Hamper, [beware of the "Monday
Cars," those which are"ass-embled" on Monday by
hung-over assemblers, or which were assembled before, during,
or immediately after labor "relations" disputes.]--
if you cannot keep up, take notes...
Knowledge
Unlimited, (educational
videos with guides and posters). "An Introduction
to Economics" and, "MARKETPLACE: Explaining the Stock
Market," for ages 10 through adult, may be worth exploring.
(800) 356-2303, or fax at (800) 618-1570, web address at: http://www.ku.com,
or e-mail at: ku-mail@ku.com.
"Guerrilla
Selling," by
Jay Conrad Levison. More evidence that consumers are the targets
between the cross-hairs of the jungle warfare waged between competing
manufacturers and retailers and against consumers by savvy and
tricky wholesalers, retailers and merchants. (check this one
out at your library before buying anything, as it will arm you
with the same ammunition and weapons used by industry and marketers
against consumers. Cover yourself.
"Cheap Psychological Tricks: What to Do When Hard
Work, Honesty, and Perseverance Fail," by Perry Buffington, (described by
the author as: "faking it honestly" or doing-it-to-
the-other-guy-before-he-does-it-to-you) (sounds like a variation
of the Golden Rule: Screw Me, Screw You...? to us). From Peachtree,
$9.95 (unnegotiated -- or check your library and have it ordered
for you).
"Consumer
Terrorism: How
to Get Satisfaction When You're Getting Ripped Off" by Bruni & Burkett.
"Down
the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City" by Clay McShane [Roads and highways
are asphalt graffiti on the earth.]
Consumer
Information Catalog, Consumer Information Center, Box 100, Pueblo,
Colorado, 81002.
Fee
booklet of consumer catalogs. The 1995 catalog contained eleven
titles of brochures at nominal fee or free on automobiles and
related topics (Get extra copies for friends and family or copy
and share, er., network). Good free and nearly free consumer
advice brochures.
1. Buying a
Safer Car
2. Buying a Used Car
3. Glove Box Tips
4. How to Find Your Way Under the Hood & Around the Car
5. How to Get A Great Deal On a New Car
6. New Car Buying Guide
7 .Nine Ways to Lower Your Auto Insurance Costs
8. Underhood Tips to Help You Keep Your Cool
Consumer's
Resource Handbook,
Single
copies available free by writing: Handbook, Consumer Information
Center, Pueblo, Colorado 81009. Contains brief consumer tips
on buying and leasing new and used vehicles. Its free and its
a good start. Every consumer should have a current copy of this
publication.
Buying
a Car?
Consider the environmental impacts. "A
Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices", by Union of Concerned
Scientists (as opposed to the Union of Indifferent Pseudoscientists
to which Rush Limbaugh, Meteorologist, apparently maintains a
membership.) Common Sense About Consumer Choices: Paper or plastic?
Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some
choices have a formidable impact on the environment while others
are negligible. How do you know which choices matter? UCS's new
book--"The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices"--
helps you identify what you should consider carefully as you
make your purchases and what you can safely ignore.
UCS's Consumer's
Guide
offers the first comprehensive look at the full range of modern
consumer activities, identifying those that cause the most environmental
damage and those that cause the least. It shows that only a few
activities--our use of cars and trucks, consumption of meat,
and choice of homes and appliances--are responsible for causing
the greatest amounts of environmental damage by far.
Miscellaneous
Auto Industry / Consumer Info & References:
70% of auto
technicians
tested in California could not diagnose and repair routine auto
repair problems.
40% of all
auto repairs are unnecessary, costing
cosnumers over $40,000,000 (40 million dollars) every year. The
majority of the half million consumer complaints filed with consumer
protection agencies (many complaints go unfiled) every year involve
auto sales and service matters. Thousands more may be assumed
to have been mistreated, yet do not for one reason or another
file a complaint. A recent study was reported to show that only
four (4) percent of consumers with legitimate marketplace grievances
actually file a complaint. No wonder auto dealers and manufactures
believe they do not have a public relations problem, or know
but ignore it.
Honda
Motors: To
find out how much of your last or next Honda car deal costs went
or will go for dealer bribes of Honda executives for granting
exclusive dealership franchises (Manufacturer Authorized and
value priced?)... News wire report December 5, 1996: Honda dealers
indicted for allegedly bribing Honda's Honchos for increased
vehicle deliveries and for coveted dealership franchises (value
priced? you bet), Hendricks of Raleigh, N.C. who owns 60 (Sixty)
dealerships was reportedly indicted by a federal grand jury for
bribing Honda executives for special favors. Perhaps slipping
the dealer a little under the table will get you a better deal,
too? Don't bank on it.
Reported in the November 1995 issue of Dealer Business (an INTERTEC
publication), a
Federal District Judge jailed and fined a senior vice president
of American Honda
and five other former Acura and Honda sales and marketing employees
for
accepting "at least" $5 million in bribes and kickbacks
from Acura and Honda dealers between 1979 and 1992. "Honda
Payola"?... its not a new model of car... accepting under
the table "payola" for preferential treatment in awarding
of franchises and distribution of hot (selling) cars. The executive
in charge of Honda's sales and marketing operations in the US
admitted taking $60,00 a year in "salary" from one
dealer, rent payments for his $780,000 Laguna Hills, CA "home"
from another dealer, and furs, jewels and free cars from other
dealers for family and his priest (Judas?). The executive reportedly
expressed remorse (at a discount perhaps, as remorse is reportedly
priced cheap these days), pleaded guilty to the charges and cooperated
with authorities in prosecuting others involved. But another
form or auto dealer "flipping and turning?"
How
much extra would you like to pay for your overpriced Honda or inAcura,
Mr. Ms. & Mrs. Auto Consumer? Thanks for your generous charity?
Did we hear you Accurately or inAcura? Perhaps they call it an
Infinity because it seems that the payments will go on forever
before its paid for? Try the Altima, or the Twotima.
"The
Hidden Costs of Buying A Car Through Lease-Purchase Agreements," by Emerald Yeh and Christine McMurry
(San Francisco Sunday Examiner - Chronicle Sunday section, July
7, 1996), available at your library (perhaps on micro fiche)...get
your hands on this before even considering buying or leasing
a car. Report says people planning to buy a $12,000 Toyota were
"sold" a lease costing over $26,000 by a Toyota dealer
for the $12,000 Toyota. Some customer service, eh? -- A $12,000
car for $26,000, -- where do we all get jobs like this in the
all new and improved downsized economy...? Be particularly wary
of "Professionals" in the auto industry not disclosing
the lease rate, inflating the price of the lease by the amount
of your trade-in and other very sleazy and anti-consumer sales
and lease practices.
How
long are we going to permit this industry to sham the American family
on basic personal transportation? Demand Fair Car Sales and Service
Practices laws today to protect our friends and families from
the raw sham of unfair, manipulative and fraudulent sales and
service practices in the auto industry. Be very wary of lease
deals, avoid them if you can, and be especially wary of lease/purchase
deals. When a dealer tries to sell you a vehicle through a lease
deal, remind him of the $12,000 Toyota that cost a consumer $26,000.
Apparently the Toyota Dealer was "authorized" to ding
its customers thusly.
An interesting quote from the above referenced article: "With a major
portion of the lease market having shifted to the average consumer,
the 'opportunity' for confusion became high," said Peter Welch of the California
Motor Car Dealers Association. [How unfortunate to have
found themselves with such an opportunity to exploit. Isn't it
helpful that the government stepped right in immediately to continue
the "opportunity for confusion" until October 1997?
Hey, what's the hurry, confusion is confusion, and opportunity
is knocking -- customers]. {Unless you are an auto mechanic or
dealer, you likely are a decided disadvantage when it comes to
deciding whether sales or service representations are of value
to you or to the dealer or mechanic... the more you know, the
more questions you learn and dare to ask the better the chance
that you will not be taken in by self-serving service and sales
sales pitches... begin to build up your automobile literacy library
today, and help others to do the same... Think globally, pollute
locally?
A note in this regard. Your federal government (Federal Trade
Commission) only recently took up the issue of auto dealers cheating
consumers through lease and lease-purchase agreements. In October
1997, auto dealers will be required (only by law) to make certain
minimum disclosures regarding lease and lease-purchase deals,
but not necessarily all information essential to ensuring that
consumers have complete lease interest rates or the total costs
associated with these greasy lease and lease-purchase deals.
Do your homework before leasing or buying a car through a lease
or lease-purchase agreement, and watch out for slippery dealers
who lease vehicles which customers think they are buying outright.
This happens all too often and many consumers have been run down
and driven over by lease and lease-purchase deals.
"Dealing
With the Dealer", a report by Consumer
Reports. This report may be included with Consumer Reports' new
car pricing service, well worth the nominal fee Consumer Reports
charges for its manufacturer's invoice pricing (dealer's costs?)
service. (Everything -- every strategy Consumer Reports said
dealers might try, they did, and more). Are you still paying
twice or more for "regional advertising", or other
doubly dipped costs? (Everything Consumer Reports said dealers
might try, they did in our case. Dealers are programmed to treat
consumers like numbers in working their deal milking and manipulative
System Selling tactics, always (well, usually anyway) with a
smile and firm handshake, however). Learn as much about System
Selling as possible from available books and personal experience
(carefully study the tactics dealers use to motivate consumers
to purchase and pay too much for the vehicle and for unnecessary
extras by cluing in on your wants, needs and desires, and what
"turns-you-on" about a vehicle or option(s)).
Consumer
Reports (February
1993 and subsequent). Consumer Reports typically rates new vehicle
models with its February through April issues. Detroit's new
models typical come out in October (May differ for VW and other
"foreign" auto makes). Consumer Reports usually publishes
its new car reviews in March or April of the new year following
release of the new model year vehicles. This is a good advertising
or sponsor bias-free source for consumer information (possibly
as good as it gets, without being perfect of course, as they
simply have too little time to do a complete review and report).
It may
pay to wait for CR's evaluation of new models before buying to compare
with the industry boilerplate and advertising driven trade journals
such as Popular Mechanics, Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Consumer
Digest, etc. While Consumer Reports is not infallible, the information
is generally worthy of consideration.
Consumers
should have CR's information available for creating a complete Guerrilla
Consumer Car Deal Ding List (find something[s] wrong with the
vehicle and write them down), and if you are in love with the
inanimate object, or you just gotstahavit, rehearse and fake
a genuine indifference or a realistic but subtle "take-it-or-drop-dead"
attitude (courteously, of course with a warm and friendly smile)
for price negotiating advantages. Practice convincingly in front
of a mirror, family, friends, and strangers, including a few
dry run "drive-bys" at unsuspecting dealers. Never
pay too much for any car no matter how badly you gotstahavit.
Try biofeedback if necessary in controlling the dilation of your
pupils. Skilled auto dealers may discern your physiological response
to a vehicle model or option. This may inadvertently telegraph
your play on the deal.
Keep
in mind that Consumer Reports' new car reviews are typically based
on a vehicle they purchase, and often the reviews of new cars
do not have the benefit of time or history for a more comprehensive
evaluation. For used cars, Consumer Reports publishes a list
of lemon vehicles for vehicle models which have proven to be
lemony yellow in color and behavior based on a longer review
period over several years. Don't let the dealer use a favorable
Consumer Report review to inflate vehicle pricing on a deal.
The same dealers likely would not discount any unfavorable CR
review of its vehicles. Vehicles should receive favorable reviews--they
should perform as designed and intended, and that they may do
so should not increase their value substantially.
Consumer
Reports Used Car Price Service: For $12 (or thereabouts) Consumer Reports will
provide you with the dealer's costs for a vehicle make which
can be useful in avoiding paying too much for any new car, (800)
933-5555, or (1-900-446-0500, $1.75 a minute). Used car prices
may be available without cost at your library or from other publications
or services. AAA also provides similar services to AAA members.
Advertising
Age Magazine
(Sept.
1993). "From Beetle to Bedraggled, Behind VW's Stunning
US Decline," outlines VW's twenty year history of losing
market share in the US reportedly due to poor product quality,
low customer satisfaction (CSI) and poor initial quality (IQS)
surveys. (Advertising Age may be available at your library?)
Be Very Wary (VW?). Near the bottom of the heap according to
credible industry rankings (1993 reports).
Motor
Voter Press
(now
C.A.R.S. NEWS) [Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety] rating
of 10 manufacturers according to the number of formal lemon dispute
complaints filed against the car makers scored VW the worst among
ten car makers ranked in 1993 in California, and worst by a factor
of three over the 9th worst ranked car maker. You may contact
or subscribe to "CARS NEWS" at: 1500 West El Camino
Avenue, Suite 333, Sacramento, CA 95833 (916) 759-9440 t / (916)
750-9442 f. Saturn rated the best with eight other manufacturers
rating between Saturn and VW, based on 1993 data. (This may be
a good source of information indicating how well manufacturers
back up their warranty and claims of customer service and satisfaction,
or how well the do at faking "customer service").
VW seems
to have gone out of its way to ding its customers and its nearly 45 degree
slide in annual unit sales over twenty years in the US seems
to be a textbook case of the market (consumers) rejecting shabby
sales and service practices and abysmal quality problems. The
best warranty isn't worth the paper its printed on unless the
company "backs it up". A limited (very?) 10 year /
100,000 mile "power train" warranty pro-rated over
the life of the vehicle, isn't worth as much as a 10 yr. / 100,000
bumper to cheap unreinforced 2.5 mph bumper warranty (of which
there are none). Don't overvalue or let worthless "unbelievably
fantastic" warranties make you think you should pay more
for any vehicle.
Keep
in mind that there are many systems other than the power train which can,
upon failure, and most systems fail, render an automobile inoperable
or unsafe (unroadworthy?).
Many consumers
are finding it difficult to schedule factory promised service, because
dealers are unable or unwilling to schedule warranty maintenance
in a timely manner, resulting in consumers incurring costs of
having the work done by independent service shops.
Time
Magazine
(July 25,
1994), "Good
Guys Finish First." This 'story' includes a list of tricks industry
insiders admitted playing on unaware consumers to milk inflated
profits on car deals. Suggests (Oldsmobile) dealers that under(went)
a 12 step-like demon propitiation and honesty reprogramming end
up selling more vehicles than traditional sham oriented dealers.
Duh, the no-brainer car deal -- honesty pays? Well, almost, as
it turned out a high percentage of those sales personnel who
undertook the retraining programs resorted to the "old dog"
dealer tricks soon after completing the course. (See if your
library has this one. Read between the lines.)
The
rest must be selling "no-dicker" or non-negotiable "value
priced" deals -- (one price fits all) with which auto manufacturers
(GM at first, now others too) are posting record profits. Well,
at least everyone pays too much equally with the so called "value-priced"
deals. Some value, eh? Keep in mind that these deals are value
priced for the dealer and manufacturer, not for the consumer.
So try to negotiate even no-haggle or value priced deals too,
as these so-called value priced deals are where the profits are.
Newsweek (July 28, 1997) "Oh, What a Feeling:
Toyota tries to teach dealers the soft sell" by Daniel McGinn and
Tara Weingarten. Toyota
tries to rein in its dealers, essentially admitting that its
dealers have been mistreating its customers. Story includes a
"Dented Image" rating, with Saturn, Mercedes-Benz,
Lexus, Cadillac, Ford and Chevrolet scoring above average in
a survey of car buyers, and with Honda, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota,
Jeep, Hyundai, and Kia scoring below average.(Rating Source:
J.D. Powers & Associates and Automotive News). [Toyota:
I Love What You Do To Me ...? ]
Toyota
is now trying to defend its independence and control over (read price tactics)
its dealers by discouraging Auto Nation (The Blockbuster of Auto
Dealers) from buying up its independent franchises. See Awful
Notions, a web site dedicated to exposing the underside of Auto
Nation. Toyota is also refusing (challenging) a requirement in
California that it fix smog control devices on 300,000 of its
vehicles in the state which do not meet the Air Quality Boards
emissions control standards. Apparently, Toyota's new marketing
slogan must go like this, [Toyota: Killing our Customers is Good
For Business... or Toyota, I love what you do to me...]
The
California Motor Car Dealers Association blamed Chrysler for Laundering Lemons
in California--oops, ran the stop
light before the California New Motor Vehicle Board reversed
the DMV's decision to revoke Chrysler's Drive Shaft License in
California for 45 days. The DMV has an opportunity to revisit
the case and sustain it through the Superior Court or offer another
penalty. This memo is rather incriminating... even though the
dealers seem to be trying to protect themselves by blaming Chrysler
for not settling the case before dealers stood to lose approximately
$60,000 each for the 45 day suspension. DMV could merely permit
the sale of Chrysler vehicles while confiscating all proceeds
to Chrysler and its offending dealers as a proper punishment,
while protecting those Chrysler dealers who were not charged
with laundering lemons.
The
above matter is now in court, and Chrysler lost a round with the
Judge who refused to remand the matter back to the New Motor
Vehicle Board (an entity essentially staffed by and run by the
industry for the industry) and will permit the case to proceed.
(Update)... the California New Motor Vehicle Board,
staffed by auto dealers and their sympathizers, ruled in favor
of Chrysler--surprise-surprise. The matter is back before the
California Department of Motor Vehicles, which is taking its
time to come up with its next move...your voice might help, but
don't let this get in the way of your next round of golf or Ladies
Aid meeting.
(October
1998) -- News-FLASH... Chrysler recalls 750,000 (3/4 of a million of its "products")...
seems that they don't stay in "Park" and sometimes
roll away. Keep the kids away from these, and make sure they
stay away from the catalytic converter if its exposed beneath
the car or where children playing near it may touch hot parts...
United States Public Interest Research Group
(USPIRG)
(Public: As in "We The People")
San Jose Mercury News (Sunday, May 22, 1994), "A Car Buyer's
Guide to Sanity: Here's a low-price, low-stress route to getting
the most for your dollars" (may be at your library on micro-fiche?).
Find out why 44 auto dealers retaliated against the newspaper
for printing this story-- why they did not want consumers to
have this information, and why this story has not been reprinted
since its original printing (except once in Maryland which was
picked up on the FTC's radar scanner). The Federal Trade Commission
found that the dealers' actions against the newspaper violated
Federal Statues against restraint of free trade practices. The
newspaper reportedly caved to restore its advertising revenues
from the dealers which was reported to be between $200,00 and
$1,000,000. You likely will not see this story printed again
in any other major "middle-of-the-road" US newspaper,
due to institutional biases favoring commercial and corporate
self-interests. Get your hands on a copy of "A Car Buyer's
Guide to Sanity," as it contains much of the inside information
car dealers and manufacturers don't want consumers to have or
know... it may be available at your library in its newspaper
archives. Save this one in your files. Share it with family and
friends. Have it bronzed like a pair of baby's shoes!!!
Washington Journalism Review, "Auto Dealers Muscle the Newsroom" (Sept. 1991). (Defending
a God-given right to lie, cheat and steal for fun and profit?
or inCARhoots? ( :-) Family values? Ours, not yours!
American Journalism Review, "Those Sensitive Auto Dealers
Strike Again, and Another Newspaper Caves" (Sept. 1994). (Is
there a pattern developing here? More inCARhoots & bad CARma..
:-) We have it on pretty well rumored authority, that Hell reserves
its hottest depths for wayward car dealers and mechanics.
Scripps Howard News Service, by Mary Diebel, "Lemon Autos Secretly
Sold In Other States, Consumer Groups Want US to Probe Car Laundering."
(Nov.
1995). (What, who? Not us, surely not us? Ever notice how its
always the other guy who is responsible for sham sales and service
practices...? Never the dealer or salesperson you're talking
to?)
"The
Tangled Web They Weave: Truth, Falsity and Advertisers" by Ivan Preston (The slippery truth
slope of advertising and how advertising can be fixed to better
serve commerce and consumers without lying. Keep in mind that
in order to be illegal, advertising must both be false and misleading.
The truth, no matter how misleading is never illegal under current
law. So, if you're going to lie, do it truthfully.)
"The
Sponsored Life" by Leslie Savin (More on the mediaization of
our culture.) [Isn't it wonderful to be a "free" and
self-respecting democratic people?]
"Four
Arguments For The Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander (Guide
to TV media / advertising education for the media age. How to
watch TV intelligently (is this possible?) by understanding the
medium, its effects on human physiology and the medium's inherent
biases and limitations) (Read this and improve your television
viewing intelligence quotient -- great educational tool for children
who have become addicted to TV). They may as well know what TV
is doing to their brain cells and mitochondria. Just call it
the Alpha State Machine (ASM)... the opiate of the masses. Ahhh...
Frrrreeeedumb.... "Four Arguments..." includes the
following:
1. The Mediation
of Experience
2. The Colonization of Experience
3. Effects of Television on the Human Being
4. The Inherent Biases of Television
"Understanding
Media"
by
Marshall McCluhan ('The Medium Is the Message')
"Coercion:
Why We Listen to What They Say" by Douglas Rushkoff
The
Baffler Magazine
Blunting
the cutting edge... ["bleeding edge"?]
"Auto
Dealers Muscle The Newsroom" Washington Journalism Review (Sept. 1991) (More
inCARhoots?)
"Those
Sensitive Auto Dealers Strike Again, and Another Newspaper Caves" American Journalism Review (Sept. 1994)
(So much for freedom of the press?) (inCARhootiehoothoots?)
"From
Beetle To Bedraggled, Behind VW's Stunning US Decline" Advertising Age, September 1993 (At
your library?) (Are you considering rewarding VW with your business
for its twenty year, nearly 45 degree slide in US sales figures
due to poor customer satisfaction and initial quality surveys?)
"Volkswagen
and Its Workers During the Third Reich" by Hans Mommsen (In German, no English translations
planned, [non, ne ce pas?]). According to Associated Press, the
book has renewed discussion of VW's use of "slave labor"
during World War II; 'Complete with photos of Der Fuehrer admiring
a Beetle model, it is the most comprehensive -- and potentially
damaging -- history ever written about the Nazi-era birth of
the company. (Book commissioned by VW) (AP story may be available
from newspaper archives around the date of November 8, 1996).
This book will likely become evidence against VW and other German
companies which have been sued (August / September 1998) in a
case to gain reparations for their abuse of slave labor before
and during WW II.
So if you didn't have a good excuse for paying too much for a
VW, perhaps you do now?
The
new buggier VW-Mexican
McBeetle (VW's Concept One)
now promised by VW for over three years (building up demand to
inflate demand = increased price?), is reported to be coming
out in the spring of 1998. The only pictures we've seen show
it conspicuously in Lemon Yellow (Truth in Advertising?). Made
in Mexico! Supposedly to be available 'starting' at over "ONLY"
$16,000. Fools rush in. Savvy consumers let automobile fruit
ripen on the lot to increase the dealer's and manufacturer's
demand for consumers, and to let the less savvy consumer guinea-pig
the bugs in VW's new Mexican Beetles. Practice your dealer milking
skills. If you just gotstahaveone, practice your walking skills.
Plant the heal of your left or right foot and push off with the
other foot, doing a 180 degree maneuver, or just make your best
lowball offer and dig in your heels and spurs and pull, always
courteously, and with well rehearsed humble civility of course.
Wait for VW to get the bugs out of its "new" Mexican
Beetles, before biting.
"Nice
Guys Finish First?" by Paul Gray, Time Magazine (July 25, 1994) (A
story that suggests that (Oldsmobile) dealers that undergo consumer
orientation retraining (sort of a twelve step program to de-sham
sales personnel) increases sales,--but also unearths some of
the seedier side of the industry and reveals that many who undertake
the retraining return to the "old dog" dealing tricks
of the industry.) Honesty pays, eh? Novel idea! This is probably
why "value pricing" works so well for the dealer and
the manufacturer, -- because everyone feels that paying too much
equally is better than having someone else negotiate a better
deal on the same vehicle model at the same dealer. Some choice,
pay the no-haggle price or negotiate for a fairer price. If you
are not negotiating value priced deals, you likely are paying
way too much, as manufacturers are posting record profits using
these pricing schemes. The job of consumers is to exercise their
moderating effects on profit creep and price gouging and to keep
manufacturer and dealer profits to an absolute minimum. When
dealers post record profits, this means consumers are not doing
their job well enough. Be ready, willing and able to walk, and
when enough consumers do the same, prices will come down accordingly.
"SmartSense" (Duh-wah?) Publishes
Car Buying Site by Ed Stevens (Mr.Stevens trained car dealer
sales staff for 18 years and now apparently wants you to buy
his book on how to deal with the dealer... possibly some good
information, but you can likely find similar information at your
library or via other publications... and of course, you won't
see anything about dinging the manufacturer in Mr. Steven's presentations,
as expected. If you believe that buying a car is smart and makes
sense perhaps this site is for you.) Relying on a single source
for information is a car buyer's second mistake.
CarSmart is another car buyers
web resource (search by name). Cars are smart? Yeah, sure. CARveat
Emptor. Chronic
Car Deal Illiteracy Syndrome, which is at epidemic levels in America,
even as the automobile celebrates its 102nd birthday, can be
erased.
"A
Car Buyer's Guide to Sanity," by Mark Schwanhausser, San Jose Mercury News,
(May, 22, 1994) (check your library or call the paper, (408)
920-5000. Find out what the dealers didn't want the San Jose
Mercury News telling consumers about how to negotiate fair dealer
profits.
DATELINE
NBC's
CARveat
Emptor "Carpycat" Site: References Lemon Resales Rip-offs;
Good US Lemon Law Reference Site Page & Map. Borrowed "CARveat
Emptor" without permission or credit... ofvaah!
Find
out which of the American auto manufacturers were able to have their auto factories in Germany
protected from American bombing raids, and who supplied the German
war machine with vehicles and equipment before and during the
war against the Allied forces. Find out which major U.S. newspaper
family required favorable reportage by its editors and reporters
of Hitler's Nazi Germany before the war. [Socialism, you say?
We'd settle for merely democracy and capitalism. But, fat chance
of these taking root in America, especially now that Prozac has
become so popular. Keep in mind that, 1% of Americans own 90%
of the wealth in America, and the bottom 80% of income earners
are working more and earning less in real dollars and they have
been for the last twenty years. This is capitalism? This is democracy?
This is economic fascism! More free trade anyone? Here, pass
the gravy-train, too? Unfortunately we have ceded economic, political
and social democracy to the undemocracy of the corporatocracy.
] Would a self-respecting, free and democratic people permit
others, wielding the state created privilege of the corporate
truncheon to appropriate as much as 2000% of the value of the
productivity of labor? So why do we? This isn't capitalism and
this isn't democracy, its cultural default... '...if you want
to control people, tell them they are unworthy and promise them
freedom at dollars on the penny..."
"Go
figure" your annual & LIFETIME of car ownership costs: (Is it worth it?) (Try $400,000 or
more for merely average (much more for luxury vehicles and SUVs)
car purchase and operations costs over a lifetime). Half this
amount or less per auto consumer would fund mass or public transit
works programs for better transportation and healthier air, and
provide viable and competitive alternatives to the private automobile
for many personal transport needs. "Laugh, You're Paying
For It. "Think Globally, Pollute Locally?" Expensive
Superpolluting SUVs - killing you (us) softly... and invisibly...
cough, cough, hack, hack, sputum, sputum...
Add up the
ownership costs for a year, for the life of the vehicle or for
your lifetime of driving. Include insurance, license and registration,
depreciation (cost of car minus current trade-in-value, divided
by years of ownership) and finance charge, if any. How much of
your income taxes pay for highway and road construction and maintenance?
Note that the average depreciation costs of a new American car
is around $3500. Calculate the costs of car ownership over various
periods. Project your lifetime of car ownership and operating
costs based on your car purchasing history -- how often you buy
a new or used car. This is what you could save if you went carless
or if you used public transit instead of the expensive and inefficient
private petromobile.
The average
total cost for car ownership and operation is approximately $7,000
per year. Assuming you own a vehicle for sixty years of you life,
you're looking at approximately $420,000 in total car ownership
and operations costs assuming you don't get dinged on deals more
than the average person does routinely. The trick to the Great
American Car Deal is to avoid it at all costs if possible--just
Don't Have A Car, Man!, and if you must buy, lease or have one
serviced, the trick is to keep consumer costs to an absolute
minimum by negotiating thousands off the price of every new car.
Go figure
your LIFETIME of car operating costs: It adds up! Laugh, You're
paying for it...? An average lifetime of automobile ownership
and operation costs now exceeds $450,000, more than twice the
cost for median priced American homes.
Add up all costs for operating your car per year and for the
period of ownership of the vehicle. You can estimate these costs by taking the costs
for a month and multiplying twelve to give you the yearly costs,
but actual costs over the time period is more accurate. Include
gas, oil, tickets, tolls and parking, maintenance costs, car
washes and other car related costs including property taxes which
fund road construction and repair. Etc.
Consider
subscribing to AAA or other auto club, (Yield/Caution Here - AAA has been
reported to have been working politically to prevent increases
in required mileage per gallon of new vehicles. Proposed increases
in fuel efficiency wouldn't have even gone into effect until
years from now. Perhaps AAA does not see air polution as a serious
public health threat?) if not immediately upon purchasing a new car,
then within a year or two, as you can recoup the costs of membership
on one or two flat tire repairs -- if you need road service,
its worth it to be enrolled. You likely will need roadside service
within the first few years of car ownership, with such needs
increasing as the vehicle ages. Shop around for the best policy.
AAA, Allstate Motor Club, and others may be good sources for
information such as annual car ownership and operating costs
(this information may be difficult to extract from the manufacturer
of dealer. Demand it anyway as a condition of your personal consumership
policy -- be dealer-like in this regard).
"When
Lemons are Packaged as Peaches: A Report on Californians Who Don't
Know They Own Lemon Vehicles: Who Are They? Who's At Fault" Who Gets Hurt?"
by California Legislature Assembly Committee on Consumer Protection
Governmental Efficiency and Economic Development (Jackie Speier,
Chair), October 24, 1994, POB 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0001
(916) 324-7440, f- (916) 445-0511
"COST
OF OWNING AND OPERATING Automobiles, Vans and Light Trucks 1991,"
by the US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration,
Office of Highway Information Management, Washington, DC 20590
(Published in 1984 and 1991, (there may be a more current update)
-- Rates the per mile ownership and operation costs of subcompact
cars, compact cars, intermediate sized cars, full-sized cars,
compact pickups, full sized pickups, mini vans, and full sized
vans according to depreciation, insurance, maintenance, parking
& tolls, tires, finance charges, license, registration and
taxes, fuel & oil (excluding taxes), fuel & oil taxes,
and total criteria: with Subcompacts costing 28.9 cents per mile;
Full sized cars costing 37.9 cents per mile, and full-sized vans
costing 44.8 cents per mile, based on 12 years of suburban ownership
and operation for a total of 128,500 miles -- the miles per year
driven are based on decreasing averages beginning at 12,500 miles
the firs year, to 8,200 miles in year 12. Your experience and
costs may vary depending on your driving mileage and habits (addictions?).
If published at seven years intervals, the next edition of this
informative booklet should be out in 1998. You mean the government
knows how much cars costs (without fraud, waste and abuse added
in) and yet there is no meaningful and comprehensive auto industry
regulation to protect the industry, consumers and our economy
from the negative impacts of unfair, manipulative and fraudulent
sales and service practices. Yepsiree!
Your state
or county department of motor vehicles (DMV) or consumer protection
agency
(if
they have not been closed down or emasculated by government 'downsizing')
may be a good source of automobile consumer awareness and assistance
in resolving dealer and manufacturer problems (check your phone
book for local offices or call information at your state capitol
for phone listings).
"Getting
to Yes,"
by
Roger Fisher and William Ury. (General negotiating principles,
published by Harvard University Press) (have a best alternative
to a negotiated settlement at the ready during any negotiations
-- another vehicle, no vehicle or no deal,-- a bicycle or public
transit?) Also see, "How To OUTNEGOTIATE Anyone (Even Car
Dealers)" above.
Leasing
a car? Is
leasing a better deal for you, your friends and family?(Generally
not!) Find out why dealers like leasing so much that 2000 consumers
in Florida who thought they were buying cars outright, ended
up being leased cars unwittingly by Shyster Motors, Inc.(©)
Check out the following car leasing checklist which may help
save hundreds if not thousands of dollar$off the price (Cap costs?)
of your next new car lease:
The
Reality Checklist for Vehicle Leasing
send $1.50
SASE to
Consumer Task Force - Reality Checklist for Vehicle Leasing
POB 7648
Atlanta, GA 30357
(don't get
dinged on "Cap" costs in auto lease deals....many have!
(:- (
If you don't
know what you are doing, consider educating yourself until you do before
proceeding. Dealers are pushing leases because they profit more
from lease deals. Make the Car-Deal-Literacy-to-Library-Connection to avoid the gazillions of car deal
and service tricks and consumer mistakes which cost consumers
tens of billions of dollars unnecessarily every year in America
alone. Just go to y our library or bookstore and spend some quality
time with a few of the many books available on how to buy, own
and operate automobiles, if you cannot just Don't Have A Car,
Man!, without getting taken for the classic car deal ride, every
time... Invest your savings, reTIRE early, or be more charitable...
society, the economy, and the environment needs your generosity
and care.
New
leasing rules do not require dealers to disclose APR costs which
is the lease interest rate (similar to loan interest rate). Demand
that this be provided and disclosed in writing. Verify this and
compare between lease deals before leasing.
"Auto
Leasing Concerns - Things to consider before leasing a car"
by
Florida
Attorney General, Robert Butterworth
4000
Hollywood Blvd. Suite 505-South
Hollywood, Florida 33021
(2000 Florida
car buyers were leased vehicles they thought they were buying)
General
Consumer Tip:
When
paying with cash at convenience or small retail establishments,
call out the denomination of the money you are handing the cashier.
We've experienced a situation on several occasions where a twenty
was tendered to pay for small items. The cashier was able to
hide it and display a $10 bill and return change for the $10
instead of the $20. Always count your change.
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CARveat
Emptor - Tricks of the Great American Car Deal
© copyright 1995-2006, R. Rand Knox, All Rights Reserved.
Not for use, reuse, sale, resale or fee unless so licensed or
released by
R. Rand Knox in writing. Autobuyologist
Happy motoring, wheeling & dealing
-- virtually and really.
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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
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NHTSA to Improve Fuel Efficiency of SUVs
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Car Makers To Get Their Gas In Gear Flyer 2-up
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& 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.)
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