Will the big three automakers still be the big three after this bear market?

The latest tragedies of the bear market are Lehman and Merrill Lynch. AIG got saved in the final hours. Could you imagine what would have happened if AIG had gone down? I think we are on the verge of an economic depression - not a recession. And that means there is much more that can happen.

I think and analysts agree that Chrysler, Ford and GM are all in serious trouble. Just like some of the biggest banks and insurance companies fell and some came close (hint to the wise - others may still and probably will fall) so will at least one of the big three automakers. They are all in worse shape than the banks and have been losing money for years prior to this latest economic downturn.

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Consumers are putting off any unnecessary purchases and are finding it very hard to get approved for credit except for those with exceptional AAA credit. The dark clouds, vultures and blow flies are circling Detroit and the big three. It is most likely inevitable that one will fall, but hard to tell which one will fall first. Will it be Chrysler? Without Iacocca they just haven't been the same. It's like Limp Biscuit without the biscuit, just limp.

Chrysler had some great times with the minivan and such, but it hasn't got much left. I think they will be first. GM has some serious problems and so does Ford with their finacial numbers and there are no profits at all. I wonder what kind of pay the executives are taking while their companies are outright falling hard? Well, only time will tell and soon.

Salvage and rebuilt cars

Well, the other day I had to get my car a 7500 mile service and an inspection. So instead of going to the usual place, I looked up online and found some closer places that were a little cheaper. Upon going there I found it to be a little industrial center with a European cars repair center, an inspection station, an American car repair center, a Tow yard (with a fended in lot for repos and wrecked vehicles), and a body shop. All had different owers and they were one right next to the other.

I found the body shop most interesting as it was full of badly wrecked and recently new (2006 and newer luxury cars (BMW, Volvo, Porsche, Maserati and Mercedes Benz). While I waited for my car to get serviced and then inspected (what was funny here is that the inspection place was right next to the Eiuropean service center where my car was being worked on, but the owner said I would have to personally take my car over there when it was done because he and the inspection station owner did not get along). Anyways, As I walked around the body shop manager came out and we talked a little - apparently he was taking a break and had nothing better to do - neither did I as I was waiting for probably an hour or two for my car to be done.

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So we walked around his shop and I asked him about some of the vehicles in there. One was a Volvo that had obviously been hit really hard in the front. The frame was bashed in and so were the doors and even the left rear quarter and rear bumper and frame. Apparently this car got squished really bad. I asked him why this car was being fixed up as it was probably written off by the insurance company as a total wreck. He said these are his most profitable vehicles. He has an agreement with a local franchised new and used car dealer that buys these cars from customers and from salvage auctions for dirt cheap and then they haul them with a flat bed wrecker to him for repair.

The body shop man said within a few weeks they look as good as new and the used/new car dealer just sells them back to customers for big profits. According to the bodyshop guy, he also makes out very well due to this and so he recently increased his hourly labor charge 10 dollars because he could. I asked him is these cars were properly titled in the state for salvage and rebuilt. He said he had no idea what the car dealer did with them or if the eventual buyers even knew these cars were previously involved in a serious accident and deemed a total wreck by the insurance companies. He said most likely they didn't know or didn't care. Just goes to show that you need to do a used car VIN (vehicle identification number check) like Car Fax or Experian Autocheck prior to buying any used vehicle.

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Hurricane Gustav and what it means for Car Fax, flooded cars and con artist used car dealers

The weather reports are now saying that the tropical storm Gustav is now a strengthening category 1 hurricane and that by the time it hits the left side of Cuba it could even become a category 4 hurricane. For those of you that don't know already, a category 3 hurricane is classified as a major hurricane capable of producing massive destruction like Hurricane Wilma, Katrina and others.

Not only could Gustav become a category 4 prior to entering the Gulf of Mexico, but it could even strengthen and enlargen more through the gulf. Then it is projected to barrel down near New Orleans and Louisiana. This is an area that still hasn't fully recovered from the last one - Katrina. The city of New Orleans and the surrounding area are mostly very low lying lands or even under sea level. Last time a major hurricane hit this area, the resulting floods ruined hundreds of thousands of cars and many of those have ended up back on the streets with little to show their previous flood history.

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Flood cars are very dangerous because the water damage will cause corrosion of parts that are internal and are not meant to be exposed to the elements. These parts can easily include hoses, electrical lines, etc... The problem with flood cars is that things will break down and go wrong and usually when you least expect them too. What happens if you are driving down the road and all of a sudden your brakelights stop working due to an electrical short caused by frayed or corroded wires? What if your headlights stop working at night due to a similar electrical glitch?
That could easily result in a terrible accident.

These things and more occur quite often with previously flooded cars so they must be avoided. By purchasing a CarFax or Experian auto check one can better find out the vehicles history and avoid flood damaged vehicles. Now with Hurricane Gustav barreling down on the same area there will inevitably be another resulting sharp increase in flood damaged vehicles being resold and buyers being left out as to the vehicles true history. A CarFax is essential to any buyer of a used car or truck.

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Craigslist Raleigh, North Carolina, free car and truck classifieds and saving money!

Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina and a bustling economic and business area. It is also, unfortunately as of late, best known along with nearby Durham for the Duke lacrosse team case, Prosectutor Mike NiFong’s ineptness and the irreverent Al Sharpton and his proclamation that the Duke lacrosse team defendents were guilty and their racist crimes were atrocious when in fact it was all made up (similar in fact to a 20 year earlier trial of Tawana Brawley which was also found to be made up. Al Sharpton along with two assisting attorneys (Maddox and Mason) were successfully sued for slander). The Raleigh – Durham metro area is a beautiful sprawling area with lots to offer and it does not need to be tainted in this way. Raleigh is also becoming well known for its local Raleigh Craigslist website.

What is the local Raleigh Craigs List you ask and why do I care? Well, it can easily save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars on everything from auto repairs to routine shopping and more. Regardless of where your interests and desires lie, there is something for everyone on the Raleigh version of the national Craigslist. Are you looking for a good, cheap and reliable used car? There are many to choose from. And the best part is that with unlimited words and pictures you can really get a good feel for what you are looking at before you really expend any time on it – where as before with the local newspapers you had little idea and had to call the seller and then go and look at it. This usually led to a lot of wasted time as many of these would end up not being quite what they were made out to be.

The Raleigh Craigslist saves you time with posts of all kinds of items for sale and services with pictures and great descriptions. Also, the website is locally regulated by its own community. If there are junk or spam posts they will usually get flagged down and removed very quickly. Craigslisters tend to be very adamant about self policing the site and will not stand for any scams or spam (this is unlike the local newspaper classifieds where many of the classifieds listing especially under business ideas and such are complete scams).

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With the Raleigh craigslist you can save on just about everything you can imagine. My wife even saved a ton and learned how to save huge on Mary Kay cosmetic products. Rather than buying them through your local Mary Kay representative look these same products up on Craigslist and on websites like Ebay and Amazon.com. You will find thousands of ex Mary Kay representatives that found the promises of easy money were just delusions and that they are selling what’s left of their inventory at huge discounts. Whether you look on Craigslist, Ebay or Amazon.com for Mary Kay products you will find every product, kit, etc… offered from Mary Kay at around 80% off regular prices or more. Shoot at these savings and the plethora of inventory from the millions of ex reps, the Mary Kay reps would be better off going into business for themselves and keeping all of the profits and underselling all the other Mary Kay reps.

Another great way to save money is with services. Rather than going to your local new car dealer and paying through the roof for your car repairs, browse through the local Raleigh craigslist automotive services section. There are hundreds of posts from the same mechanics that work at your local new car dealerships, but they are moonlighting for extra cash and are offering their services at huge discounts. These aren’t fly by night mechanics. I personally have used mechanics from Craigslist and had them show up with their same uniform from a local new car dealership on as they just got off of work. Another nice benefit is that they get parts cheaper with their employee discount and most will gladly pass this savings on to you.

Do you want to see some of the items that various flea markets will be offering before you travel all over to look? With $4 per gallon gas this is very helpful – just look for similar sales and events and most will have pictures and huge descriptions of all the items available (unlike the regular newspaper classifieds which don’t tell you much at all). This way you can best judge which sales to go to and which would be a complete waste of time. Who wants to travel all over town to look at junk they have no interest in whatsoever?

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Are you in the market for some cheap art work or nice antiques? How about an oriental rug for your living room? A sleeper sofa for your family room incase of extra guests? A leather recliner for those days when you come home tired from work and just want to relax? How about a licensed massage therapist to go with that leather recliner? Someone to fix your computer and make it run faster or recover data from that hard drive that just crashed? Do you want someone to come and mow, trim and blow your lawn for a great price? How about some landscaping like installing a few trees and bushes or making a rock wall or border? Need a new deck or some pressure washing?

It’s all on Craigslist and at a fraction of the price of what you would pay through regular business listings found through the Yellow Pages or Angie’s List (it is important to note that consumers pay to use Angie’s List and then again through the contractors whom are also billed for using the service and then pass it on to the consumers through higher prices). I have used various contractors both through services like Angie’s List and through Craigslist and found the quality of work to be the same, but the prices to be around 50% or more cheaper through Craigslist.

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Amazing stuff you can find for sale in Craigslist car and truck section

Here's a picture I found in craigslist as I was just looking around and seeing what is out there. It was a little different and so it caught my eye. I thought you might think it was funny:




Does this car look hot or stolen to you? At least it's on jacks and not on milk crates or rocks. I would include the rest of the craigslist listing, but I cannot seem to find it. Maybe it has already been flagged off or something.

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New reality show - Wrecked on Speed Channel

I flipped through the channels earlier today and found this reality show about towing companies based in Chicago called Wrecker on the Speed channel. It was basically about the other end of accidents - towing and clean up. I never knew that towing companies were required to perform clean up of the incident. I always thought that was up to the firemen.

The show featured some conflict between long time wrecker and flatbed drivers and a new female safety supervisor or coordinator. The good old boys (long time male wrecker drivers and operators) liked to do things their way and didn't like being told how to do things. But there can be some very dangerous moments when lifting and pulling wrecked cars and trucks at an accident scene. I have personally seen what can happen when a tow line snaps and it could easily rip your head off! So regardless of personal issues, safety is very important.

It was a very interesting show as it showed the operation of several rigs. Some well known (like typical wreckers and flatbeds) and lesser known like the little special lifts and Bobcat like equipment and the huge rotating boom trucks. Did you know these huge rotating boom trucks cost over $600,000 and only last about 5 years before they need replacing? I didn't know that myself and I have spent over 15 years in the automotive business.

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Later in the show the business owner and his daughters were introduced and, apparently the daughters like to park at the front entrance blocking some of the service bays at the repair facility and their uncles (it's a family owned and operated business) have told them numerous times not to park their brand new SUV and Dodge car (typical spoiled owner's kids as with many businesses) out front. So they used the lifting equipment to relocate the girls' vehicles. Of course, the girls then went to see daddy and complain and daddy couldn't get a word in and was left frustrated (more evidence of typical spoiled owner's kids).

I wouldn't say it was the most interesting reality show I have ever seen, but it was quite interesting and there were a lot of little interesting tidbits they revealed every now and then - like these:

1) There are over 300 car accidents per day in Chicago and over 250,000 cars get in an accident per year there.

2) Many times the length of time it takes to clear up an accident has nothing to do with the wrecker operators - they can't even start until the police give them the go ahead. Manytimes they must wait for accident or crime scene photographers, power company workers, etc...

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3) In continuation of # 2 above, once the wrecker crew is given the go ahead the clock starts and the police manytimes only give them ten minutes or so to fully remove the vehicles and have the lanes open. So the police can take their time, but not the wrecker guys (or gals as is sometimes the case).

4) There is a lot of maintenance and much of it can easily be traced back to improper storage and care of the equipment. Daily maintenance logs help, but as evidenced in the show many drivers do not use them.

5) Wrecker drivers and operators have a 24 hour on call or standby job and can get called away at any time.

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6) All wrecker calls are dangerous - lines could snap, toxic chemicals are ever present (gas, antifreeze, blood, etc...), and they work within feet or even inches of fast moving traffic - just like construction workers.

So, please respect wrecker drivers and operators as they have a tough, gruelling and dangerous job. Please slow down and drive safely around them - they are just doing their job as quickly as they can - they have to.

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It never fails to amaze me some of the items being sold on Ebay - Corvette Limo!

There is a lot of stuff for sale like common household items and knickknacks on Ebay, but then there is stuff that just is plain weird. Here is an Ebay auction that a reader emailed to me that you just have to look at and say why? Someone took a white Corvette and decided to stretch it into a four door limo:



From the front you can only catch a glimpse of the stretch job.





Here you can see the whole jist of this thing. It looks like something straight out of CMT's hit show Country Fried Videos! It looks a little on the ragged side - maybe they just had a lot of business and the car has been driven into the ground. Well, if you are interested and want a Corvette limo it is for sale on Ebay. Here is the link to the Ebay item:
cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___1982-Style-Chevrolet-Corvette-Stretched-Limo-4-Door_W0QQitemZ190240266221QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item190240266221&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C65%3A1&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245.l1318

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the I 35 W bridge collapse in Minnepaolis MN

One year ago yesterday 13 people died and 145 were injured by the collapse of the Interstate 35 W bridge in Minneapolis MN. That incident was on every news channel for several days following the bridges collapse. We saw divers going under the water in the river to llok for sunken cars and people that may have drowned. It was a very tragic scene.

I just couldn't imagine the horror of anyone that was in the midst of this when it happened. Could you imagine your car or truck all of a sudden dropping 20 or so feet, crashing into other vehicles and being thrown around like ping pong balls. Some were lucky and their vehicles stayed on the bridge and kept them safe. Others were trapped and crushed in vehicles without a chance. Some were swept into the river to drown. That was awful and I just can't imagine what the people involved went through and probably still go through today. Incidents like this can cause psychological impairments and shocks that may never fully go away for some of these people. Some of the survivors may never want to cross a bridge again in their car or at all - and I don't blame them.

Many area churches had special services yesterday to remeber those whose lives were lost and to remember the sorrow and the tragedy. Afterwords there were remembrances and memorials at nearby Gold Medal Park and at the new bridge. There the names of all the dead were read:

Patrick Holmes, Artemio Trinidad-Mena, Paul Eickstadt, Sherry Engebretsen, Julia Blackhawk, Peter Hausmann, Sadiya Sahal, Hanna Sahal, Richard Chit, Vera Peck, Scott Sathers and Greg Jolstad.

This was followed by a moment of silence. Let's not forget those whom died or were injured at the I 35W bridge collapse as this could have easily happened to anyone who passed over that bridge that day. This was a tragedy, and hopefully we can learn from this and better construct our bridges and roadways and make sure we also take better care of them so this doesn't happen again to anyone else. Whatever your religion may be, please say a prayer for those that died and were injured in the I-35W bridge collapse and for their family members so that they may gain comfort and strength and heal from this tragic experience. As you will notice, there are no links, ads, etc... listed in this post and there won't be as we do not believe it is right to profit off someone else's tragedy.

I don't know if there is a donation fund or website setup to help those involved in this tragedy. If someone knows of this please post the link or url to it in the comments below and I will gladly add that link after checking it out to make sure it is legitimate (I just got a call from scammers today claiming to be my local fire department and seeking donations - called the fire department and they stated they were not calling people and soliciting donations - unbelievable how low sammers will go), so I just want to make sure it is legitimate and then I will post it for everyone to see.

For the complete story on this:

minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/2007/bridge_collapse/

Easy way to save 1 to 4 mpg in your car or truck!

Yes, that's right, how would you like an easy idea or way to save an extra 1 to 4 mpg in your car or truck? Well, lets see - 1 to 4 mpg extra may not sound like much, but at todays gas prices its a huge savings and step towards saving at the pump. How is that you might ask? Well, let's say the average vehicle gets 25 mpg. A 1 to 4 mpg savings would calculate to about 4 to over 10% better fuel economy. Let's see, at $4 per gallon 4% equals $.16 and 10% equals $.40. That's per gallon! So, if you follow this one tip you can save at least $.16 to $.40 or more per gallon at every fillup because you will get that much more mileage from your car.

Now, this is where you start to realize the savings - if the average vehicle takes 15 gallons to fill it up then at $.16 per gallon savings you would save (.16 X 15) = $2.40. That is using the lowest numbers of only 1 mpg savings. If you use the slightly higher numbers of $.40 per gallon savings (which is very likely as that is actually just a little over the median figures) you would have (.40 X 15) = $6 per fill up in savings. That's a lot. And it quickly adds up to savings of hundreds of dollars fast. So, now that you can see how this idea works, what is it? Is it some scammy device that applies magnetic power or creates a supposed vortex effect in the air intake? No, these items were all proven as scams by the FTC and EPA.

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No, I am not trying to sell you a gas saving device. It's actually really simple - the next time you get your oil changed go with pure synthetic oil (not a synthetic mix as synthetic mixes only contain 10 to 25% synthetic oil and so your results will be much lower - it is a much better deal to use the full synthetics only). Yes, it will probably cost twice the price of a regular oil change, but you will definitely see big results in your fuel economy which will far outweigh the added costs of the synthetic oil. I never really thought much about using anything but the cheapest oil available and discount oil changes, but all that changed when I found out that pure synthetic oil had this big a change in fuel economy across the board on all vehicle types even to include work trucks and service vehicles.

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This is not to mention that using full synthetic oil will greatly reduce wear on your key engine components and make your car run better and longer for less money. You can't beat that, now can you? For the complete research on synthetic oil and resultant fuel savings:
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Slight relief at the pump as national average gas prices drop below $4 a gallon

Yes, after the drop in per barrel prices of crude oil from the $140's to the $120's, it was inevitable that the gas prices would recede soon. And they should have come down to the $3.70 or so sent range to reflect the same percentage drop as crude oil experienced. But this did not happen. Gas prices only dropped marginally from a national average of $4.07 to about $3.97 or so now. What does this mean?

Well, the reserves of refined gasoline are lower than they should be and even though demand has lowered considerably, politics and growing tensions along with economic problems and such in third world countries has kept gas prices high. This along with Iran's nuclear ambitions (it's quite obvious that Iran is up to no good as usual and wants to have nuclear weapons) and the fact that some of the world's largest reserves are starting to run out - why else would the middle east be investing so much money as it has in areas other than oil (banks like Citicorp, real estate, etc...) in such turbulent times with no clear rally on the horizon? Because they know something that you don't - the world has less oil than it thinks and it is slowly running out.

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All these items mean that the current drop in the price of oil was and will be very short lived. I know, you can see Jim Cramer scurying around, ranting and raving like a lunatic that oil is going to go to 100, but you have to understand, Cramer is like a weatherman - he is only right 50% of the time. Oil and gas will only go up because they have to. China, INdia and other large countries with billions of citizens will be using more oil every year and supplies will go down. It's simple supply and demand.

Now, the quick drop in oil prices over the past 2 weeks or so dropped too much and so will bounce back and probably to the $130's range for now. Yes, it may rally and then drop and then rally and so on. And maybe it will drop and touch 100 so Jim Cramer can say, "I told you so" only to immediately bounce to $148 or even a new high at $150 per barrel. So this quaint little drop in current gas prices means that soon gas and oil prices will go back up. Airlines will return to figuring out odd fees and pricing structures and more to try and help make ends meet (I think that they should cut the executives pay for losing money - whom ever heard of a company that was losing money left and right paying umpteen millions of dollars in compensation to executives that basically suck - if they were any good and the airline industry were so bad, they would use their resources and start investing OUTSIDE of the airline industry - look at Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway - it no longer is in the business it originally was and look at how it flourished).

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So, for the near term look for gas prices to creep back up to $4 per gallon or so and for oil per barrel to return to the $130's to $140's. I am sorry, but until the democrats in congress get together and release the laws against off shore drilling and drilling in national parks, the price of oil and gas just won't get much better (it would also help if more effort was made to use natural gas (CNG) and other alternatives to foreign oil). And this is supposed to be a very active hurricane season - all it takes is one major hurricane half the size of Katrina to bring about $5 per gallon gas or even worse (depending on where it goes). Throw in Iran and the fact that Israel wants to bomb their nuclear refining plants before President Bush is out of the office so they have his backing and you could get another steep jump in the price of gas. To say the least energy and especially oil is a very volatile market in a crazy market and down economy. I wish I had good news on this, but I just tell it like it is.



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Pep Boys and Caroffer.com want to pay cash for your car - is it a good deal?

Well, I was passing through the Sunday newspaper and came upon the weekly PepBoys insert. It was full of the usual - some deals on oil, car wash soap, air filters and brake pads - and then I noticed a little 2 inch square box that read' "Sell your car now for cash! Receive a cash offer online at caroffer's website and schedule your vehicle drop off at PepBoys.


Being that I have spent the last 15+ years of my life in the automotive business and have current wholesalers and retailers licenses in North Carolina, I thought it would be interesting to see how realistic their numbers would be. So I went online and entered in my car's information. The next day I got an email with their offer in it. I was appalled - it was less than 1/2 the wholesale (not retail) price of the car. If I wanted to I could easily run my car through a WHOLESALE, dealer only auction and get twice what they were offering me.

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This is a rip off and is bad for consumers as even used car managers at used car dealerships aren't that bad. These guys at caroffer are trying using PepBoys to try and get customers cars at half of their wholesale value. At these prices, you are far better off selling your car quickly for its wholesale value or waiting a little and getting some more. There is no reason to sell a car for 1/2 of its wholesale value, ever. In my opinion caroffer is a scam and is trying to scam or take advantage of people that are usually in financial trouble (who else would accept their offers at these prices).


To top it off, they have the balls to state that these numbers are contingent upon PepBoys checking the car in and if its condition is worse than near creme puff status that they will deduct further an mail you a check for the difference. This is just like those gold commercials we see on tv where they tell you to mail in your gold in these non insured brown envelopes, "oh we are honest and will give you more for your money then anyone else" - right, and they will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge too, if you let them. I wasn't really out to sell my car, I just wanted to see what kind of a deal they were offering and see if it was fair like CarMax is. It was not even close.

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In my experience I have actually told many people to take their cars to CarMax because they actually got more for their trades than most car dealers were willing to give them. I found this to be true every time (you have to be careful of what is the real trade in figure and what the car dealer is floating over from the new car's profit into your trade). CarMax really does give the true, wholesale value of your car and doesn't try to play games with you. Caroffer, wants to give you half of what you would get at CarMax. That is just ridiculous for anyone to even consider. Just rule out Caroffer and if you must sell your car fast, go to CarMax - you'll get a lot more for your car, truck or SUV. I think PepBoys should rethink their alliance with a shady business like Caroffer especially in todays internet and blogging saavy world.

Using Craigslist to effectively sell your car or truck

Do you have a car or truck to sell or know someone that does? How were you thinking of going about selling it? Were you going to use the newspaper classifieds like so many people have done in the past? Well, for one, the newspaper classifieds are expensive and the results are horrible. I have done that myself and found that only a few people ever called and usually they were wholesalers and such and they wanted to get my vehicle for a lot less than its worth. They tried to offer me a lot less than the car was worth and tried to use high pressure tactics and such to get me to take their ridiculous offers.

Wholesalers really are bottom feeders and are out there purely to take advantage of people. They scoure the newspaper ads trying to find people in bad financial situations so they can take advantage of them. Instead of dealing with the riff raff and people that aren't serious and want to come and drive your car and waste your time, there is another way. You can use Craigslist! Craigslist was started within the past 10 years and has grown to be one of the top 10 or so websites in the world.

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Craigslist is basically a grassroots version of your local newspaper classifieds with a few extra perks or bonuses that really make it shine -

1) Almost all ads are free (except for posting job ads).

2) Unlimited words. This is a big bonus. With the newspaper classifieds you were paying per word and had to keep your description small and basically useless - this is why newspaper ads generate mostly unserious inquiries - the callers don't know a whole lot about your used car for sale. With Craigslist you can tell them all about the extensive service history, that you are the original owner, the owner is at war in Iraq and you don't have room for the vehicle or he needs the money, etc... (P.S. If you are a soldier or have a loved one in Iraq or know someone over there, give them our thumbs up - we support our troops wherever they may be stationed!)

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3) Pictures. This is the best perk of all. How many times have you heard someone say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well with Craigslist it is worth even more and you can use as many pictures as necessary to describe your car or truck you are selling. This way, the people whom contact you have a very good idea of the condition, color, etc... and they will be dead serious buyers - you don't get this with your local newspaper classifieds - just call your local newspaper and ask them how much a quarter page ad with pictures would cost for 1 month. You better sit down before they tell you! It could easily be several thousand dollars or more especially if you ran it on the weekends!

With Craigslist you are getting this same amount of prime advertising space for free plus you get much more traffic and better yet - a higher percentage of serious buyers! It doesn't matter if you are located in Washington DC, Miami FL or Los Angeles, you will definitely want to check out Craigslist. If you want to see and track the traffic you will get at Craigslist you can just add a little snipit of html code for a traffic counter (these little ad counter widgets can be found free all over the internet). Just try doing this with your local newspaper!

These reasons are why Craigslist and it's similar free classifieds Backpage and Kijiji (Craigslist is still king and owns 80% or so of the free classifieds market on the internet) have grown at an astounding rate and people are constantly adding new automotive sales posts at the rate of millions per day. And not only is this a great resource for your car or truck, but also for boats, house items, etc... Are you a mechanic or do you have experience working on cars? You can even post your qualifications and find some additional work and income and even be your own boss! With the conomy being as bad as it is you will see more and more people advertising their skills and looking to supplement their incomes.

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Ethanol and is it really the best alternative to foreign oil

Ethanol has long been seen as a ready made in the U.S.A. fuel alternative to foreign oil. Now with gas prices creeping over $4 per gallon at the pump, more and more manufacturers are starting to make this ethanol from corn. The result? Not a dime in lower oil or gas prices and a rapid increase in corn and other expenses which could end up in a global famine as corn and its many related food products is going through the roof.

As corn goes up, so do other commodities. This drives the costs of living and virtually everything we do or need higher. There are better alternatives than diverting much of the corn production to ethanol. As T. Boone Pickens, one of the wealthiest and smartest investors, has said, "lets use our largest natural resource - natural gas." This is already offered by several manufacturers for governmental and work related vehicles. Even the Honda GX has it - except its referred to as CNG or Compressed Natural Gas). The reason for compression is that Natural Gas is just that a gas and takes up to 10 times or more space than gasoline. This would not be very effective in cars and trucks for consumers if you had to drive around with a 200 gallon tank attached to your car.

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So, CNG was found to be quite effective and, although it still takes about 2 times the space of gasoline, it is still quite doable and convenient. With a special compressor machine one could even tap into their home gas line and refill their car at tremendous savings. Now if enough vehicles were switched to CNG the extra demand would cause a price increase in natural gas which would be detrimental to homeowners with natural gas heating and other uses. To offset this we should employ wind power, nuclear power and solar power. All three of these are being used sporadically throughout the U.S. and the potential for 20% to even 80% of our power to come from these three sources is there - this would result in much lower driving costs, home heating and energy costs and, importantly, a huge reduction in green house gases.

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What does OEM really mean and is it really better?

If you have been inside a new car dealership and looked around in the service or waiting area you have probably seen at least one sign stating that you should ask for OEM parts and that they are far superior to non OEM parts (you can also see these ads in pretty much every automotive related magazine). Usually this is accompanied by a picture of a worn or broken part which they clearly state is an aftermarket part. Pretty convincing, Huh? Makes you really want to make sure you get that OEM (which stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer) part so that doesn't happen to you, doesn't it?

Well, what their not telling you in these advertisements is that in todays cars and trucks virtually all parts are built by companies other than the manufacturer. Many are made in Korea, Guam, Malaysia and China or Japan. They are made by other stand alone companies. These same manufacturers make products for several new car manufacturers and also sell their own brand items. Also, there are numerous manufacturers like Brembo brakes which manufacture brake rotors and callipers that far exceed OEM parts. So, this could actually be seen as false advertising.

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What made me write this today was that I saw an add in Motor magazine in which Nissan, true to form, showed a picture of a Nissan brake and rotor and a very poorly designed and built brake and rotor. Yes there are perts out there worse than OEM. But, notice that they said OEM was better than any aftermarket part and this is completely untrue. Just watch some TV shows like Horsepower and similar and they will show you how they are constantly upgrading and replacing OEM equipment and auto parts to make a car faster, stronger and better.

So, in the future, remember the fact that OEM parts aren't really OEM in the first place. There is always better parts and equipment out there and you can always get a better deal by using Google and searching for that part rather than paying a huge markup at your local new car dealer.