Nissan is already accepting payments, though the first vehicles won’t ship till December of 2010. The consumers’ excitement is understandable – this is the first commercially-viable electric automobile on the market. Its closest competitor, the Chevy Volt, is months away, and in many respects is a worse deal: the Volt is expected to have a base price of around $41,000, yet the Leaf costs $33,000 (although there are many government tax breaks and incentives that can shave as much as $7,000 off the base price).

The Leaf has other advantages: it offers a range of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers), well above most Americans’ commuting needs. The Volt, by contrast, has an overall range of 300 miles, but can only drive for 40 miles on the stored electric charge before a gas-powered generator needs to kick in.

The car will be packed with features, including a solar panel on the rear spoiler, an integrated garage door opener, a backup camera, a navigation system and cruise control, fog lights and more. For an additional $700, the car comes with a quick-charge port that can recharge the batteries to 80% capacity in half an hour, instead of overnight as in standard mode – a great convenience when time is at a premium (although Nissan engineers warn that, if overused, quick-charge mode can reduce the lifespan of the car’s batteries by 10%).

One interesting feature that will become necessary for all electric vehicles is a noise generator. Electric vehicles are so quiet that this presents a problem for cyclists and pedestrians, especially those who are visually-impaired, since they simply may not hear the car coming. Nissan has developed a system they call Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians (VSP), which will generate low-frequency sound when accelerating and braking.

As an additional service, Nissan has been having professionals visit customers’ homes to make sure that their electrical systems have the capacity to charge their cars.

We in the auto shipping industry can only hope that at some point, auto makers will come up with viable electric tractor-trailers as well.

(Auto Loan Receivers Beware!)

As a result of Kansas Senator, Samuel Brownback’s and auto lobbying efforts, auto dealerships are now officially exempt from any of the new financial regulations. What this means is that there are a number of what might be called deceptive lending practices that will continue on unchanged. The best way for buyers to protect themselves is to know more about these less than straightforward financing activities.

One major issue is called the “yo-yo effect.” This is when a buyer signs a sales contract, which is conditioned upon approval by a financier, and the financing does not come through at the originally quoted rate. This means that a person who may have been driving their car for a few days already, and is psychologically committed to it, may have to come in and agree to a much higher interest rate than they bargained for. At this point, the buyer is much more likely to give in.

There are two major ways to overcome or obviate being duped by this practice. The first is to just get your auto loans directly from a bank and financial institution. This way you will know what you interest rate will be definitively from the start. The second approach, is to tell the dealer you refuse to sign a sales contract until the official interest rate quote is in. This makes it much more unlikely that your contact will be changed after the fact.

Auto transport companies are aware of the difficulty in a getting an honest deal when taking out a loan to purchase a motor vehicle. That is why we deem it worth our time to inform our clients and readers of the fiscal landmine out there.

(Watch out for this guy!)

Unfortunately, research using data in recent years has suggests that Hispanic and African-American persons, across the nation, saw a significantly greater markup on their auto purchases and loan interest rates than white persons. Ironically, it was the dealerships which themselves were owned by those from minority groups that demonstrated the greatest degree of prejudice in auto financing. So, what is one to do?

Well, despite this being rather disheartening, luckily, there is an effective way to overcome this. There are a number of reliable websites out there where auto buyers can secure their car loans. This way, who you happen to be has no influence on what type of loan you can take out and at what rate (except your credit history, of course). Once done, you can walk into a dealership with your financing in place.

Another issue that auto buyers and loan seekers should watch our for is “add-ons.” What is an auto add-on you ask? What often happens, especially if you follow the advice in the first section of this post and get your financing elsewhere, is that dealers will go far to maintain their profit margins.

So, what they will do, not infrequently, is add unnecessary and exotic features and charges to the contract, such as window etchings and service agreements. They may go so far as to say that the deal on your car will vanish if you do not agree to these excessive items. Other times, they will be buried somewhere deep in the contract that many people will never see.

All in all, auto transport companies like us urge auto buyers to stay on their toes and be their own advocates. If you think you are being cheated, you may be right, just go to another dealership (there are many to choose from). If a salesman is telling you, you need to spend an extra thousand dollars on “varnish” to get a special financing package, he is lying (and breaking the law). Tell him adios.

There may be a sucker born every minute – but you do not have to be one of them!

Here are two links to help you get a reasonable deal:

How Much Might YOU Overpay on Your Car Loan?

Where to Shop For An Auto Loan

Claiming on his website that “auto dealers are a part of Main Street, not Wall Street,” Republican of Kansas, Mr. Brownback played a major role in effectively preventing auto financing from seeing any new regulations. If it was as clear cut as the senator explains it, then this should be celebrated as a victory for the average working man and woman. Unfortunately, this is not entirely accurate.

Which is to say, one can hardly ignore the fact that Wall Street firms bundle a considerable portion of the autos loans that dealers help originate into bonds. Additionally, those staked against regulating this lending forget to mention that many of the dealerships themselves are owned by publicly traded companies. This hardly indicates that auto dealers and the loans which are signed in their offices are removed from Wall Street.

Furthermore, although Mr. Brownback commented that “more than 90 percent of auto loans are financed not through the dealer, but through an outside financial institution,” it turns out this is counterfactual. For, according to J. D. Power & Associates, car buyers apply for their loans at an auto dealership about 80 percent of the time.

Auto transport companies have not had the wool pulled over their eyes. They know a wolf in sheep’s clothing when they see it. But for now, “change” does not seem to be on the horizon for automotive lending.

Smarter city car

Perhaps the desire will come when people shift towards less consumption based lifestyles, or define themselves by an online persona rather than their clothes, cars and contraptions.
Likely, perhaps not, possible, definitely!

I’m looking for more pics of the interior, can I get a passenger in this thing? How about a car seat?

Keep watching…

Vans and cargo vehicles saw a 21.1 percent jump over last year’s numbers, while SUVs and CUVs rose by 15.6% from April 2009 to April 2010. Pickup sales saw a 14.2% rise and midsize cars saw a 13.6% increase over the past year – these numbers are incredibly surprising considering that many experts expected numbers to remain relatively stable given the condition of the economy, but the increase in wholesale prices merely goes to show that the economy is definitely on the upswing.

Also, first quarter sales were up 8% over last year’s numbers, which is always great news. So, in other words, people are always interested, and sales in California and New York saw incredible increases over the past year, especially with all the new green vehicles showing up on dealership floors.

The new law which introduces the fee would also expand the National Highway Transit Safety Administration’s powers in ordering recalls – while details on what exactly those new powers would entail are still unknown, we can guess that recalls would come swifter than before at the very least. I mean, what else could it mean? It would also allow auto makers to defend their vehicles in court should consumers decide to throw some litigation at them, which is good news for auto makers but maybe not the best news for consumers.

The NHTSA’s enforcement budget will also be doubled to $100 million, and then to $280 million by the end of 2013, again according to the new law. Automotive manufacturers would also be required to install brake override systems as well as black boxes (like those in airplanes) so investigators can figure out exactly what happened prior to an accident or collision. And, probably the best part of it: the law provides much harsher penalties for automotive executives who give false statments.

Go Congress!

Washington Helps from Time to Time

Most of the sales numbers that Detroit and the rest of the auto industry saw were from massive sales incentives that they offered to counteract the typical slow sales in April – which usually come because of the tax deadline and other mitigating factors. Also, brands that have been axed, such as Pontiac, Hummer, and Saturn, all saw huge inventory drops – 95.5% across the board, to be precise, and now the news is out that the rest of the inventory of those castoff models will be gone in 60 days.

But Ford, as usual, led the way in sales overall, with a huge 38% rise in pickup sales, 33% rise in SUV sales and a 10% rise in all other vehicles; on the other hand, Chrysler lowered its inventory to a 53 day supply, which was down 41% from the previous year. But all in all, the auto industry is picking up, which is always good news.

Chrysler Saw Huge Rises This Month

Have you ever used this? If so, we hope you choose us for RV transport quotes whenever you need them!

The largest reason is still the economy. While it is recovering, consumers are still wary about buying, and with tax season now in full swing (despite the deadline coming and going almost two weeks ago), many people are cutting back, at least until their refund checks come in. Each major auto company is expected to build more cars in the interim to prepare for the summer sales drives that they have every year, and as April numbers are usually lower this isn’t coming unexpectedly.

Also, let’s not forget that many companies in the auto industry spent less on incentives for their consumers this April than they did in March, which is another reason for the sales decline in the month. May numbers are expected to rebound, however, and as summer starts up numbers will be up as well, especially in states such as New York, which see high sales numbers each summer.

But it's not all bad; the arrow will be back up soon.