green living, smart spending
Use your nose to avoid big car repair costs. Your sense of smell can help you avoid car trouble. Simply, paying attention now to strange smells from under the hood or from under the car can be the difference between a fast, inexpensive fix now or a costly repair later, or even mechanical failure or
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The massive winter storm and below-zero weather moving across the US right now is a good time to be reminded about the dangers of driving in snow, ice and black ice and low visibility or white-out conditions. Winter driving requires more space between you and the vehicle ahead, more attention to changeable road conditions, more
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If you are making New Year’s resolutions for 2023, add some that will keep you safe and prevent accidents. Here are my New Year’s resolutions for safe driving, which I invite you to make your own. Driving safety starts in the driveway or garage. Check the tires for proper inflation. Make sure there is enough
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The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic is GM’s newest addition to what’s called the 40 Plus mileage club. The 2012 Chevrolet Sonic delivers an EPA-estimated 40 mpg on the highway, it’s fun to drive, and has a starting price of just $14,995. No wonder sales of this well-designed subcompact are booming. Also, it just happens to be
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The 2012 Nissan Versa is the least expensive car in North America, with a starting price of just $10,990 MSRP and a budget-saving fuel economy of 33 mpg combined city/highway. Now that I have your attention — The 2012 Nissan Versa is no upholstered roller skate, no stripped-down entry-level tin can that you’d be embarrassed
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The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle is an icon, a bargain, and fuel efficient,too. The redesigned third generation of the classic “people’s car” will start at just $18,995, for a stylish, sporty, four-passenger car that’s fun to drive , and loaded with what I call creature features. The 2.5 liter base model has a 170-horsepower in-line five-cylinder engine
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Some people say it’s funny looking, but there’s nothing funny about the price of the 2011 Nissan Juke crossover — $19,570 MSRP for a model with the handline and perfomance of a sports car and the cargo space of an SUV. The 2011 Nissan Juke offers a sporty driving position and handling, thanks to a
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The all-new 2011 Kia Optima has been collecting notable awards that would be impressive even for a sedan that costs a good bit more than this class-leading, family friendly, fuel efficient sedan with a starting price of $18,995. Most important for my money is that the 2011 Kia Optima is the first Korean-built vehicle to
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Simply, the 2011 VW Jetta is great car. This is a family-friendly, budget-friendly sedan that does double duty as a peformance sedan. This all-new, redesigned model is precision German engineering and safety features, lots of cabin and cargo space, and what I call ‘creature features’. Combine that with fuel economy of up to 42
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For the eleventh year in a row, Honda is the most green, most fuel efficient car company in the world. That’s the word from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), which rates five Honda models as among the “greenest vehicles of 2011” . The greenest, most fuel efficient of them all is the
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