Pop quiz hotshot, how do you find that right car that’s going to make you get down on your knees and go, “Oh yeah!!” Take this little quiz in order to get on the road to driving!

QUESTION #1: What kind of car should you look into?

A) One that you need.
B) One that you want.
C) One that talks to you like in the Stephan King movie Christine and eliminates your enemies.
D) Both B&C

QUESTION #2: HOW MUCH YOU SPEND ON A CAR?
A) What you can afford determined by payments at 20% of your monthly take home pay.
B) On par with what you spend each month on crack.
C) On par what you spend on crack and hookers
D) All of the above

QUESTIONS #3: WHICH ISN’T ADVANTAGES OF LEASE YOUR NEXT CAR?
A) You can drive a better car for less money
B) No trade-in hassles
C) You can drive a new car few years.
D) You are not hassled with owning commodity

QUESTION #4: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF BUYING OVER LEASING
A) It makes financial sense when interest rates are low over leasing.
B) No miles penality
C) You don’t have to worry about anyone spray-painting “Honky Lips” on the side of your vehicle.
D) Both A & B
QUESTION #5: WHAT ARE OTHER COSTS OF OWNERSHIP TO CONSIDER?

A) The deprecation rate of specific models.
B) The amount of investment needed for the upkeep of fuzzy dice to hang from the review mirror.
C) Insurance rates for the model.
D) Costs of hydrolic jacks for your tires
E) Both A & C

QUESTIONS #6:IS IT IMPORTANT TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT VIA PHONE BEFORE YOU GO FOR A TEST DRIVE?

A) Yes. This will give you an idea of the business atmosphere.
B) Hell no. Show up in last year’s Halloween costume and scream, “It’s party time.”
C) All of the above.
D) None of the above.

QUESTION #7: Should you let the salesman’s pitch distract you while you test drive.
A) Absolutely. Show the man some respect. He’s got some stories to tell.
B) No, so turn up the radio as loud as you can on the Spanish language station.
C) No. Listen for the sound of the car and try to drive on a terrain similar to your normal driving route.
D) ALL OF THE ABOVE

QUESTIONS: #8: WHERE ARE GOOD PLACES TO RESEARCH YOUR FUTURE VEHICLE?
A) The Internet
B) Newspapers
C) Dealerships
D) A meeting of the Ron Howard fan club.
E) All but D.

ANSWERS
1) A
2) A
3) D
4) D
5) E
6) A
7) C
E

CONGRATULATIONS! AND GOOD LUCK IN FINDING THE RIGHT CAR FOR YOU! ]]> http://missmotormouth.com/2008/11/find-the-right-car-that-will-make-you-go-%e2%80%9coh-yeah%e2%80%9d-quiz/feed/ 0 http://missmotormouth.com/2008/08/tips-on-donating-a-car-to-a-charity-or-giving-cold-cash/ http://missmotormouth.com/2008/08/tips-on-donating-a-car-to-a-charity-or-giving-cold-cash/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:21:41 +0000 admin http://missmotormouth.com/?p=69 [[Continue reading]]]]> There were some pretty nice car sales to benefit charity in this year’s Pebble Beach auctions but unlike with the least expensive car donated selling for over $50,000, they are not the run of the mill type of auction. For the rest of us who have cars that we no longer use, need or want, changes in charitable donations have been tightened up quite a bit in the last couple of years and if you are considering donating a car to benefit your favorite non-profit, there are a few things that you may want to consider.

If the car being donated is valued at more than $5000 then an appraisal needs to be done by a qualified appraiser no more than 60 days before your tax deadline (including any extensions). Whether the car is worth more than $5000 or less, the charity will provide you with the amount that the car sold for and that can be itemized on your Schedule A of your From 1040. It is important to remember that deductions cannot be more than 50% of your adjusted gross income. In the case of the Corvette Z1 that was recently sold at RM Auctions in Pebble Beach to benefit GRACE Charity, the sellers/donors would, in theory, be able to deduct the appraised fair market value (FMV), in this case the MSRP, of $118,000 while the buyer was able to deduct the amount that they bid over FMV (the high bid was $151,252.oo) minus the buyer’s premium which was paid to RM Auctions except in this case the sellers had stipulated that only the amount over the MSRP would be donated to GRACE and therefore the only portion which was deductible.

If the amount if the car exceeds $500 then Section A of Form 8283 must also be completed and you must have a written acknowledgment from the charitable association on or before your taxes are due. Publication 526 on the IRS website has the qualifications for charitable organizations. Once the charity sells the car they have 2 years to notify the IRS of the sale and provide you with a copy of the form it sends to the IRS notifying them of the sale and the amount that it sold for.

Because they have 2 years however, it is often easier for you to sell your car yourself and donate cash to the charity directly. Your charity will often benefit more by making a donation this way because in most cases charities use third party services to sell the car on their behalf at wholesale auctions where the deductible amount can end up being less than FMV. Selling a car private party will bring more money and establishes a documented FMV while your charity gets more money and you get to deduct more.

For more information, always talk to your accountant before you decide to take the charitable plunge and make sure that you do all of the steps correctly. It will be worthwhile for everyone!

What most of us Joes and Jills miss is that the collector car culture is centered around rare examples of design, most often European based to date, (but I will argue that will change in the next several years) and the restorations often cost more in labor and love than any auction hammer will bring. What countless wanna-be collectors do not understand is that garage or back yard full of common, vintage VW Bugs does not an investment make. (Apologies in advance to all who have the heart to want to preserve those Buggers!)

Point of all of this is a moment had while at Pebble Beach in the Gooding Auction Preview. I was sent to the week’s events in an Infiniti FX50-S ( a superb car that was perfect design at conception about 4 years ago) that was so kitted out, that car told me when I needed another Diet Coke. Apparently the version that I was given for the test week drive was a pre-production version with tucked leather seats, all the electro-gadgets anyone could ever want and all encased this gorgeous orange/gold/copper/new baby born poo color that reminded me of the cars of my 70′s childhood. Okay- maybe that color was on LowRiders but here is where this story gets a little convoluted for a minute so please, I ask your patience!

The LowRiders of the 70′s used a lot of bright gold/copper on the bodies of their work because that was a luxury color in the 50′s and even into the 60′s- the era that inspired the makes, models and years of their dreams. I am used to seeing that color on American makes of that era but what surprised me was seeing a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 (sorry, reg required ’til I get permission to use that photo but the catalog is worth it) in the main tent at the Gooding Auction. How retro of Infiniti is that to use the same Nocciola (Technically that is Ferrari Italian for copper/gold)?

The Ferrari is an incredible bit of design. I see the early Datsun Z, Volvo P1800ES, some Lancia’s (many of these designs were “informing” one another at the time) but looking at the images, I also see that the Ferrari is the Infiniti FX50 gone done and crossed over. From just the snorkels on the side (probably breathers on the Infiniti and proper snorkels on the Ferrari), the shape of the encased headlamps and the lamp wells, you see that like most movies at the cineplex, not much is not being re-purposed or re-used from vintage eras.

So while the Infiniti got a lot of comments about sexy design that I thought a bit crazy at first, I get it now. Most cars are informed by other designers and other eras. Heck- a lot of the designers at Kia moved there from one of the big Japanese companies which is why Kia got all pretty one year!

I would offer up this challenge to anyone who loves car design: check out the used cars anywhere and show me one that isn’t somehow derived from a great idea by another designer or manufacturer.

Oh- and the sticker on the Infiniti FX50 is a lot less than the $1.3-1.6 million dollar estimate on that ’67 Ferrari. And, I am betting that the Ferrari would blow the doors off the V8 Infiniti. Just sayin’.

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to buy a house. A little nest for my golden canary, Little Miss Motor Mouth, and I. Single mom (ex-husband lives a joyful life between France and the Amazon) with no income except what I make on my own, my parents were encouraging me to get something “of my own” rather than rent. The market was low, interest rates low and it was a good idea. So I fell in love online with a house in an area that was up and coming. The object of my obsession was this 1916 Sear’s Catalog House in a historic district that was like walking into the farmhouse from Field of Dreams. All sun and light and in the middle of an urban area. If you build it….

So here I was making decent money, owned my car, had no debt (no credit cards)…okay? Can we talk about credit scores? Guess what? It isn’t like the major credit reporting agencies think about Life Optimistic like I do which a life where everyone gets to start with 100 points and any lowering of the score is because they have done something wrong! They actually score you on what you owe! Start with zero and the more you owe the better your score is with some weird algorithms thrown in just to keep you confused. Weird. My broker tells me that my score is *okay* but “Hey! If you have a friend or family member that will cosign, you will get a better rate!”. Hrm. Family is out of state which means that they will not qualify me for a good rate because out of state financing means “vacation home” and that is a higher rate. Broker says, “Don’t you have a boyfriend?”. Well, yeh, and not that he was at marriage level but he has better credit than me (read: more debt) so I put him on the loan. I pay a significant down payment and closing costs and he contributes nothing. Woo hoo! Great rate so everyone lives happily ever after, right?

NO.

So, boyfriend doesn’t last (which is okay) but a few months after he isn’t around he calls and tells me that I have to sell the house (which had doubled in value) because he is on the title. Legal hell ensues. I feel like I bought a green card because I have to pay this loser to get off title. (I am skipping over years of legal bills here because I am still in denial but more about that cosign hell in a second.)

Meanwhile, my best friend needs a car. A way to get to work kind of car. I help him shop and after taking him by a dealership I used to work with we find his car. He doesn’t have any credit history because he is a musician but has a gotten a great job so when the sales guy says, “If you will cosign for him he will get a better deal”. Now who wouldn’t try to help their best friend? So I cosign. Sweet 2005 Mustang in yellow. He was one happy guy! They TOLD us that this would help him build credit.

Now after of the *helping a friend get a car* mode, my legal battles start getting resolved with the house but the conditions are that I have to refinance my house on my own, which all lawyers and brokers agree shouldn’t be a problem. But it was.

Turns out that even though I owned my cars (2 at this point) and had no debt and was making a good income, those crazy reporting agencies saw my debt to income ratio as being too high because actually, the cosigned car that my friend is paying for and insuring, is being reported as me being the primary on the loan! So getting a refi on the house was nearly impossible. Especially in the current lending market- getting a loan is hard.

What I learned is this: The real estate broker was no different than the car dealership. When they tell you that you will get a better rate it is because *they* will get a better rate and can mark up the points to you which makes them more money. They essentially get quotes that they then mark up- put more interest on- and that is how they all make money. That real estate broker was making a living and some would call it greedy. I didn’t understand to know differently and with the car I didn’t understand how they worked either.

Moral of the story is do not cosign because you will never know when you will need access to your own credit. I am lucky that my friend would never bilk on his payments on that car but if he did, my life would be difficult. Many a story has come past my desk of cosigning nightmares where friends and family have renegged on paying on co-signed cars.

Knowing that this has caused me hardship, my friend has volunteered to give me back the car so I can sell it but unlike these sales people, I made a commitment to my friend and would never screw anyone.

Originally posted here