Insurance
September 15, 2011 | 
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The present times are not easy for many people financially due to the global economic meltdown and widespread job cuts in every country. Saving as much money as possible in every expense segment becomes quite imperative for everyone now. One of the crucial areas where a fair amount of money could be saved is car insurance. For people who own a car, the annual car insurance premiums form a significant portion of the yearly budget. Since a car is part of the modern lifestyle, you would not be able to escape car insurance but you could easily reduce its impact on your financial resources, if you follow a few simple tips for saving on car insurance.
Combine Health Insurance and Auto Insurance
If you would be able to prove to your auto insurance company that you are in great health condition, then the insurance premium rate quoted by the insurer would be much lower. A healthy person is much less likely to be adversely affected in an accident than a sick person. When you combine your health insurance with your auto insurance, you would be able to do away with coverages like medical coverage and personal injury protection or PIP. This would result in a substantially lower premium on your auto insurance. Wherever possible, link your health insurance with auto insurance and you would find that your auto insurance costs are much lesser.
One other important point in auto insurance is the recommendation by the insurance agents about roadside assistance. They would try to frighten you that you could be stranded on the road for hours due to a minor fault and immediate help might not be forthcoming. The extra cost for this facility in your insurance policy could amount to another $60 or $90. When cell phones had become personal possessions now, you could save this money easily by storing the phone numbers of auto service stations in the areas that you are likely to frequent.
Your credit score is taken seriously by auto insurance companies. If you are paying your bills promptly, your higher credit record would enhance your chances of obtaining lower premiums on your car insurance. As such, you should continuously strive to improve your credit score by paying your bills and other debt payments in time.
Higher deductibles do play an important role in the quotes offered by the insurance companies. If you opt for a higher deductible, you would be able to compensate it by the savings on the reduced monthly insurance premiums.
If possible, try car pooling and public transport as much as possible. The less you drive each day, the lower the premium offered by the insurance companies. If you would be able to prove to the insurer that you would not be using your car too much, then it would create a huge impression and would result in substantial savings in car insurance rates. This would also save you money on your fuel and maintenance charges for your car, resulting in a significant overall savings.
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Twice before, we’ve pitted vehicles against similar-sounding products, people, places, and things. In previous battles, the
, and
played to a draw. Here we present Round 3 of Cars Versus Stuff.
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Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic restaurants.
Chevy says its will be cool, but you have a better chance of getting lucky if you have your date over to play Sega Genesis and scarf tater tots and limeade.
A used Corvette.
Just embrace your midlife crisis.
Draw.
Neither exists in the material world.
Ice Cube.
Softening or not, we still don’t want to piss off a guy with friends named after guns.
Optimus Prime.
has never been on a lunchbox.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q4/cars_versus_similarly_named_stuff_round_3-feature
Of the seven Maserati brothers, six became renowned mechanics and engineers. The black sheep of the family—Mario—instead became a painter, although he left an indelible mark on the marque. Wandering about Bologna’s main square one day, Mario came face to face with a statue of Neptune, whose barbed trident he promptly expropriated as the logo for his brothers’ first car, the 1926 eight-cylinder Tipo 26.
Why Mario would associate a racing car with the Roman god of the sea is one of those synaptic misfires mostly appreciated by liberal-arts majors. But it proved a good choice. By the time the brothers introduced their stunning A6GCS road car, Maserati automobiles had become associated with a distinctive concave grille with chrome vertical fillets, lending their products the countenance of a jawfish gagging on tadpoles.
Voil!
The marine connection was complete.
Fast-forward to 2008. Were Mario still painting today, he’d fling his palette in joy to behold an identical aquatically themed grille, with huge chrome trident still attached, adorning Maserati’s latest, greatest luxo-coupe. The GranTurismo is a Maserati Quattroporte with two fewer doors, a 4.8-inch shortening of the wheelbase, and Pininfarina styling so seductive that the kid running the Ann Arbor carwash wouldn’t afford passage until he photographed it with his cell phone.
Apart from its Joe E. Brown mouth, which half our staff thinks is too large, this four-passenger coupe is the quintessence of Italian flash and panache. Its airy cockpit smells like the tack room at Balmoral, chockablock, as it is, with a sumptuous festival of buttery cowhides and burled walnut. Each chunk of wood trim is whole, rather than an amalgam of glued-together pieces. The leather is stitched with thick threads of a starkly contrasting hue, a ploy to draw your eye. Ten shades of skins are on offer, and they can be endlessly mixed and matched to upholster seats, dash, parcel shelf, trunk, steering wheel, shifter, and headliner. Maserati North America PR manager Jeff Ehoodin reckons there might be “four million combinations.” If you spent one minute studying each, then selecting your GranTurismo’s interior could require 2778 days. The Brembo brake calipers come in six colors. “A different shade at each corner?” we inquired. “No problem,” replied Ehoodin, although special orders require a four-month wait.
To access the rear seats, you pull a chrome knob on the front seatbacks, which then glide forward in silence. Climbing into the rear is easier than it looks, and an adult can semicomfortably pass time back there for about an hour—more than can be said of a
rear seats—but it’s like sitting in a dark cistern. On the other hand, it’s no more claustrophobic than the back half of a Mustang’s cabin.
The trunk is small—roughly 14 inches deep, 42 inches wide, and 23 inches long. Supposedly, it will hold a bag of clubs, although maybe not the latest 45-inch drivers. Perhaps Maserati meant miniature golf. The cockpit contains only two substandard items: the radio’s plasticky faceplate and a bone-white accelerator scuff plate that is in jarring contrast with the rich black carpet.
Happily, ergonomics are mostly the antithesis of Italian tradition. The driver sits in proper relationship with primary and secondary controls, although the signal and wiper stalks were a little too far from our fingertips. Also, if you like “gettin’ up on the wheel,” as they do in NASCAR, your right leg will rub the transmission tunnel. Luckily, the steering wheel is widely adjustable for reach and rake.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/08q2/2008_maserati_granturismo-road_test