Windshield Time
Chances are you spend a lot of time in your car. Here's some automotive-related news that might help you appreciate your home-away-from-home a little more.
Tax break for new-car buyers
Now might be a good time to buy a car. The federal stimulus package signed into law in February includes a $2.3 billion tax break for new car and truck buyers. Taxpayers will be able to deduct both the local and state sales tax paid on new car purchases up to $49,500, according to AWARE (www.autofinancing101.org), a nonprofit auto financing education group. The tax break will cover the purchase of any new car - domestic or foreign - through the end of 2009. The deduction is "above the line," meaning it reduces the amount of the taxpayer’s taxable income. Eligible taxpayers must have an annual income below $125,000 for individuals or below $250,000 for families.
Dealer gone? Extended warranty is still good
Your service contract - or extended warranty - is viable even if the dealer you bought the car from goes out of business, according to the Service Contract Industry Council. That’s because service contracts are covered by the car manufacturer. In most cases, repair service is transferable to another dealership. Car owners rely on extended warranties to kick in after the manufacturer’s limited warranty expires, usually after three years or 36,000 miles. The Service Contract Industry Council (www.go-scic.com) is a trade association whose member companies collectively offer approximately 80 percent of the service contracts sold in the United States for cars, home and consumer goods.
Few return to domestics
Once you’ve owned an import, chances are you’re not going back to a domestic nameplate. In two consecutive studies by Morpace Omnibus, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based market research firm, just 8 percent of car owners report having returned to a domestic nameplate after owning an import. What’s more, between 25 and 30 percent of those returning to a domestic vehicle did so to get a lower price. The studies were fielded in November 2008 and January 2009. Each study had more than 1,000 interviews with consumers selected from an Internet panel of adults aged 18 and older.
Best used cars
Toyota and Honda dominated the "Best of the Best" list of used cars for model years 1999 to 2008, compiled by Consumer Reports. That said, some recent domestic models are also good choices. The magazine’s picks for small cars are: Honda Civic, Toyota Echo, Scion xB, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Pontiac Vibe, Mazda 3, Mazda Protégé and Subaru Impreza. Best used family cars are Honda Accord, Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Toyota Camry (except ’08 V6), Subaru Outback (6-cyl.) and Nissan Altima. Problem rates for cars have decreased across the board, so newer used cars should hold up better than their predecessors as they age, according to Consumer Reports. And European cars, long the least reliable overall, are pulling even with the domestics on newer models.
Avoid Exit 4B
Exit 4B of the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York has the dubious distinction of being the worst intersection in America, according to traffic-tracking firm Inrix (www.inrix.com). Drivers who pass through this interchange between the Cross Bronx and the Bronx River Parkway encounter a stretch of road that is congested an average of 94 hours every week. In fact, three of America’s four worst bottlenecks are interchanges on the seven-mile length of the expressway. The worst roadway of all? Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway, which claims 13 of the country’s top 100 worst intersections. [FI]
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