Autos and motos: all news and articles

***There’s a terrible temptation when you are looking to buy your first vehicle or replace what you currently drive. So many different factors come into play. A young man’s dream car may be a babe magnet, others may have to move a family around town. No matter what your needs, the hard cold reality is the cost of insuring your choice. Never commit to buying a vehicle before you have used the online search engine on this or any comparable site to get multiple quotes for each make and model you have on your shortlist. It’s free to use these engines and the information you get back can save you a small fortune. How does an insurance company set the rates for each type of vehicle?

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) is funded by the insurance industry and it collects information about every traffic accident in the US, breaking it down to every potentially relevant variable from the make and model, the driver, and the cost of repairing the damage both to the humans involved and the vehicles. To support this data collection function, it also has “fun” by running crash tests, looking at how best to survive through seat belts and airbags, to design issues, to the influence of road conditions. Its purpose is not only to assist the insurance industry, but also to help the consumer by improving the design of vehicles and of the roads, thereby reducing injuries, deaths and property damage. To help you make good decisions, the Institute publishes safety ratings for all major vehicles on the roads — see http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx. It also collects data on the other ways in which you might experience loss. The most common is theft, both from the vehicle and of the vehicle. Here we come to fascinating details. Did you know you are twice at risk of theft if you drive a two-door as against a four-door vehicle? Convertibles have the highest theft risks. Check out the National Insurance Crime Bureau for a top 10 list of most stolen vehicles: https://www.nicb.org/newsroom/news_archive/2007_hot_wheels

So here comes the crunch. You get to see the top layer of summarised data at both sites. This is very useful and it will help you make good choices about what to buy. The insurers get to see all the data and base their premium rates on the probability and cost of loss. They also know about you as a driver. Put you in a car with a bad safety record or a strong probability of theft, and you may find the cheapest car insurance unaffordable. But if you buy a vehicle with a top ranking for crashworthiness and take basic precautions on theft, your premiums just became affordable. What should you look for in a new vehicle? Buy a vehicle with good locks and remember not only to lock it but take the keys away with you. Then instal an alarm or immobilizing device to cut off the fuel. Tracking devices are increasingly standard and help the police find your vehicle. Put all this together with good seat belts, airbags, antilock brakes and the other features and your dream cheapest car insurance became real.-

On Friday (19th December) the Office of Fair Trading published four reports detailing their findings from research into second-hand car sales. The study involved surveys of second-hand car buyers, second-hand car dealers, local Trading Standards bodies, and a mystery shopping exercise.



Background



We probably don’t need to tell you that the second-hand car industry is huge. It is estimated that sales in the UK last year totalled around £35 billion*. This market study was launched by the OFT in May 2009, triggered by the stack of consumer-complaints regarding second-hand car sales: OFT-managed advice service Consumer Direct received 68,000 last year. So the study was launched to help understand what was causing complaints, and to identify whether existing consumer protection legislation is working.



Main findings



The principal conclusions drawn from the main survey of second-hand buyers purchasing from car dealers and auctions are as follows:



* Almost a fifth (19 per cent) of second-hand car buyers had experienced problems with it after the sale. This probably comes as no surprise.

* However, a whopping great 86 per cent of these problems arose within just three months of purchase.

* Only 47 per cent of those who contacted the dealer about the problem said that it was completely rectified.

* Nearly thirty per cent said the problem had not been rectified in the least by the dealer. Those who bought from independent dealers were more likely to believe that the problem had not been rectified at all compared to consumers buying from franchised dealers.

* The average cost among those who paid to resolve the problem was £465. With an average cost of £752, it was significantly higher for consumers who bought their car at auction.



Mystery shopper findings



The most worrying finding from the mystery shop survey of used car dealers concerned the information about the car and services available. Over a quarter (27 per cent) of shoppers felt that the information available at the dealership was ‘insufficient’ or ‘extremely insufficient’.



What next?



The OFT has been consulting on draft guidance intended to set out the legal obligations of second-hand dealers. They have been referring to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Sale of Goods Act 1979.



In addition, the OFT intends to publish the full market study report early next year.



According to Heather Clayton, OFT Senior Director of Infrastructure: “The second-hand car market has consistently attracted a high number of consumer complaints. Our research throws light on the specific problems that consumers experience so remedies and, where appropriate, consumer enforcement, can be targeted. Our guidance on relevant legal obligations, out for consultation today, will assist both the industry and our Trading Standards enforcement partners.”

Have you gotten around to paying the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax yet this year? We all know how much of a pain it can be to meet the bureaucratic demands of doing business in today’s world. You’ve got trucks to run. You’ve got offices to manage. You’ve got employees to monitor.

Who has the time to go by the office of the Internal Revenue Service and file paperwork for IRS Form 2290?

Well, you better find the time, because if there is one branch of government that doesn’t take “I’ll do it later” as an answer, it is the IRS. But thanks to the e-filing option for IRS Form 2290, which was introduced in 2008, it is a lot easier to fulfill your obligation, keep the powers that be happy, and do your part to keep the nation’s roads in order.

For those new to the game or just thinking about getting into trucking, the HVUT, or Heavy Vehicle Use Truck Tax, is a fee paid by commercial operators who run vehicles weighting 55,000 pounds or more with a typical maximum load on America’s roads.

It’s a way of making sure those who are responsible for a lot of the wear and tear do their part to put some of their profits back into not only keeping up on the roads but making them better, which in the long run is simply better for business and society.

The money goes towards a lot of different uses. It’s used to purchase property from private parties when new roads are built and to pay for the right-of-way over private properties so businessmen and citizens can go about living their lives or doing business.

It also goes towards keeping the roads more safe, by helping to fund driver’s education, emergency response crews, law enforcement, and road maintenance.

Roads need to be resurfaced constantly to keep them in drivable condition. New roads have to built. Bridges engineered. And the tax contributes to it all.

That’s all great and all–most truck drivers with a basic understanding of what it takes to make a society function understand why it is necessary. After all, it is our nation’s truck driver’s with the most intimate understanding of all that keeps a road functioning.

Average citizens might have a romantic notion of the road that takes all the money and effort for granted, but truck drivers don’t have that luxury. Their lifeblood, often literally, depends on knowing the road’s every nuance.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a hassle to take time away from business and the normal goings-on of American life to go pay the tax. It involves heading over to the local office run by the IRS and waiting with everyone else to file.

You can do it by mail, but that means you have to wait a long time for your stamped Schedule 1, which leaves you in an uncertain condition if anyone asks for it the next couple weeks.

Not anymore. As mentioned before, you can now just log into the Internet at your home or office computer and use the e-filing option to turn in your IRS Form 2290. The government has taken the time and energy to train and approve private companies, who now run websites where you can go do your filing.

You pay them a small amount of money, and they get it all taken care of for you. The end result is only described as sheer convenience.

Now, drivers can contribute to the nation’s roads, which is just good for business, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time out of their day. The trucking community has responded well to the new option for IRS form 2290, and the Internal Revenue Service is looking to offer the e-filing of more official forms for the trucking industry as well as other industries in the future.