Selling your car with confidence

Most people thinking of selling their car are increasingly going on to the net to do so. The most popular online car selling site has got to be Auto trader here in the UK. I sold my last car on eBay - another site which is quite popular with a lot of private car sellers as well. However, if you live in the north of England, you may want to check out The car buying service. They are in nine locations, namely, Ashton-under-Lyne, Cheadle, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Sheffield and Doncaster.

The company buys all types of car models and makes and is the online car buyer approved by RAC. You can value your car online in just four steps. First of all out your car registration number and then hit the 'Value my car' button.

You then provide more information about the car and your contact details after which you get the value of the car. If you feel that the price is right, you can then book an appointment. The great thing about this company is that the price quoted is the price you have to pay. There are no hidden "admin charges" that gets added to your bill afterwards.

Just check out their new TV advert:

Carports and canopies for protection from the elements

It has been a scorching hot summer here in the UK. Just the other day, it was around 30 degrees C (approx. 86 degrees Fahrenheit ) and when I got into the car, it felt like a sauna. According to the US National Weather Service site, on a sunny day, temperatures inside the car can easily reach the ranges of 180 to over 200°F. Even with the air conditioning blowing at full power, it still took several minutes before it was finally comfortable inside the car. AT times like this, I do envy people who have houses with garages.

I do not have a garage in the front of the house and the car is left exposed to the elements. It is the hot sun now and rain, frost or snow at other times. However, these are not the worst. If you have ever parked under tress, you will understand what I mean. I do not really mind dead tree leaves but I especially hate bird poop. The worst part is that they are not only disgusting, they can actually damage the car paint if not cleaned off as soon as possible, and I am talking from experience.

Anyway, I was thinking how wonderful it would be, to have a covered driveway in front of the house. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that it would be a fantastic idea. By chance I got to know about 123v Plc, a company which is specialised in Carports and Car Canopies. They offer three different types of styles, namely,
1) Cantilever, where the carport or canopy is attached to a wall or any other structure;
2) Traditional, where the carport is attached to a wall and has posts as well. It can have a much larger span than the former.
3) Freestanding, with it's own posts.

I think for our house, a cantilever style canopy would be the most suitable. One reason I prefer this style is that there won't be any obstacles on the driveway.

However, installing these kind of structures is not a DIY job and would require the services of specialised companies. One thing that watching Cowboy Builders on TV has taught me is that you need to hire a reputed and experienced company for these kind of jobs. 123v Plc has been designing, manufacturing and installing all kinds of open sided structures, since 1997. These includes custom-build carports and canopies for homes, schools and offices all over Scotland, Wales and England. What I really found amazing was the fact that they offer a free, no obligation site survey so that each job is tailored to the needs of each individual customer. And once the fitting is complete, the surveyors will return to photograph them.

Check their site for more information.

Finding dependable car shippers in the US

Choosing a reputable and reliable company the United States can be a formidable task as there are literally thousands of companies out there, each claiming to deliver the best service at an affordable price.

You do not have to worry. Just check out Cartransportquotes.com which links you to the most trusted and Dependable Car Movers in .

Qualified professionals who are licensed and properly insured will give you fast and reliable quotes/ rates with reported savings exceeding 20%.

The site offers the best Car Shipping and auto transport quotes for free. All you have to do is fill up their quick form and generate up to eight car shipping estimates. You can then use this information to compare national car shipping rates from automotive shipping carriers at one time. This way, you can select the best quote.

I would suggest anyone who has never shipped a car to first check out the Car Shipping Glossary so that you are familiar with the industry jargon and go through the Frequently Asked Questions as well. Teh site also has a Auto Mover Blog with loads of interesting information.

Discounts on car rentals

One of my friends is going to Austria for a holiday and he initially had planned to drive there but later on decided to fly there. I asked him how he was planning to get around the place and found out that he planned to use public transport from moving around the city and hiring a car for going outside town.

When deciding on a car rental company, two companies usually come to mind, namely, Hertz and Avis. However, in the process we miss out on a number of other companies which provide competitive rental rates. One searching around the web, we came across Advantage Rent A Car. This car rental company is more than 40 years old and has a presence in 150 U.S. locations and 130 locations in 33 countries internationally. Yes! They are in Austria as well.

Found out that they are offering some special offers including a 50% discount on luxury cars and convertibles. Definitely worth considering when deciding on a car rental company.

GPS tracking company

If your company uses a number of vehicles for any purpose, a reliable GPS system is absolutely necessary to track all of them. Most companies who have installed a GPS system in their vehicles are usually for navigation and security reasons.

After reading about the GPS Insight vehicle tracking system provided by GPS Insight, I got to learn about the other benefits of installing and implementing a GPS system. This includes able to calculate routing efficiencies, fuel savings and not paying for labour when the drivers are not really working.

I found their Blog for GPS vehicle tracking really informative. According to one of their latest posts, collecting GPS data might not be enough. The data needs to be collated into something quantifiable in order for it to be useful to the companies. Using the example of a large trash hauling operation in Denver, it is shown how they are able to come up with useful information from the tremendous amount of data generated, such as :

• How many trips per truck
• Average stopped time
• Average to & from times
• Exceptions

I guess this is what differentiates them from other GPS providers, which just fit you up with GPS hardware and software or just generates data from your activities and leaves it up to you to interpret them.

Based in Arizona, the corporation has been providing custom navigation, and messaging solutions to their customers' for over 3 years. They target the service and trucking companies, such as HVAC, sales forces, delivery vehicles, long haul trucking, etc. With a customer base of several hundred customers, and several thousand vehicles, they are spread throughout all 50 states in the US.

Their solutions include both GPS hardware products as well as web software-based technology and usability enhancements including Google Earth integration, routing, customizations, alerts, specialized reports, ERP integration, and data warehousing, etc. Customers will be able to obtain direct engine diagnostics so that an operator can obtain fault codes, speed, fuel consumption, odometer readings, idle time, etc., along with 2 minute updates. The great thing is that each system is customized so that customers get the best solution for their needs. I really like their idea of having GPS Insight support wiki for customers. This includes general information about their system plus support information and helpful tips.

Their system costs about $34.95 per vehicle per month (approximately US$1.50-2 per day per vehicle). For more pricing options in details, check out their pricing page. The fact that GPS Insight offers a 30 day money back guarantee on commercial sales, are often willing to offer "free trials" in local markets shows how confident they are with what they have to offer.

Get lower prices on tyres

The OTR (off-the-road) tyre market is highly volatile and prices have increased dramatically over the years. There are several possible reasons for this but as I see it, this is directly related to the continued rising costs of raw materials. While the dealers and the manufacturers are blaming each other as well as the grey traders, for the price increase, the ones losing out are the customers.

If you are looking for OTR tyres, visit BuyBigTires.com. Located in Southeastern North Carolina, BuyBigTires.com is an international company specialising in OTR and specialty tire market doing business on 5 continents. They help customers find lower prices on those tires. They are able to do this by getting rid of the middleman and bringing the products directly to the end users.

A search of 4000R57 haul truck tires gave me two results. They have brand new tires from Michelin and Goodyear priced at $99000 and $105000 respectively.

Radar gun site

The speed limit inside the University of Warwick campus is 20 mph and they have a traffic speed board to inform the drivers of their speeds. I was thinking to myself that I was a great idea to get drivers to reduce their speed if they were traveling fast. Would be much more effective than the normal speed limit signs. I assume that they were using a radar gun to find out the speed.

If you were interested in getting one, go over to Radargunsales.com, a sports and traffic radar gun site.


The 'Traffic Radar Speed Board' is a 10.5" dual color high intensity LED display. It flashes the speed in red to warn speeders while it is green for legal speeds. The different models all come with a 12 month limited warranty (6 month battery warranty) parts and labor covered.

They have so many different varieties of top quality Traffic and Police Radar Guns that should fit every budget. All of the products are made in the United States. Shipping is through standard UPS ground shipping and is free on all radar guns for delivery within the continental USA.