Caring for your car’s interior can make the interior components last for many years and raise the resale value of your car as well. Knowing how to properly clean and take care of the surfaces of the interior will allow you to perform regular maintenance and make your car look great.

LEATHER SEATS: If your car has leather seats, be sure to clean and dress the leather with a good quality product made just for leather. Using products not intended for leather may result in the leather cracking prematurely and causing your interior to look ragged much before its time. Leather upholstery is expensive to repair or replace, so care for it properly in the first place to avoid expensive damage.

PLASTIC INTERIOR SURFACES: The plastic surfaces inside your car can be cleaned with most any good, mild household cleaner or with plain soap and water. They can then be made shiny with any one of the many car interior shine products available on the market.

One word of warning. When cleaning any interior area of your car be very careful in what you use. Items like ArmorAll are great for areas made of soft plastic, but it can dry out the surface of hard plastic over time and cause cracks and imperfections.

FABRIC SEATING: If your fabric seat becomes soiled, remove any excess dirt or food by scraping. Then clean with a good quality upholstery cleaner. Before tackling a stain in an area which will show, test the product on an inconspicuous area to be sure the fabric is color-fast and does not fade the area or leave it with a bleached look.

WINDOWS: Use products specifically made for cleaning windows to remove the grease and soil build up on your glass surfaces. You can use simple home glass cleaning products and save yourself a lot of money versus the overpriced auto-glass cleaners. To prevent streaking, polish with newspaper. If you wish, apply a no-fog product to the windows by following product instructions.

While there are many other areas in your car’s interior these are the major ones to keep clean. By doing so you’re car will look great for years to come.

The Chevrolet Corvette was designed by sports-car lover and GM designer Harley Earl in 1951. The first Corvette was introduced to the public at the 1953 Motorama car show. The body was fiberglass, while underneath the hood were standard Chev parts, including an inline six-cylinder truck engine, Powerglide automatic transmission, and drum brakes.

Sales of the Corvette were lackluster, probably due to the lack of power and manual transmission that sports car enthusiasts demanded, and the project was nearly shelved until it acquired a V8 and three-speed manual transmission.

For collectors, the first generation of Corvettes are the most sought after. There were only 300 Corvettes produced in 1953. 1954 offered new color choices while the 1955 model introduced the V8 engine. The body was redesigned in 1956, and a fuel injection system was added in 1957. The 1958 Corvette was the flashiest Corvette ever built, with lots of chrome and quad headlights. Over the next few years, the Corvette sparkled less on the outside, but grew in horsepower on the inside.
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“It will get you where you’re going,” was the slogan for the early Honda Civic’s, first introduced in 1972 as a two door coupe, and then later that year, a hatch-back version.  Although Honda was known only for producing small runabout motorcycles prior to the release of the Civic, the fuel and oil crisis of the early 1970’s prompted many consumers to demand smaller vehicles with high fuel efficiency.

Honda tried to fill part of this market demand with a small car that could comfortably transport 4 adults while achieving 40 mpg with its 1169 cc (about 70 cubic inch) engine.  Although the overall dimensions of the vehicle were small, with it’s front wheel drive and transverse engine mounting,  the Civic was able to offer relative comfort to driver and passengers.
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It’s estimated that more than 25% of Americans have poor credit records, and as the numbers grow,  the specialty financing market grows as new credit products are created to assist people in getting the things they need or want.

Bad credit car loans are no exception, and if you do have poor credit but need a car, you still might be in luck.  Many used car dealers specialize in helping those with poor or no credit in obtaining financing for cars.  There are some advantages and disadvantages to applying for and obtaining a bad credit car loan.

A major advantage is that those who specialize in offering financing to those with a challenged credit record can offer more flexibility and work with you than the average bank.  They may also provide terms which include up to 7 years to repay the loan.  However,  most bad credit car loans do require repayment of the full amount of the loan within 48 months.
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When buying a new or used car from a dealership, you can often be hit by the sales person with “extras” that they’d like you to purchase.  The sales person earns extra commissions from these “extras” and will often try to hard sell you on them.

One “extra” in particular that you really ought to ask yourself if you really need is the “Auto Service Contract,” sometimes referred to as an “Extended Warranty.”  We’d all like to protect ourselves from unexpected or unforeseen costly repairs that might not be covered by the manufacturer warranty, but there is a cost to this - and sometimes it just might not be worth the risk.

When offered an Auto Service Contract or Extended Warranty, you should examine the offer and ask some questions:
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If you’re looking to buy a new car, your choices are fairly limited to purchasing from a franchised auto dealership. But purchasing used cars is another matter and you have many options available to you in your search.

Used Car Superstore

In recent years, used car superstores have popped up all over North America. Used car superstores will have hundreds, if not thousands of used cars for sale at any given time, with the majority being late model low mileage vehicles. The vehicles that are found for sale at used car superstores generally are purchased at auctions. Often, superstores can provide you with financing if you need it to make your purchase. As well, the warranty that is offered can be as good as those found anywhere else.

New Car Dealers

Many used car purchasers actually make their purchase from their favorite new car dealerships. Car dealerships know that not everyone is in the market for a new car, so they will often have some stock of used cars available for purchase. These cars may have been purchased at auctions, or they may be someone else’s trade in on a new car. Buying from a new car dealership though can be more expensive than other places - but often, dealerships have excellent reconditioning standards. Considering a new car dealership for your used car is a good option: Most dealerships want to maintain a good reputation in their community so you are likely to get good quality.

Used Car Dealers

We’ve all heard the jokes about the used car salesman - usually quite demeaning to them. However, there are many reputable small used car dealerships. Negotiating price with used car dealerships is often easier than with new car dealerships, and they may have access to financing options as well as warranties that can be offered for an additional cost. Unless it’s a used car superstore though, smaller used car dealers don’t have the same selection at any given time generally speaking.

Private Owners

Of course, you can consider purchasing directly and privately from the owner of a car that they wish to sell. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. The primary advantage is that you will usually get a better price from a private owner than through a dealership. However, you won’t get a warranty and buying privately does require “buyer beware.” As well, if you’re interested in looking at several vehicles before you purchase, you’ll have to book appointments with the private owners to view and test drive the vehicles.

Car Auctions

Originally, car auctions were primarily for licensed auto dealers and only those dealers could bid on vehicles sold at car auctions. But today, there are a number of car auctions that are open to the general public, and many do have some fine cars available. Keep an eye out for public auctions in your neighbourhood, and you just might save yourself 50 to 60% of the cost for a vehicle you’d purchase elsewhere.

Of course, the downside of car auctions is that you don’t have much time to inspect the vehicle. A thorough inspection is out of the question, as is test driving any vehicles you are interested in.

The first Ford Mustangs were released to the public in early 1965. The first model, colloquially known as the 1964 1/2 Mustang, had a body style based on the Falcon and Fairlane, was available as a coupe or convertible, and had a straight-6 engine.

A GT equipment package and a V8 block engine were introduced later in 1965, along with front fog lights and disc brakes. The coupe model continued to be the style of choice, but Ford introduced a fastback Mustang as well.

From 1967 to 1970, the Mustang got larger and larger to accommodate the bigger V8 block engines, and from 1971 to 1973 New product design manager Budie Knudsen saw the Mustang through it’s period of largest engine size. At this point in its history, the Mustang could accurately be called a “Gas Guzzler.”
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So you’ve decided that purchasing a used car is the best use of your money at this time. You realize that as soon as you drive a brand new car off the lot, it’s just depreciated by 20%. And there’s a ton of decent used cars around.

I personally have never purchased a new car even though I am 45 years old. The most I’ve ever spent on a car is $6,000.00. I’ve purchased big used cars and small used cars. My most recent purchase of a used car was over 6 years ago, when I picked up a shiny 1989 Cadillac DeVille - for $3,000.00 Canadian, on the road. Read more »

Although as I write this, fuel prices are fluctuating up and down, but we’ve just been through a period where we’ve seen the price of gasoline in North America reach all time highs, and seemed to be heading north. Although the oil market is depressed at the minute, who can doubt that at some point in the future, gasoline prices at the pump will surely sky rocket again?

With the uncertainty about the price of fuel, many are considering and talking about the Hybrid Car. Read more »

If you’re a typical guy, when you purchased your first car, you were likely thinking “sporty and fast” with thoughts of utility value being the furthest from your mind. Unless you were really lucky and had rich parents, you weren’t thinking about lots of space in the trunk and rear seats. And likely, you ended up with a car that you could afford - and wasn’t all that close to your dream machine.

But now if you have a family, your needs for transportation are likely quite a bit different than when you chose your first car, if you’re thinking of a “family car.” So how do you go about choosing the best car for your family? In the end, you’ll want the best car you can get that suits your budget. Read more »