Why you should consider online car loans: Getting the lowest APR

Your best benefits of online car loan companies is you don't have to pay application fees, or down payments. Your speedy car loan approval takes just minutes, and you get online access to your loan account. You just can't beat that. Once you have your online auto financing quotes from sites such as Capital One Auto Finance and HSBC Auto Finance, compare that to the dealer's financing so you have a basis to negotiate your best car loan interest rate. The online sites usually have a lower interest rate than dealers, so online car financing rates are the standard that the dealers must beat.

How to lower your current car loan payments: car refinancing tips

If you got suckered into a high APR car loan, or even got a decent rate on your current car loan, you can refinance your car loan down to a lower rate and save. Many lenders like Capital One Auto Finance and HSBC Auto Finance are offering popular auto refinancing car loans. They pay off your current car loan, and now you pay them back at your new lower APR rate. Read our chapter Auto refinancing tips & scams to avoid, which covers how to lower the APR on your current car loan and auto refinance for people with bad credit. You do not need an appraisal to refinance your car loan.

Safe driving strategies to live by

If you follow these tips below, you will greatly help yourself avoid wrecks, and injuries, and most importantly, everyone arrives alive.

• Don't drag race ever! People often get killed, usually in the other car, then you go to jail
• Always wear your seatbelt. Every time we see the news about a couple of teens who die in a wreck, they were not wearing seatbelts and were ejected
• You are the driver, so you have authority. Refuse to drive anywhere until ALL passengers are wearing seat belts. No exceptions, be FIRM
• Don't talk on your cell phone while driving, you lose concentration. If you must talk, use speaker phone mode
• Use the three second rule when driving behind cars so that you won't crash into them when they stop suddenly
• Don't put yourself in the situation where you are driving home in the early morning hours after a party. Your reactions are much slower
• Don't sneak out of the house at 2 AM to go joy riding, that is when many teens die. Stay in bed. Wake up tomorrow. Enjoy life
• Schedule your time better so that you are not in a rush, and risk speeding, or making hasty decisions like weaving in traffic
• Don't give in to passengers daring you to run red lights or go faster. They are not the ones who go to jail when someone dies
• Always signal seconds before you turn or change lanes
• Know all the blind spots on your car by having someone slowly walk around the car as you watch in the mirrors
• Never drive if you have been drinking alcohol, and don't let anyone else drive who has had alcohol. Take their keys

Don't let a cell phone land you in a cell

We all love to talk on our cell phones, but come on, you really don't need to talk on your phone in the car. How can you expect to drive straight with your head cocked at an angle? Have you ever been cut off by someone talking on their cell phone? Have you ever had to pass a car going way too slow because they were talking on their cell phone? It's just a bad idea, because it robs you of your full concentration. The effect is exasperated if you have passengers in the car with stimulus coming at you from all angles. Most safety advocates tell you to pull over and stop if you are going to talk, and many states are starting to pass legislation about cell phone use in the car. If your caller really needs to speak with you, don't you think they can wait 10 minutes? Alternatively, some phones have speaker phone mode, so you can just put the phone down and talk.

Whenever you turn of change lanes, always signal several seconds before doing so, no exceptions

It's amazing how many wrecks will be prevented, because if you are about to change lanes and possibly hit another car, your blinker will give that driver enough time to take evasive action and avoid a crash that you would have caused.

Physics Lesson:

If you are traveling at 35 MPH and get into a wreck, due to the moment of inertia your 150 pound body has, you MUST to be capable of bench pressing about 600 pounds to keep yourself from slamming into the windshield. This is not made up, it is a force of nature fact. No human I know can bench press 600 pounds, much less protect themselves in the 1/100th of a second it takes to slam into the windshield at 60+ MPH. Remember, in an accident, the used car has already stopped, but you are still moving at 60+ MPH, thanks mostly to Newton's Law about objects in motion wanting to remain in motion until acted on by an outside force, i.e., windshield. Gosh, if only you had known about that silly little formula before you got into the used car! Should have paid attention in Physics lab!

People who refuse to wear seatbelts always tell us "I can react in time and brace myself". They obviously do not understand the forces of inertia, and the simple formula m1v1=m2v2. Most people are unaware it takes about 0.75 seconds for your foot to start pressing the brake once you spot trouble. The same principle applies to your false confidence that you can protect yourself from slamming into the windshield in 1/100th of a second. You owe it to yourself, and your loved ones to wear your seatbelt. You must demand that all passengers in your car wear seat belts. They will not think you are foolish, they will respect you when they see you are adamant about it. And if you happen to get into an accident that everyone walks away from, you will be their hero.

Teen Driver Safety

The leading cause of death among teens - car accidents

Just like buying a new car, there is no Undo button.

Now let's turn our attention to the post sale side of teen car buying, the teen driver safety side. A new car in the hands of an inexperienced teen who does not understand the laws of nature is a lethal weapon. It's a very important responsibility that must be taken seriously, or people will die. It's amazing how every day we turn on the TV and hear of a couple of teens who die in a drag race, or crashed into a tree on the way home from a party, or even during lunch hour at school while partying and speeding where they should not be. Take a look at our car crash photo gallery, Download Software, maybe it will sober you up when you see what can happen when you are not a careful driver.

You would think after all these years and deaths, that our teens would have gotten the message, but there is a never ending supply of young people who think they are invincible, and that it could never happen to them. But it can happen to them, to their friends, to anyone at anytime. It happens every week at a high school somewhere.

It's heart breaking here in South Florida, that every where we go, we keep seeing all these makeshift graves setup after a few teens die in a crash. It's not just one or two here and there, they are sprinkled all over the place, in clusters of 2, 3 and 4! They place these giant lollipop signs that say "Drive Safely" all along the roadside, to indicate where people have died in wrecks. It's real gut wrenching to see them around Christmas, when the parents of those killed go decorate the lollipop signs with Christmas flowers and ornaments, and leave gifts. There are way too many of these grave sites, and we must stop this proliferation now. That is under direct control of you the young driver. There's one spot in Boca Raton where more than 8 teens have died in a few crashes because someone got careless, I think 5 of them died in one crash, and they often speed without wearing seatbelts. If only they would wear their seatbelts, they all probably would have lived.

Our state roads are becoming one big cemetery, and it's all our responsibility to prevent this cancer from growing. This responsibility is ours to impart wisdom to these young adults, but the ultimate responsibility resides with the drivers that are causing the wrecks. We must motivate these young drivers to prevent these accidents and deaths for occurring. Every time passengers get into your car, picture yourself at their funeral apologizing to their mother how it wasn't really your fault their baby is dead after getting into your car and dying in a wreck that could have been prevented, and you get to keep on living and have a normal life. Then while you are moving on and enjoying your normal life, you leave behind you a wake of devastation and family members who never heal, and whose lives now become empty with their loss.

Just think for a moment how much human effort went into bringing your young friend into this world and raising them up before you wipe it out in 1/100th of a second. Their mother labored for 9 months, planned for the baby, spent months preparing the home for the baby, spent thousands of dollars over the years to feed, change diapers, clothe the baby, raise the young child, worry over them, gave up half their life and schedule to fit around their kid's life, than it all gets wiped out in an instant. You really don't want to be responsible for that type of tragic loss.