Month: August 2022

Tactics For Getting The Most From Your Insurance

To go through life safely, you might need a health insurance, an auto insurance, some kind of coverage on your house and perhaps a life insurance. Insurance can become quickly overwhelming because there are so many types of insurances and so many different policies. Read these tips to get some clear advice.

The best time to switch insurance providers is when your policy is up for renewal. Canceling a policy at the end of it’s term means you won’t have to pay a cancellation fee, which saves you money. You also can let your current insurer know that you plan on canceling and moving to another insurance company and they may offer you a discount to match the new company’s offer, or even better it.

When you think about insurance, think hard about how much of your available income you want to spend on insurance versus investments. This is because, of course, each of us has a finite amount of money to spend on anything, so we have to make smart decisions about it. For example, if you are in good health and can save a lot on your insurance budget by buying low-cost term insurance, that will free up income you can use to invest in either long-term care insurance or actual income investments.

If your credit score has gone up, have your insurance company rechecks your scores. Insurance companies do base part of your initial premium on your credit score. Without your permission though, they can only check it when they initially offer you coverage unless you have had a lapse of coverage. If you know your credit has gone up, having your credit rechecked could net you a reduction in your premiums.

The wise consumer will take their own loyalty into account when comparing insurance companies. An insurer that has provided years of effective, reliable and trouble-free service should not be abandoned the instant a slightly cheaper alternative becomes available. It is quite likely that an insurance company that offers rock-bottom prices is cutting corners somewhere in the service they provide their clients.

When involved in an insurance claim, do not wait for the insurance company to make all the moves. This will ensure that you get what you are owed, and in a timely manner. Be sure to provide any evidence that will be required and be persistent in asking for information directly related to your claim.

Much like car insurance or health insurance, having a higher deductible can save you money on your premium. The downside to all of this, is that if you have a small claim to make, you will most likely have to pay for the entire repair out of your own pocket.

The best way to understand insurance is to read about it. Hopefully these tips have helped you understand better what your needs are and how you can find an insurance that will provide the kind of coverage you are looking for. Take your time in looking for an insurance company that will satisfy you.

How To Know If Your Home Owner’s Insurance Is Right For You

There are so many insurance companies out there that it’s hard to know which companies are legitimate and which ones are only looking for your monthly fees and have no real plan of following through with their commitment. You can sort through the pretenders by checking out these housing insurance tips.

If you live in a flood-prone area, never assume that you can rely solely on federal disaster assistance rather than purchasing flood insurance coverage. In the first place, a large percentage of all flooding incidents never qualify for federal disaster relief. Secondly, you may pay more in interest for a federal disaster loan than you would pay for flood insurance.

Pay your home insurance yearly instead of monthly. Breaking it in to monthly payments may make it seem to be cheaper but if you save the money to pay it in full for the year, you will get a discount for making that payment. This can save you a good bit of money over the years.

Smoke alarms can help you save on your homeowners insurance premiums. With installed smoke alarms, you can save around 10% or more on your annual homeowners insurance premiums. It is possible that if you add more smoke detectors, your insurance agent will further discount your policy. Don’t forget to tell your agent about your smoke alarms.

Be sure to purchase the type of homeowner’s insurance that you need, the terms can sometimes be confusing. Replacement coverage actually provides funds to rebuild your home as well as its contents in the event of loss. An actual cash value policy will not cost as much, but pays only what your home is worth at the time of your loss less depreciation for age and ordinary wear and tear.

Keep as many policies with the same company as possible to reduce your total premium. Many insurance carriers offer discounts for customers with multiple lines of insurance. If you keep your home owner’s insurance and auto insurance with the same carrier, you may reap a significant discount on both policy premium totals.

When you have homeowners insurance and something happens that would require the use of your policy, make sure to make the insurance claim as soon as possible after the incident to avoid any discrepancy. If you wait this could complicate the process and often make the repair time much longer.

Tell your insurance company about any special features or benefits of your neighborhood. For example, if you live in a gated community, you may be eligible for additional discounts. If your gated neighborhood offers regular security patrols or a formal entrance procedure, these safety features can further reduce your home owner’s insurance premium.

Having insurance as a homeowner is a must, but you should never settle for just any policy backed by just any insurance company. Make sure you use these tips to find a great policy from a legitimate insurer whose services will be there in a timely fashion should you ever need them.

Tag, You’re It! (Or, How To Write Slogans)

Some call them “tag lines”; others refer to them as”catch lines” or “tie-in-slogans.” Whatever the words used to refer to them, they are perhaps the most important part of your promotional writing.

Do you recognize any of these? :

“Like a rock…”
“Fly the friendly skies…”
“It’s the real thing !”
“Quality is job number one”
“The quicker-picker-upper”

Most of those tag lines are recognizable by us without even including the name of the company or product.

They summarize in a very few words the essence of the thing they are promoting. They communicate a good, positive feeling or relationship to the product. They do it with a simple,memorable phrase that is easily repeated.

The shorter the description is, the more challenging it is to write. Anyone can write a 500-word description of a product or service. Now try doing it with 5 to 10 words ! Each word you choose is very important to the message.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS for writing good taglines for your business offer.

1) Start by noticing ads on billboards as you drive down the road.

Billboard advertisers have but a couple of seconds to grab your attention and sell their product or service. Usually their copy is going to be a very good tagline with a picture of the product or service. These are great examples of how to write effective taglines.

2) Notice other media forms like magazine and newspaper display ads, business cards, brief radio and TV commercials.

Observe the thing that caught your attention and makes the message easily remembered. It’s usually a concise and well-written tagline.

3) Write down everything you can think of that relates to your business. You may even start with a narrative description in paragraph form.

4) Now, make a list of the top 25 or 30 things that are important and worth mentioning.

Whittle that list down to 8 or 10 of the most important things you wish to say.

Now eliminate repetition or things that are not really that necessary to your product or service.

Get your list of words or phrases down to 3 or 4 central elements.

5) Based on your final core selection, make up some phrases that will serve as your taglines for consideration. Keep them short and use simple, everyday language.

Which of these taglines would you remember best? :

“Joe’s auto repair shop, the lowest-prices and the best service”

OR

“Quality Care For Your Car !”

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“The Best Tax Service Anywhere Around The Town !”

OR

“Your Tax Experts At Work !”

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“Emergengy ambulance service available 24-hours a day”

OR

“When Minutes Count!”

Well, you get the idea!

Do some test marketing with your final two or three best taglines. Discover the one that works best for you and incorporate it into all of your promotional messages.

Remember, like any of life’s endeavors, experience and practice help to improve your skills level. If you want to be a good writer, write a lot!

Best of luck with your promotional efforts.

How To Import A Car Into Canada

The purpose of this article is to explain the steps necessary to properly import a car from the United States into Canada. First it must be stressed and overly emphasized that you have to follow the rules exactly. If you do not follow the Canadian and American rules for importing and exporting a vehicle you may well have very expensive auto, truck or S.U.V. south of the border that you cannot import or drive into Canada. Your vehicle may well be stuck in limbo, with you unable to drive it. In that case you will either be forced to sell your vehicle, at cost and inconvenience to yourself, to a person in the United States. It cannot be overemphasized that you have to do proper research, check and either recheck the rules, and then follow the auto importation rules exactly and to the letter.

Many Canadians have saved big money importing cars from the U.S. into Canada. Do not let the rules scare you. Simply and exactly follow the rules. Again if not sure, ask. It’s only a phone call – most likely toll free or an email away.

You may have heard many, if not dozens, of mythical stories of Canadians who saved vast amounts on car purchases by importing cars from the U.S. into Canada. You may have seen or heard similar stories on your local TV. Or radio station programs. You may have read of such savings of consumers in the columns of your local newspapers. However when either your local car dealer of manufactures are asked the answers you receive are not the same, if not downright scary. The savings (except for the highest end luxury cars) are minor. The cars are not the same. The manufacturers will not honor new car warranties on new cars bought in the U.S. and imported / shipped into Canada. These answers are either false or mistruths taken out of context.

You will save a fair chunk of cash. This is true in many, if not most cases. All that matters in pricing out your car is what it costs delivered to your door – with all taxes and charges included. Even after including all of the Canadian taxes and extra costs involved, in most cases, you will save a bundle. To the largest degree currency fluctuations have made this so. The rise in the Canadian dollar has made this so. It may also be argued that the retail car industry in the U.S. is much more competitive than in Canada reducing prices by competition. In terms of warranty coverage it is true that manufacturers do not cover warranties on U.S. cars imported into Canada. However the vast majority of car makers do cover the warranties. It’s up to you to do your homework. Again either phone or email. It’s always best to get the answer in writing.

You may consider that it is wrong, unethical or immoral to import a U.S. car into Canada. True most people like to be loyal to their local merchants. However under the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) cars are shipped back and forth among the NAFTA trading area (the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico) without extra tariffs and taxes. This has benefited the car makers greatly – allowing for reductions in costs due to specialization of factories and economies of scale. Before NAFTA each car maker has different factories in each separate country manufacturing select models and car lines. With NAFTA that can be scaled back to only several, larger and more efficient factories – each producing a certain model or car line for the entire NAFTA trading areas. If the car makers can benefit from the economies of scale of NAFTA why not you as a consumer? You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Interestingly enough the humour is that same car, which you are importing into Canada, May very well, have been manufactured in Canada, for the North American car market. You are in effect repatriating that vehicle home. If the car is not made in Canada, but in the U.S. or Mexico, the same person and people will have their jobs regardless of whether you purchased the car in Canada or in the U.S. The one person or organization that gets left out of the loop is your local car dealer. True. However, it may be surprising for you to discover, that most of the profits of a car dealership are from service work of your vehicle, not the sale. In this day and age of computerized, technically difficult to repair automobiles, who are you going to take your car to for service, both warranty and non warranty related. The answer is that your service work, in most cases, will be done by your local dealer, whom you wish to support.

The basic rules in importing a car into Canada are as follows. First consult the Government of Canada site – Officially the “Registrar of Imported Vehicles “, also called Riv. This can be done by phone, email or both.

Transport Canada issues a comprehensive “List of Vehicles Admissible from the United States”. This is your initial bible to consult – both in terms of admissibility and inadmissibility. Note that certain model years may have different rulings. It is up to you to do a thorough a complete job of research. Again phone, email to check and recheck if you are unsure or doubtful. .

It is wise to check with the manufacturer of the car in terms of warranty coverage. If coverage is not available perhaps third party coverage can be purchased, if the overall cost savings warrant it.

Before exporting the car from the United States, you will have to fax U.S. customs the relevant documents 72 hours in advance. Next you will have to follow the procedure outlined at the Riv site of “What to do at the Border”. This involves documentation, the paying of certain fees and taxes and within a set time an “Imported Vehicle Inspection” and certification by an approved automobile service agency. If modifications need to be done to bring the car into line with Canadian standards, these must be done. Certification again must be done by the approved repair facility.

Lastly remember that cars manufactured within the NAFTA trade zone do not pay extra duty. However extra duties on cars manufactured outside the U.S., Canada or Mexico may be demanded. By Canada Customs. Again it is your responsibility to do your homework.

This is a basic explanation of the steps required to import a car into Canada from the U.S. There may be additional steps involved, in your specific case. Rules may change over time, either overall or in specifics.

It cannot be overstated that you must do a thorough and complete job of research – either by phone, email or both.
Written documentation is most preferential over verbal. Check and recheck. If in doubt phone or email.

At this point in time, many many Canadians have purchased a car in the United States and imported that vehicle into Canada. These smart consumers have found that the cost savings on purchasing their vehicle well outweigh their investments in time, efforts and extra work involved.

Helpful Information And Advice About General Insurance

It may seem like it is you against the world sometimes when it comes to dealing with insurance. With the vast amount of information available online, it can be nearly overwhelming at first. This article will provide much helpful information for you to get started on the right path.

It is always a good idea to look over your insurance policies when it comes time for their renewal rather than just paying it automatically. Often many factors may have changed and you may find you don’t need some of the options or you may need to include more to the policy. You may need to update the value of your house and contents to cover your house completely, especially if you have done remodeling or have seen and increase in housing prices in your neighborhood.

Make your insurance premium one of the first payments you make every month. Most polices have language written into them that a missed payment cancels your insurance coverage. This can be especially dangerous as your health or risk status may have changed since you first purchased your insurance. A lapse in coverage will end up meaning higher premium payments so make it a priority.

Ask your doctor to allow you to review your medical records the next time that you are in the office for a routing checkup, to make sure everything is correct. If the doctor has recorded information incorrectly or ascribed a family history to you that you don’t have, your health insurance premiums may be unnecessarily high.

If you want lower insurance premiums, work on improving your credit score. Insurance is another of the areas where good credit will ease your financial worries. Most, if not all, insurers take credit scores into account when setting their customers’ premiums. If you are involved in a credit repair effort, check with your insurer to see if you can turn it into premium savings.

Buying from an online insurance company will save you money over buying from a traditional brick-and-mortar insurer. Online companies don’t have to pay for multiple locations and the bills associated with them, or a large number of employees, so the savings end up being passed on to you, the policyholder.

If you don’t have health insurance coverage, you may want to add medical coverage to your vehicle insurance policy. Auto accidents are often a major cause of catastrophic medical bills and the medical coverage will cover everyone in the car, regardless of who the driver at fault it. This can protect your assets from being party to a lawsuit and can save you a lot of bills in the even an accident occurs.

In summary, you want to do all that you can to learn about insurance. There is a lot of information available, but we have provided some of the most important tips. Hopefully we have provided you with enough information to not only give you a solid background, but also further spark your interest to become an expert in it.

Tips To Avoid Car Insurance Premium Increases & Becoming Assigned Risk

Below are some tips to reduce your auto insurance bill, prevent substantial premium increases and avoid becoming assigned risk.

Claim Reports: You know about credit reports, you should also know about claim reports. C.L.U.E.® (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange), is a claim report service provided by ChoicePoint, Inc. ChoicePoint, Inc. states on their web site “C.L.U.E. is a claim history information exchange that enables insurance companies to access prior claim information in the underwriting and rating process. C.L.U.E. Personal Property reports contain up to five years of personal property claims matching the search criteria submitted by the inquiring insurance company. Data provided in C.L.U.E. reports includes policy information such as name, date of birth and policy number, and claim information such as date of loss, type of loss and amounts paid.”

Tip: C.L.U.E. reports contain information on claims history by a residence address. Just like credit reports, a C.L.U.E. report may have errors. It is advisable to obtain a copy of your C.L.U.E. report at ChoiceTrust.com to check your report for errors.

Credit reports: Insurance companies are now looking at credit reports to determine future premiums. They have determined that people with better credit scores have fewer claims. Consequently, if you have a poor credit report you may find yourself paying more for car insurance.

Tip: Always make at least the minimum payment for your bills on time, particularly your insurance bill.

Glass Coverage: Most auto insurance salespeople recommend “full” glass coverage for an additional premium, when you purchase collision coverage for your car. They remind you how much it costs to replace all your windows if broken by a vandal. What they do not tell you, and it is unlikely that they would even know (I would only trust the answer from an underwriter, not a sales representative), is whether your insurance company will use a previous glass claim to increase your future premium and whether they will report your glass claims to C.L.U.E.

Some insurance companies will report glass claims to C.L.U.E. and then use these claims to raise your premium or even worse, cancel your car insurance policy making you assigned risk with a substantial premium increase. Allstate notified me that after four claims in less than five years, they terminated my auto insurance policy and then offered to sell me coverage in their Indemnity Company with a shocking premium increase. These claims consisted of two claims for a broken windshield, one for a stolen and recovered car and one accident.

I had a sports car and had to endure a total premium increase over a period of four years of approximately $12,000 and remain claim free before I became eligible for coverage outside of the assigned risk pool. I wrote a letter to the president of Allstate complaining that they should not have considered my glass claims when canceling my car insurance because the glass claims were made under a separate part of the policy for which I paid a separate and additional premium. Allstate responded in a letter stating “Although this claim activity does not indicate that you were directly at fault in each loss, the frequency and severity of the above losses was not within our range of acceptability. After careful review, I regret to inform you that we cannot reverse our original decision regarding the above policy. We have however continued to offer coverage in our Indemnity Company.”

Tip: Check with the underwriting department of your insurance company to see if they will consider glass claims when assessing premiums or if they report glass claims to C.L.U.E. If yes, do not make a glass claim. The two windshields which Allstate provided me with were aftermarket windshields which would have cost me less than $300 each. During the last 30 years of my driving history, I have experienced two broken front windshields, one broken rear windshield and two broken side windows. While the financial risk of totaling a car can be substantial, the financial risk of replacing a windshield is comparatively insignificant. It does not make sense to file a glass claim if it will increase your premium. You may even want to decline this coverage altogether and save the premium.

Tip for leased vehicles: Some lease agreements require that the car be returned with an OEM windshield. If you lease a car and replace a front windshield using your “full” glass coverage, insist that the insurance company provide you with an OEM windshield from the manufacturer. If you pay for the windshield yourself, check your lease agreement carefully to see if you must use an OEM windshield from the manufacturer or if you can use an aftermarket windshield. Some people with leased cars who have replaced a windshield with an aftermarket windshield are shocked, when they return their car, to find that the leasing company is charging them $800 for a new OEM windshield, even though the aftermarket windshield is in perfect condition.

Car Rental & Towing Coverage: While it may be a good idea to have this coverage, it is not always a good idea to use it. Some people have realized that this coverage is not just available when an accident has occurred. For instance, some people have used the car rental coverage when their car was in a repair shop or the towing coverage when their car broke down on the road. As with glass coverage, using this coverage may be the same as filing a claim.

Tip: Check with the underwriting department of your insurance company to see if they will consider rental or towing claims when assessing premiums or if they report these claims to C.L.U.E. If yes, do not use car rental or towing coverage unless you have had an accident, in which case it will be part of the accident claim. If you are concerned about towing costs when your car breaks down, you can buy one of the roadside assistance memberships such as the one available from AAA which provides additional benefits not provided by your automobile insurance policy.

Hybrid Engineering: A New Chance for Less Contaminating Cars

For a long time, there is a agitating demand for fuel-efficient automobiles that are gentle on the wallet and kind on our fast, harmful surroundings. The automobile industry answered to this need by setting in motion hybrid cars and these cars were soon proposed as cars of the future. There has been a lot of growth in hybrid car engineering but the dream of Hybrid Cars converting the automobile industry has not been accomplished yet. The big car mass-producing companies like Toyota, GM, Ford, and Honda are all reacting to the process and putting their best foot forth for better technology and market economy in hybrid cars.

Sales Run Comparable To Progress in Hybrid Automotive Engineering

Many cars are now equipped with electric power steering that brings .05% – 2% better gas mileage in cars like the Honda S2000 and Saturn Vue. As a consequence, there has been a boost in sales of these cars. In 2002, approximately 30,000 hybrid cars were sold in US. In 2003, there was a big jump with Toyota alone selling almost 100,000 Hybrid cars. Year 2004 saw a new energy from the customers for new generation hybrid cars. They were sold off nearly right away and got outstanding adoration.

Hybrid Cars and the Related Industries

The greater approval and operation of hybrid cars, and for that matter, any new technological creation is not conditional on the manufacturer by itself. The entire industry has to back the move and allow essential support for its success. The automobile industry is finally gearing up for a must support to the hybrid cars.

Fuel cells are not very familiar these days, as they are very costly and replenishing them is a big job. By 2010, GM anticipates a lot to advance on the fuel cell aspect, which will be a positive movement for the hybrid cars.

The oil change industry need not worry with the current trend of Hybrid cars. All hybrids have a DC motor and require oil to lube the motor and keep it cool. These motors become heated up fast.

Basic Structure to Move Hybrid cars

Because we will have many hybrid cars on the roads, we will be required to make completing plannings for them. GM is going over the setting and planning to construct Hydrogen fuel stations with Shell. The version of each gas station would cost about $400,000. There will be a bunch of opportunities, as these modifications will take place. The auto repair industry will have to prepare anew for the hybrid cars.

We still believe Hybrid cars to be a field test product and believe them to have high operating costs. Even today, Hybrid cars are not considered to be in as big numbers as they were anticipated when they were inaugurated. The rewards of hybrid cars far outnumber and outweigh the troubles and should not let us neglect its eco-friendly nature, its fuel-efficient and oil-conserving qualities and an anticipation for an uncontaminated Earth.

Six Steps to Raising Financially Responsible Teens

In today’s money-driven society, teens are constantly bombarded by magazines, television ads, and peer pressure which make them feel less than ideal if they do not wear the latest clothing style and drive a “cool” car. Briefly visit your local mall and you will observe multitudes of young people who shop as if credit cards have no maximum spending limit. With all this push for extravagance, is it even possible to raise your teens with money sense and save them from making serious financial mistakes?
Although I have yet to have teenagers of my own, I was blessed to be raised by parents who taught me from a young age to be a wise steward of money. Let me share some things my parents did to instill in me that money is a limited resource and must be spent with care.
1. Start Early
Just because your child is too young to have a real job, does not mean it is too early to start teaching basic financial principles. From the time we were little, we always received an “allowance” from our parents. We only received this money if we had done all of our daily/weekly chores. This taught us that money is not free; it is earned.
2. Set An Example
You cannot expect your teens to wisely spend money if you do not set a good example for them. Do your children see you buying things on credit because you want them now and do not have the patience to wait until you are able to save up enough money? My dad was an excellent example in this area. Before making any large purchase (such as a car), he first decided what he could afford. Then, he began shopping around. Sometimes it would take him close to a year to find what he was looking for, for the price he wanted to pay. His patience always paid off and it left an indelible impression upon me.
3. Don’t Buy Everything For Them
It is easy for many parents to want to “help teens out” by buying most everything for them. But, is this truly “helping”? When your teenager enters the real world on their own, they are going to have some hard lessons to learn if you always bought everything they needed and wanted for them. As soon as we were able to begin earning money, my dad had us start paying for some of our own things such as clothes, gifts for other people, things we wanted, and so on. Because my parents did not buy everything for us, it taught me the value of hard work, to think before I spend, and to look for the best buy.
4. Teach Your Teens the Value of Hard Work
In a day when laziness is rampant, teach your teens instead the importance of being a hard worker. What you work for, you usually appreciate more. If your teenager has worked hard to buy themselves a car, it can be almost guaranteed that they will appreciate it more and take better care of it.
5. Train Your Teens to Think Before They Spend
This might seem like a no-brainer, but learning to think before I spend has literally saved me hundreds of dollars over the years. Teach your teens to ask themselves at least three questions before making any purchase:
Do I have the money on hand to pay for this?
Do I need this?
Can I buy this somewhere else for less?
Oftentimes, in asking these questions, I will talk myself out of making the purchase! I will realize I don’t really have the money to pay for it or I don’t need the item. Other times, I will think of a way I can purchase this item for less.
6. Encourage Your Teens to Get the Best Buy
In addition to asking these questions, also train your teens to look for the best deal. It is amazing what variation in prices you will find out there. For instance, the water pump burst on one of our vehicles recently. When we took it into auto shop for repair, they said that we would have to take it to a more specialized shop, since the engine would need to be taken out in order to replace the water pump. The first price we were quoted was $775. Knowing that was out of our current budget, my husband began calling around to different body shops. One place quoted him around $500 another quoted him a little over $300. By calling around to find the best deal, we are going to be saving hundreds of dollars on this repair job.

Asymmetric vs Symmetric Vehicle Lifts Which Is Right For Me

When purchasing a surface mounted two-post automotive lift, it is important to decide what type of lift you will need to best suit the vehicles you want to pick up. An automotive lift is a tool and just as you know that a pneumatic wrench is better than a monkey wrench for changing tires, it is important for you to determine which type of lift is best suited for each type of vehicle.

Symmetrical Vehicle Lifts

Approximately 30 years ago, when cars were built out of steel, men were strong and women wore skirts…..The symmetrical lift was designed as an alternative to the hydraulic inground lift. The lift wasn’t known as “symmetrical” right off the bat; it was called a surface lift because it bolted to the concrete floor, rather than being installed through the floor. At the time of its inception, the surface lift was being designed (often times poorly) to pick up rear wheel drive vehicles that had a pretty good front to rear balance. The cars were big and heavy and mechanics relatively skinny and strong.

In order to balance these behemoths six feet up in the air, the columns were placed across from each other and the arms were all of equal length. Some lifts were connected from side-to-side overhead; a base plate connected others down below. One thing was certain about these lifts; if you were a mechanic with a beer belly trying to get out of the car after it had been driven into place, you were going to have a tough time. Since the lift was balancing the vehicle between front and back, the column needed to be located somewhat close to the center of the vehicle. What else is in the center of the vehicle? We all know the answer to that! The doors! What happens when doors meet columns? Door dings!

It took the lift manufacturers a while to figure it out, but eventually they did. Currently, very few lifts are sold as “symmetrical” lifts. The ones that are sold are usually being sold for a particular purpose, such as working on vans or trucks. (Vans and trucks have the door in front of the centerline of the vehicle, so a column really doesn’t get in the way.) Some customers will purchase a symmetrical lift because they want a “drive thru” capability, and sure enough, the symmetrical lift usually gives a few more inches in that regard.

Sure Fire Ways to Tell a Symmetrical Lift:

The columns face each other.
Front arm length is the same as rear arm length.
The lift states “symmetrical”.
You have a difficult time getting out of the car when you drive in.
You don’t have a difficult time getting out of the truck when you drive in.
You have an account with a body shop to repair door dings.

Asymmetric Vehicle Lifts

Sometimes Europeans are smarter than Americans. I don’t like to admit it, but it’s true. It turns out, some guy named Günter was using his symmetrical lift (not a Rotary Lift, mind you), when he realized that those last two lagers had pushed his belly past the point of no return. That’s right, he was stuck in the car and couldn’t get out. Since he had some time to sit and think, he did what most mechanics do with their free time; he tried to design a better lift so that he wouldn’t have to lose his bought and paid for beer belly.

What Gunter came up with seemed to be a pretty good design. By making the rear arms of the lift longer than the front arms, the vehicle would theoretically sit far enough back to allow him to open the doors. Not only that, since most of the cars being manufactured in Gunter’s day were front wheel drive, the balance of the vehicle on the car lift would be better. (Gunter had never forgotten the time that he had pulled the engine out of a car, only to have the car flip backwards off the lift due to the newly created weight distribution imbalance). It would also help to reduce the number of times he had to have a customer’s door fixed after dinging the door on the column.

Gunter’s design worked for about two years. He still dinged a door occasionally, but he was able to continue growing his belly and was always able to get out of the vehicle. One day however, Gunter raised a car with his vehicle lift and heard a horrendous squealing noise, metal on metal. He also noticed that the arms of his lift were shaking and rocking and he stopped to make sure that the vehicle didn’t bounce off the lifting pads.

After some serious investigative work (and several snaps of his suspenders), he noticed that there were metal shavings on the floor near the columns. It soon became apparent that when he had changed the load center of the lift by extending the rear arms, he had caused excessive wear on the load bearings that ride inside the column. Soon, all of Günter’s beer drinking buddies (who had copied Gunter’s idea) were shaking their heads and refusing to buy Gunter beer anymore. Gunter was not a happy man.

Thankfully, those smart engineers in the United States don’t drink beer while they are trying to solve a problem. (Most of the time….) They had seen Gunter’s design and saw the problem right away. They also realized that their solution would have an added benefit to the beer belly problem. Rotate the columns to face the new load center and you automatically get extended door-opening clearance. Ever wonder why American automotive lift engineers have big beer bellies? Because they CAN!

Enough about Gunter; A TRUE asymmetric lift has columns that are rotated 30 degrees to point the load center of the lift in the general direction of the load center of the car as it is being lifted AND front arms that are shorter than the rear. A semi-asymmetric lift only has the front arms shorter than the rear, without addressing the load bearing issue.

Very few manufacturers take the time to make this distinction on their auto lifts. The good majority of two-post auto lifts that are advertised as “asymmetric” are the exact same as the symmetric auto lift with different arm lengths. Does this concept work? Of course it will for a while. But remember what happened to Gunter and his buddies, you will experience severe wear on the bearings (or slider blocks) over time.

We highly recommend purchasing a TRUE asymmetric lift when you purchase this design. A quality auto lift manufacturer will also include a wheel-spotting dish to help you or your techs spot vehicles properly when positioning the vehicle.

Sure Fire Ways to Tell a True Asymmetric Lift:

Columns are rotated 30 degrees from each other, facing the load center of the vehicle.
Front arms of the automotive lift are shorter than the rear arms.
You have a beer belly bigger than Gunter’s and don’t have a problem.
A Rotary Lift engineer tells you it’s a True Asymmetric Lift.
Reduction in bill from the body shop allows for a bigger beer belly.

Sure Fire Ways to Tell a “Semi-Asymmetric” Lift:

The columns face each other, rather than the load center of the car.
The front arms of the vehicle lift are shorter than the rear arms.
The lift squeals, shakes and whines when lifting a load.
You have metal shavings on the floor near the column.
You bought the lift so you wouldn’t bang the door on the column, but continue to bang the door on the column.
You pay a company like mine to replace slider blocks every few years.

“Versymmetric” Design Auto Lift

If you have been really doing your research, you will have probably heard the term “Versymmetric” thrown out there from a few manufacturers. The theory behind this term is that they have designed an automotive lift that is capable of being both symmetrical and asymmetric at the same time.

One opinion is that this design takes the worst situations of two different types of lifts and combines them to really confuse a technician.

First off, a symmetrical auto lift will cause door dings and clearance problems with cars, no question. Second, an “asymmetric” lift that doesn’t have columns rotated will still cause door dings. Third, if the technician isn’t properly trained on how to set up each and every vehicle properly, the lift will be used improperly. The end result will be an unsafe lifting situation with the vehicle, door dings and excessive bearing wear.

Some of these lifts are listed with the ALI and pass 3rd party testing. They can be constructed well and the sales people selling the concept really have their pitch down. Having seen the products used improperly in the shops and having serviced numerous “Versymmetric” lifts that have had failed bearings (slider blocks), our opinion isn’t very positive.

We here at Standard Industrial & Automotive Equipment are happy to discuss various issues regarding automotive lifts, quality and what is best suited for your shop. Feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance.

How to Find Value in No Load Mutual Fund Investing

What are you thinking when it comes to your no load mutual fund selections? Are you saving pennies and sacrificing dollars?
Are you spending your time looking at expense ratios, analyzing Morningstar ratings and searching for funds with low fees and no 12b1 charges? If you are like most people, you know these things in and out. You’ve spent hours evaluating them, and your chosen mutual funds cost little to purchase and maintain. But they still don’t perform to your hopes and expectations.
So, why is this happening? Because this kind of investing focuses on cost as opposed to value.
Investors with this philosophy have usually interviewed numerous advisors. But instead of trying to find someone suitable with a sensible approach, they only want to know who has the lowest fees. That’s like going to the cheapest auto repair shop and getting the best price, but your car still doesn’t run well.
Then there are the investors who call or email me wanting a recommendation on a no load mutual fund. They want one with no 12b1 charge, but they completely ignore the issue of how the fund might perform.
Both these kinds of investors spend their time trying to save pennies and in the process they are losing dollars. Instead of falling into the penny wise, dollar foolish trap, here are some ideas that will assist you in evaluating the end profit rather than just the short term saving.
1. Shift your focus from penny pinching to looking at the big picture: What can a mutual fund or an advisor do for you, not how much does it cost? Why? If you buy a given no load mutual fund at the right time and it gains a tidy 15% for you over a 6 week period, would you really care about the costs? If a mutual fund—or an advisor for that matter—can give you superior performance and an increase of several percentage points over your bargain price pick wouldn’t you pay an extra 0.25%?
2. Consider finding a fee-based investment advisor who uses a facts-based methodology and has a track record indicating those kinds of returns. For example, in my own practice I used a trend tracking approach to get my clients into the market on April 29, 2003. Plus, our research and homework led us to recommending funds that gained anywhere from 11.50% to 22.00% over the following 6 week period. How did you do during that time? Do you think any of my clients care whether one of these funds has a small 12b 1 charge? Or whether they have the lowest expense ratios in the industry? I know they don’t.
The bottom line is to look at costs as balanced by performance and that’s where you find value. Then seek true value not simple savings, enjoy healthy dollar-level returns and don’t sweat the pennies.