Entries Tagged 'Cars' ↓

While doctors may no longer make house calls, electric carmaker Tesla now does. Tesla announced that it would send technicians to the homes or offices of their vehicle owners to take care of maintenance, software upgrades and many repairs.

Tesla’s “Mobile Service Rangers” will drive to owners even if they are hundreds of miles from the nearest dealership. The upstart carmaker has only four dealerships around he country: Menlo Park, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York. But the company has sold 700 Tesla Roadsters and now has customers in every state.

Because Tesla’s electric technology is so now, the average service station can’t work on the cars. Before this service, Tesla’s customers had to ship their car to the nearest dealership if they couldn’t drive in. To minimize the hassle, Tesla rolled out its mobile tech teams.

The service won’t be free, however. Vehicle owners will pay $1 for every round-trip mile that the technicians travel from the nearest Tesla service center. The minimum charge is $100.

Of course, Tesla Roadsters cost about $109,000, so this will be small change for the company’s vehicle owners.

New vehicle sales plunged in September, following two bust months of car buying thanks to the government’s cash-for-clunkers program. Now that the federal buyback program has ended, most automakers experienced a double-digit decline in sales as compared to a year ago.

General Motors announced its sales dropped 45 percent, and Chrysler reported a 42 percent decline from September a year ago. Ford fared a bit better with car sales declining only 5 percent from September 2008. However, Ford did register a 5 percent uptick in sales for the entire 3rd quarter, the company’s first quarterly increase in four years.

Overseas automakers were also hard hit in September. Sales dipped 20 percent at Honda, 7 percent at Nissan, and 13 percent at Toyota.

Korean carmaker Hyundai was the lone bright spot in the industry. Hyundai said its sales rose 27 percent in September. Due to its low priced cars, the automaker has been gaining sales momentum throughout the recession.

The federal cash-for-clunkers program generated almost 700,000 sales in July and August, bolstering carmakers. The program provided up to $4,500 in credits to consumers who traded in an older, inefficient vehicle and bought a new one with better gas mileage.

If you are upside down on a car loan you’re probably scared and a little freaked out, but fear not – lots of other consumers are in your shoes. Being upside down on a car loan simply means you owe more on the loan than the car is worth.

Given how quickly cars depreciate, it’s not difficult to get upside down in a variety of situations. Many consumers get to this point and don’t even realize it until they try to sell or trade in their car and discover that their loan balance far exceeds the value of the car.

Owing more than your car is worth is not necessarily a problem if you plan to keep the car throughout the period of your loan. But if you need to sell or trade it in, you’ll need to deal with the loan. Here are few options for what to do if you are upside down on a car loan:

Roll your old loan into a new car purchase. Some car dealers will allow you add the unpaid principal of your old car loan into the loan for a new car. You would, in effect, be paying off two loans. As you can imagine, this gets expensive and is not recommended, but if you have no other options then it may be worth exploring.

Refinance your car loan. While many people refinance home loans, not as many know that you can do the same for car loans. If you bought your car a few years ago you might find that interest rates now are much lower and you can save on your monthly payments. Just be sure that your current auto lender allows prepayment of your loan.

Make extra payments. You can pay down your car loan fairly quickly by making larger payments each month, but be sure that your lender has agreed that extra payments will go to pay down the principal owed.

Use a home equity loan to pay off your car loan. If you have access to a home equity line of credit, you can probably pay off your entire car loan at once. The advantage is that you immediately get yourself out from being upside down on your car loan and have 100% ownership. Repaying a home equity loan can also have tax benefits, so check with your accountant.

The insurance industry is a competitive one so, in general, it pays to comparison shop when selecting your car insurance, health insurance quotes and other coverage. Websites like Very Cheap Car Insurance make it easy to compare rates from multiple carriers with just a click of your mouse.

However, this rule does not necessarily apply if you already have insurance with a carrier. You will often save money by bundling your policies together and keeping them with the same company. If you already have homeowner’s – or renter’s – insurance with a specific company, talk to them about adding your car insurance. In most cases an insurer will provide a significant discount if you keep your additional policy with them. It’s the same concept as buying in bulk: the more you buy, the more you should save.

Once you have gotten the quote from your current insurer, it would pay to continue shopping around. Now that you have one quote to work with, you can compare that to other insurers. If the first few quotes you get are higher than your existing one, then it means you should stay put. But remember, even if you have a policy, shopping around is the best way to get very cheap car insurance quotes. It’s time to go out there and start saving!

If you can get over the carmaker’s name, Hyundai has the luxury car for you. Long synonymous with bargain basement vehicles, Hyundai is now competing with the likes of Mercedes and BMW with its new Genesis sedan.

The Genesis come in at $36,000 and includes a 368-horsepower V-8 engine and the same sound system found in a Rolls-Royce Phantom. There’s also a base-level Genesis with a V-6 that starts at $30,000.

Hyundai has toned toned its branding on the Genesis. The company’s “flying H” logo appears on the trunk, but not on the hood. So if you squint real hard and view the car from across the street, you might just be fooled into thinking it’s not a Hyundai.

The Hyundai Genesis could be a great deal for those who care about value more than snob appeal. This comparable to a $60,000 sedan, but for half the price. Bargain hunters, your car is here.