A study done in the UK by MoneyExpert.com showed that almost 25% of parents have had to help their adult children with their car debt when they have become delinquent in their payments. The expensive reality of raising a child has now extended beyond childhood, into adulthood and threatens parents who are now in their 60’s to compromise their hard earned savings and ability to maintain their retirement and health care needs. The real irony is that adult children today are beginning to literally spend their own inheritance at the cost of compromising their very alive parents.

Of course all of this starts with the devastating news coming from the financial and mortgage industry of people over-borrowing for their homes or getting into loans for which they were not qualified in a lenient lending market. This crisis is not limited to the housing market: it also quickly became a problem with the way that we buy our cars.

In an article in the LA Times just 2 years ago, at a time when the economy was not yet as mired in foreclosures and repossessions as it has been in 2009, it was ominously pointed out that the amount of people who couldn’t make their car payments for 60 days was up by 20%. Additionally, the average car loans are being paid off over a much longer time period than in the 1980s and 90s. 45% of all car loans are for 6 years or longer. It is common that these longer loans are, in reality, for more than one car because many buyers drive cars for 4 years or less and then trade in that car, debt and all, for newer and more expensive cars. The debt owed on the old loan is rolled into the new loan and the cycle begins to spiral from there with some consumers these days paying for 3 loans or more in a single car loans and owing, in some cases, $30,000 in debt on a single car worth far less. This is especially true with car owners who were forced in the last months of recession to downgrade to a less expensive and more fuel efficient model while trying to lose a large monthly payment.

These statistics may begin to uncover a inevitable time bomb for the spoiled babies of the Baby Boomers but a similarly frightening reality is beginning to reveal how this affects the parents that raised these consumers who over expected so much for themselves!

So what is the solution for protecting our Gen X  dollars and, as importantly, our parent’s money? We should take a ticket from their book: our parents drove their cars for much longer after they were paid off and took on much shorter loans. It is may be common today to get financing on a car for 6-8 years but our parents usually had 3-4 year loans thus reducing the amount that they were paying in heavy interest. Additionally, new cars are still very expensive these days so foregoing a need to have a brand-spanking new car and instead negotiating a car that is 2 years old at least (so has lost the majority of it’s depreciation) is realistic for long term goals and financial stability.

Buying smart not only protects your hard earned money but the savings of your parents.

My battery on my car died and now my radio will not work. I have been driving around without any music for days now and it is driving me batty! The screen is flashing a bunch of dashes and I know that I am supposed to have a code somewhere but can’t seem to find it anywhere. Should I just buy a new one?

Julieta I., Seattle, WA

Dear Soundless in Seattle,

It must be so difficult having to endure all of that silence! When your battery went dead, your car’s stereo was unable to get any power so it enabled it’s own anti-theft mode. Pretty clever, huh?

Well, it is only clever if you can find the security code which should be printed on the stereo manual in your glove box. It will be a 3-5 digit code and you will need to either enter it by pushing the pre-tune buttons or scrolling with the tuner knob or toggle. If you do not get it entered correctly within the first couple of tries, the stereo may lock you out for 30 minutes to an hour until you can try again. In some brands of stereos you may have to leave the car running and the stereo on for the entire period that you are locked out before your next attempt.

If you cannot find your original code you could just head to the nearest dealership (provided that it is the stereo that was installed by the car manufacturer) and ask if they can print the number out for you to do it yourself. Some dealers may want to see your registration and ID so be prepared to show them. If they insist that they need to have a technician fix it the cost will be around $40.

If it is not a factory stereo then a qualified sound shop might be able to help you with a little persuasion.

Once you have the code make sure that you stow a copy in the glove box so that if it should happen again, you will not have to listen to yourself hum!

Audibly,

M

While going through our list of entries to the recent “Worst Car Buying Story” contest that Carsala held, I was very interested to see that the winner was not a gearhead that I immediately recognized from either the Carsala Twitter followers, my Twitter or our FaceBook Fan Page. Being the nosey person that I am, I Googled the email address of the winner prior to contacting him and ‘lo and behold, not only did we have a gearhead winner but an award winning automotive journalist and photographer!

Our winner (and new friend) is Jan Wagner of San Diego, California, author of AutoMatters.net and he is just the nicest person. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Jan has had automotive columns in multiple newspapers and just loves what he does. He has enjoyed racing autocross for years and has some truly wonderful photos on his website of events. One of the most amusing things that Jan covered was his series about his cross country drive from California to the New York Auto Show in a Smart Car for ZAP!

Jan and I were both headed to the Orange County Auto Show in Anaheim for the “sneak peak” for the press and so we agreed to meet, have a chat “in real life” and grab a photo.

At the OC Auto Show

This photo is one I took with my measly point-and-shoot which I was a bit embarrassed to pull out in front of Jan because he has a Nikon D3. He is serious about his cameras: so serious that he was immediately telling me his plans to upgrade to the Nikon 3Ds. But if you look at Jan’s photographs you immediately see how much he enjoys capturing cars in action and at rest.

His winning entry, Used Lotus Super 7 Nearly Ended My Marriage Before it Began, is a really funny story and I can tell you now that Jan still has a penchant for tiny cars to take to autocross (he has a Miata for that now) but he is still single (with 2 kids in college) and hits as many automotive events as he possibly can whether they are track races, off road, auto shows, car shows or OEM sponsored insider presentations.

Carsala and I are very happy to have met Jan and hopefully he will be sharing some of his own stories soon right here!

With the world at our fingertips now courtesy of the internet it really is quite easy to educate yourself about just about anything. But, just as reading every opinion on real estate can make you quite educated about neighborhoods’ square footage and school districts, signing a deal on the perfect house at the right price is not so easy. In fact, it can be extremely intimidating whether you have done it before or not.

In the online world of cars it is easy to trip over experts on everything from tuning to collecting, from buying to selling and from torque to trunk space but what seems to bind them all together besides their love of things with wheels and engines is an unabashed insistence that they can bring a salesman to his knees, begging for mercy when negotiating for cars. What all of these people often forget, myself included, is that buying a car is a very personal process and asking for help getting the best price on a car is not so simple. Sometimes folks like to pick their own car and figure out how to deal with negotiations on their own.

A recent third party study for Carsala has revealed that in reality, car geeks aside, 73% of used car buyers dislike the negotiating process and a majority of them rate themselves as being poor negotiators. What is shocking is that almost 20% indicated that they had not attempted to negotiate the price of the car that they most recently purchased.

That last sentence just makes me shudder but friends and family are constantly buying cars around me and never ask for my help despite knowing what I do in the car world. At first I would take it personally but then I realized that they were taking their investment in a car personally and wanted to do it themselves. I can tell someone over dinner or the phone which car I think they want because maybe they really do like the Malibu or an X5 and I would try to get them to consider something else comparable or better. They might listen. But what about when they really want help with the act of buying the car and the dreaded negotiation game at the dealership? Unless I have a good several months to help them search the car lots and an entire day to spend at the dealership while the sales guys play their game, I have my own house to clean and job to do so they don’t want to bother me. Fair enough!

Now if only real estate agents representing you actually were like Carsala, we would be moving in the right direction!

How do you feel about the car buying process?

VIN Locations on a Car via checkmyvin.com

My mother emailed me and told me that I need to cover the VIN number in my car window because if I don’t, thieves will steal my car! How can they steal my car just by being able to see the little tag that every car has inside?  -

Laura C., Bakersfield, CA
Dear Bewildered in Bakersfield,

Don’t you just love those Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: emails that our mothers all seem to think we just have to have? As with any of these, approaching it with a bit of skepticism is always a good first move.

The 17 digit VIN could, in theory, be used by a thief if they copied the VIN, created fake registration and identification for themselves, went into a dealership and had them create a new key. That is not as simple as it sounds! There have only been a few cases of this ever happening and they were stealing the VINs from used car lots where the cars would be sitting still for some time.

Covering you VIN may not only be a futile exercise but also illegal. Several states have laws regarding the VIN being visible at all times and never obscured. Also, that little plate is not the only place where you can find your VIN. Manufacturers now put it many places including on the engine and inside door panel to dissuade thieves from being able to hide the identity of stolen cars.

My suggestion is that you ask your mother to stop forwarding you these urban legends and feel confident that your car will not end up in a chop house.