Frugal Shopper: Holiday-Weekend Sales Promise Sweeter Deals
If you're not among the 32.1 million Americans planning to travel this holiday weekend, as estimated by the AAA, and you happen to be shopping for a new vehicle, it could be a great time to buy.
Just a quick glance at the local newspaper or other local media sources, or a look at your local dealership's Web site, will assure you that it's not quite business as usual this weekend. Yes, dealerships are open through the weekend (except in a few rare places with blue laws prohibiting it), and yes, the discounts are typically a bit deeper that most other times of the year.
In addition to big national campaigns such as Toyota's National Sales Event, Ford's Swap Your Ride deals, GM's Spring Savings Event, and the Nissan Tent Event—all of which offer zero-percent in some form—local dealerships might be offering even deeper discounts in an effort to meet sales targets for the end of the month or for special holiday-weekend blowouts.
And to help make the deals even sweeter, both Nissan and Ford are offering additional $500 rebates on several models leading into the holiday weekend—both deals good through Monday. Ford's special deals apply to the 2010 Ford Focus small car, Ford Edge crossover utility vehicle, and F-150 pickup, as well as the Lincoln MKS and MKZ sedans and the MKX luxury ute. Nissan, meanwhile, was adding to its Tent Event in offering $500 in additional bonus cash that applies to most of its vehicles. With all the factory discounts, it was offering up to $2,750 off the 2010 Nissan Rogue compact crossover utility vehicle, $2,000 off Nissan Altima sedan models, and $2,500 off the Nissan Sentra compact sedan, for example.
Ford in particular has ramped up manufacturer incentives this month—to an estimated $3,307 per vehicle, up 15 percent from last year and eleven percent from April.
Although we haven't seen rival holiday-weekend factory offers yet from other automakers, you're likely to see dealerships stretching to match those prices on competing vehicles to win the sales and make sales targets.
Actually, Memorial Day itself is predicted by pricing-intelligence firm TrueCar to be the best day so far in 2010 to buy a car. The firm is anticipating an average new-vehicle discount of 6.9 percent—thanks, in no small part to the generous incentives still being offered by automakers on most of their vehicles.
As we reported a couple of months ago in a Frugal Shopper column, holiday weekends are windows of opportunity for smart shoppers, as in addition to manufacturer incentives, dealerships will often spend more money on advertising and, especially near the end of the weekend, look for a return on their investment. Long-weekend holiday shoppers tend to be in a better mood, too, so dealerships are out to capture the spirit.
In all, nearly $3.1 billion in incentives will be handed out in May. TrueCar calculates that Chrysler is still offering the most incentive money per vehicle—an average of $4,086—but GM will write off nearly $660,000 in incentives this month—the most of any automaker. In May, an average of $2,915 will be offered per vehicle—an 8.3-percent increase versus April and 1.7 percent higher than those of last May.
Even Honda is offering its highest-ever incentives, at $2,345 per vehicle—up 26.5 percent versus last year and 17.4 percent from April—while Toyota and Hyundai/Kia have raised their average incentives by about two percent from April 2010.
According to updated estimates for May released Wednesday from TrueCar, May light-vehicle sales are expected to total more than 1.05 million units—more than seven percent above April and 13.6 percent above last May.
Altogether, at street level, this means that a lot of deals will be had this weekend. If you're staying in town and ready to commit, the time is right.
[BNET; TrueCar; Bloomberg via Business Week]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Ford Sync Gets Voice-Activated Horoscopes, Stock Quotes
Stuck at a standstill in traffic and wondering if you have options? Or wondering if tomorrow's the right time for a blind date?
Through the new voice-activated Traffic, Directions & Information (TDI) application that Ford offers in 2010- and 2011-model-year vehicles, both are now possible behind the wheel. Ford has added horoscopes, stock quotes, and movie listings, along with travel information to the system's navigation and traffic features.
The services are call-based and don't require a data subscription, or rack up additional connection fees; they're provided by Microsoft Tellme, which allows drivers to use their Bluetooth-connected phone to give make voice requests. Much like the old voice- or touch-tone services like Moviefone, the service accesses information through a set menu structure, but ties in nicely with the Sync interface and uses the driver's current location.
New stock features allow you to receive real-time stock quotes or get a list of investor specifics such as price-to-earnings ratio. With the travel-based services, it will connect calls through to 150 different airlines, 50 hotel chains, or 11 major rental-car companies.
The TDI features of Sync already allow turn-by-turn navigation, business search, and customized traffic services.
All the new features--demonstrated below in a 2011 Ford Fiesta--will be immediately available to those who have 2010- or 2011-model-year Ford, Mercury, or Lincoln vehicles. Since the upgrade, the first time they connect they'll hear a statement announcing the updated choices.
On vehicles so equipped with a version of Sync that has TDI, the additional services come with no subscription fee for the first three years of ownership.
[Ford]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
All U.S. Honda Vehicles To Get Brake Overrides By Next Year
American Honda has announced that it will be installing a brake-override system on all of its Honda- and Acura-brand vehicles for the North American market by the end of 2011.
The device would, quite simply, allow the brake pedal to override any throttle input returning the engine to idle or near idle to permit safe braking if the accelerator pedal is either stuck or accidentally simultaneously pressed.
Several other automakers, including Mazda, have announced plans to incorporate brake overrides on all their future models, ahead of a potential federal requirement for them. Currently, Nissan is the only automaker to use them across its entire lineup, though Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Chrysler already have the feature on many of their models.
Toyota is also planning to install a brake override on a number of models for 2011, and the 2010 Toyota Camry and 2010 Toyota Avalon already had the feature.
At the time Toyota was dealing with its stuck-accelerator recall, Consumer Reports helped bring stuck-accelerator strategies to light, clearly demonstrating—when accelerators were floored—the stopping difference between vehicles that did and didn't have brake overrides.
The first application of the so-called Brake Priority Logic will come to market this August, Honda says.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
2011 Toyota Sienna, Avalon Named IIHS Top Safety Picks
Toyota's seen a lot of scrutiny in recent months for its numerous safety-related recalls. But it should also be commended for earning top marks for occupant protection. In the latest round of crash-testing, two new 2011-model-year Toyota vehicles earned the Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS): the 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan and 2011 Toyota Avalon sedan.
In order to be named a Top Safety Pick, vehicles must achieve top 'good' ratings in frontal, side, and rear crash protection, as well as the new rollover (roof crush) test. They must also include electronic stability control.
Although the Sienna's test results earned it nothing but top ratings—even in all subcategories—the Avalon's top rating wasn't completely perfect. The few exceptions—in the 'acceptable,' rather than 'good' category—were right leg protection (potential injuries to the knee) in the frontal crash, and torso (potential rib fractures) in the side test. The IIHS points to a low risk of injuries in other body regions.
The Sienna is the only minivan to have earned the IIHS Top Safety Pick designation since the Institute phased in the rollover portion. In the new test, the Sienna was able to withstand a force of 4.12 times its weight—far better than the current federal minimum standard of 1.5 times. In the same test, the Avalon was able to take an also-impressive 4.07 times its weight.
Also tested in this group was the 2010 Lexus RX (including the RX 350 and RX 400h). Like the Sienna, the 2010 RX achieved top 'good' ratings in all subcategories, and managed an even more impressive 4.27 times its weight in that new roof-crush test.
[IIHS]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
In Some Cities: Feed The Parking Meter, Feed The Homeless
A city in Oregon just phased in a novel and effective way of raising money for the homeless: by funneling the change from its parking meters toward the effort.
Through a so-called Change for Change program, Springfield, Oregon has gathered two-dozen meters and isn't officially charging anything for parking. On an honor system, motorists pay for their parking and make a contribution.
It's not a new strategy, but in the recession it's an attractive (and low-pressure) way to earn money for social-services organizations that have been hit hard by tightening purse strings and less funding, public or private.
The program is similar to one that was used in Denver, where 86 meters make about $100,000 per year for programs that help the homeless.
According to the Associated Press, over the first 18 months Denver used the method it saw a 92-percent reduction in panhandling in the area of the project.
In Baltimore, the parking meters have a needle that goes from 'depair' to 'hope' as change was put in the slot.
The change gets divvied out to social organizations that will put the money to use on safe food, lodging, and rehabilitation, while it helps reduce instances of panhandling.
Although we'd love to see this turn into a national trend, decisions to outsource parking to for-profit companies has infuriated motorists in some cities. Chicago has, amidst much controversy, leased out its parking meters to a private company for 75 years—which, it says, is helping to fund a job-training effort—while Atlanta has outsourced parking enforcement—ticket-writing, even—to a private company.
[Associated Press, via the Seattle Times]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
IIHS: Avoidance Systems Could Cut Fatal Crashes By One-Third
One in three fatal crashes and one of every five serious or moderate injury crashes in passenger vehicles could have been prevented if the vehicle had been equipped with crash-avoidance features including blind-spot and lane-departure warning systems, side view assist, and adaptive headlights.
That's what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) estimates in its first wide-ranging estimates regarding accident-avoidance features. The insurance-funded safety organization suggests that the potential lifesaving affects of these accident-avoidance systems are staggering.
The IIHS analyzed crash data from the National Automotive Sampling System General Estimates System (NASS GES) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and looked at which vehicles had forward collision warning, lane-departure warning, side view assist, and adaptive headlamps. They also looked for evidence that bad weather might affect operation of any of these features.
The fresh data adds to results from smaller studies the IIHS has done over the past couple of years. More occupants of passenger vehicles die in frontal crashes than in any other type of crash, the IIHS says. Lane-departure warning systems have the potential to avert the most fatal crashes—when a driver falls asleep and hits a tree or goes down a rocky embankment, for instance, while forward collision warning systems have the most potential to reduce injury crashes—such as when a distracted driver doesn't see that traffic ahead has stopped. Side view assist was shown to have the least affect on injuries and fatalities because of the less severe nature of the crashes themselves.
Adaptive headlights, which swivel to the side when cornering, or otherwise statically help when you're maneuvering in the dark, could help save 2,500 lives per year, or avert 142,000 crashes of varying severity annually.
"This is a best-case-scenario estimate," said IIHS senior vice president for research, Anne McCartt, in the institute's May 20, 2010 Status Report newsletter. "We're not sure yet if the benefits will play out in everyday driving. A lot depends on whether the systems work as they're designed to and then whether drivers take the right corrective actions in response.
Several of these technologies would also provide an advantage to bicyclists and pedestrians, further reducing fatality and injury numbers.
These features, of course, still add thousands of dollars to the price tag of new vehicles and are mainly available on luxury vehicles from some of the more tech- and safety-focused luxury automakers. For now, they're essentially added protection that comes with being able to afford these vehicles.
But as with other tech and safety features, with volume comes lower cost. While electronic stability control systems cost, by some estimates, nearly $1,000 per vehicle when they were first widely offered on luxury sport sedans and coupes in the mid and late 1990s and cost several more in some instances to add as an option, stability control is now standard on many of the most affordable vehicles—including the 2010 Toyota Yaris, at $12,355, and the 2010 Kia Forte, at $13,695.
Volvo and Infiniti in particular have offered most of the mentioned features for several years and were the subject of an IIHS study last year looking at early adopters and how useful the systems were perceived to be. Although a portion of users found the devices annoying, there's now some hard data to suggest that they're serving their purpose and saving lives.
[IIHS]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Dealers Dodge Financing Oversight–Will Shady Lending, Too?
If a deal is too good to be true it probably is; and you shouldn't talk monthly payments at the lot before you decide on a car and a price.
Don't forget those two valuable pieces of advice at the used-car lot; you'll still need them as it looks like shady lenders won't need to duck for cover after all.
Today, by a vote of 60 to 30, the Senate voted to exclude auto dealers from the financial regulatory overhaul bill, which will create a new government agency to protect consumers from predatory lending.
The House version of the bill, which was passed in December, included an exemption for dealers, but until today it wasn't clear whether the Senate version would include such language. The Senate's vote in favor of the exemption isn't binding, but it does instruct committee members to leave dealers out of the new rules and new oversight.
Main Street businesses paying for Wall Street's greed?
In all fairness, the vast majority of used-car dealers are hard-working (to add a dash of politician-speak) Main Street businesspeople who aren't tied to Wall Street. And thanks to partnerships, dealers can sometimes get you a slightly better monthly payment than you would be able to find at an ordinary bank or credit union.
Dealers, and lobbyists for various extensions of the auto industry—including the influential National Automobile Dealers Association—have been arguing that dealers were not the cause of the financial crisis.
Sam Brownback, the Senator who launched the effort to exempt auto dealers from the bill, argued that while sellers won't be regulated directly, the lenders who provide the loans still will be by the new bill.
"There's not a single auto dealer on Wall Street," Brownback argued.
"Auto dealer-lenders" make up 80 percent of U.S. auto loans. However the NADA points out that "Buy-Here-Pay-Here" dealers and lenders are already regulated by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
The ugly truth: lucrative dealer kickbacks, swindling military service members
But Senator Chris Dodd, a proponent of having the bill regulate dealers, argued that if they aren't reeled in, such practices as dealer kickbacks for high-interest loans will continue. Along with low-income customers, military service members are frequent targets of these tactics, and top Pentagon officials had been recently petitioning Senators to not leave dealers exempt.
Those kickbacks, which are a significant source of income for many used-car dealers especially, can lead salespeople to steer customers toward high-interest, high-fee loan options that aren't necessarily in the buyer's best interest.
President Obama said last week that an exemption for dealerships "simply encourages misleading sales tactics that hurt American consumers."
Credit unions and community banks had also strongly opposed exempting dealers, as well as most major consumer-watchdog organizations. Last week, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, applauded the lack of a loophole in the Senate version. "These loans should be scrutinized like other financial products, and Congress shouldn't water down financial reform to protect those that offer them," said senior policy counsel Pamela Banks.
In all likelihood, had the bill passed, the result would have meant that options for new-car shoppers would continue relatively unchanged, while used-car shoppers would have had access to fewer finance options. Sales would have suffered, and some lower-income shoppers might have had more trouble finding reliable transportation.
Reeling in the abusers...without punishing everyone else
Is that a good thing or not? For savvy shoppers who read all the fine print and shop smartly, having a full slate of choices is how it should be. And yes, leaving hard-hit auto dealers out of an immediate lending crackdown is a smart economic move. But what else can we do to reel in those who abuse customers' trust, abuse the system, and take advantage of loopholes and predatory lending on the car lot?
Somewhere, tonight, you can bet a salesman who works the used car lot is celebrating with an extra mai tai.
[Boston Globe; Detroit Free Press; LA Times]
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Confused About All The Recalls? You’re Not The Only One
It's nearly impossible to have missed all the big headlines—of millions of vehicles affected by multiple Toyota recalls in recent months, then Congressional hearings investigating them and, in the aftermath, a movement toward stricter rules and greater openness from a new auto-safety bill.
But the reality is that despite all the media buzz surrounding the biggest recalls—as well as several stop-sales this year for smaller recalls, and a heightened awareness of recalls in general—consumers are still confused about how they can tell which recalls affect their vehicles and how they can ascertain what's serious and what's not.
And, it appears, the public thinks that recalls are a lot less frequent than they really are.
In a new survey, Consumer Reports asked respondents how many recalls were conducted each year. The largest group thought that there had been fewer than ten automotive recalls in the past ten months. Actually, over the past three years there's been an average of 175 recalls annually, including some from nearly every major automaker, CR says.
Just over the past several weeks there have been several more high-profile recalls. First, there was the recall of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 for a faulty stability control calibration and then, this past week, a recall of the Lexus LS 460 and LS 600h for a potentially dangerous issue with the steering. Meanwhile, more than 134,000 Infiniti G35 models were recently recalled for an issue that could cause faulty airbag deployment, and just this past week Nissan issued another recall covering many of its trucks for an issue with welding that could potentially affect steering.
CR also asked how consumers prefer to receive recall notification, and the overwhelming preference, at 71 percent, was toward postal mail, while less than ten percent were interested in e-mail or TV/radio broadcasts as a primary method of informing owners.
Despite the lack of awareness regarding about how many recalls there are, when asked where an owner should go to find out whether their vehicle is one affected by a particular recall, consumers gave the best responses, pointing to their car dealer, the automaker itself, or the official NHTSA recall site—which, hopefully, should become a little friendlier to use and more frequently updated with the passage of an auto-safety bill.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
Frugal Shopper: Does It Make Sense To Buy A Used Rental Car?
If you're thinking about a late-model used car instead of a new one, the used cars on offer by major rental companies can be tempting. From a price standpoint, you're getting a nearly new vehicle that's been regularly checked over and maintained, for a bit less than a comparable used car would cost at the dealership.
But for a number of reasons, used rental cars aren't the great deals they used to be.
In the past, when few if any certified pre-owned (CPO) programs existed, it was your chance to get a late-model used car that had been properly maintained and, generally, taken good care of. Automakers were building as many vehicles as rental fleets could handle, and then some, and dumping them at a massive discount to renters. But recently, with automakers realizing that strategy isn't good business, and rental companies cutting costs, they're keeping vehicles in the fleet much longer and renting them out more frequently. Today it's not at all uncommon to see a rental car with 30,000 or even 40,000 miles, whereas a decade ago the vast majority of rentals had less than 15,000 miles.
"At this point, unless it's a really good deal, I wouldn't recommend it," says Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor of IntelliChoice. Vogelheim says that, anecdotally, when customers are in a vehicle that's not in as good condition, they're not going to treat it as well. And with many of today's rentals looking quite weary, it's a slippery slope.
Beware of title flags
Also of concern is the branded title flag that rental cars get in some states, which can knock thousands of dollars off the value if you plan to resell the vehicle within a year or two or make the vehicle tougher to sell over the long term. If you're going to keep a vehicle for a long time, rental cars are still a really good deal, according to Vogelheim, but you lose a lot of value right away.
2010 Suzuki Kizashi, Lincoln MKT Top Satisfaction Ratings
The annual vehicle satisfaction study from California-based market-research firm AutoPacific places two new-for-2010 models at the top: the 2010 Suzuki Kizashi and the 2010 Lincoln MKT.
The Kizashi was the highest-rated vehicle overall in the 14th Annual Vehicle Satisfaction Awards.
"This is an amazing win for Suzuki," said George Peterson, AutoPacific's president, in a release. "The Kizashi is Suzuki's most important vehicle, and this performance in our research is exceptional."
This is indeed good news for Suzuki, as the brand has been facing dealership service issues in recent years. In the latest J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), an annual measure of dealer service performance over three years of ownership, the automaker ranked at the bottom, among all brands. But Suzuki has made gains in Power's Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) and now ranks mid-pack—an indicator that the automaker has made some substantial changes at the dealership level.
The 2010 Lincoln MKT was the highest-rated vehicle among trucks and SUVs in AutoPacific's annual satisfaction measure.
Vehicles are rated in 48 different categories that pertain to various areas of the ownership experience, and overall results are based on the research firm's polling of more than 42,000 new-vehicle owners during the first few months of ownership.
AutoPacific divides vehicles into a total of 27 different vehicle segments—such as 'luxury mid-size car,' or 'premium mid-size crossover SUV'—and a winner was named for each of these. Ford had the most segment winners, followed by Toyota, GM, Honda, and Nissan.
Other new-for-2010 models that ranked at the top of their segments included the Chevrolet Camaro, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Volkswagen GTI, and Toyota 4Runner.
On a brand basis, Buick was the popular brand with the highest satisfaction while Cadillac came out on top among premium brands.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
