Topics
Purchasing a car
Topics
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Before you buy your car, you should know the dealer cost of a new car or the market value of a used car. An excellent place to get this information is Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides. This web site is chock full of information and suggestions for car buyers. A good site to spec out various automobiles based on criteria such as price range, type of car, make, model, etc., as well as see pictures of the various models, is DealerNet . The Autopedia Web site provides a potpourri of automotive related information and is worth checking out. Consumer Reports has car ratings and evaluations on their web site. Once you have decided on the car you want, you may need to arrange financing. The Bank Rate Monitor web site has an Auto Loan Watch page where you can look up the current rates offered by various banks. There are numerous Web sites devoted to helping you purchase your next car. Yahoo has an excellent collection of links for Automotive Buyer's Services.
As many of us are painfully aware, auto insurance for NY residents, especially those in NYC , is expensive. The yearly cost of auto insurance policies can literally be several hundred to a thousand dollars difference between insurance companies depending on your driving record and the kind of car you drive. The Autopedia web site provides an excellent illustration of this disparity between companies on their Auto Insurance Check-Up page. Consumer Reports can help you to shop around for the best rates with their fee based Auto Insurance Price Comparison Service. Once you have determined which companies you are interested in using, then you may want to do a little research on them. You can obtain Claim-Paying Ability Ratings from the Insurance Ratings section of the Insurance News Network web site. You should also take a look at their New York Auto Insurance section. The New York State Insurance Department web site has online publications that include auto insurer complaint rankings, auto insurance rate tables, and a consumer guide.
Anyone who has ever had to park their car in NYC, especially in Manhattan, knows what a pain it can be. There simply aren't enough parking spaces. Sunday is the best day to find on-the-street parking, since most meters and parking rules are suspended. On other days, drivers have to contend with alternate side parking rules. These rules are suspended on a number of holidays, which can be found in the Alternate Side Parking Regulations Calendar on the NYC Department of Transportation web site. One annoying fact of life for anyone who parks their car on the street is that eventually you will get parking tickets. The NYC Parking Pal web site sells products to help you avoid them and has an informative page on Top Ten Automatic Dismissals of Defective Tickets. The How to Fight a Parking Ticket page on the NYC Insider web site tells you how to easily get parking tickets dismissed. This page mentions a book I have successfully used and recommend: How to Beat a Parking Ticket - NYC Edition, a pamphlet-sized guide currently available from Barnes & Noble for $3.95 in their stores. For some reason, it is more expensive to order this item from their web site.
NY drivers have to contend with traffic jams, road construction, and detours. For immediate driving condition information, tune into one of the news radio stations. In the NYC metro area, two stations I recommend are: WINS-AM 1010 with traffic reports every ten minutes "on the ones"( i.e :01, :11, :21, etc), and WCBS-AM 880 with traffic reports on the eights. On the Web, visit MetroCommute for current traffic information. Learning alternate routes and shortcuts can make your driving experience easier. New York Shortcuts and Traffic Tips is a very useful guidebook by Sam Schwartz, former chief of New York's Traffic Bureau and author of the daily Gridlock Sam traffic column for the New York Daily News. For driving directions, I have found MapQuest to be the best overall, even giving exit numbers on highways. However, sometimes it can fall short on directions on the last 1/2 mile to your destination. In that case, I have found that MapBlast will give more complete end-to-end directions.
Obviously, its important to drive safely. However, there are roads in the NY metro area where the speed limit is too low relative to the prevailing speed of most motorists . A personal example of mine is the Belt parkway in Brooklyn. Avoiding speeding tickets is a concern for many drivers, who may be driving safely, but above the speed limit. Knowing where speed traps are is useful. You can find such information on the New York Speed Traps page of the The WWW Speedtrap Registry. Radar detectors may be able to help you avoid tickets. The Radar Detector FAQ contains a wealth of information about them, as well as a number of useful web links. If you are going to use a radar detector, you may want to check Mobile Scanner & Radar Detector Laws (detectors ARE legal for cars in NY). A step up from radar detectors are radar and laser jammers. Speed Labs is a company that has made a business out of independently evaluating radar/laser detectors and jammers. Their tests indicate that the only effective radar jammer is the Phantom RCD Radar Jammer (this product is no longer offered for sale). The other radar jamming products commonly offered in magazines and catalogs do NOT work as advertised! See the Radar Jamming article on the Radar & Laser Detection Systems web site. Of the laser jammers tested by Speed Labs, the top three rated products were the Blinder Laser Jammer, Laser Buster, and K40 Laser DefuserPlus. An important feature these units have that others don't, is an alarm that warns you when you are being targeted by a police laser speed gun - allowing you to adjust your speed. If you blow by a cop obviously exceeding the speed limit, no jammer will save you.
Insurance companies make a distinction with speeding tickets on whether you were going more than 15 MPH over the speed limit - act accordingly. If you are pulled over by a cop for a traffic violation, you want to keep both hands on the wheel (where he can see them) and maintain a polite, respectful attitude. When he asks for your license and registration, and before he writes a ticket, is the time for you to try to talk your way out of a ticket. However, NEVER ADMIT YOUR GUILT! He may ask if you know what the speed limit is and how fast you were going. If you answer these questions and admit that you knowingly violated the speed limit, then you have basically convicted yourself of the violation and would have a tough time in traffic court. Do not answer such questions directly. Instead, you may want to answer his questions with questions or give excuses that do not admit guilt. NEVER PLEAD GUILTY TO A TRAFFIC TICKET! Instead, take it to traffic court. A New York Post article found that two out of three city motorists who challenge their tickets in traffic court win! Having more than one moving violation within three years will lead your insurance company to jack up their rates, costing you several hundred or more dollars per year in extra charges for the next THREE years! Calculate this cost against the cost of taking a day off work for traffic court. In addition, being convicted of a moving violation costs money in fines and adds points to your driving record that can lead to license suspension. There are plenty of resources to help you fight traffic tickets. Amazon.com has a number of books on fighting traffic tickets. The National Motorists Association web site has good information, and Yahoo has a useful collection of links on their Speeding web page. Ultimately, you may want to consider hiring a lawyer specializing in traffic law. You can locate such lawyers at SpeedingTicket.net or in the Yellow Pages under "Lawyers" in a section called "Guide of lawyers arranged by practice" under the heading "Vehicle & Traffic Law". Taking a Defensive Driving Course can remove up to 4 points from your driving record and give you a 10% reduction on your auto insurance liability and collision premiums. One thing that can be helpful if you are pulled over is showing that you support the efforts of police to keep the roads safe by proudly displaying a New York State Fraternal Order of Police decal on your car. If you would like to become an Active Supporter to support worthy causes such as their Anti-Drunk Driving campaign, you can join by calling their fundraising hotline at 800-800-1406.
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Last updated: 07/22/2006
