From Autoblog: Study: Cheaper cars are more expensive to insure

This makes no sense!! (OK, it does, but still!!!)
So basically, don’t buy too cheap of a car?! o.O
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2012 Honda Civic

Life is not fair. That’s about the only rational explanation we can offer for this little fact of life: A low MSRP is likely to mean big insurance payments.

Citing information from Insure.com, MarketWatch says the average price to insure a 2012 Honda Civic sedan, for instance, is about $2,353 per year, while a 2012 Toyota Sienna will run only $1,111 annually. The least expensive vehicles to insure tend to be relatively large vehicles, like minivans, trucks and SUV’s, according to the report. Even though those vehicles tend to be much more expensive than compact cars, they also tend to be driven by older, safer drivers.

Don’t think this is just a case of the rich getting richer, however, as expensive luxury and sports cars are none too cheap to insure either. The 2012 Audi R8 Spyder topped the Insure.com list of most expensive vehicles to insure at $3,384 per year. The Sienna had the lowest average insurance cost in the study, followed by the Jeep Patriot and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Insure.com’s editorial director, Amy Danise, told MarketWatch that the savings some people think they’re getting by buying small could evaporate because of the higher insurance premiums. Her advice to keep premiums low? “Buy the minivan, move to the farm, only drive it locally and make sure you never have an accident or kids,” she said.

I think we’ll just keep writing those checks to AAA instead.

 

from Autoblog

From Autoblog: Report: California woman wins Civic Hybrid lawsuit against Honda

Score 1 for the little people (aka. me)!
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Heather Peters sued Honda in small-claims court in Torrance, California over the gas mileage she was getting in her Honda Civic Hybrid, which was around 20 miles per gallon less than Honda had advertised. After two days of testimony, Commissioner Doug Carnahan sent his 26-page decision to both Peters and Honda, with a ruling in favor of Peters and $9,687 awarded in damages. That’s just short of the $10,000 maximum that can be won in small-claims court.

In the decision, Carnahan wrote “At a bare minimum Honda was aware … that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage.” He went further, indicating that he found Honda to have committed fraud, but not intentional fraud.

According to a report in the Associated Press, Honda’s EPA certification engineer said Honda “was required to post a sticker with the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate of the highest mileage the car could get.” (In a previous report from Automotive.com he was characterized as saying that “automakers had no option but to adhere to the federal testing procedures.”) While that claim was shot down by earlier precedent where it was shown that automakers had cited lower fuel economy numbers than the EPA in their advertising and marketing, it will be interesting to see whether this line in Carnahan’s decision comes up again: “Honda’s own testing should be the guideline for how it advertises its vehicles’ mileages, not the generalized work … done by the EPA.”

And we can be certain it will since Honda has already stated its intention to appeal. And because the appeal will be held in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the way has been cleared for Honda to get its lawyers in the courtroom.

This gives other plaintiffs in the class action suit over Civic Hybrid mileage an option as to how to proceed. The last day to sign onto the settlement of that earlier suit is February 11, however, even if that case remains unfinished; a judge in San Diego won’t rule until March on whether that settlement, which would see plaintiffs get a $100 to $200 and $1,000 discount on a new Honda and trial attorneys get $8.5 million, is fair.

California woman wins Civic Hybrid lawsuit against Honda originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Autoblog

From Gizmodo: How Do You Police Cars That Drive Themselves?

Good question… We should ponder things like this BEFORE it hits us big…

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Google is already testing its autonomous cars on the roads of California, and plenty of other manufacturers are starting to muscle in on the act, too. But when they hit the roads, how do you go about policing a city full of self-driven cars? More »
from Gizmodo

San Francisco Tour with Peter

It’s been a while since I had visited the Bay Area so I took the Saturday to (re)visit the area.  First of all, someone should’ve told me that it is PACKED with traffic!  The traffic in Houston was NOTHING compared to the Bay Area!  Second, that the parking would be horrendous!  I wanted to visit the Coit Tower but ended up parking way off and walk up to the tower.

 

That’s Coit Tower in the center…

The hills really ARE steep in San Francisco!

 

 

That’s Alcatraz, the infamous prison island…

 

The views are simply breathtaking!  It’s true that San Francisco is a beautiful city… I don’t deny that at all…

 

It is as hilly as it seems from this view!

View on my way down…

 

Coit Tower from the bottom…

And who can forget the (overrated) Golden Gate Bridget?!  😛

And driving across it…

And I got to drink lots of great coffee!

And I got to see my cousins… This is my cousin Michelle and her family…

 

And this is Sunny and their daughter…

Please Drive Safely! – My Public Service

The following video is NOT for the faint of heart!  Some are created and some footages are REAL!  DO NOT let kids watch this and if you have kids, you may NOT wish to see this!  If you don’t drive safely, or pay attention while driving ’cause you are texting or whatever, consider this your last and big warning…

I myself am going to slow down and pay attention more from now on… This video can be very traumatic!  So you’ve been warned!

My Secret Dream of the Past: Rally Racing

Yes, you read that right.  After reading about this Suzuki SX4 winning the famous Pike’s Peak rally racing, I was reminded of my secret dream of my past (and still present).  Ever since high school years, I developed serious interest in cars.  And racing.

No, I don’t have any racing experience.  I wish.  It’s an expensive career to get into.  You gotta start as an amateur and you need serious cash to get started.  So obviously, I never got into it.  If JJ wants to become one and has the means to do it, I’m very tempted to encrouage him!  😮  But it’s not just any racing that I’m interested in… it’s the rally racing.  Why?  It’s because I find track racing too… boring.  You drive around the same track over and over and scenery doesn’t change.  What’s the fun in that?!  Enter the rally racing and it’s a constant change of scenery and roads!  That’s why you need a co-driver in rally racing… one who navigates each turns and plans ahead!

Shucks… At this point in time of my life, I’d be happy to just drive through one course one time.  🙁