Smart Car Shopping
So, you want to buy a new car. You know you are likely to own it for at least 7 years or longer. That’s pretty typical these days. So, you not only want to get the best deal today, you also want to make sure it remains a smart choice for many miles and years ahead. Our FYI reporter Lauren Morrison knows the ins and outs of smart car buying, and she’s up next to give us the lowdown.
LAUREN MORRISION: Today’s savvy car buyers know that spending quality time online, researching models, specs and prices...
... ”will save time and money here, on the dealership lot. Doing your homework ahead of time is key, and there are plenty of shopping tools available to help guide your decision.”
Stephen Dupal and his fiancee Sherryn Daniel are in the market for a small, economical commuter car to replace Stephen’s aging Corolla. Before heading to commercial web pages for option packages and pricing info, several federal government sites helped narrow their search in the areas of fuel economy, safety and alternative fuels, three of their key parameters.
The joint Department of Energy and EPA Fuel Economy website provides convenient, one stop shopping for everything most buyers will ever want to know about maximizing mpg in their next car.
Here, consumers can compare up to four different vehicles at a time, and their fuel economy ratings, energy and environment scores, basic engine and transmission size, driving range, and annual fuel costs, along with real-world fuel consumption data provided by actual owners. The web-site had over 25 million user sessions last year!
STEPHEN DUPAL: I like to have like those charts and plots and graphs to kind of compare things in a numerical basis so I know what I’m looking for and then I can verify..oh yes, this car will have what I need based on these metrics..
LAUREN MORRISION: Other useful content on the website, and free fuel economy mobile app, includes driving and maintenance tips to help you get the most out of your vehicle, easy-to-understand descriptions of new vehicle technology, information about available tax incentives for advanced-technology vehicles, trip calculators, and more!
In the area of safety, you can start with the government’s “safercar” website (safercar.gov) for how a car fares in mandated crash testing and rollover ratings. The site spells out which vehicles go beyond requirements, and have cutting edge safety technology.
SHERRYN DANIEL: What I like about the safercar website is there’s just so many little applications, where all we have to do is enter the make and the model of the car, and we can see if it was recalled, we can look for certain safety features, I even learned about rollover that this is the most lethal type of car accident and that with the best type of car, you can prevent damage.
LAUREN MORRISION: But, you’re a consumer or a fleet manager that is up to date... Maybe even ahead of the crowd. So, perhaps a plug-in hybrid or even full electric car fits your lifestyle or business. Or, a vehicle that runs on another non-traditional fuel like e85, bio-diesel, natural gas, propane, or even hydrogen.
Now, you need to know not only the specs, but the pros and cons, and practicality of each fuel. Well, for that, more than 1.5 million users a year check out the Energy Department’s “Alternative Fuels Data Center” website (afdc.energy.gov).
The afdc website and alt-fuel app are designed to eliminate your confusion over the various types of alternative fuels and their vehicles. And now that plug-in and alt-fuel vehicles are being sold with ever increasing range, the website’s fueling station database is enjoying increasing popularity as well.
SHERRYN DANIEL: …there’s this link where you can just type in your state so, if we bought like a hybrid, or a car that uses natural gas or something like that, we can look up stations nearby ahead of time when we travel.
LAUREN MORRISION: The end game in all this is to be the best informed new car shopper you can possibly be. And ultimately, to buy or lease a new car, SUV, or truck, you can live with today, and way into the future. These commercial-free, dot-gov websites can help you to avoid costly mistakes and surprises, before and after you visit the dealership.
Car Data Privacy Problems
When you connect your mobile phone to your car, you expect it to enhance your driving experience with apps for music, navigation and alike, not to mention make it easier and safer to stay in touch when on the road. But lately, serious questions have been raised about where your personal and often very private information goes from there. Well, a non-profit, known as Privacy4Cars, has made it its mission to identify and resolve those data privacy issues. Our FYI reporter Stephanie Hart has more.
STEPHANIE HART: Vehicles are sold, rented and shared every day, and you may not realize cars indefinitely store all of your personal information; things like your home address, and even in some cases your garage door code, call logs, full text messages, and even your contacts. Not deleting this personal, private information can have serious consequences. For instance, privacy issues usually become financial issues.
ANDREA AMICO: Some cars will collect data and then this data ends up being sold to data brokers, typically for a few cents. And then this data ends up in the hands of insurance companies and they will see how you drive, and based on that they may decide to raise your insurance rate or not insure you at all. And most consumers have no idea that this is happening in the first place.
STEPHANIE HART: Andrea Amico founded Privacy4Cars eight years ago to protect consumers. He says, at its worse, car privacy issues can also lead to violence.
ANDREA AMICO: Abusive spouses use data from cars to stalk, harass, and even physically harm their victims, and fortunately we are starting to see some states act, like California just passed a law to start to have some minimum protections. The Federal Communications Commission is looking into this issue, but a lot more progress is required.
STEPHANIE HART: Consumers may discover they can’t control if and how data from their cars will be sold or shared. That’s because too many companies only do the bare minimum under the law and several states lack privacy protections for vehicles.
ANDREA AMICO: So what people don’t realize is that when they buy their car or rent a car, as part of the agreement, not only are they writing a check but they’re also agreeing for their data to be collected and used for essentially anything.
STEPHANIE HART: That’s pretty unsettling and that’s what prompted Amico to act.
ANDREA AMICO: I used to inspect cars in my old company and I came across a lot of data of people, and I started asking people in the industry, “do you know this is happening? Where is this data going?” And nobody seemed to have any good answers so that’s when I decided to do something about it.
STEPHANIE HART: He says two critical moments are when you purchase a vehicle and when you are selling it. Here’s how you can protect yourself:
Be informed, know what your vehicle is capable of and then decide if you want to opt out of certain data collection. Delete all of your personal, private data when you sell your car. If you don’t know how to do it, there are resources out there. Here are some suggestions: Look in the vehicle’s manual, call the manufacturer for help, search online for video tutorials, download the Privacy4cars app which will walk you through the process step by step for your specific make and model. If it seems too overwhelming to do yourself then ask your dealership to delete all of your personal data when you sell your car. However, it’s smart to look over their shoulder to make sure it’s done. And it’s important to remember the same processes apply when you return a rental car.
ANDREA AMICO: Our mission is driving privacy which is a little bit tongue and cheek, but the idea is if you buy your car you should be in control of your data. You should decide where it goes, how it’s used and to make sure that the data is protected throughout the lifecycle of the car.
STEPHANIE HART: Still, when you turn in that key fob, it’s up to you to make sure your privacy doesn’t go along with it.