Windshield Time
Cars that fit your lifestyle
Cars.com has launched its 2008 Lifestyle Buying Guide, developed to help car shoppers identify the right car for them based on their lifestyle or work-related needs. The guide includes expert picks from Cars.com’s editors for the best family cars, work cars, play cars and eco-friendly cars. In addition to recommended vehicles, shoppers can check the availability of the car they choose. Cars.com partners with more than 200 metro newspapers, TV stations and their Web sites, and lists more than 2 million vehicles from 15,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties.
Red alert
Cobra Electronics (www.cobra.com) has introduced a radar/laser detector, which alerts drivers to locations (such as intersections) with photo-enforcement cameras. The XRS-R9G detector has a GPS locator, which includes a speed- and red-light-camera-location database with updates available through the Web. In a survey of 1,000 Americans, Cobra discovered that 86 percent of drivers admit to going through at least one red light in their lifetime. While a few well-placed cameras may slow some drivers, four in five of those surveyed said that knowing the location of photo-enforcement cameras in advance would make them put the brakes on, according to the company.
Lost and found
Given the cost of today’s so-called "intelligent" car keys, Melbourn Designs LLC is betting drivers will be willing to pay $24.95 for a set of Find One Find All® key finders. Available as either a key fob or a credit-card-like device, the system not only beeps and flashes when it finds another device with the technology, but it transmits a radio beacon signal back to the user. www.FindOneFindAll.com.
You say ‘potato...’
Domestic vehicles are relatively attractive to older buyers, while younger buyers avoid them as much as possible. According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Avoider Study, which examines why new-car shoppers avoid certain models, pro-domestic and pro-import purchase sentiment is strongly tied to the buyer’s age. What’s more, the North Central region of the United States (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau) contains the highest proportion – 41 percent – of domestic-vehicle buyers who do not consider import brands during the shopping process. Vehicle styling and cost are the two most frequently reported reasons that consumers give for avoiding import brands. Conversely, the Northeast and the West regions contain the highest proportions of buyers of import vehicles, who say they avoid specific models because they are domestic in origin. The most frequently cited reasons given for avoiding a domestic brand are concerns about reliability, poor quality and depreciation. A greater proportion of import buyers also mention poor gas mileage as a reason for avoiding domestic models.
Resale value rankings
European and Japanese cars still dominate their American counterparts when it comes to resale value, a critical measure consumers use to decide whether a car is a smart buy. The one exception was the Chevrolet Corvette. According to Kelley Blue Book, the top 10 models for 2008 are the Corvette, Scion xB, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Infiniti G37, Volkswagen Eos, MINI Cooper, Volkswagen Jetta, Scion tC and Volkswagen Rabbit. The top 10 brands are Volkswagen (whose vehicles have held 48.1 percent of their original price over the past five years), BMW (45.6 percent), Acura (45.4 percent), Honda (45.2 percent), Porsche (44.9 percent), Subaru (44.4 percent), Lexus (43.2 percent), Infiniti (43.1 percent), Audi (42.6 percent) and Toyota (41.4 percent). The bottom 10 brands are Suzuki (27.6 percent), Kia (30.4 percent), General Motors (32.5 percent), Mercury (32.5 percent), Dodge (32.5 percent), Chrysler (32.5 percent), Lincoln (33.3 percent), Jeep (33.3 percent), Ford (33.8 percent) and Jaguar (34.1 percent). [FI]
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