Finance Tips

Urban sprawl never used to be an issue. Even though the latest development might be miles from where you work or the nearest shops, this was never a problem. Most families owned two vehicles. Some three or more. No-one walked. Everyone just jumped in the nearest vehicle and off they went without a second thought until the price of gas rocketed up. Now we have the credit crunch and a recession just bottoming out. Car ownership has become an expensive proposition. Too expensive for some who have been reborn as a one-car family to cut their losses. The first step in crisis management is to find out which of your vehicles is the cheapest make and model to insure. Now balance that against the likely costs of maintenance and repair over the next twelve months. And which will sell for the highest price? When you know which vehicle you are keeping, maximize the number of discounts on the policy, including bundling auto and home together with the same insurer. Except, one vehicle for a busy family may not be practical. What are the options?

Many families talk to their neighbors and work out a carpool. This is reasonably easy to organize for routine journeys. But there is one slight problem. If you are going to carry passengers, you should have insurance to pay their medical costs should they be injured in an accident. It is not safe to drive your neighbors around on the state’s minimum liability cover. Then we come to the always difficult question of sharing the costs of the gas. If the passengers always pay something towards the cost of the journey, many insurers treat this as a business arrangement and require the vehicle owner to take out a commercial policy as a taxi. Needless to say, this turns a friendly social service into an expensive excuse to argue with your neighbors over prices. Of course, you could all agree to lie about the arrangement. But the stories can change rapidly if everyone ends up in a hospital and big bills are presented.

The second option is the new rental plans which site vehicles for rent by the hour in local garages. You book what you want over the internet, travel to the garage for the pick-up and drop it off at the same garage when your time is up. The cost per hour on the standard plans are attractive and, assuming you do not want a vehicle more than an average of one hour every day, you will save money on car ownership. But you do need to look carefully at the insurance offered in the standard plans. Some have poor cover of medical expenses for you as the driver and passengers. Others do not include the loss of use charge if the vehicle is off the road being repaired. Always read the small print. Summing up, finding insurance for a single vehicle means getting multiple car insurance quotes and finding the one that works for you. If you are going to use your car to drive neighbors around, you also need to get car insurance quotes to cover the additional liabilities. If you use one of the new rental plans, consider paying extra for LDW which gives more comprehensive protection against loss.

If you own a vehicle it is very important to know about proper auto glass installation during windshield replacement. Of course, you should always choose windshield repair if possible every time your car glass gets damaged. There are types of damage that can no longer be qualified for windshield repair, though. In such cases, you have no choice but to go for windshield replacement, either in the service shop or through mobile windshield replacement.

Mobile windshield replacement has become popular because of convenience. In mobile windshield replacement, the service technician does the windshield replacement for your vehicle right where you are.

Mobile windshield replacement also has its drawbacks, though. Mobile windshield replacement is more likely to be shoddy especially if not done by reputable professionals. This is not to say that substandard windshield replacement cannot be done in service shops. A vehicle owner should, therefore, know what to look out for in auto glass installation during windshield replacement.

A reputable and professional service shop should offer original equipment manufactured car glass. This type of car glass features the same exact specifications as original dealer glass in thickness, color, durability, size and shape. An example of original equipment manufactured car glass is Pilkington.

Stay away from aftermarket car glass or original equipment equivalent (OEE) car glass because its specifications are very different from your vehicle’s original glass. This is because aftermarket car glass or original equipment equivalent car glass is made by firms that have not been authorized legally to manufacture car glass according to the specifications licensed and copyrighted by car brands. They therefore have to make variations in thickness and other characteristics. They also do not carry the same guarantees as original dealer glass or original equipment manufactured car glass. This could very well mean lower quality such as not having the perfect fit and instead having leakages, optical distortions, wind noise, and low solar protection.

Even when using the right type of car glass for windshield replacement, though, vehicle owners should still ensure the proper auto glass installation.

The first step in proper auto glass installation for windshield replacement is proper removal of the old windshield. The old molding has to be removed. This is followed by the removal of the lower windshield cowl panel. The old car glass is then carefully cut out and the old urethane adhesive is removed, leaving not more than 1/16 inches of the old urethane bed.

The windshield channel area is where the urethane adhesives bond with the new car glass. Before installing the new car glass, though, the windshield channel area should be primed. This is very important to prevent the formation of rust. If rusting develops, the bonding of the car glass to the vehicle weakens sooner or later.

The new car glass to be installed and the urethane adhesive to be used should not contain any body oil or other contaminants. The proper amount of urethane adhesive should then be applied to the car glass. There is one part urethane adhesive and two part urethane adhesive. There is also another type of urethane adhesive that should be used especially for high performance vehicles, as well as for vehicles that use satellite navigation or that have windshields that are embedded with antennas. This third type of urethane adhesive costs ten times more.

Curing time for the urethane adhesive is another very important step in windshield replacement. Once the new car glass has been installed with the urethane adhesive, they should be allowed to cure for the specified period of time according to the adhesive manufacturer’s instructions. Two part urethane adhesive cures faster, in as little as one hour, while one part urethane adhesive can take up to twelve hours of curing time. Only then should the new molding be installed.

Vehicle owners should ensure that all these steps are followed strictly for proper auto glass installation during windshield replacement. This also ensures the safety of all concerned.