Quality used cars from Hertz

Most of us know of Hertz as a reputed car rental company. However, not many are aware that Hertz also sells exceptional used cars as well.

If you are looking for a great deal on a car in the US, check out the Hertz Rent2Buy® programme for high-quality, used rental cars at really competitive prices. Their website allows you to have a unique shopping experience, by being able to compare a variety of models. Check out Hertzcarsales.com to take advantage of this new way to "car-shop." Hertz has a large selection of used cars for sale by owner, so your ideal car is never out of reach.

Also don't forget to take advantage of a 3-Day Test Rental, which gives you time to see how the car really feels on the road. You can try out the car for 3 days at a special low rate which will be waived if you decide to buy the car.

Call 1-888-674-3309 for additional information and questions!

Finding dependable car shippers in the US

Choosing a reputable and reliable company the United States can be a formidable task as there are literally thousands of companies out there, each claiming to deliver the best service at an affordable price.

You do not have to worry. Just check out Cartransportquotes.com which links you to the most trusted and Dependable Car Movers in .

Qualified professionals who are licensed and properly insured will give you fast and reliable quotes/ rates with reported savings exceeding 20%.

The site offers the best Car Shipping and auto transport quotes for free. All you have to do is fill up their quick form and generate up to eight car shipping estimates. You can then use this information to compare national car shipping rates from automotive shipping carriers at one time. This way, you can select the best quote.

I would suggest anyone who has never shipped a car to first check out the Car Shipping Glossary so that you are familiar with the industry jargon and go through the Frequently Asked Questions as well. Teh site also has a Auto Mover Blog with loads of interesting information.

Mercedes-Benz E220 Estate Diesel review

I recently had the opportunity to try out the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate E220 and took it for a long trip to Ayr, Scotland - a distance of around 315 miles. Another family (husband and wife with their son) also accompanied us.

The car comfortably seats 5 adults and with the extra rear facing seats (an extra option), an extra 2 kids or small adults can fit in the car. Without the rear seats up, the boot is enormous and you can fit in several suitcases.

The car has a diesel engine and was fully automatic. The ride was really quiet and smooth - definitely made me question my preconceived notions about diesel engines. The suspension was also terrific and we hardly felt the bumps on certain parts of the road.

Initially I only had some trouble getting used to the foot-operated parking brake but it came naturally after a while.

The engine was quite efficient and taking over slow trucks and cars on the road was not a problem. It has been quite a while since I last drove an automatic car and I have to say, I got spoiled - I want an automatic car as well. Despite the long distance I was not as tired as I had been the last time I drover to Edinburgh in my old Volvo S40.

It has to be one of the best estate cars I have ever driven till date.

Thanks to Eju and Muz.

Review of TMS Coventry

Recently had my old Volvo S40 serviced and MOTd at TMS Coventry, the authorised dealer for Volvo in Coventry. Had been thinking of writing a review about their service for while but had kept putting it off.

TMS Coventry is a family owned and run business. I had avoided it because of preconceived notions that as an "authorised dealer and service provider" they would be costlier than the friendly neighbourhood garages. However, I was forced to go to them when I once had a problem with the security system/ central locking and a few garages I visited was not able to fix the problem. I drove down to their garage with my emergency lights blinking all the way from Radford. I was genuinely shocked when the final cost came out to be much less than what I had expected.

However, the next time I visited because of a misfiring engine really put me off. I was happy with the replacement of the ignition coil and fixing the problem. What I was not OK with was the fact that they charged me £19.80 for changing 3 bulbs and included and extra £34.40 labour charge. And they had not even thought of calling me up to check with me.

In contrast my favourite garage in Stoney Stanton, had once changed one of my bulbs and had only charged me £3.

Anyway, I had to go back to them again when I had electrical problems with the car. Ultimately found out that the fault had been caused by some coins (my son's handiwork) in the car radio/ CD player which had caused a short-circuit. However, this time I was quite impressed by their professional service. They sent me an SMS to confirm my booking and also called me up after the work was done.

The total cost for the service and MOT came to £200.83  including £50 for the MOT. This was reasonable considering that I had to pay £185 last year at my local garage. They had to replace a few things including bulbs to rear indicator light. However, this time there were no labour charges for replacing the bulbs.

Here is their address and contact info:

TMS Coventry
510 London Road
Coventry
West Midlands
CV3 4EU

Phone: 08446 626226
Fax: 02476 639362

Hand wash car at Stoney Stanton Rd, Coventry

Found this great car wash on Stoney Stanton road. They did a great job and only charged me £3.

Review of MillionCars website

I recently found out about a new Malaysian online car marketplace called MillionCars. It is is not the typical car site and targets all income ranges of consumers in Malaysia. The website has not been even officially launched even though it's already online. Right now it only offers limited features to the users and the first phase development of this website is just to give a chance for the dealers and buyers to get used to the website.

At this moment, individuals or dealers can register. The individual account is open to anyone in Malaysia who wants to sell a car. Individuals would receive 25 credits at registration and they can use the credits to post, renew, add and pro long their ads. If they want to post more than 4 ads, they need to upgrade their account to a dealer.

The second type of account is strictly for car dealers. They will receive 250 credits at the time of registration and they will also get their own online showroom that can be seen from the "Dealer" Page. The free registration promotion for dealers will end mid November (Nov 15, 2010). The google map feature has been integrated to make it easier for the customers to get to their selected dealer's showroom.

As for payment options, the website is integrated with the iPay88, a Malaysian company that offers safe bank online payments. It works just like Paypal. The iPay88 payment system allows different payment systems.

According to Muhammad Nasri, they plan to offer extra features in the next few months for both the buyers and sellers. They are in the process of tweaking the site to make it more user-friendly.

The user could browse used or new cars easily from the front page. Also, keep in mind that this website is not targeted for middle range type of consumers but rather, targeting for all types of consumers in Malaysia.

D&C Honda website review

When talking about cars, several of my friends are die hard Honda fans. And it is not difficult to see why. According to the latest Auto Pulse survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, the Honda brand was ranked highly by American consumers (the second best in the US). Their cars are well known for their styling, reliability, fuel economy, safety and best of all, their resale value. They are also the favourite for people who are into modding and a huge industry exists to support them.

Anyway if you are a resident of Paramus, NJ and thinking of buying a car, do take a look at D&C Honda of Tenafly, a premier Paramus Honda dealer. They offer the latest Honda as well as used vehicles. Their site lists hundreds of Honda models ranging from the best selling Honda Civic to the popular Honda CR-V SUV.

What really stuck me were their amazing benefits and as far as I know, no other Honda dealer can match them in that respect. This includes:
10 Day money back guarantee on used vehicles,
48 Hour money back guarantee on new Vehicles and
10 Day best price guarantee.

The home page is really informative though my wife thought that it looked a bit too busy. If I was a customer looking to buy a car, I would really appreciate any information I could get my hands on before actually going down to the dealership. That’s why I really liked their interactive chat feature where you could chat with a sales person live online. Another feature that makes this website different is their user friendly online loan calculator. I also liked the fact that using the search facility on the site brings up results with images of the car – and they are not blurry small resolution images you get in some car site. Other car dealers can learn a thing or two form D&C Honda.

One way to gauge a dealer is to hear from previous customers and it was interesting to know that D&C Honda now part of DealerRater.com where you can read the experiences of customers at the dealership. They were rated 4.6/5 (on a 24 Month rating) when I last checked and that is definitely not bad.

Useful law firm site

You don't expect a law firm site to show how auto accidents can be avoided - I mean more accidents mean more business for them I guess. However, found out that the Majlessi Law Firm - Legal Metro site has a extensive collection of videos of various car accident crash tests and shows how to avoid them.

Art Majlessi is a well known personal injury lawyer based in Los Angeles with over over 10 years practice and he heads the Majlessi Law Firm. According to their web site, the firm has helped thousands of their clients recover millions of dollars in injury cases. I was quite impressed after watching the video testimonials of some of their past clients.

You can also read up on the latest law updates including some of the latest law cases on their blog. One article which is a must read is "Nine Things You Must Do When You Are Involved in an Auto Accident".

This is one of the most informative sites I have come across recently and they have so many resources including articles on the site which anyone can access totally free of charge. Even though I hope that none of my readers (or myself for that matter) would never be involved in a major accident (touch wood), I feel that we should definitely be aware of the various types of accidents and common injury risk factors including including whiplash.

Do go over and check out the site.

National Tyres and Autocare Spon End

Contrary to what some people might believe, I don't have anything against National Tyres and Autocare. If I have a good experience as a customer with any business, I will write about it and vice versa. In case you are wondering what I am talking about read my review "Experience with National Tyres and Autocare". It was about my experience with their branch at Gosford Street, Coventry.

I wanted to make sure that it was just one branch and not all branches cheating customers. This time I decided to try out their branch at Spon End, Coventry. However, I called them first to make sure whether their wheel alignment was only £12.50 as advertised. When I received an answer in the affirmative, I drove down to their workshop.

They checked my Volvo and I found out that I had to change one of the Tyres. This cost me £44 for a Tigar Prima (one of the cheapest). The final cost came to £62/

I was quite surprised when I found out that they had given me a further discount of £5/ which was quite welcome. Of course, this was before the reductions in VAT was announced.

More info about the branch is given below:

National Tyres and Autocare
70 Spon End, Coventry, CV1 3HA
Phone: 02476674206

Monday - Friday: 8.30am - 6.00pm
Saturday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Sunday: 10am-4pm

Battery down

Last weekend we were all set to go to Bristol for a day trip - all got into the car, TomTom ready and then the car refused to start. It was really frustrating. I suspected a run down battery but wa snot sure as I could still use the locking remote.

Waited till Monday this week. Called up RAC. A guy turned up promptly in less than an hour. He confirmed that the battery was down. Used his van to recharge the battery and my car started up without any problems. His diagnosis - "change the battery". They do sell batteries but it was way too costly - around £90.

Called up my regular workshop and they said they could replace it for a new one for only £75/

I decided to check out the workshop Ace Auto Parts and Accessories on the way to my son's nursery. Was really surprised when I found out that a brand new batter would cost me only £55/ inclusive of labour. The guy was friendly and had the battery changed in a couple of minutes.

Also noticed that they do battery, brakes and exhaust checks for free. Maybe later.

Here's the address:
Ace Auto Parts and Accessories
103, Radford Road, Radford
Coventry CV6 3BQ
Tel: 024 76601006

Finding a repair shop with RepairPal

If you are a conscientious car owner like me, I am sure you have at one time or the other faced the problem of finding a suitable garage to repair or service your car.

Unless money is not an issue, it can really be time consuming and stressful to find a repair shop. One site in the US that is getting a lot of attention is RepairPal. Set up by a couple of auto enthusiasts and entrepreneurs in California, to make it easier for car owners to access a comprehensive auto shop directory and more. Their encyclopaedia page is filled with a lot of useful explanations of car related terms. Found it really useful.

You can get fair auto repair estimates in a few steps by choosing your car make, model, year, the service type you are interested in (for example, Timing belt replacement) and finally providing your zip code. Customers can then rate the shops as per their experience.

Signing up allows you to access a number of features including a place to maintain your car records. The will even email you when your car service is due. Definitely a useful site for all car owners.

Buying from a used car dealer

A few friends are looking to upgrade their cars and having read my review of Station Garage in Balsall Common, were asking my opinion on various options available.

Buying a used car is always a gamble. There are usually three reasons a person sells of a car:
1. Upgrading to a new car
2. Financial problems &
3. Some problems with the car.

More often than not, it is usually the third reason. So be very careful when buying a used car. Used car dealers are usually costlier than private sellers. However, most usually offer some kind of warranty or the other. Take Station Garage for example. Their main selling point is the fact that they offer 12 months warranty on their cars and 12 months MOT as well. However, I have to be honest.

I am not really happy with the garage. I specifically requested them to change one of the back tyres and to top up the engine oil as I found out that it was quite low. They did change the tyre and topped up the oil as well. You will notice that I say "topped up" and not "change". That's because they simply topped up the engine oil with some used oil. Some of my other friends confirmed this as well.

I am not sure why they did this but it really lowered my evaluation of the garage. I stopped recommending them after I found out about the oil. Going to have to go for a full service soon because I am not really sure what they meant by "car serviced" and what they did with the car now. That's what happens when customer don't trust a company any more.

Satisfied customers will usually recommend the company and help bring in new customers. On the other hand, unsatisfied customers will spread the bad news even more, more so when they happen to be bloggers.

Reviews of garages / workshops in Coventry

Hollis Road garage - MOT

KNS Autoparts Ltd, Foleshill - Car Repair/Ford Specialist

National Tyres and Autocare, Gosford Street - Tyres

Station Garage Coventry, Ballsal Common - Used Car and Servicing

Taxi & car repairs, Stoney Stanton - Car Repair and Servicing

TPS Autos Ltd, Foleshill - Car Repair/ MOT

Review of KNS Autoparts - Ford specialists in Coventry

After I bought the Volvo from Station Garage, I was wondering what to do with our old Ford Escort. Read my post "Ryanair to La Rochelle" in case you are wondering what happened to the car.



I had made up my mind to sell it as scrap as almost everyone I had talked to had convinced me that it was not worth trying to fix - "The cost would be more than it was worth".

Looked up the local newspaper and called up some scrap dealers, enquiring how much they could give me for the car. The maximum offer I got was £100. That was ridiculous considering the fact that the new Barum tyres I had fitted recently cost me £45.

I then checked with my favourite garage - Taxi & car repairs. Unfortunately Mr. Isfaq told me that he doesn't do engine repairs. There's one guy whom most Malaysians living in Coventry send their Mercedes Benz cars for repairs. He told me that it would cost me a minium of £500 to fix the head gasket. That was the same amount that he had charged my friend Ihsan for a similar problem with his car as well. Considering the fact that Ihsan's car was a Mercedes and mine, a Ford Escort, I certainly expected him to charge me less.

By that stage, I really didn't know what to do and had made up my mind to sell off the parts bit by bit on eBay when one of my friends told me to try KNS Autoparts Ltd in Lockhurst Lane. They are specialised in Ford cars.

I didn't really have any high hopes but I called them up anyway. Chris picked up the phone and I described my car and the problem. I couldn't believe it when he told me that he could fix the car and that it would cost me only £300 plus VAT. Of course I readily agreed. They were even willing to tow the car to their garage Free-of-charge.

So I gave them my car keys, told them where it was parked and went off on my holiday to France.

Called them up yesterday morning. Chris replied saying that the car was fixed and I could pick it up anytime. I was actually expecting him to tell me that the car needed more work and that it would mean more money. A lot of dishonest garages do that.

Altogether it cost me £352.50 (inclusive of VAT). It may be my imagination but the ride feels much smoother than before. Of course, it's been just one day but I am impressed with the work the guys at KNS Autoparts have done. Chris told me that I could bring back the car if it has any problems.

If you are in Coventry and have a problem with your old Ford Escort, you know where to go now.

The garage is located at 187, Lockhurst Lane, Foleshill, CV6 5NQ, Coventry.
Tel: 024 7658 1798

Experience with National Tyres and Autocare

I needed to change my tyres and was quite excited when I found out that National Tyres and Autocare was offering two tyres for the price of one. As they say, "if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is." Found that their promotions and offers are quite misleading.


They have two branches here in Coventry and I went to the one in Gosford Street, near Coventry University.





Found out that the "Buy one tyre, get one free" offer is not available for my car tyre size. I only had one replaced - a Barum Bravuris tyre (195 / 50 R 15 82V) costing £45/

It's not that bad considering that I had one tyre changed at the "New Cheap Tyres" shop on Stoney Stanton road. It cost the same for a no-brand Chinese made tyre (the cheapest according to them).

Coming back to the National tyres shop, I wanted to take advantage of their Wheel alignment offer - only £11 according to the coupon. However, when I asked the guy in charge, he said that it will cost me £15. Of course, it's a difference of only £4/ but I do feel like he was trying to take advantage. Another thing that reinforced this suspicion was when he told me that the 2 rear tyres needed to be changed as well. It's obvious I am a foreigner here, but I am not stupid. They still have good thread depths. The minimum legal thread depth is 1.6 mm in the UK while on the tyres on my car, they are between 2.5 to 3mm.

the only positive thing I can say is that the whole process of changing to the new tyres was that I didn't have to wait too long and it was relatively fast. I also got Tesco clubcard points.

That's another shop I won't be going back to. I am not so sure about their other branch at Spon End.

Private Fleet - Australian car buying site

I recently got to know about Private Fleet, an Australian auto broker which has been in business for nearly seven years. Though the company is based in Chatswood, New South Walesr, Private Fleet is affiliated with over 600 dealers all over Australia.

First impression of the site was quite good. With a neat and tidy layout and unlike other car sites, the page is not littered with ads.

Getting a quote is fairly simple (you will notice I didn't say "on their site"). Read on and you will understand what I mean.

All you have to do is choose a make and model. Fill in your post code and hit the "Get a quote" button. You will then be taken to another page were you would have to fill in a few details. If you are looking for a used car, you will have to fill in a few more details and you are done.

I tried it and got the message

"We look forward to dealing with your enquiry and being of assistance in the purchase of your new or used car.
We will contact you shortly (generally within 24 business hours)..."

and so on. Personally, I would have preferred a results page with all available cars listed with pictures and all necessary information, including the price.

I know I said the site was neat and tidy but it sure could could do with some brightening up. Pictures of flashy cars won't hurt. I also suggest putting up a link to an "About us" page on the navigation rather than from a link in the text. Trust me, customers like to know who they are dealing with especially in an online environment. Having said that, they have some great testimonials from their customers including some great reviews by Naomi Robson from Today Tonight, Channel 7 and Hoyle from The Age Newspaper.

As a car fanatic, I found the site quite interesting. They have loads of information on cars including brief history of different brands and cars reviews. Do check out the site.

GPS tracking company

If your company uses a number of vehicles for any purpose, a reliable GPS system is absolutely necessary to track all of them. Most companies who have installed a GPS system in their vehicles are usually for navigation and security reasons.

After reading about the GPS Insight vehicle tracking system provided by GPS Insight, I got to learn about the other benefits of installing and implementing a GPS system. This includes able to calculate routing efficiencies, fuel savings and not paying for labour when the drivers are not really working.

I found their Blog for GPS vehicle tracking really informative. According to one of their latest posts, collecting GPS data might not be enough. The data needs to be collated into something quantifiable in order for it to be useful to the companies. Using the example of a large trash hauling operation in Denver, it is shown how they are able to come up with useful information from the tremendous amount of data generated, such as :

• How many trips per truck
• Average stopped time
• Average to & from times
• Exceptions

I guess this is what differentiates them from other GPS providers, which just fit you up with GPS hardware and software or just generates data from your activities and leaves it up to you to interpret them.

Based in Arizona, the corporation has been providing custom navigation, and messaging solutions to their customers' for over 3 years. They target the service and trucking companies, such as HVAC, sales forces, delivery vehicles, long haul trucking, etc. With a customer base of several hundred customers, and several thousand vehicles, they are spread throughout all 50 states in the US.

Their solutions include both GPS hardware products as well as web software-based technology and usability enhancements including Google Earth integration, routing, customizations, alerts, specialized reports, ERP integration, and data warehousing, etc. Customers will be able to obtain direct engine diagnostics so that an operator can obtain fault codes, speed, fuel consumption, odometer readings, idle time, etc., along with 2 minute updates. The great thing is that each system is customized so that customers get the best solution for their needs. I really like their idea of having GPS Insight support wiki for customers. This includes general information about their system plus support information and helpful tips.

Their system costs about $34.95 per vehicle per month (approximately US$1.50-2 per day per vehicle). For more pricing options in details, check out their pricing page. The fact that GPS Insight offers a 30 day money back guarantee on commercial sales, are often willing to offer "free trials" in local markets shows how confident they are with what they have to offer.

Review of the RHD Japan site

Presently there's a lot of interest in Japanese imported cars all around the World, thanks to movies like The Fast and the Furious (2001), Initial D (2005) and the like. So if you into fast Japanese cars, you might find this review interesting.

Recently, I got to know about RHD Japan, an international supplier of quality Japanese performance car parts. The Japanese company was founded in 1999 by Patrick Antell and Russell Hobbs. Since then they have been supplying quality JDM or Japanese domestic market parts to customers in over 80 countries around the Globe. I later learned that their business is recognised by the Japanese Legal Affairs Bureau as a Limited Liability Corporation (YK). They guarantee the absolute best quality service and supply of Japanese racing parts from Japan.

Going to their website, I quite liked the fact that they had taken the bandwidth of their customers into consideration. So you have the choice of entering either a high bandwidth or a low bandwidth version of their site. The only difference is that the latter has less graphics and it does definitely load much faster.

I liked the layout and look of the site. Almost everything that I usually look for in a e-commerce site are all there - including an "about us" page, FAQ, payment methods and ability to search products. The site is also secure and verified by Verisign.

One important piece of new information that I learnt from their site was that JDM parts suppliers now require legal documentation called the “Kobutsusho”. Not having the mentioned documentations can result in serious problems with the authorities. I have never come across any site of other JDM parts suppliers that mentioned this document. Thanks for the info guys.

Prices of the products are based on the location of the customer and you would need to register in order to find out the correct shipped price for each product.

Signing in does give you some extra features. For example, you will get detailed descriptions of each product plus the shipped price. Clicking on the "give me a deal" button on the top will entitles you to a discount on 3 products picked at random, for the car you choose when you signed up. You are entitled to this discount for different products once every month.


Some improvements I would like on the site:

Design:
In the low bandwidth site, the side bar is quite long and it's quite odd to see a lot of white empty space below the new products listed. A drop-down script should solve that. The higher bandwidth site doesn't have this problem.

Extra information:
Instead of putting the shipping info inside the terms and conditions page, probably they could have a separate shipping page and clearly spell out all the details necessary for overseas shipping. I would also recommend that they put up a Privacy & Security page. Even though they have a Verisign button up on the home page, it wouldn't do any harm to reassure the customers even more.

Search:
I found the search engine to be quite simple. Customers would definitely welcome one with more options such as product type, brand, etc.

Other, than that, there's nothing much I would change about the site. Even if you are not planning to buy anything, check out their Gallery. They have loads of original pictures of automobile parts, along with descriptions of the products. Don't blame me if you find yourself drooling on your keyboard.

Win a T-shirt and get featured too

If you think you car is outstanding, write about it on your blog and you stand a chance of winning a cool looking t-shirt from importtuner.com. At the same time, winners would have their entry featured in an article about your ride. The contest is called the "Import Tuner Ride of the Month" and runs till 5 p.m. PST 22nd of May this year. Voting starts from that date till the 31st of May. The contest winners will be announced in late June.

Entering the contest is quite easy and involves four steps. First of all, you have to fill in your contact information. Unlike some other contests on the net, here you can specify the shirt size. You won't be stuck with a large one size fits all shirt.

In the next step, you enter the vehicle, and fill in details about your vehicle. You then upload pictures of your car. I like the fact that the images will be resized and/or cropped automatically to a 112x80 Thumbnail and a 400x300 large sized image.

Finally you hit the "Submit my ride" button and you are done.

The web page looks cool but I noticed that there is are a few things they could do to improve it even more. First of all, the picture "View contest entries" on the top right hand side of the banner may be a bit misleading as there is no link present.

Also noticed that the contest is targeted to Americans ONLY as the contact information does not have a "Country" option. Putting in a line saying "For visitors from the US only" would be advisable.

For your information, Import Tuner is a is a PRIMEDIA publication. This magazine focuses on modified / modifying cars imported to the US.

Sponsored post

Car classifieds for charity

AutoCity101.com is a free car classifieds site offering both new and Used Cars For Sale.

You might ask, "So! There are a lot of free car classifieds websites out there, what's so unique about this site?"

Well! This website was started with a noble goal in mind. While other sites are out for the big green and monetary gain, this classifieds site aims to raise funds for the building of an orphanage network. The profits from this site will be used to develop this network that will begin in Mexico and one day expand worldwide. The orphanage in Mexico called Natalia's House, is scheduled to break ground later this year.

However, that's not all the site also has links to car reviews, gas prices in different parts of the US and Canada, as well as free pictures of cars that you can use as wallpaper for your desktop.

I am more than happy to spread the news of this nice cause.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.