Want to know what not to do when you go to a dealership shopping for a vehicle?  Well, yahooautos.com gave 8 mistakes that you could make at a dealership. So, here’s what to do/or not do when you are looking for a vehicle. 

1.  Make sure that you have options.  You may have the perfect car for you in mind, but keep an open mind or else you could avoid getting the best deal.

2.  Do your research before you go. The worst thing is to go to a dealership and ask a great deal of questions about the vehicles.  You do not want to be uninformed.  Let the salesperson know that you’ve done your homework about the vehicles.

3.  Don’t buy more than you need. Salespeople will try to “entice you” to buy extra packages as you close the deal. Don’t let this happen. Know what add-ons you may want/need before you go, so that you don’t get suckered into anything else.

4.  Don’t rush the sale. You don’t need to buy a car from the first dealership that you go to. You can get the best deals if you take your time and are able to think everything through.

5.  You need to negotiate from the sticker price. The invoice price is what the dealership paid for the car, the MSRP is what the dealership wants to sell the car for. You have room between the two to negotiate. Make sure that you do.   

6.  Make sure that you DO not negotiate your monthly payments.  Don’t go into a dealership and say that you want to pay $X monthly.  You want to negotiate the total cost of the car instead.  If you do the monthly payments, then the salespeople can then offer you longer financing period with lower monthly payments, but then there is more finance charges and etc. 

7.  Don’t trade your car in below its value. Sometimes people are so eager to get rid of their old car, that they will take anything that is offered from the dealership.  Before you go, know what the Kelly Blue Book value is.

8.  Make sure that you aren’t too eager or emotional.  If you do, you can fall into the trap of some of the mistakes mentioned above. 

Good luck!

Do you want a luxury car at a reasonable price?  I got the information that you need.  There was an article on yahooautos.com that gives the top five affordable luxury cars.  So here they are:

1.  2009 Acura TSX - MSRP $28,960 - this car has good fuel economy, it’s fun to drive, and has lots of new technology in this redesigned model.

2.  2009 Lexus IS 250 - MSRP $31,980 a lot of people “aspire to own” a Lexus. This is a model that is within reach.  This isn’t the most powerful car out there with just 204 horsepower, but it handles very nicely. 

3.  2009 Mazda RX-8 Grand Touring - MSRP $31,670 This is the “sportiest car of these affordable luxury cars.”  It doesn’t have very good gas mileage though with 16 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway.  It has rear-hinged doors due to the style of the car, so that’s a unique and fun attribute to this car.

4.  2009 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sports Sedan - MSRP $33,375  Fuel economy is ok.  It has 228 horsepower and all-wheel drive is an option.  You get to have a Mercedes-Benz at a good price.  Isn’t that what everyone wants at some point during their life???!

5.  2009 Cadillac CTS - MSRP $36,880 Want to buy an American made luxury vehicle?  Here’s the answer.  This is the most expensive affordable luxury car, but I think it’s worth it. I love the look of this car and I had an older model. It’s a nice car.  The article says that the Cadillac CTS is “the best sports sedans you can buy, period.” So there. 

 My vote of these affordable luxury cars is the Cadillac CTS, but check them all out for yourself. 

“The Rabbit is going back into its hole” says G. Chambers Williams III of the San Antonio Express-News.  Volkswagen has decided to kind of retire the Rabbit, revive the model, and rename it the Golfagain.  Are you confused?  I was as well.  The VW Golf was replaced by the VW Rabbit in the U.S. markets three years ago. Well now VW has decided to go back to the Golf, that is the best-selling nameplate worldwide and is sold in 120 countries.  VW showed off the new Golf at the New York auto show last month. 

This new model will be the sixth generation of the Golf.  It is a three or five door compact hatchback.  It has a 2.5 liter five-cylinder engine with 170 horsepower or you can choose the 2.0 liter turbocharged diesel four-cylinder engine with 140 horsepower.  The Golf will be available as a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic transmission.  The fuel economy numbers have not been released yet, but you can assume that they will be around what the 2009 Rabbit was, which is 21 miles per gallon in the city and 30 on the highway with the manual transmission or 20/29 with the automatic.  The diesel Rabbit gets 30 city/41 highway.  Also, no prices have been announced but the 2009 Rabbit ranged between $16,300 and $19,350.  I’ll assume that the 2010 Golf will be in that range (or close to it) as well.  The new Golf is being introduced by VW as a affordable “fun to drive” car.  We’ll have to wait and see if this is the case.   

www.autobloggreen.com

This is a fun story.  A man in Britain by the name of Perry Watkins loves cars. So for fun, he designs and builds crazy cars. He built a car that was just 19 inches off the ground and he called it the Flatmobile.  It is the world’s lowest car. Now, in his spare time, Watkins created the world’s smallest car called the Wind Up.  The Wind Up was actually a children’s toy car that Watkins transformed.  The car was called Postman Pat’s car that you can buy for about $450.  The car stands at 39 inches tall and 26 inches wide.  Watkins gutted the car adding a steel frame to the fiberglass car.  The Wind Up is powered by a 150cc single-cylinder engine.  It has head lamps, tail lights, windshield wipers, turn signals, and a horn that make it a legal car for the roads.  The engine can get about 70 miles per gallon and can go up to 40 miles per hour. It won’t be winning any races, but it would be fine to stroll around the town.  It’s not for sale, so if you want one you need to buy the Postman Pat car and then transform it yourself so you to can have the world’s smallest car.         

www.prlog.org

I found an article written by Matt Nauman of the San Jose Mercury News that talks about the new Volvo XC60 cossover utility vehicle that has a technology available so that the car can brake itselft to avoid a fender bender.  The technology is called City Safety, which is a low-speed collision-avoidance technology that comes with the new 2010 Volvo XC60.

Here how City Safety works.  a windshield-mounted laser sends infrared rays out as far as 18 feet in front of the vehicle.  Then a computer analyzes the rays reflected back from any object ahead of the car, and if the computer decides that a crash is imminent, it automatically brakes the vehicle.  Interesting, right?  The City Safety should help to prevent low-speed crashes that happen when a driver fails to notice that the car in front of them stopped or slowed down.  The system does not require any input from the driver.  Volvo thinks that this system could reduce the number of low-speed collisions by half.        

There are several newer technologies in cars such as telling you if you are falling asleep at the wheel, or if a car is in your blind spot.  If you drift from your lane, the car warns you as well.  The good news is that all of these technologies are saving lives, and I’m sure there is better technology to come for us in the future that will become standard in vehicles just like airbags are.

For all you dog lovers that like to take your dogs for some rides, here is the car for you.  The new dog friendly Honda Element SUV was showed off at the New York Auto Show last month.  This concept car has a cushioned pet bed with safety restraints in the cargo space, a spill-resistant water bowl, a fan, and a folding ramp to get the dogs in and out.  In the back seat, there is a pet carrier and the seat covers are washable.  The rubber floor mats have a toy-bone pattern. What more could you ask for?? 

Honda is finalizing these features and plans on having the dog friendly Honda Element available in the fall.  The price of this vehicle has not come out yet, but the regular version of the Honda Element is about $21,000. 

People love their pets, so it’s smart of Honda to cater to these people.  According to ap.org, there are approximately 75 million dogs in America and the market for these pets was more than $43 billion last year. Yes, you read correctly!  So, Honda is no dummy and I would bet that other automakers will be coming out with their own dog friendly versions of their vehicles in the near future. 

So, I was looking for an interesting topic to write about tonight and through my search I found an article on msnbc.com written by Hannah Elliott of forbesautos.com.  What makes the article and topic interesting is that many people or I might even say most people have never heard of these cool cars.  One of them, the Tramontana, has only 12 of them available each year. You need to get on a waiting list for about 8 months to get this car. That’s what you call rare. It is a Spanish car that goes from 0 to 62 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds.  Here’s the glitch…it costs about $668,000 to buy. Just penny change. 

Another cool car that isn’t well known is the Pininfarina Hyperion.  One reason why it probably known is because it costs somewhere in the seven figures, depending on the auction. Yikes!  You’d be pretty cool to own one of these cars though.  I bet it’s really nice. 

How about the Saleen S7?  Ever heard of it?  It is capable of going from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds. Now that’s fast.  Another large ticket item though costing about $550,000.

Here’s on for a mere $87,900….the Fisker Karma.  This is a really neat car.  It is a sports car that is a plug-in. The first 50 miles of driving uses no gas and then the car drives in hybrid mode for the rest of the time. 

So now thanks to me helping your awareness of cool cars, if you see one of these cars on the street, maybe, just maybe, you could identify one of them and then drool a little.    

The incentives these days to buy a 2009 Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicles are crazy!  Alisa Priddle of The Detroit News reports that the incentives are up to $4000, which is great. But then I found another website ft.com  (financial times) that says that discounts could add up to as much as $6000!  .  There is also a $1000 incentive for those that have a Chrysler made vehicle. That incentive can be used to buy a 2008 or 2009 vehicle.  Also, if you qualify and finance your new car or truck through a certain credit union, you get a $1000 cash bonus.  These incentives for Chrysler fun from today through June 1.  The incentives are replacing the employee discount program that Chrysler had in place before.  I think I might do some research and go and buy myself a new Chrysler by June 1!  Maybe you should as well.     

www.cars-cars.net

At the Detroit Auto Show in January, the director of BMW design group, Adrian van Hooydonk, had a big announcement to make that stunned many people.  Reporters at the auto show had commented that the redesigned car looked “more sporty, more dynamic, more aggressive, and more masculine.”  Well, the big news was that yes those things were true and that the designers were actually two women!  How funny is that?  I think it’s great. No one expected it and two young women, 32 and 37, were the big designers.  To pick the designers of the new BMW Z4, the automakers held a competition.  The creators that submitted sketches and clay models were anonymous so that personalities didn’t come into play with the judging.  BMW liked the designs of these two and they won. Simple as that….well, and their designs for the new BMW Z4 were awesome.  Juliane Blasi was the exterior designer and Nadya Arnaout designed the interior.  Just thought I’d share this little tidbit of information about another new model coming out.  The BMW Z4 will be a winner in my opinion.  It looks very nice.  

It is a sad time for Pontiac lovers and anyone else who may have had a Pontiac throughout their lifetime.  Pontiac had one of the first “muscle cars.”  Anyone who had one of these cars and probably some still do, know how great they were.  So, it’s sad to see this car legend come to an end.  Some people that still have Pontiacs could possibly make some money on them in the years to come I bet. 

The big question is whether you should buy a new Pontiac or not.  Larry Printz of The Virginian-Pilot gives the pros and cons.  There are some good choices out there for Pontiacs right now. You have the Pontiac G3 hatchback, the G6, and the G8.  The pros are that if it’s a reliable model and you are the kind of person who buys a car and runs it into the ground, the cars will be cheap. Another pro is that there won’t be problems finding parts. Many of the Pontiac parts are in other GM vehicles as well.  So, here are the cons: the trade-in values will be “diminished immediately” and if you are the type of buyer that trades vehicles often, the Pontiac is not the choice for you.  

I know several people who have had Pontiacs and had no problems with them. I think if you like the models and you plan to drive it for awhile, go for it!  Buy a Pontiac. You won’t have the opportunity soon enough.