Filed Under (Classic Cars) on 20-11-2008
If you are looking for Kelly Blue Book classic cars information, you might not find it right away. The Kelly Blue Book is a pocket sized volume with a blue cover that lists the values for new and used vehicles based on a variety of criteria. It is the book of choice for most car dealerships and you will often hear them referring to the blue book value of an automobile. When you are looking for antique car values, the traditional blue book isn’t going to help you. You need what is called the Early Model Guide.
The Early Model Guide spans two issues and covers the time period between 1946 and 1986. In this guide you will find the suggested retail values for automobiles in varying conditions including Fair, Good and Excellent Condition. The Kelley Blue Book also has a website where you can look up the value of various automobiles. However, the values on the website only range from 1987 to the present. One helpful resource you can find on the Kelley Blue Book site are classifieds. On these classifieds you can find people buying and selling automobiles and accessories.
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Filed Under (Car Prices) on 19-11-2008
If you are going car shopping and you plan to visit dealerships, you will need to know how to get the lowest car dealer prices. First, it helps to understand how these dealerships operate. Most of them acquire their vehicles from either the manufacturer or automobile auctions depending on whether the autos are new or used. If the dealership sells new cars, the price they pay to the manufacturer is called the invoice price. Be advised that there are discounts and rebates the dealership may take advantage of to lower the price they ultimately pay.
This is why when a dealership offers cars at invoice price, you can be sure they got some kind of discount from the manufacturer because of course they have to make a profit. The price they are offering is the invoice price they got before all the discounts and rebates were applied. When it comes to used cars, the black book value is very important to dealers. The black book value represents the wholesale value of the vehicle at auction.
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Filed Under (Classic Cars) on 19-11-2008
There are all kinds of 1955 antique cars you may want to consider if you are looking to purchase a vehicle from this time period. 1955 is grouped into the post-war era of automobile history. Innovations during this time period included a more modern car body and the V8 engine. General Motors, Oldsmobile and Cadillac were popular and cutting-edge car makers during this time period. Car designs became sleeker and more artistic while the cars themselves gained more power. During this time, the popularity of the automobile spread across the globe to reach areas of Europe and Asia as well as the United States.
There were a great many excellent automobiles produced in 1955. Examples include the popular Morris Minor, the Oldsmobile 88, the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Impala, just to name a few. Speaking of the 1955 Impala, it offered the V8 engine called the 265 cubic inch turbo-fire engine. This car was longer, smoother, more powerful and more popular than ever before. Another notable car from 1955 was the Lincoln Futura Concept Car. This amazing car definitely goes down in history as perhaps the most famous car made that year.
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Filed Under (Car Prices) on 18-11-2008
If you are looking to buy used cars, Houston is filled with them. You can find most any vehicle imaginable for sale at dealerships and offered for sale by owner. Before ever starting to shop, research is in order. There is much to decide and much to learn if you want to get the best car for your needs at a price you can afford. The first thing you should do is determine your budget. Set a price range and don’t go above your limit. Once you know how much you can afford, you can decide what kind of car you want that is within your range.
You may know exactly what you’re looking for. You may have the make, model, year and even color all picked out. Or, you may have a more general idea regarding what you want. In this case, you may want to browse dealerships and used car listings to get an idea of what sparks your interest. You may not know what you want at first, but you will find yourself drawn to particular vehicles. Rather than buying the first one that catches your eye, make a list of the vehicles you like the best and compare them. Which ones are best suited for your preferences and price range?
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Filed Under (Car Rental) on 14-11-2008
It has been both an exciting ride, and a bumpy ride, for Budget Rent A Car over the years. The company saw the very heights of business success, and has also experienced business embarrassment and failure on many levels. But through it all the original business model that Budget Rent A Car was started with has managed to keep the Budget name in operation and has also managed to make sure that the Budget name was successful enough to stay on the marquee when it looked like it may be moved aside in lieu of other rental car companies.
In The Beginning
Budget Rent A Car was founded by a man named Morris Mirkin who had $10,000 and a dream to start a rental car company. He decided to call his Los Angeles based business Budget Rent A Car because he wanted the name to make people think of rental cars on a tight budget, and it seems to have worked. Within a year, the concept behind Budget Rent A Car attracted a man named Jules Lederer. He decided to help Mirkin expand the business by starting his own leasing company that would lease cars to Mirkin so that Mirkin would not only not have continually buy new cars to update his fleet but also so that Mirkin had one source for his cars and that made business easier. The fleet grew and so did the business.
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Filed Under (Ethanol) on 13-11-2008
With all the news about ethanol and other alternative fuels being a cheaper way to run our cars these days, a strong future consideration should be given to ethanol production costs. In a business model, production costs are always considered to obtain the end price; and if production costs increase, the final price must also increase. The base material to produce ethanol has been a subject of many news items. What has not been talked about are the costs associated with ethanol production.
A List of Ethanol Production Costs
As with any type of production, there are associated items that must be taken into consideration. Beyond the cost of the base material, there is first the cost to create that material. Ethanol production costs associated with corn and sugarcane are higher than other forms of ethanol production because of the need for fertilizers, seed, land use, harvesting, diesel fuel or natural gas consumption during transport or refining.
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Filed Under (Hybrid Cars) on 13-11-2008
Since man first figured out how to build and use a car, we’ve been used to driving round in cars that are powered by the internal combustion engine. There has really never been another viable alternative.
But those times are changing. With the ever increasing media attention on green issues and the need to look after our planet, hybrid cars are slowly becoming integrated into our society. People are starting to compare hybrid cars to the more ordinary cars they have now, and they’re wondering if or when it’s worth making the change.
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Filed Under (Car Rental) on 13-11-2008
Avis Rent A Car got started in the car rental business early, they did it right, and they grew very fast. It is safe to say that they were one of the first car rental companies ever, they were one of the most innovative companies in their industry, and they were one of the first companies to take the concept of car rental international. Avis Rent A Car started their history with an aggressive policy of success while completely serving the customer and that policy remains in effect today. Avis Rent A Car maintains its status as one of the best in the business while using its status to keep its edge on the competition.
Company Beginnings
Avis Rent A Car was founded by Warren Avis way back in 1946. Warren Avis had an idea to base a rental car company at the Willow Run Airport in Detroit, Michigan. He took $85,000, a huge sum of money for those days, and started the first ever car rental company located at an airport. He put his name on the sign and Avis Rent A Car was born. It did not take long for Warren Avis’ concept to catch on and soon he was opening a facility in the Miami International Airport. By 1953, the concept of rental cars at airports became so popular that Avis Rent A Car soon began selling franchises to companies in Europe, Mexico, and Canada. Warren Avis had created a pioneering business and it was not long before he decided to let others run it and enjoy the fruits of his labor.
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Filed Under (Formula One) on 12-11-2008
Formula One racing is a weekend event with two practice sessions on Friday, a practice session and qualifying on Saturday, and the race on Sunday. The practice sessions are used for drivers to familiarize themselves with the track and for the crew to make any necessary adjustments to the car. The qualifying is used to determine the way the cars will start in the race.
Formula One qualifying works a little differently that some people would think. Qualifying is broken down into three segments with 7-minute breaks in between. In the first segment, all 22 cars run the qualifying lap. The slowest 6 cars are placed in the 17-22 staring positions. In the second segment, the remaining 16 cars run the qualifying lap. The slowest 6 cars are placed in the 11-16 starting positions. In the final segment, the final 10 cars are racing to be on the pole position, the position that puts the fastest car on the track in the number one starting position. In short, to be in the pole position for a Formula One race you first must be 16th or faster, then 10th of faster, and in the final session, you must be the fastest car on the track.
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Filed Under (Hybrid Cars) on 11-11-2008
A hybrid car is a means of transportation using two sources of power. It uses a rechargeable energy storage system found on board as well as a fuelled power source as the vehicle’s driving force. The car pollutes less and uses less fuel. Victor Wouk (1919 – 2005) was an electrical engineer and entrepreneur and the inventor of the hybrid car. He was born in New York City and received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1939.
Victor Wouk’s History as the Inventor of the Hybrid Car
In 1962, Wouk was approached by a founder of Motorola cars, Russell Feldman, who identified the pollution from cars as one of the biggest problems of the environment. He wanted to find out the solutions to this problem. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Wouk thought over this problem and got involved with vehicles. After a significant amount of work, he combined the low-emission benefits of an electric car with the power of a gasoline engine to produce a hybrid vehicle, effectively transforming a Buick Skylark vehicle with a 20 kilowatt direct-current electric motor and an RX-2 Mazda rotary engine. The vehicle was tested at the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions investigation laboratories where it acquired more than twice the fuel economy of the vehicle before it was converted. The vehicles emission rates were also only nine percent of those of a gas powered car. It appeared as if Wouk had invented a new hybrid vehicle.
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