There was the one day gasoline boycott, then the month-long boycotts of particular companies (in this case Exxon), but no one really seems to push the most obvious idea of them all - reduce our use of gasoline and our reliance on oil, that will truly hit the oil companies and those darned terrorists in the pocketbooks. One day boycotts don’t work because it just shifts it to another day. That month long boycott designed to force a company to lower its prices because of a surplus, well that doesn’t work either because that’s not how the fuel refinery pipeline works (if they want to, they’ll just sell it to another company on the spot market, read more about gas prices). Ultimately, the only legitimate way to force the companies to drop their price is to use the powers of the free market economy - lower the demand.

Drive the speed limit.
Avoid abrupt starts and stops.
Maintain your car.
Carpool.
Own a car with decent mileage.
Use your car less.

By the way, I just finished reading through that article about targeting Exxon (first linked post) after I wrote this and saw that they wrote the demand thing, looks like that BS in Economics I have but never use actually came in handy. Okay, I’m done ranting… have a great weekend!

The latest article about Walmart on the Consumerist made me think about the last run-in we had with Walmart and oil changes. About a week or so after having my fiancee’s car’s oil changed at a Walmart, we noticed that there was a grayish film creeping up the front of her hood. She drives a lot on I-95 with lots of trucks and stuff and so she didn’t really think much of it and it wasn’t until she looked at it closer did she recognize it was oil. When we opened up the hood, it appears that the yokels over at Walmart never put the oil cap back on. Strangely, and luckily, the cap was still sitting there, comfortably sitting in a nook; and so we checked the oil, filled it back up (it lost about half a quart) and put the cap back on. We park outside so we didn’t even notice the oil drips on the blacktop parking spots but they were definitely there. So… that Walmart story on the Consumerist doesn’t surprise me at all. (I do oil changes on my own car because it’s ridiculously easy to access the filter and the bolt)

So, the moral of the story is to check all the work you ever have done on anything. That’s not to say someone is cheating you or incompetent, it’s just that people can make mistakes (especially if they’re incompetent) so you should always double check. If you want to see the old part they’re replacing because you think they’re scamming you, get the old part (and you probably want a new mechanic). Always double check the work, no matter how simple you think it is.

There are some shady car mechanics out there so it’s hard to find the right mechanic to do the work that you need. Also, not all shops are equal, some are good at detailing, some are good at body work, some are good with suspensions; some might specialize in foreign makes and models while others are great with GM and Ford. Be sure to look for one that knows how to perform the work you’re looking for.

When I slid on black ice over a year ago, I had some work done on my car by the local mechanic. The work was good and I was limited in my options because the car barely drove (I didn’t want to pay for a tow) but a few months ago I heard a clicking when I turned left. Apparently what happened was my rear hub assembly was cracked and after a year of driving there was enough crud buildup in it (from sand and other junk) to create this noise, but I didn’t know this and needed to have the car checked out. Without a geographic restriction, I started to look for a local mechanic and realized that finding a decent one you could trust is hard! So below you will find some helpful steps I took to figure out which one to go to.

1. Ask your Neighbors - Both of my neighbors have been in the area for quite some time and know the lay of the land and that’s probably the case for you as well. The best way to find a reputable car mechanic is the ask your neighbors because they’ve needed work and they’ve probably gone to a local mechanic to get it performed. Depending on how long they’ve been living in the area, they could be a wealth of knowledge on local mechanics from either personal experience or anecdotes from their friends, plus they’re going to be on your side so take advantage of it.

2. Ask your Co-workers - Again, since you’ll probably be working relatively close to home, this is another source of information that will have more loyalty towards you than to any particular body shop.

3. CarTalk (and other online forums) - If you’ve never heard of Click and Clack on National Public Radio, you haven’t truly lived! These two Boston brothers are both funny and brilliant and they have a cult following despite only appearing on radio for a single hour each week on Saturday mornings. Anyway, on their website they have an area called Mechanics Files where readers can review mechanics and submit their reviews of them. The reviews are usually brief, a few sentances, and the scoring isn’t terribly valuable but it’s another point of reference.

4. Scope The Place Out - Does it have a lot of cars sitting around? Does it look professional? I know they say looks can be deceiving, but if you scope a place out for a little while you can get at least an idea of how they do business. Talk to some people who walk out of the place, see if they were happy with their service, what they thoughts, etc. People, who aren’t in a hurry to get somewhere, are usually very candid and you can tell if they’ve gone to this place a lot or this was a one-time thing.

Check out their lot too. If you drive a Toyota, it’d be nice to see a couple Toyota’s sitting on their lot waiting for service or waiting for their driver to return. If you drive a Toyota and you only see BMW’s, that might not be the place for you. If you have a relatively new car and all the cars there are late model, you might want to turn elsewhere.

5. Check Their Credentials - Check the Better Business Bureau and AAA to see if they have any complaints and whether they are certified. Also check to see if their mechanics are certified by ASE (National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence).

Lastly, if you can’t find a mechanic you think you can trust in the area, go with the dealership because you know they have the experience and the knowledge to work on your car, even if they’re going to be expensive.

Anyone have any more tips?

Image by moonchildrv.

The Credit Protector promotion of a $100 gas certificate for enrolling in their program is still alive and kicking, I just saw a banner for it when I logged into my account - here the link. I have yet to get either one of the $100 checks from when my fiancée and I last did the promotion in December but once they come in I’ll try to sign me up again with a different card and see if it’ll give us another $100 in gasoline!

If that link doesn’t seem to work, as some links haven’t in the past, try this one. Incidentally, I was looking at my Citi Professional card’s account summary when the offer appeared but, like last time, it’s available for all Citi cards I believe.

I received in the mail two lovely letters from Citi informing me and my fiancée of our enrollment in Citibank Credit Protector. Included at the bottom of the welcome letter was the mail-in gasoline cash back certificate worth a nice fatty $100, the most I’ve heard a credit card company offer for a credit protection program enrollment (usually you hear about $15 checks or $50 in rebate certificates) so this one definitely caught my attention when I blogged about the $100 gas certificate earlier this month.

Some have reported not being able to get to it through the URL I copied (this link) or on the site while others have. I saw it specifically on my Citi Professional card screen in a huge box to the right (where they usually list promotional offers). That took me to the URL above and the credit protector sign up page. If you don’t have the Citi Professional, I’m certain it appears for other cards so just keep refreshing until the promotion pops up. I checked today and it still appeared.

The instructions are simple, here they are straight from the certificate:

We will send you a check for the price of gasoline up to $100. Simply fill out the certificate and return with your original gasoline purchase receipt(s) attached by December 31, 2006 TO: Redemption Center, Department #79095, P.O. Box 134, Niagara Falls, NY 14302.

Terms And Conditions:

Receipt(s) for purchase of gasoline and this certificate must be sent within 30 days of gasoline purchase and no later than December 31, 2006. Any illegal or wrongful use or reproduction of this certificate will be prosecuted by the fullest extent of the law. All information must be completed and subject to verification. Please allow up to 4-6 weeks for payment.

About a month ago I posted about how I was going to start getting quotes for homeowners and automobile insurance from various insurers to see if I could do better than what I was currently paying. Well… it’s a month later and I’ve only gotten one quote. And it’s a quote from a company that doesn’t even insure homes (at least on their website) but they do insure Segways!

Progressive Direct quoted me a svelte $308 per six months, a few dollars less than what Geico was offering, but that included a one time offer of $50 off my bill. Progressive is a pretty big name but had I known they only offered auto insurance I wouldn’t have wasted my time… next week I’m going to get a jump on these insurance quotes, then do an actual comparison with tables and maybe even a chart!

Cap at StopBuyingCrap.com has a great post about the differences between different brands of gasoline that I think is worth reading. He reaffirms my older post about how you shouldn’t buy higher octane gasoline than you need but more importantly, he details the oil refining process that takes crude oil and turns it into gasoline (plus other products).

Here’s my favorite part of the article:

Tanker heading to a Shell station? Load up the gasoline, then pour in the Shell additives into the tanker. Bam. Shell gas. Tanker heading to a Chevron station? Load up the gasoline from the same terminal, add in the Chevron additives into the tanker. Ding ding. Chevron gas. … Just how much of these additives are added into the tank? The amount varies, but for some it’s a quart of additives for an 8,000 gallon tank.

For all of you out there who claim that Exxon gasoline is so much better than Shell or your no-name station next door, take that as proof positive that marketing works.

Do you have a car? If you’re like most college kids, you either don’t have a car or it’s a piece of junk. College is the perfect time to learn how to use public transportation. You’ll save money on costly insurance (expensive for you folks under 25), costly gasoline (expensive for everyone), and costly parking (unless you like rolling the dice with street parking). Plus, added onto to all those personal financial benefits, you will be doing the environment some good by not consuming as much fuel, producing as much pollution, and all that other good stuff related to personal automobile use.

Back at my alma mater, we had a little sticker we put on our student identification cards that gave us “free” rides on mass transit (we paid $17 per semester for this). Since we had this seemingly free transportation, many of us learned the intricate bus routes for our area and we could easily get to where ever we wanted. Many of us got into the habit of taking the bus and that’s a good habit, especially if you end up living in a metropolitan area where the costs of owning a car are significantly higher than in the boonies.

What will you save? Well, if you drive 12,000 miles a year, have a 20mpg car and pay $2.50 per gallon on gasoline, that’s a cool $1,500 in your pocket. You also won’t need insurance or pay for maintenance or a lot of the other auxiliary stuff not on the price tag. For some quick math, just use the IRS business deduction for business travel, 44.5 per mile, on 12,000 and you can ballpark the costs at around $5,340 a year. That’s some good savings.

(There are inaccuracies to using the IRS business travel deduction in that way but I figure it’s close enough to give you an idea of how much you’re saving)

This article is part of a new series I’ve started called Personal Finance for College Students (hence, PF College).

Double check your E-ZPass statements (or any other of those toll pass RFID toll payment systems) for inaccuracies whenever you get them in the mail. Many of my friends (including my fiancée and myself) travel through the Ft. McHenry tunnel that connects the western and eastern sides of Baltimore City (it is also how you get through the city if you continue on I-95). If you have the Maryland E-ZPass commuter plan then the trip will cost you a mere forty cents. Less frequent travelers will see a toll of $2.00 per trip through the dark desolation of underground Baltimore. Sometimes, not often but it does happen more often than it should (which is zero times), the system will incorrectly bill you for your travel. I’ve personally had to deal with incorrect coding of fares (adding on axles, charging me full price on a tag with the commuter plan, etc). A quick phone call or an email to the administrator will usually clear the situation right up.

Here’s an example of an email my friend Jeremie sent to Maryland E-ZPass and their response.

Original Message:

I was charged for a class 3 standard toll of $4.00 for some unknown reason.
It should have been a class 2 commuter toll of $0.40.

Dear E-ZPass Customer,

Such transaction on 11/12/06 has been identified, where a request has been placed to adjust the difference back to your account. You should be able to locate such credit in approximately 24-48 hours.
Thank you for using E-ZPass.

E-ZPass Service Center
P.O. Box 5200
Baltimore, MD 21224-0020
www.EZPassMD.com
1-888-321-6824
TDD/TTY 1-877-410-2950 Fax 410-633-6618

Gasoline prices get a much needed respite and guess what happens?

GM sells twice to three times as many Chevy Tahoes (17mpg), Suburbans (17mpg), and Cadillac Escalades (15mpg).

Ford Expedition (16mpg) and Lincoln Navigator (15mpg) sales increased 40% in October.

Chrysler sales of Jeeps (Wrangler, 18mpg) spiked 29%.

Sales of Chevy Aveos (30mpg) and Cobalts (28mpg) fell 31% and 43% respectively.

Toyota sold 8.6% fewer Priuses (sp?) (55mpg).

So, the next time Americans complain about gas prices, I’m going to complain about American stupidity.

Source: CNN Money