Did You Get A Lemon?

I have to give kudo points to this clever motorist, when he got a flat tire on his car and realized that he didn’t have a jack, so he found a way to raise the weight of the tire.   Now, I am not sure what this did to the car or the hydraulic post but you have to say that the picture is worth a million words.

So whether you view this as a car fail or a clever guy using his surrounding, I like it.  This picture will live in infamy on my blog so well done… oh adaptive driver in Europe… well done!

Lexus, Toyota’s Luxury Brand, has strangely come through the recall smell pretty good.   Though their vehicles have had a string of recalls as well.   Actually their sales are up 5% already for 2010, this is quite shocking to me.

Is it that people are somehow unaware that the two brands are connected or is it that luxury cars are immune to runaway car syndrome?   I believe that Toyota is doing as much as it can from a PR view and a car maker, but I am sure that at sometime, they knew that their cars were wrong and ignored fixing it.

Toyota has pledge that they are at fault for what they have done and they are going to spend a great deal of money to win back their supporters.  They have a three part plan that they are going employ nationwide to bring back the U.S. market.

1. They are going to stop selling any vehicle that has these problems and get it fixed immediately.

2. They are going to have their employees come to pick up the recalled cars from your house so that you aren’t even inconvenienced enough to have to drop it off.

3. They are going to supply you with a rental car out of their pockets until the repairs can be fixed.

I have to give them some credit, they are taking responsibility and it will cost them.  But if they want to return to their former place of prestige, this is what they are going to have to do.

We are all aware of the world’s need to break their need for fossil fuels and it seems like there is a big push to start with the automobile industry.  Most large car companies are releasing their first models of their electric cars and now 92 large Israel companies fleets will be switching to electric and the end of their leases.

This is by far the largest organized push to be green and I hope it works out the kinks in the electric market before I am looking to join the revolution or to end my dependence of petroleum.   We will see how realistic this type of car will be soon enough

Kia has had it’s ups and down the last few years.   They are having the hard time of competing against car companies who have been selling internationally for decades.  They have been offering big deals and new cars but do they have the track record and extensive testing of their vehicles that I look for in a car.

I have heard of way too many cars that are all promises and then a few years down the road, the buyer is full of regret because they bought poorly.   I  will wait and see how this new Kia coupe, aptly called the “Koup” proves itself before I think about getting one myself.

So, you who are like me and seem to have poor luck with cars, know that Toyota is a pretty good car to buy for reliability.   Now, Toyota is going for a new title instead of just quality.   Now, they are going for Green as well!

Toyota’s plan is to become the hybrid leader of the world.   The car above is the Ft-Ch, it’s a sub compact version of the Prius.   And this is not their own car coming up, they plan to have a full family of hybrid cars.   I hope that with their innovation that they don’t forgo on the quality that we all know an love.

Now, I know that not all engine blow outs will be as costly as this 2 million McLaren F1 engine fire but hey if you don’t take care of your car this could be the outcome.

People complain often that anytime something goes wrong on their car that it was the car’s fault.   But I am guessing that over half of those breakdowns could have been avoided if the owners had kept up on basic servicing and maintenance.

If you want a car that won’t be a lemon, Honda is where to look.  Even in the years that they didn’t win “Car of the Year”, They still have had great resale rates and pretty good service records.

I am just saying Honda is a car that after you buy it, you will most likely pass it down to your kids or sell it such a good resale rate, that you put that money back into buying a new Honda.

Well, it’s that time of year again, time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the two busiest days of my life. One day I spent cooking and eating the greatest food on Earth, then I have a midday nap and I get ready to stand out in the cold so that I can get amazing shopping deals.   Man, I wished car deals had Black Friday sales because I would be willing to stand out for hours over that kind of deal.

Though, I have figure out a way to even get more off on my Black Friday sales.  My master plan this year is to get gift certificates that at a discount on sites like citydeals or others and then use them for payment on my items.  This is what I call a double bonus, a genius move on my part!  And with the money I am going to save, I am going to use it to put into getting my car fund.  Because let’s be honest, I am probably going to need it.

It doesn’t matter what you do, there is a good chance that you are going to get a lemon.  I have gotten lemons for both new cars and used cars, but there are ways to minimize the odds of join this unlucky “I bought a lemon” club.

First, when buying an used car, do a lot of research.  With the way that the internet is today, you can do more research from your home computer then a service shop could of dream of 10 years ago.  You can receive a carfax report on a individual car that give a detail history of what it has happened to it.   There are even some car sales companies like Enterprise Rent a Car, will actually show you every time the car got it’s oil changed and if any damage ever had to be fixed on those vehicles.

The last bit of information that you should think about is the reliability of the brand of car and how many you see on the road.   Don’t think that you are going to buy a Russian made Yugo and think that you aren’t going to spend a lot of time and money on maintenance.   Though they are one of the most unique cars on the road, they were not made to last the ages.  Stick to the brands like Honda, Toyota, Cadillac, Saturn and even in the last few years, Fords, that are really making leaps and bounds in improve their car’s life expectancies.