Car Insurance: Differences between Canadian and U.S.
July 29, 2008
All car insurance is the same, right? Wrong. Anyone from the United States moving to Canada or moving from Canada to the United States will find that car insurance in both countries is different. It may be hard to fathom how there can be variations in car insurance since there seems to be enough stipulations with car insurance the way it is but, being that the two countries are different, there are differences to be aware of.
Canadian car insurance basics
Let’s say you’re a U.S. Citizen moving to Canada. You know that in the United States you have an insurance card. In Canada, you do receive something similar that goes by a different name. It is called your Canadian Inter-Province Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Card, or your “pink card.” As far as how you use the card and carry it, it works the same in both countries, such as for showing proof of insurance upon request and using it in case of an accident.
However, the way injury claims are handled can vary based on the province. A good example of this is the fact that Quebec car insurance requires that injury claims are taken care of by a government program, rather than a private insurer. If the accident or the injury due to an accident takes place outside of Quebec, then that is when the private insurer takes care of the claim.
The Canadian government requires that private insurers within the territories and provinces have a standard set of terms and conditions available with the policy. This means that all terms and conditions will be consistent between all of the insurance companies. After this point, the provincial and territorial governments then set additional standards and what they decide to be the lowest limits available for liability coverage on the vehicle.
Another difference you will find between U.S. car insurance and Canadian car insurance is that Canadians do not receive printed policies when the insured is covered under a government insurer. The vehicle registration is actually proof of that insurance since the registration to the car cannot be drawn up without some kind of insurance being placed upon the vehicle.
U.S. Car Insurance Basics
Where Canada requires drivers to be insured by either a private insurer or a government insurer, the United States is chalk full of private insurers that are regulated by their respective states. It is required in most states than an individual carry at least some degree of liability insurance. Liability covers bodily injury liability. Many individuals who do not have liens on their vehicles will carry liability insurance because it is more cost effective than full coverage. Full coverage is required when there is a lien on the car. This usually means that the car is owned by a bank, such as when a person has acquired the car through financing and has not yet paid the car off.
Something else in the U.S. that is different than in Canada is that the Canadian Provinces of Manitoba, Quebec, and Saskatchewan do not allow an individual to sue for pain and suffering when a motor vehicle accident has occurred. The only way to do this is if any permanent disfigurement has occurred, severe disability, very severe mental or psychological damage, or death.
Similarities
Nevertheless, there are similarities between the insurance of both countries and that is the fact that there are many different deductibles and price ranges available. That means each person has their own policy that they carry that can be different than everyone else?s in terms of the rate, the deductible, and the coverage. Most importantly, both of these car insurance systems work to ensure the insured are taken care of.
A Spark Of Ingenuity - Powering The Future On Batteries
July 29, 2008
The idea of electric cars has not been developed recently, and in fact successful electric vehicles were being developed and manufactured back in the 1830s, with projects in the Netherlands, and in Scotland, achieving great success, with vehicles reaching speeds of up to 65 miles per hour. Mostly popular with ladies, the typical town vehicle was clean, quiet, needed no cranking to get started, and cruised at a comfortable 20 miles an hour. The gas powered cars were being outsold quite dramatically.
Perceptions of electric vehicles today tend to lurch from rickety old golf carts to the slightly absurd milk flats, but the truth is that electric cars today can easily out perform their gas powered counterparts. Not only can they outperform them, but they can do so at a fraction of the cost to both the consumer, and more importantly, the environment. For example, the new Tesla Roadster can leave the Ferrari Spider standing at the lights whilst gliding effortlessly past the Mercedes SL550, whilst costing about a cent per mile in the process. With a top speed of about 130 miles per hour and with a three hour charge sustaining a full 250 mile trip, this is anything but a milk float.
It isn’t just the fact that these electric vehicles produce lower gas emissions, they also produce far less noise pollution too - an often forgotten element of our gas powered vehicles. Some people who have lid comfortably into the driving seat of a sport electric car are shocked by the lack of noise, vibration and raw growl - and it has jokingly been suggested that speakers be installed in some of these models to simulate the growl of a familiar engine. On the flip side of the coin, some people have expressed concern that with almost silent cars nipping around town, there may be an increase in the number of children and elderly people injured on the roads, since the familiar clues of oncoming traffic will no longer be available.
It isn’t only the fact that those who buy and use electric powered vehicles can sleep easy at night knowing that they are doing their bit for the environment. To really be appealing to the average consumer it has to make financial sense as well as environmental sense, and in this regard electric vehicles can score very highly. For example, for a mere fraction of the cost of the average car you can purchase a G-Wiz, which sits snugly in the lowest bracket for road insurance, and is also exempt from road tax. With two hundred recharging stations across the UK, keeping it running is easy, and if you live in London there’s a huge advantage because you are allowed to park for free, as well as being exempt from the congestion charges. This alone can represent a saving of over 5,000 per year, which is more than the cost of the car!
On a larger scale, Israel has launched a scheme called Project Better Place and it is the intention of this scheme to make Israel completely oil free within just ten years. With half a million re-charging points across the country, and with top distances for vehicles between charges reaching two hundred kilometres - easily enough to travel from any point of Israel to any other within the country, this is a practical reality. The model being put forward is not unlike that for mobile phones, with the suggestion that the vehicles are given away free, and that instead of paying for fuel and tax in the normal way, drivers can choose various plans, such as pay-as-you-go options for recharging costs, to buying credit for unlimited mileage for a certain period of time, and so on.
As with any major change to long established consumer habits, there has to be enough demand to make the whole idea of replacing gas powered vehicles with electric ones, otherwise the finance is simply not going to be sufficient to enable change on any real scale. Most people are now aware that milk floats are not the be all and end all to such vehicles, and with films such as Minority Report showing Tom cruise tearing up the road in a sporty little electric Lexus, many people are starting to see that there are multiple advantages to the idea of switching over, and that there is no need whatever to sacrifice style for efficiency or even for the environment.
Many people have raised concerns regarding the apparent green option which electric vehicles represent, citing the fact that they still need to be charged, and that this electricity comes from power companies burning fossil fuels. This is not entirely true, as there are an increasing number of companies and facilities generating green energy, either partly or in full. However, even if the power does come from burning fossil fuels, there is still an advantage, since it’s all about the conversion ratio of fuel to energy. Burning fossil fuel in a car is highly inefficient, whereas using fossil fuel to generate electricity which is used for electric vehicles is a far more efficient use of that energy, and therefore will result in far less fossil fuel being required.
Picture a future that is smoke free, with no stinky gasses being belched from the back of cars driving past your street, and with no concerns regarding the waste of fuel whilst you sit idly at traffic lights or in a road jam. Although concerns have been raised that if we all arrived home at tea time and plugged our cars in we’d overload the grid, that has been demonstrated to be untrue, since at night the grid is very underused, and if we all turned to electric vehicles, the amount of energy used would be far less overall. Perhaps we can even foresee a time when the solar panels on our roof allow us to store energy through the day to re-charge our batteries at night.
Getting a Ticket in a Rental Car: Are there Additional Fines?
July 29, 2008
When driving a rental car, there is a question that looms in the mind of the renter. One of those questions is, “What happens if I get a ticket?” That is a very good question because the car is not in the renter’s name. The car is in the name of the rental car company. This means things can get a bit complicated, depending on the company that you’re using. Sure, it is simple to say that you just shouldn’t do anything to get a ticket. However, it isn’t always that easy.
Getting the ticket
So let’s say you get a parking ticket. You didn’t mean to. You just simply didn’t see a sign or parked at a parking meter and forgot to pay it. So you go home, write a check, and mail the payment for your ticket to the city. However, you find a couple weeks later that you receive a letter from the rental car company telling you the ticket has not been paid. You know you paid it, so you call the city and they tell you that they received the payment. You then call the rental car company and you find out that they will charge a fee to you for you having to pass their contact information to the city that has issued you the ticket. This is because it is then on their record that one of their cars received a parking ticket. The catch to this is the fact that the officer issuing the ticket has to take down the VIN and license plate numbers on the car, which are registered under the rental car company.
Sometimes, the only way a fee is assessed is if the car rental company pays the fee and then they pass on the cost to the customer. However, in an instance where you pay the ticket and the car rental company contacts you, chances are they have not checked to see if the ticket was paid. These companies receive thousands of tickets per day and do not have the manpower to check if each and every ticket was paid. When the municipality that issued the ticket contacts the rental car company about a citation, they automatically assume that the ticket was not paid. Sometimes you can fax a receipt from the original payment to the car rental company to have your money refunded. However, the car rental company will charge a fee.
If you receive a speeding ticket, then the penalty is against you and not the car you are driving. Your personal driver’s license is involved. The police do check the plates to ensure everything is in check, but it is you who has to pay the penalty and not the car rental company. In fact, the car rental company may not be notified that such a citation occurred in one of their cars. The only way is if something happens you do not pay your fine. If the car rental company has to get involved in that case, then you can expect some kind of additional cost.
Exceptions
There are no exceptions to parking tickets, but the one exception regarding a speeding ticket being against you and not the car is in the case you are caught speeding on camera. If the camera catches you speeding, the authorities use the license plate number to find out where to send the ticket. The rental car company gets the ticket. They may pay it, but will pass the cost and a fee on to you for taking care of it. Yes, it is good to be careful, but it is also good to know how you can be ticketed in a rental car just in case it happens to you.
Water Fuel Savers - Popularity Rises In Water Run Car Convention
July 29, 2008
If you are in the Southern California area, you are invited to Ozzie Freedom’s Water fuel “convention”, held every weekend in Van Nuys, CA. Each Saturday, Ozzie and a growing group of water-car enthusiasts get together to demo their vehicles, exchange stories, trade tips, and help others convert their cars too.
After getting to know a couple of the enthusiasts I really felt that I should be making some changes to my car soon. The venue itself was started by just 3 founder members and it didn’t take long though before hundreds of people were turning up with their water fuel saver cars and that is when things really began to develop. This is about the time when some people began to make accusations of it all being a scam, so a lot of those skeptics have now been able to see the results for themselves and there is always somebody willing to answer your questions.
The pioneering entrepreneur of the water fuel saver industry is without a doubt Ozzie who has been able to spread the word big time by just showing people first hand just how these gadgets work. This is the living proof that water can be used to fuel our cars even if it be partially and this new controversial industry really is tuned up to reduce our fuel cost. It will work out at less than $150 to complete your water fuel saver conversion and turn your car into an HHO run vehicle.
Is your car a poor mileage converter? Well this is a proven way to increase millage and Ozzie has demonstrated exactly how in his manual. Remember that he is out there every weekend hands on with people who want first hand knowledge and he really is an friendly honest man. This century will be remembered for the introduction of HHO gas and how this will lead for having a cleaner environment.
Co2 is most produced by cars that are more than 15 years old so it is really important to do something quick about this vehicle type. The only fuel saver technology available at present that could reverse this is HHO water fuel saver systems, so please spread the word around that we really can do something about this problem now.
This HHO technology is adaptable for any type of vehicle regardless of age or current fuel supply. HHO water fuel saver systems will produce you big savings with up to 40% off current fuel costs. HHO technology is there for everyone so check out the links below to get complete details about how it can benefit you.
Before Visiting the Nearest Hyundai Car Lot
July 29, 2008
At Hyundai of Tempe we like to sell Hyundais. They’re great vehicles; the current line up has something to offer every consumer no matter what they’re looking for. The wide variety makes our job a whole lot easier. So as a favor, we’re going to offer you a few tips to make your job as the car buyer a bit easier! If you do these things before you head out car shopping your experience will be a better, more comfortable one!
1. Sit down with your significant other (if applicable) and write down what you want in a new car. Each of you should make your own lists. Specify what features you need, what features you want, number of seats, general look of the vehicle, etc. Every aspect of a new car you can think of should be on the list.
2. Next step is to trade lists. Each of you look over the other’s list and see what you agree on and what you don’t agree on! Have this discussion at home. you need to walk onto the car lot with the same purpose in mind. So make sure you can somehow combine your two separate lists into one that you can both work off of when you’re looking for your new car.
3. You should get online and check out specials next. They’re the best way to get the best deal and the most current specials with all the applicable information are always available online!
4.After figuring out just what’s available through all the internet advertised specials and programs and deals, etc. you might have an even better idea of which model is going to be your best bet. Now you need to move on to price. Know what the best price and the median price is for the models you’re interested in before you go shopping so you have some idea when you’re being offered a great deal and when you’re not!
5. Lastly, you need to know what you are capable of paying each month. Unless you’re going to pay cash, you’ll be having a monthly payment in exchange for your new Hyundai! Figure out what you can afford and be sure to take into account the insurance rate changes that could occur, the amount of money (increase or decrease) that you’ll be spending on gas, etc. Then don’t be pressured to accept a payment that you can’t afford once you’re sitting down in the dealership’s financing department.
That’s the basics of what you should do before heading to the car lot! If you make sure you hit those 5 suggested actions you’ll feel confident when you walk on the lot that you’ll be able to get the vehicle you want and you’ll feel comfortable when you drive your new vehicle off the lot, as well!
Quick Facts of Hydrogen Gas Saver - HHO Generators
July 29, 2008
You no longer have to break your bank account for fuel expenses! With a water powered car, the massive annual savings from fuel costs and the healthy perks of a pollutant-free car will be yours.
Through the use of water combined with gas, you can boost up your mileage by 30 to 50%! Not to mention your engine?s life and power would be greatly lengthened. And the technology backing water powered cars are pretty simple and inexpensive.
The whole concept isn’t really a fresh one. Water powered cars which are using water ONLY as fuel are still on their way to being released and it will take time before they come. Now there are 2 serious reasons why that is.
First off, the oil and fuel businesses are preventing this and are doing the best they can to make the most out of the people’s need for fuel. Next, it would break the back on consumers as the expenses for these cars are massive!
Through properly combining water and fuel, your car will be free from carbon build ups, which are notoriously known for slowly killing your pistons, rings, and valves. That equates to better engine power and performance.
Get this ? combustion with the usual gasoline has been proven to be destructive for automotive parts.
Water is an excellent coolant. And if you use that in substitute for gas, your car’s parts won’t overheat and breakdown and you’ll enjoy smoother driving for a long time to come. And by the way, you no longer have to put up with a clanking engine.
Not to mention the trip to your destination will be way smoother than usual. You?re saving money not just on fuel costs BUT from repairs and replacement of you car parts as well.
Anybody, even those with zero technical knowledge, can convert their wheels to a water powered car, and it would NOT cost them more than $200! Why not give it a try? Your car and your pocket will surely love it!
Hydrogen Gas Savers - A Mini-Hydrogen Bomb?
July 29, 2008
Want to save loads of dollars monthly from ever-increasing fuel costs and see your car’s mileage increase? Hydrogen fuel cells are UNOPPOSED in this department.
“Yeah, rightBUT what about in the safety department?!” you might exclaim.
I PERFECTLY understand that fear of yours.
I mean isn’t hydrogen a substance that can obliterate earth when used for destructive purposes? You sure don’t want to be on the receiving end (inside your car).
HOWEVER, let’s squash that fear of yours and replace it with confidence - these so-called hydrogen gas savers are 100% natural and safe for everyone’s use.
Even inhaling it won’t do any harm to kids and adults alike as hydrogen is a natural gas.
Surely, safe doesn’t stand for “I can handle it even when I’m drunk”. Being careful with using hydrogen gas savers is a MUST. BUT it’s just as safe as your usual (and costly) gasoline.
So the gasoline boy can fill that tank with gasoline? So can you! And handling hydrogen gas savers is just as EASY.
A little amount of water PLUS the DIY manual for building hydrogen gas savers and generators, and you’re all set to super-charge your car with HHO (a.k.a. Brown’s gas) which is 3 times more powerful than ordinary fuel.
When it’s built, the gas saver will take care of getting your car on the road.
Here’s an important point you should remember, hydrogen gas savers isn’t filled with hydrogenso you don’t have to worry about your car exploding due to high amounts of this gas.
Instead, the generator, with the help your car’s battery, will initiate the electrolysis of water.
It will breakdown water into its basic components (H2O), extract the hydrogen from itand viola! It’s taken straight to the vehicle’s combustion chamber where it’s burned for your use.
Hydrogen is a VERY powerful energy source.
Heck! Even NASA uses it for their space shuttles, NOT only to lift them off BUT for their travel in the outer space. Don’t let your fears of using hydrogen stop you from taking advantage of this fantastic energy carrier.
Use hydrogen gas savers for your car NOW!
Laws Prohibit Tampering and Inaccurate Odometer Disclosures
July 29, 2008
Buyers rely heavily on a vehicles mileage in determining a vehicles condition and value. Accurate odometer readings and disclosures, therefore, are essential for maintaining a reliable basis for determining a vehicles condition and value.
For these two reasons, both federal and state law prohibits both odometer tampering, and also false mileage disclosures. Federal law stipulates that all vehicle sellers will include and certify an odometer disclosure statement that clearly states the following:
(a) the odometer reflects the actual mileage,
(b) the odometer shows the actual number of miles the vehicle has traveled even if it is beyond mechanical limits of the odometer, or
(c) the odometer is not showing the correct mileage.
Other than modifying the odometer by rolling back the display, shady used vehicle dealers also ignore evidence of fraud or tampering. Sometimes, the odometer readings that have been recorded in the repair records of the vehicle are inconsistent.
That is, a vehicle’s title history may show lower mileage in 2007 than in 2006. Additionally, there may be signs of possible odometer tampering that the seller should have noticed such as missing screws around the odometer casing or evidence that the casing and trim around the odometer were removed at one time.
These are signs that the seller should take seriously and check into the history of the vehicle. If he fails to do this then he’s not certifying that the odometer is showing the correct mileage.
Car buyers who are concerned about the accuracy of odometer readings on a used vehicle can check the services such as Autocheck that gather background information on used vehicles. sometimes even these background reports are not accurate so. Another option is to take your car to a specialty garage where they can check for signs of tampering.
If it turns out that the seller does mess with the odometer or that he doesn’t provide airtight odometer disclosures, use really looking for trouble, because federal law has serious penalties for such violators. Keep in mind though that federal laws regarding odometer tampering does not apply to vehicles that are more than 10 years old.
A Guide to the Toyota VVT-i System
July 29, 2008
By now, you have probably heard a mechanic or automotive enthusiast tell you that an engine is essentially a large air pump. Basically, the more air an engine can suck in to combine with fuel, the more power it can create through combustion. It also follows that the more efficiently an engine can remove exhaust gases from the cylinders, the better it can manage that power. Air flow from one end to the other is the key to a healthy, strong engine.
Many different things can affect air flow in a motor, but the primary control over the volumes of air entering a cylinder, and exhaust leaving it, comes from the valves in the cylinder head. The intake valves open immediately before combustion to allow air to flow in and combine with the fuel. After this mixture has been ignited, the exhaust valves open and suck out the resulting gases. Valve timing is controlled by the camshaft, which is a rotating shaft with lobes pushing up on the valves to open them, then drop them closed again.
The amount of time these valves stay open, and at which point in the combustion cycle they are open, can strongly impact the drivability and power of an engine. If you want a really fast car, like a race car, you’ll need to adjust the camshaft to perform well at the high RPMs needed for a powerful engine. This will mean poor performance at low RPMs, which isn’t a problem for race cars. If you’re looking for something with a lot of low-end torque, such as for towing, then you should adjust the camshaft accordingly to perform at low RPMs. Of course, this will also mean sacrificing high RPM performance.
Street vehicles are a compromise between reliability, fuel efficiency and power, which can RPM performance, but street vehicles need a broader power band because they function at a wide range of RPMs. A race car can get away with an idle that barely runs below 1000 RPM, but you can’t have a street car that stalls at every stoplight. Everyday vehicles usually compromise with a camshaft that works well at the most often used range of engine RPMs, but don’t deliver at high speeds.
These types of camshafts obviously aren’t too efficient. Since they’re trying to do everything adequately, they don’t really do any one of them superiorly. Your engine needs to be able to perform just as well accelerating from a stop as it does speeding down the highway, which means that much of the time, it’s burning too much fuel and also underperforming.
Automakers have addressed this concern with something called “variable valve timing” (VVT). The Toyota Tundra’s i-Force 5.7L V8, Toyota’s newest VVT-i engine, has the ability to vary the timing of the valves in relation to engine speed. It does this by using engine oil pressure to move the camshaft slightly, so that more aggressive lobe designs are used when the engine is running at a higher rpm. By doing this, the i-Force V8 is able to run a camshaft profile that provides good fuel efficiency in every day driving, but is still able to churn out gobs of power when the pedal is pressed to the floor.
The Tundra’s dual VVT-i goes one step further by allowing the exhaust and intake valves to open simultaneously at extremely high RPMs, to scavenge airflow as much as possible. This results in a V8 engine that can produce 381 horsepower at 5600 rpm, and 401 lb-ft of torque at as low as 3600 rpm - while still getting a respectable 20 miles per gallon on the highway with the 2 wheel drive models. And what’s best is, the Toyota variable valve timing system gives you killer horsepower without killing you at the gas pump.
Water Fuel Cell Car Conversion Kit - The Future is Here
July 29, 2008
Water, H2O, is necessary for humans to survive. It is also the place to find energy. Plants using hydroelectricity work to make life easier. Hydrogen power in the water is now also used for running our vehicles. Any gas vehicle can be changed to run on water fuel and also mix with gasoline for a better efficiency.
With the cost of gasoline getting higher each day, scientists need to find a better way to run our vehicles. Prices of oil by the barrel are also going up with no relief in sight. The oil consumption f other countries is also a contributing factor to the mounting prices of oil.
With simple technology, you can improve the efficiency and gas mileage of your car up to 40%. You save $100s of dollars per month on your gas cost and also produce environmentally cleaner residual emissions. You just need plain tap water, easy to find hardware and our simple to understand conversion kit.
How can this technology allow a vehicle to run on water? The water is converted to HHO or Brown’s Gas. The power from the hydrogen provides energy in which to run the vehicle the battery converts the H20 into HHO and releases the energy. The cell created from the installation is what causes the conversion to take place and is easy to create with this simple guide we offer.
Therefore, you can now get the relief from high gas prices and start saving. Many conversion guides and do it yourself kits are available online for order. They allow you to drive without worrying about the high gas prices. Essentially, you are making a hybrid run by water and gas. You also do not have to worry about car manufacturer’s warranty, as the kit is completely reversible.
Even though it is unbelievable, you can run your vehicle on water. You only need to know what is listed in the guide and how to convert the vehicle into a water hybrid model. The best deal you can find is offered right here for a short time only. Other guides on the internet can be purchased for thousands of dollars but ours is being given for under $100. Both do the same but our guides are easy to understand and all 90 pages of installation guide will prove to be the best value overall.
The offer we are giving for this amazing guide is only for a limited time and will be gone soon. Get the conversion guide today and watch it begin to pay for itself within a few weeks as the savings come. The money you save can be spent on other things you need every month.
I strongly feel this is a smart investment and more importantly, it gets the desired results. If you are lazy or not mechanically inclined, have a mechanic install the kit in your car. You will be able to drive to all your favorite places and explore new ones without thinking about the escalating fuel prices. You can not only use it for yourself but also guide your near and dear ones on how to save money after you install and experience the savings yourself.
