Car Insurance

The term “soccer mom” defined perhaps too well how many mothers lived the child-rearing parts of their lives in the 1990s. They hated that researchers could predict their voting and buying patterns just because they drove slab-sided Dodge Caravans and repair-prone Ford Windstars. That—and clunky design—helped dampen enthusiasm for the minivan.

Fast forward 15 years, add a slew of energy-saving technology, and you’ve got a near-perfect minivan-replacement vehicle for parents who chauffeurs kids to lacrosse matches: the Lexus RX 400h hybrid-drive SUV. The superb audio and Bluetooth phone technology make traffic jams en route to the office more bearable, too.

In the RX 400h, Lexus mated a V6 gasoline engine with a continuously variable transmission and placed a bank of nickel metal hydride batteries under the back seat. It also put electric-drive motors both front and rear for great fuel economy in town, reasonable acceleration, passable fuel economy on the highway, and as-needed all-wheel drive. If the majority of your driving is done around town and you need some (but not a lot of) cargo space, the RX 400h could be ideal. Just realize you’ll spend $50,000 to get good gas mileage.

As with other hybrids, the motors that help drive the vehicle also work as generators under deceleration, resisting the energy from the forward motion and converting it to electricity. More than half the kinetic energy is recaptured in the NiMH batteries. As a side benefit, regeneration saves wear and tear on the brakes; and the energy is available the next time you step on the throttle. On the interstate, there’s very little stop and go, which is why fuel economy with hybrids is lower on the EPA’s highway rating. The RX 400h is rated at 31 mpg in the city, 27 mpg on the highway for the 2007 model; the 2008 will be 1 mpg to 2 mpg lower because of revised EPA testing standards, which should be more realistic.

By installing an electric drive motor at the rear wheels, Lexus provides all-wheel-drive capabilities without the need for a bulky driveshaft. Under heavy acceleration or on slippery roads especially, the rear propulsion kicks in. There’s also an electric motor up front, which is important for regenerating the most energy, since more weight is on the front wheels under braking. That’s why the nose of a car pitches down when you step on the brakes and goes up when you accelerate.

How Safe is Silent?

Having electric propulsion up front as well allows for one of the RX 400h’s neatest impress-the-neighbors tricks: When you start the engine, there’s no sound, vibration or exhaust smoke, only a Ready light that comes on after a second or two. Then the RX 400h motors off silently under electric power. If you avoid tromping the throttle or turning on the air conditioner, you can get up to about 20 mph before the gasoline engine kicks in.

Long-time hybrid users may have adapted, but I’m still uncertain about the real-world impact (so to speak) of silent vehicles on kids playing in the driveway or the none-too-bright family pet when you back noiselessly out of the garage. You can order a backup camera as part of the $2,650 navigation package, but there’s no backup sonar, which I believe can be more important than the camera for proactively detecting objects in your path.

I also fear new owners may not realize a hybrid is in gear when they pull into a convenience store or gas station and begin to step out. There is a warming chime, but it’s polite and no more urgent than the chime for an unbuckled seat belt or still-on headlights. Obviously, RX 400h owners would be paying stiffer insurance premiums if roll-away incidents happened a lot, but I think Lexus and others need to think more about this downside of hybrid technology before people get run over.

The $2,650 navigation package also includes the backup camera, energy and consumption monitors, and Bluetooth. Each feature is problematic in minor ways.

The view provided by the backup camera is dim at night. Other automakers have more sensitive cameras or brighter backup lights; on this Lexus, you need to back up with your foot on the brake pedal. There’s also no backing lane overlaid on the display that superimposes the width of the RX 400h as two straight lines and curved lines . And there’s no sonar backup option, which is a valuable adjunct to any backup camera: It’s possible to miss seeing an obstacle on the monitor, but you can’t avoid hearing the warning ping of sonar.

The energy and consumption monitors paint a dazzling, full-screen portrait of where energy is coming from and going to: the gas engine, storage battery, front electric motor/generator, rear electric motor/generator; and the direction the electricity travels. There’s a second screen showing how much energy you’ve used and regenerated in minute-by-minute increments. It’s dazzling for about a week, or when you’ve got a green-loving neighbor on board. But there’s no satisfactory way to tone it down to just a corner of the display, once the initial thrill is gone.

The interior finish is flawless, but what did you expect? It’s a Lexus. The RX 400h has a nice rear-entertainment system for kids; the standard audio is fine, and the upgrade audio is superb. You can play MP3 and WMA files, and there’s a line-in jack for music players and an optional iPod interface. If you have the navigation system and the LCD, the audio or climate controls momentarily drop down across the top inch of the display to show a new station or temperature setting. It’s a nice feature, although Infiniti integrates multiple features better on its LCDs.

The Lexus Web site is simple to use, and you can easily configure your vehicle. Some people use automaker sites so they can avoid salespeople at dealerships for as long as possible, but in the case of Lexus, the dealership experience is about as good as it can be. That’s the advantage of setting up a new dealer network in 1990.with the requirement to treat customers well, rather than take over the corner of Toyota showrooms and put Giant Lexus Sale-A-Thon signs in the window.

“Just pay what the sticker says” has become a cultural phenomenon in America, according to one financial advisor, and he claims it is costing Americans a lot of money.

Buying big bargains is one of a series of steps advocated by Dave Ramsey, a financial counselor, author and host of a national radio program on money and finances.

“If you got a good buy, some folks think someone else was harmed,” Ramsey said. “Yet, in virtually every other culture other than America, people negotiate the price of nearly everything.”

His philosophy is part of a process he calls a Total Money Makeover. According to Ramsey, part of getting and keeping money is spending money wisely, which he claims most people don’t know how to do.

“We get in our ‘fleeced’ car, put credit card-gas in it, drive it to the mall on a bond-financed highway, go into the mall and buy something on an 18-percent credit card, and think we got a bargain because it said ’sale’ on it,” he declared.

“Most people are too embarrassed to negotiate a better price, but I would rather be embarrassed than broke,” claims Ramsey. “Yet, they will go to a flea market or garage sale and think negotiating a better price is perfectly normal.”

Ramsey promotes several techniques, in addition to negotiating the price of virtually everything, in order to get the best bargains.

“Several studies of multi-millionaires shows they have one major personality characteristic in common: integrity,” explained Ramsey. “It is surprising to have to say that, but don’t lie! Television has told you J.R. Ewing is how business is done, and we believed that.”

“We have a saying around our business, ‘Life is too short to deal with people who lie. You can’t keep up with them’,” he said. “I don’t know where they are going, and it doesn’t matter how good the deal is because it is all a lie.”

“What that means is, if you are selling your car and you know the transmission is bad, you had better say something, and not just hope it doesn’t slip during the test drive,” he explained.

Practicing personal integrity is a key part of developing a win-win situation with each other, according to the author.

The power of cash

“It has immediacy; it says it’s a lock; it says the deal is closed, if I take your bargain,” he said. That’s the power of cash, according to Ramsey. “It says I don’t have to check with my bank on Monday, or get somebody’s permission.”

“When you get $100 bills out, you get everyone’s attention,” he continued. “It’s emotional, and people remember it.”

“After you’ve shown you are serious and the merchant won’t change the price, you use the words every merchant is terrified to hear: ‘I bet your competitor can sell it for that price’,” he continued. “When you don’t have walk-away power, you become salesman-bait. When you understand and use that emotional distance, you win.”

Patience

“Learn the power of not talking,” he explained. “Just look interested, or ask a question and shut up.”

“In our busy, ‘go-go’ society, people are not ready to handle silence,” he continued. “I’ve had salesmen lower their price and tell me things I didn’t know just by not saying anything, and listening to them.”

There are also several communication techniques Ramsey says will help buyers get a better deal.

“Learn to say ‘That’s not good enough’,” he said. “Ask for something else, even if it isn’t money.

“You may have to say, ‘That’s alright, we’ll get someone else to do that for us’ if they won’t give you the price or the product you want,” said Ramsey.

Control

“Don’t let it happen to you; it is being done to you all the time and you don’t know it,” he said. “I want you to learn to spend wisely by spending your money wisely,” he concluded.

On paper, the Tesla Roadster is the electric car that’s finally going to revolutionize transportation. I want to see it happen. I hope it happens. If Tesla wants to change the course of history, it has to change the mixed history of electric vehicle (EV) cars. It certainly attracted a wide range of celebrities and tech fans to the launch at its Signature One-Hundred event.

Tesla says it will ship its first Roadsters in mid-2007. The numbers are Corvette-like: 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds, 250 miles between charges, and recharging in 3.5 hours. So says Tesla. The price however, is more Porsche than Corvette, with the Roadster estimated to sell for $80,000 to $120,000. People buying a Roadster are not clipping PriceChopper coupons.

The Roadster will employ a lithium-ion battery rather than lead acid, as used in most cars for starter motors, or nickel-metal hydride, used in most hybrids such as the Toyota Prius. To get the claimed 250 miles, rather than 60 to 100 miles from the previous iteration EVs, it will likely do what all other EVs do: charge the battery all the way up, to 100 percent, then run it all the way down to no charge.

And that, claims Toyota, is the recipe for short-life batteries. At a hybrid technology seminar this spring, Toyota and Lexus said it can get essentially life-of-the-car performance from hybrid batteries, meaning 10-plus years, if they only live in the middle 60 percent of their charge range. That’s easy to do when you’ve got a small gasoline or diesel engine that can go it alone should the batteries get down to 20 per cent charge. Treat rechargeable car batteries like laptop batteries and you’ll get a couple good years out of them — then you need to start thinking about a replacement, but for $2,500 a pop and more, not less than $250.

Electric vehicles get the best mileage when the passengers are uncomfortable. If you run the air conditioning in summer or the heater in winter you’re cutting into your driving range. Ditto for running 400-watt audio systems. Hills are tough on electric vehicles, too, unless you regenerate power the way hybrids do. Headlights after dark aren’t good for driving range.

Electric vehicles such as the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s failed because they were just too limited in usefulness for real people to buy. It might serve you fine driving 10 miles to the office, but not for weekend trips to the beach, let alone on vacations or college-search trips.

Drive it kids-to-carpool-to-mall-to-home and you’d probably have enough juice, but it might struggle the last couple miles and the lights would be dimming. A lot of them were either bought by the government or with government subsidies. An EV is not, despite what proponents say, a zero-emissions car, because you’re burning coal, oil, or natural gas somewhere to make the electrons that power your car. That said, it’s probably cleaner overall that a fossil-fuel vehicle.

We’ll have to see if Tesla fares better than its EV predecessors. Tech industry people aren’t superheroes, but they more than the traditional automakers tend not to be phased by seemingly insurmountable problems.

The nothing-is-impossible attitude is working in other areas. Eclipse Jet Co. is underwritten by other tech sector millionaires and if it takes off, literally, it’s going to rewrite the price/performance rules for small business jets. Mark Cuban is unlike anything else the NBA has ever seen. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is revolutionizing charitable giving. Car tech may be the next frontier for high-tech geniuses. And it’s not like the industry is completely different. They already know how to make software crash.

Buying a car for a high school or college student doesn’t have to be as frightening as the first time you loaned them the keys to your car.

Still, experts recommend that you consider more than whether you can afford to buy a car and also weigh how and under what conditions it will be used, and how responsible your child is.

“We did a recent survey by our parent company, and what we found was that kids really do want advice from parents on the issue of buying a car or truck,” said Jack Nerad, editorial director at Kelley Blue Book.

One of the first things students want to know is how much money is available to buy the car. Will the parents freight the whole cost? How much is the student expected to contribute to the venture?

“There was a time when parents buying kids’ first-time cars figured they would buy them inexpensively for less than $5,000 and they would pay cash,” Nerad said.

“Now, what first-time buyers face is that they expect to spend a lot more on cars — as much as $10,000 or more — and the majority finance that car instead of paying cash,” he added.

Co-signing for an auto loan is usually necessary, unless a child already has a decent credit history. But co-signing means that the parent is responsible for making the payments, and missteps could seriously damage a credit record. If a child is not responsible with money, perhaps he is not responsible enough to own a car.

“You really have to keep in mind not overextending your child’s finances if they are paying for it. You have to keep their expectations within reasonable limits,” Nerad said.

To save money, some parents think about leasing instead of buying, but the word from Nerad is: Don’t.

“Parents are tempted by the lower monthly payments, but leasing provides far fewer options for getting out of it, if you have to do that. I’d recommend purchasing that first car instead of leasing,” Nerad added.

Once you’ve established how much you’re going to spend, you can start looking at new and used cars and trucks that fit your budget.

If you decide on a used car, remember that there are plenty of guides and books about buying a used car. Consumer Reports, for instance, rates cars on a host of factors, and Kelley Blue Book and its Web site are excellent places to start, too.

Be sure to have a used car inspected by a trusted mechanic and check the car’s history. Several Web sites can tell you if the car has been in an accident or flood, for instance.

What to buy in a used car?

“Certainly you want to think about reliability first and foremost. In terms of bargain shopping, Kias, and even more so, Hyundais, might be very good buys because the most recent ones are very reliable but resale value is not commensurately high,” Nerad said.

Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans and some domestic makes such as Chevrolet and Ford also are good candidates because they are inexpensive to maintain.

If you’re willing to buy a new economy car, you might find that you can get a better used car or truck for the same money.

If you’re looking for new cars, don’t miss models such as the Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit and Chevrolet Aveo. These are as nicely equipped as cars costing thousands more.

No matter what vehicle you consider, look for anti-lock brakes, side and side head/curtain air bags and traction and stability control, all of which have proven their ability to save drivers from serious injury or death.

Also consider the cost of insurance, Nerad said. “You might end up with a nasty surprise afterward if you buy first without thinking about insurance.”

As you might expect, the cost of insuring a young driver is much higher. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that for each mile driven, the risk of being involved in an accident is four times higher for teens than for older drivers. Drivers who are 16 are the riskiest; they have a crash rate that’s almost three times higher than 18 year olds. And yes, boys cost more to insure.

A few things to check when insurance shopping: If your child has good grades, there might well be a student discount rate. And if you have a good driver discount for yourself, your teenager might get a lower rate. Many insurance companies give big discounts when young drivers have taken a driver training and safety class.

NEARLY ALL business travelers have experienced last-minute surprises when their final car-rental bills far exceed what was quoted. Here’s what to look out for:

* LOCAL TAXES/FEES: When shopping for car rental rates, be sure you’re comparing apples to apples–meaning all taxes and fees should be part of every rate quote. Always ask. Taxes and fees (often used to fund construction of convention centers or stadiums) can increase your final bin by up to 71 percent, according to a Travelocity.com study, which ranked airports where rental car fees are steepest.

At Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, for example, if you rent a car for two days at $50 per day, you’d expect your bill to be about $100. But with taxes and fees, you’ll end up paying a whopping $171. Other airports that ranked high on Travelocity.com’s list include Austin, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston-Hobby.

* FREQUENT FLIERS: Most rental car companies now add a surcharge to those customers earning airline frequent flier miles for their rentals. Expect to pay 50 cents per day, up to a maximum of $2 per rental, for the honor of earning those miles.

* INSURANCE: This is one car-rental fee you can do something about. When it comes to collision or liability damage waivers, don’t fall for rental car agents’ hard sell (they earn a commission selling these add-ons, which can cost as much as $30 a day). Typically, if you own a car and have insurance, you’re covered when driving a rental car. In addition, many major credit cards offer insurance if you charge the rental car on the card. Before your next trip, call your insurance company or credit card company and ask whether you’re covered.

CHRIS MCGINNIS, travel correspondent for CNN Headline News, is author of The Unofficial Business Travelers’ Pocket Guide.