Monthly Archives: March 2009

Author : Gregg Hall

Every person that joins a car club is joining for a reason and they are joining because they either need help or they just want to give help to other people that need it Other then that there are probably other reasons why people join a club but those are the main two reason because the people in the organizations are helpful and people need help sometimes when they are building or restoring a car

Every car club is different and there are many of these for many different people There are car clubs for older people who like the older vehicles from back in the day and then you have your younger crowd that like the imports and the tuners Over all you are going to see all kinds of car clubs with all kinds of different rides to look at and observe If you cannot decide which type of automobile show you should be in then you just need to get into a car club with the type of automobile that you have

The main reason why I think that people join car clubs is because they are either needing to make new friends or they need some help on a vehicle and don’t know what the next step is into building or fixing that car

A lot of people that are new to the car club world usually join an organization because they need someone to teach them what they need to know about their car and automobiles in general Usually you can always find someone like this in a car club If you don’t have people that are mentors in your car club then you need to find a car club that does because an organization with a bunch of kids isn’t a car club it’s probably a meet

Most people that are in car clubs usually have more then one type of vehicle and they are usually awesome cars that nobody would think that they would have but they do People who are in car clubs and have a few different rides are probably in a few different organizations and that shouldn’t be allowed

People in general just join car clubs because they want to meet new people and have fun with their cars If you are not having fun then what is the point in being in a car club You need to be in a group that is willing to help you if you need help with something You need a group that will help you rebuild your motor if you are stuck on a part You don’t want to be in a car club with a bunch of kids that don’t know anything The only thing they know is the name of the parts and pieces that make the car run but they couldn’t put the motor back to together without knowing the proper pieces and where they go

Gregg Hall is an author living with his 18 year old son in Jensen Beach, Florida. Find more about cars as well as a car care products at http://www.nsearch.com

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Author : Christine OKelly

Low pay leads many truckers to drive long hours in order to make more money, despite federal regulations prohibiting this A major factor in many 18-wheeler accidents is driver fatigue leading to at least 750 deaths and 20,000 injuries per year Unfortunately, tight deadlines imposed by employers contribute to the problem with many drivers putting in 100-hour workweeks with no breaks except to get gas or unload

It’s no wonder with such intense work schedules, that some drivers are subject to sleep deprivation allowing them drift into other lanes of traffic, nod off or simply fall totally asleep An 18-wheeler then can become a 100,000-pound missal prone to a semi truck accident

30 percent of all fatal semi truck accidents are caused by driver fatigue according to some experts Although the trucking industry claims the number is closer to 5 per cent and puts the major blame on automobile drivers instead 15 per cent is the figure assigned by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration If you’re involved in an 18-wheeler accident it really doesn’t matter what the true figure is, you may want to contact a truck accident lawyer that can accurately research these statistics and work in your favor

Federal Regulations Limit Driving Hours

The U S Department of Transportation has ruled since 2005 that commercial truck drivers who carry property cannot drive more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty That was reduced from the previous 15-hour day that had been allowed 60 hours is the maximum number of hours allowed in any seven consecutive day period

How can you control and monitor these restrictions? 7 million trucks were on the country’s roads in 2000 and in that year only 2 4 million inspections were conducted So, in actuality, only about one third of the trucks were inspected once for an entire year! It’s no wonder the need of a truck accident lawyer is on the rise

Even if they are inspected, truck drivers document their own hours in the logbooks, which can be falsified easily Simply put, it’s up to the driver how long he wants to drive It’s a shame that it often takes a truck accident lawyer to bring these facts to light

Sleepy Drivers Are Deadly Drivers

Drowsiness, inattentiveness or just simply falling to sleep are all contributing factors to 18-wheeler accidents “Road hypnosis”, the constant and monotonous motion of driving seems to put the driver in a waking trance allowing reaction time to slow and increase accidents This disregard for regulations can end up costing you or a loved one their life

When such accidents occur, often the truck driver isn’t injured, while those in much smaller cars are killed A truck accident lawyer can help victims or their loved ones to collect wrongful death damages in such cases If you sustained a semi truck accident injury, or a loved one was injured or killed due to the negligence of an 18-wheeler driver, you might be entitled to a large cash award

Christine O’Kelly is an author for 18-Wheeler Accident.org, an organization of legal representatives specializing in helping clients that have been involved in a semi-truck accident.

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Author : Jill Brennan

Two deserving charities which accept cars for donation are The Salvation Army and The Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation (known simply as Purple Heart) Donating a car to a charitable organization benefits the donor in several ways The most obvious advantage to the person who gives his/her car to a charity is the tax deduction; however, donating a car has other benefits All of the paperwork necessitated by the donation is done by the charity The charity will also provide the donor with the receipt he/she will need to include when filing tax documents In addition, the charity will arrange for the vehicle to be picked up and transported to the charity or to the auction site the charity uses Since the benefits of donating a car are numerous, are there any significant differences between the Salvation Army car donation program and that of the Purple Heart which makes one program better than the other?

The obvious difference between the two programs is the groups which they benefit Funds given to the Salvation Army provide a wide array of services for persons whose lives have been broken apart by any number of forces The Salvation Army provides residential programs for people recovering from alcoholism and/or drug addiction It also provides non-residential job training as well as employing many people in its Salvation Army stores In addition, The Salvation Army provides meal services for residents and any other person in need The Salvation Army is entirely self supporting through its stores which sell donated items and through its legendary Christmas Red Bucket campaign

Purple Heart serves military veterans and their families throughout the nation Purple Heart administers a variety of scholarship programs for veterans and their dependents It also educates veterans on their benefits and represents them in the benefits appeals process Purple Heart represents veterans before Congress and assists veterans in processing any paperwork needed to receive their benefits The organization makes a special effort to find and assist homeless and disabled veterans No veteran is ever turned away from Purple Heart

Both The Salvation Army and Purple Heart are worthy organizations which meet all federal reporting standards required of reputable charities The main distinguishing characteristic between their two programs is that The Salvation Army will accept non-working vehicles providing they were manufactured before 1990 Purple Heart accepts only working vehicles regardless of their year of manufacture

Since these two fine charities have programs which are so similar, how can a person decide which should receive his/her car donation? The deciding factor for most people wishing to make a car donation will be the nature of the work the charity accomplishes By making a site visit to either The Salvation Army or Purple Heart one can readily decide which charity should receive the proceeds derived from the donation of a car

J Brennan is passionate about cars and supporting worthwhile charities. Car donations combines his two favorite things and he is eager to share his knowledge about both. Get comprehensive information on how to go about donating your car to charity at www.usedcardonationtips.com

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Author : Tom Tessin

Lots of classy control systems of the modern automobiles need measurements of vehicle s attitude The commercial GPS systems are method of option for measuring approach in lots of aircraft &amp farm automobile applications, however are not usually used on the automobiles Prohibitive aspects of the commercial GPS systems on car include their high cost &amp significant loss of reliability &amp signal availability in the urban road settings

The modern automobiles are prepared with various control systems, which improve passenger safety &amp comfort These systems take in anti lock brakes, disparity steering &amp cruise control Recently, the automotive GPS systems also got added to lots of cars for exercise in positioning purposes, permitting driver to view their position on map, and get directions in the real time Advent of the GPS receivers in the cars has efforts to improve existing systems, and to make new ones like car following &amp lane keeping control Some of these systems need measurements of vehicle s attitude

Few other type of interesting integrations &amp functions of the automotive GPS control system are that color LCD monitors on a few automotive navigation systems that can as well be used to show television broadcasts and DVD movies Some systems integrate with phones for the hands free talking &amp SMS messaging Automotive navigation control systems will include personal info management for meetings that is combined with traffic &amp public transport system

Safety Features

Vehicles made by Subaru * Lexus, and Lexus company, Toyota, exclude many of features when vehicle is in the motion Manufacturers state this is safety feature to evade driver being distracted Lots of users have also complained that the passengers are not capable to enter location while in the motion, even if it is very safe to do Additionally, the drivers have also complained that it is unsafe to pull off highway &amp stop than it is to enter destination in a system

The automotive system is satellite navigation system that is designed for the exercise in automobiles It normally makes use of GPS navigation system to obtain position data to place the user on road in unit s map database By using road database, unit will give directions to the other locations all along roads in its database The dead reckoning utilizing distance data from the sensors attached to drive train, gyroscope and accelerometer is used for the greater dependability, since GPS signal loss and multipath will occur because of urban canyons and tunnels

Advantages of this kind of GPS unit take in low cost and capability to move them simply to other automobiles Their portability states they are simply stolen if left in the vehicle however can’t be stolen if driver carries it with him while he gets out In addition not having compass, accelerometer and inputs from vehicle s speed sensors, states that they can’t navigate as precisely by dead weighing up as a few built in the devices when there is not any GPS signal More current portable devices like TomTom 920 have inbuilt accelerometer to attempt and address this

Find articles like these and more of Tom’s work on his Auto Blog on http://www.findgascards.com/blog.

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Author : Mike Trudel,

Envelope pushing automotive engineers and suppliers continue to help vehicle manufacturers make vehicles safer by providing a complete portfolio of active and passive safety products that are being continually improved through engineering design innovation

It s been two decades since automotive engineers tackled the challenge of converting very expensive, low volume, military aerospace radar systems into less expensive, high volume radar for passenger cars This hard work is now paying off and consumers will benefit as automakers manufacture vehicles with more safety features

Many of these sophisticated systems will be on the road soon, including a new generation of radar sensors used for smart or adaptive cruise control, pre crash mitigation with autonomous brake assist, pedestrian detection and collision warning

Today s newest radar sensor systems will enable better performance at a lower cost, making it possible for vehicle manufacturers to offer collision mitigation technology across a larger percentage of their fleets This next generation radar has a wide field of view and provides simultaneous long and medium range capabilities in a single sensor By combining a waveform with an innovative electronic scanning transceiver, enhanced target detection is achieved while increasing reliability, and with no moving parts

Another approach, known as sensor data fusion, combines multiple sensor technologies to achieve greater performance than available with an individual sensor Incorporating the complementary technologies of radar and vision provides higher quality inputs into threat assessment algorithms for collision mitigation and avoidance applications Radar is used to detect object range and range rate, while vision systems confirm the classification of identified objects, such as vehicles, traffic signs, bridges and tunnels Fusing this data allows for a look at the road ahead that provides more information and enhances performance of active safety systems

Innovative automotive suppliers are also working on a single integrated Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) camera based system that provides multiple safety enhancements at a lower cost than independent systems The vision system hardware and algorithms enable a single camera to provide multiple functions In addition to enhancing performance of smart cruise control and pre crash systems, the vision system can integrate additional features such as lane departure warning, intelligent headlamp control, rain and light sensing, active near infrared night vision, rain sensing, traffic sign recognition and pedestrian detection

Some systems use vision algorithms with their vision processor in the development of these vision and sensor fusion systems This unique approach provides a scalable vision architecture that allows for a simple upgrade path to more complex features using the same single camera system In addition, a single camera also simplifies vehicle packaging eliminating redundant cameras and other standalone products that compete for limited windshield space The following technologies may involve multiple functions and features on a single vehicle camera to decrease cost and increase functionality:

Lane Departure Warning A lane tracking system that helps alert drivers when they unintentionally drift out of their intended lane Using a camera and image processing to detect painted lane markers up to 25 meters ahead of the equipped vehicle, the system determines the vehicle s heading and lateral position in the lane to provide the appropriate warning

Rain Sensing With the addition of a small proprietary optical system, this safety convenience operates the rain sensing function that activates wipers when moisture is detected on the windshield,

Intelligent Headlamp Control Another convenience system using a camera and intelligent headlamp control automatically activates the high beams according to lighting and traffic conditions and automatically dims headlights for oncoming traffic and when approaching vehicles from the rear

Active Night Vision Active night vision uses near infrared headlamps to illuminate the road scene ahead and displays an enhanced image in the vehicle, making high beam visibility available without blinding oncoming traffic The system provides more natural looking images to the driver than thermal vision systems and allows non thermal intense objects like trees and lane markers to be seen

Pedestrian Detection Again, a camera enables pedestrian detection, a system that detects and classifies pedestrians It predicts potential pedestrian impact and activates countermeasures to mitigate injuries Pedestrian protection technologies are gaining much attention in Europe and other countries with densely populated cities

Road Sign Recognition An amazing technology that will have a positive impact for all drivers Using a camera to recognize and read road and traffic signs, the system can alert the driver to varying conditions ahead such as speed limits and no passing zones

A reduction in accident related deaths coincided with the development of passive safety devices from 1995 to 2005 Similarly, as automotive engineers innovate and introduce more active safety technologies to the mass market, another positive trend in automotive safety statistics is very likely on the horizon

Mike Trudel, Freelance Writer. Delphi Corp. is a leading innovator of automobile safety equipment and technology. To learn about Delphi’s safety advancements, visit http://www.delphi.com/4safe.

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Author : kenneth kwan

The growing statistics concerning accidents during night time accidents is quite disturbing within an increase in casualties The most common reason for these incidents is damaged headlights, a greater cause than the number of accidents caused by drunk drivers

Therefore, proper repair must be made to insufficient headlights Those cars with dim or muggy headlights are in danger due to a greater chance of causing an accident

There are many factors that contribute such as polluted rain, sun’s harmful rays, snow, and strong rain Hence, headlights can crack and given that they are made from plastic, they can turn yellow and oxidize

Dirty headlights reflect on yourself which doesn’t say much So having cleaning them up may a good idea stylistically They can also be quite dangerous since it prevents you from seeing properly on a poorly lit street You or others may be struck without notice because of poor visibility It is very important to repair them which can easily be done yourself at home

To change your dirty headlights, you can easily purchase a headlight repair kit at your local automobile store

If there are no stores accessible, the Internet is another popular option where you can buy the repair kit within the comfort of your home The kit has a cleaner in it to get rid of any old grime

To take out any water, you have to take the lens off and make a hole with your drill into the inner chamber under the headlight The water should come right out but to make sure, use the dehumidifier or air conditioner to make sure it is dry inside

Smaller issues that may arise such as holes or cracks can be easily patched up with plastic resin which is transparent so no one actually sees it when it is applied If there are worse conditions, replacement isn’t that difficult either If you have a halogen bulb within your headlight, then you have to take the hood off and look inside for a black knob The bulb is connected to that black knob All you need to do is unscrew it and change it with a new one

Restoring your headlights is a simple and inexpensive task that you can most probably fix If there is a serious problem, you may have to visit a mechanic but most likely the issues are not as serious as you may think Revamping your headlights can be done at home by following simple instructions to improve the look and safety of your vehicle

Andy’s Auto Sport Headlights: The leading resource for Quality Headlights. For expert Advice, Tips, and Quality parts, it’s all here:

http://www.andysautosport.com/projector_headlights.html

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Author : Ben Franklin

It’s a fact that Lemon Laws vary from state to state Each state offers its own form of protection for those who buy vehicles, and it’s up to consumers to know the laws of the land where they choose to live California Lemon Law details are pretty encompassing, but there are some things about the laws buyers in this state need to know before they sign for a purchase

In general, the California Lemon Law covers most of the basics But, to make sure you understand Lemon Laws before making a new or used vehicle purchase, let’s take a look at some of the top questions surrounding the Lemon Laws here:

What does the law give claimants if they’re successful?

In California, buyers of vehicles that are defective can receive a refund or a replacement of the faulty vehicle Also included are registration fees, rental costs and even towing charges Typically, the choice of a refund or replacement is given to the consumer, not the carmaker

Does a used car have protection under California Lemon Law?

Yes, the Lemon Law protects the buyers of used vehicles if there was a written warranty included at the time of purchase Cars that are purchased with ‘as-is’ clauses do not qualify for protection under it

Can a person who leases a vehicle find protection under California Lemon Law?

Absolutely! Every leased vehicle that’s covered by a warranty is also covered

What about other types of vehicles, such as RVs and motorcycles? Are they covered by California Lemon Law?

You bet! As long as they have warranties, they’re covered by the law This even includes boats

Does the California Lemon Law have a set limit on protection?

Yes and no It remains in effect as long as a vehicle is under warranty, and can even extend out longer If the first repair takes place while a vehicle is under warranty, the vehicle can come out of warranty and still be protected under the law

Under California Lemon Laws, do owners need to submit to a manufacturer’s repair process?

No, unlike many other states, California doesn’t require consumers to go through the hoops of a manufacturer’s arbitration program This is good news for consumers in California

Does the California Lemon Law have a magic number of repair attempts before a claim can be made?

No It is actually a bit vague in this regard All it states is that a reasonable number of attempts must be made The four-time rule seems to be a good one to follow here for the exact same problem

Do the repairs need to be for the same thing under California Lemon Laws for a vehicle to be considered a lemon?

Not always This is taken on a case-by-case basis in California Often, the law is based on the total number of days a vehicle spends in repair shops

Does a vehicle need to be taken back to the dealer where it was purchased from to qualify?

No Repairs can be made at any authorized dealer

The California Lemon Law is a little more liberal than some other states’ laws, but it still pays to understand it well before making a purchase The more a buyer knows, the less likely he or she is to walk away from coverage that’s there to protect them Make sure you receive a detailed outline of the California Lemon Law before buying your vehicle

More information on lemon laws

california lemon law

http://www.lemonlawsaid.com

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Author : Everette Jamison

Twenty years ago, if you wanted to buy a used car, you would either visit your local dealership or look through the newspaper’s classified ads If you were willing to do a bit of work, you could often find a bargain lurking in the garage of a private seller Today, the process of purchasing a pre-owned vehicle has changed dramatically On any given day, thousands of well-maintained cars, trucks, and SUVs are bought on eBay Below, I’ll provide 4 tips for finding your next automotive bargain through eBay’s auctions

Tip 1 – Review The Vehicle History

The seller will usually be happy to provide the vehicle identification number (VIN) You can use the VIN to order a history report (CarFax is a great option) that details the odometer reading, past collisions, and even a history of maintenance items performed If the eBay seller refuses to provide the VIN, cross the car off your list There’s no reason to take unnecessary risk

Tip 2 – Contact A Local Mechanic

Purchasing a used vehicle on eBay is similar to doing the entire transaction with a local private seller You should invest the time and money to have a trained auto technician inspect the car before you buy it The auction site maintains relationships with mechanics in dozens of major cities Contact one of them and arrange a time for them to run a diagnostic test Plan to spend between $50 and $100

Tip 3 – Hire An Escrow Service

Trust can be expensive Providing the funds to the seller without receiving the item is dangerous; it’s easy for a person to create an auction without the intention of actually shipping the item once payment has been received eBay has developed a number of measures to reduce fraud, but it still exists The best way to avoid problems is to use an escrow service (for example, Escrow com) One word of warning: use a service that has a respectable track record There are many escrow companies that are little more than scams

Tip 4 – Consider Shipping Costs

Unless you’re buying your used car locally, you’ll need to have it shipped once you win the eBay auction There are several reputable shipping companies that specialize in transporting vehicles that have been bought through the auctions Contact them ahead of time and ask them about their rates Then, factor those rates into your bid

Enjoying A Great Bargain

Purchasing a pre-owned vehicle through the world’s largest auction site gives you access to a much larger inventory than what may be available in your city The cars are usually well-maintained (though you should hire a mechanic to perform an inspection) and the parts under the hood are normally in great condition Plus, not only can you find a great deal located across the country, but you can literally shop without leaving your home

The process isn’t without its challenges or potential problems Use the tips above to find your next automotive bargain while protecting yourself from fraud

For all your used car parts and used engines visit http://www.everdrive.com

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