Can I Keep My New Car from Rusting?

Car rust is caused when the metal is exposed to moisture over time. Keeping your new car waxed will help protect it from rusting since the wax forms a barrier between the metal and the moisture.

It is also important to keep moisture off your car. So, after you wash it, make sure the car and the undercarriage are completely dry before you put it in a garage. The undercarriage will dry simply by leaving the car outside for awhile.

You should also put mud flaps on your car to keep mud and other debris from collecting in the wheel wells. They will also protect your car from the dings caused by stones kicking up. Those dings will expose the metal to the elements and create an excellent place for rust to begin. If you do have any dings or small scratches on your car, you should address them before any rust begins. Some polishing compound and a little touch up paint will usually take care of them.

If you live in an area where it snows, you know how fast road salt will eat through the wax, paint and metal on your new car and accelerate the formation of rust. That is why it is very important to give your car a good coat of wax before the snow comes. During the winter, you only need to wash your car when the air temperature is above. Road salt is only active at temperatures above freezing, so you do not need to wash your car when it is very cold out. Besides, if you do wash your car when it is very cold outside, your door locks and power windows are likely to freeze. Of course, if you park your car in a garage, you will want to gauge when to wash your car by the temperature in the garage. When you do finally wash your car, you should pay special attention to cleaning the wheel hubs, wheel wells and undercarriage as these are the places where the road salt tends to stick.

You should also consider putting rubber mats on the floor of your new car during the winter months. These rubber mats will keep the salty water from melting snow from seeping into the carpets and rusting your floor boards.

Keeping your new car from rusting will take a little time. That time spend will be worth it by helping to maintain the appearance and value of your inverstment.

Why Are Used Car Prices Are So High?

If you are currently in the market for a good quality used car, you are probably experiencing something that is usually only associated with new cars, namely Sticker Shock. So, what is causing the price of used cars to be so high? There are a lot of reasons for it, but they all basically boil down to the law of supply and demand. When the supply of an item is low or the demand for it is high, the price will go up. Currently, the supply for used cars is very low and the demand for them is very high, so both are regret ably happening. The demand for used cars is way up because many people who would normally only buy a new car are now in the market for a used car. Concerns about our economy are steering those people away from buying large ticket items, like a new car.
The supply of used cars in the market has dwindled for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is the government’s Cash for Clunkers program. That was the program that was operated last year and was supposed to stimulate the sale of new cars and thus our economy. Under the Cash for Clunkers program, people were encouraged to trade in their running car that got poor gas mileage and purchase a new energy efficient car. They were given a voucher of up to $4500 to use towards the purchase of the new car. About 700,000 cars were traded in under the Cash for Clunkers program. Since those vehicles were ones that ran, they would normally have gone straight into the used car market. Instead, under the rules of the program all of the Cash for Clunkers cars were destroyed. As a result almost 700,000 running car did not go into the used car market.
Another reason for the shortage in the number of available used cars is that a lot of motorists are choosing to keep their current used cars rather than trading them in for a new or newer one. In addition, there is an extreme lack of cars entering the market from rental car agencies and companies that provide fleet cars to their employees. Under normal circumstances, those institutions would trade their vehicles in for new ones every year or two. At this time, those companies are holding onto those vehicles longer due to our lackluster economy.
Other thing adding to the high price of used cars is the difficultly for people to obtain a loan to purchase a new car. People who are not able to get a loan to buy a new car, are forced to look for a less expensive car, namely a used car. Unfortunately there are not enough quality used cars to go around.
When the economy begins to sufficiently improve, banks will be more willing to lend money to buy new cars and the sale of new cars will begin to increase. When that finally happens, the supply of used cars will increase because of the trade-ins and the price of those used cars will finally start to come down. Until that time comes, the price of used cars will remain high.