Smart advice for smarter coverage - Page 7

By Aaron Crowe As the owner of an SUV, Rhonda Martin knows how painful a trip to the gas station can be. By commuting by bike to work five days a week, Martin, who lives and works in San Diego, estimates she saves $350 to $400 a month in gas and maintenance. She doesn’t ride […]

By Aaron CroweOne great thing about luxury cars, especially from a proletariat point of view, is that some of the high-tech features often eventually make their way down to more affordable models.Luxury cars are often used by automakers to test new features in the marketplace, and since the cars already come at a high price, […]

  What started out as a routine traffic stop on a Virginia highway ended with two church leaders handing over to police $25,000 in cash donations from their congregants. The money was supposed to go toward the construction of a new church, and the men were transporting the money from the old site to the […]

By Aaron Crowe Having a loan in hand before walking into an auto dealership is a common recommendation when buying a new car. It can keep you from being offered financing by the car dealer, who can add fees you might not recognize. Some buyers, however, welcome the chance to negotiate finance terms with a […]

By Aaron Crowe Of the 12 states with no-fault auto insurance, Florida has seen its share of auto insurance fraud, mainly through scams involving Personal Injury Protection, or PIP insurance. In 2011, for example, a chiropractic center in Fort Myers billed an insurance company seven times that summer for treating injuries it claimed a man […]

By Aaron Crowe Criminals committed $120 million in auto insurance fraud in California in fiscal year 2012-13, and 1,500 people have been arrested for auto fraud since 2011, according to state statistics. The fraud includes medical mills, organized crime, collision rings, fraudulent claims, and organized groups of thieves committing economic theft, according to the Fraud […]

By Aaron CroweMany auto insurance companies are raising rates on loyal customers who don’t shop around for better rates, even if they have a perfect driving record.Inertia, it turns out, can be expensive.That’s the conclusion of the Consumer Federation of America, which recently issued a warning against what it calls a “new auto insurer pricing […]

By Aaron Crowe Haggling with a car salesman is “fun” for more women than men, but women aren’t using the opportunity to negotiate as much of a discount as the men are, a new study has found. Women car shoppers are becoming more comfortable negotiating a car purchase, and prefer to negotiate more than men […]

By Aaron Crowe Having a roommate can lead to savings in a lot of areas: Rent, utility bills and commute costs can drop with someone to share them with. But as anyone who has ever had a roommate knows, there are downsides to sharing a room, or even a house, with someone you don’t know […]

By Aaron Crowe A Michigan court is being asked to rule that a motorized scooter must have auto insurance, which could require the many elderly and disabled scooter drivers across the country to buy insurance that isn’t even offered yet. The case stems from a paralyzed man in Macomb County, Mich., who was hit by […]

By Aaron Crowe The throaty rumble of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle is a sound that’s hard to miss and easy to distinguish. For Californians, it’s a sound becoming more familiar on the state’s highway as the California Highway Patrol is replacing its fleet of BMW motorcycles with Harley-Davidsons. As a brand that has grown on its […]

By Aaron Crowe The June 7 crash that killed one man and left comic Tracy Morgan severely injured was allegedly caused by a truck driver who had gone without sleep for 24 hours before the crash. Highway drivers are likely to drive with truckers around them, leaving some drivers to wonder how safe they are […]

By Aaron Crowe When a child dies in the backseat of a hot car because their parent forgot they were there, the decision to charge the parent with murder, or any crime, isn’t consistent, according to an analysis by a child advocacy group of heat-related child fatalities in cars. A felony murder is rare in […]

By Aaron Crowe The government’s goals for getting consumers to buy more “green” cars is clear — whether it’s electric plug-ins, hybrids or some other type of zero-emission cars. The Obama administration’s target is to have 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015. Eight states announced a plan in May to put 3.3 […]

By Aaron Crowe Like regular maintenance of oil changes, tire rotations and coolant changes, checking for recall notices for your car and its parts is becoming a normal responsibility of car ownership. Auto part recalls seem to constantly be in the news — General Motors is the latest with 2.6 million small cars recalled to […]

By Aaron Crowe If you’ve driven upon a lane closure, you’ve probably seen it: A driver zips up in the open lane to cut ahead of traffic merging from two lanes to one. That person is either an idiot for cutting in front of the line, or a genius for legally following the merge directions […]

By Aaron Crowe Three major U.S. cities recently received $1.6 million from the federal government to improve pedestrian safety, but officials aren’t making pedestrians safer by making their cities more walkable. Instead, most of the money is being spent on ticketing dangerous drivers and monitoring crosswalks. Of the three cities to receive the grants from […]

By Aaron CroweRising gas prices since February may be over by Memorial Day, as the national average price of gas hopefully peaked in early May. By the time many Americans hit the road for Memorial Day on May 26, they’ll see lower gas prices than they have in three months or so, according to the […]

By Aaron Crowe The remains of a wheel theft can look like a flashback to the 1980s: A car left up on cinder blocks, giving the impression that the area is crime-ridden. From new-car dealers to whole neighborhoods, wheel thefts are on the rise again. The entire wheel is often stolen, and the tire and […]

By Aaron Crowe For some things, such as a rose, what we call it really doesn’t matter. As William Shakespeare put it, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” For automakers, unfortunately, that doesn’t hold true when naming a new car. A name can be a good first […]

By Aaron Crowe Thanks to safer vehicles being built, crash rates are dropping for drivers of all ages since 1997, but they’re especially falling for drivers 70 and older, according to a report. That may sound counterintuitive since problems normally associated with elderly drivers — poor vision, slower reaction times and mobility problems — can […]

By Aaron Crowe Buying a car should never be considered an investment, partly because putting miles on it will only drop its value. But with proper maintenance, a good mechanic and less stop-and-go driving, owners can keep their cars running well for years and get the most mileage for their money while delaying buying a […]

By Aaron Crowe The average federal tax refund last year was $2,755, according to the IRS, which is a pretty good chunk for a down payment on a used car. Buying a good used car can make more sense than buying a new car if you want to save money. More people are borrowing record […]

By Aaron Crowe Renting a snowmobile or other recreational toy while on vacation can be a lot of fun, until you crash it. Whether it’s a jet ski, snowmobile, ATV or other recreational vehicle, you’ll want to have insurance for it. That can come either through extra insurance you buy from the rental company, or […]