Monday, November 18, 2013

5 Practical Ways to Keep the Cost of Auto Insurance Coverage Low

Every motorist wants to keep car insurance affordable but this may not be easy especially if you do not know how to go about it. Car insurance is a necessity meaning that every motorist should have at least a liability insurance coverage, which covers damages and injuries on other motorists. Insurance payment may turn out to be a burden if you do not know how to keep them affordable. There are good ways you can keep your insurance cost minimal and they include switching your insurer and being loyal to an insurance company.

1.    Switch your insurance carrier

You can change your auto insurance carrier if you have a good credit report. At times, you will find that some insurance companies offer different premium rates for same coverage like collision or comprehensive. It is a good idea to consider switching a carrier that offers cheaper rates. However, you need to ensure that your credit report is good before you make this decision.

Motorists with bad credit report may pay more on insurance premiums. You are likely to pay 20 to 50 percent more if you switch your carrier and you have a bad credit report. It is better to stick with your current insurer if the credit report is tainted.


2.    Evaluate the reputation of an insurer

In addition, before you change the insurance carrier, you should research to ensure that the company is reputable. Insurance companies lower premium rates to entice you to buy policies with them not realizing that this may be a trap. It is usually not good to pay cheaper insurance premiums only to be subjected to a daunting experience when you get involved in an accident and place a claim.

Before you even think of switching the carrier, check on the complaints put forward by consumers about a particular insurance company. There are state logs complaints that can provide you with information about the different insurance company complaints. What this means is that a high number of complaints should raise red flags on the competence of the company to provide hassle-free claim processes.


3.    Be loyal to your insurance company

Another way you may lower your insurance cost is by being loyal to your insurer. Some companies reward their loyal customers with discounts and if you switch carriers, you may deprive yourself these benefits. Besides the discounts, there may be other benefits offered to motorists who have demonstrated good driving ethics.

If you have maintained a clean driving record, you may most likely get discounts on your premiums. Similarly if you have installed your car with security systems and safety equips like airbags, you will most likely receive discounts. An old driver who completes safe-driving course may also benefit from discounted premium rates.


4.    Consider raising your deductable

Motorists should also consider raising their deductable amount to reduce the costs of paying premiums. The higher the deductable amount you quote the less premium rates you are likely to pay. However, as a precaution, you should not quote very high deductable that you cannot afford to pay when your vehicle is damaged and needs repair. You will need to pay the deductable amount towards the cost of repairing the car.

5.    Drop some coverage

You may consider dropping some of the coverage if your car has covered high mileage. Coverages like comprehensive and collision may not be appropriate for old cars that have covered many mileages. You are likely to be paying more in insurance premiums if your car has covered many mileages. You can do away with collision and comprehensive coverage and remain with liability coverage. This way, you will cut down your insurance cost.

What is a Totaled Car... and What Should You Do If Your Car Is Totaled?

A car is considered totaled if the cost of repairing it after it has been involved in an accident is more than the current value of the vehicle. If you are driving an old car that has covered many mileages, it may be declared as totaled if you claim for damages after an accident. Cars that have been used for more than five years may lead to a totaled situation. It is important to discuss with your insurance company about your coverage options. 

One thing you may need to consider is doing away with coverages like comprehensive and collision insurance and this means that you will not claim for damages on your car if you were at fault in causing the accident. However, if you are caught up in a totaled car situation, there are a number of things you need to do. When a vehicle is involved in an accident and you have exchanged the information with traffic police department, the other persons involved in the accident, and your insurance company, the insurer sends adjusters to inspect the vehicle. 

The adjusters will consider aspects like the cost of repair, the mileage covered by the car, and the person at fault in causing the accident. If the car is regarded as totaled, the adjuster calculates the present market value of the vehicle based on the mileages it has covered and any modifications that you may have done and reported to the insurer. The insurance company writes you a check less the amount you have placed as deductable. Usually a totaled car is uninsurable and you will not be compensated as usual.

This means that the cost of damages which exceeds the values of the car will not be paid. What you get is an amount equivalent to the current value of the car minus the deductible you quoted for the vehicle coverage. The situation is even worse if the vehicle was acquired through a loan. If you are servicing a loan, and the claim coverage is less than the loan balance, you are put into a situation known as “upside down”. This means that you owe more on the damaged vehicle than it is worth.


You will have to meet the difference. In the event that you are leasing your vehicle, it is likely that you have a lease contrast with gap insurance. The gap insurance is meant to cover the difference between the present value of the car and what is actually owed. It is important that if you are leasing a vehicle and you do not have gap insurance, you get one as soon as possible as it may protect you when you are involved in an accident and your car is considered total loss.


The other question you may ask is if you will keep your totaled car. When the insurer gives you a check for a totaled car, it gains ownership of the vehicle. In most cases, the car is sold at auction and the money goes to the insurance company. However, if you act fast, you may keep the totaled vehicle. What you need to do is inform the auto insurance company in advance before it begins the auction process.


Waiting for long may mean that the insurance will proceed with auction plans and at this point, it becomes difficult to get it back. When you opt to keep the vehicle, the insurer will still reimburse the actual value of the car but less the deductible amount. In case the car was sold through an auction, the insurer may also deduct the amount it received. At times, this process may be difficult needing the involvement of a legal expert to help you out acquire your totaled car.


What is the Right Insurance Coverage for High Mileage Cars?

The mileage your car has covered can affect your auto insurance choices. High mileage cars may not require coverages like comprehensive and collision. As you continue using your car, it depreciated in value. The biggest depreciation in the value of a vehicle is witnessed within the first two years after purchase. When the ownership of a car is transferred to the buyer, the vehicle immediately depreciates.

A large amount of automobile value is immediately lost when you drive it from the dealer. If you were to turn back and sell the same vehicle to the dealer, it would fetch lower price than you bought it.


Auto insurance needs to be reviewed when your car has covered more mileages. If you have been using your car for the past four to five years, it is time you considered the kind of insurance coverage you should hold. The more years you have used your car, the more the mileage you have covered.


An old car is likely to experience mechanical breakdowns than a new car. A car with more than five years of use may be costing you more premium payments than the value of the vehicle. The most appropriate coverage for high mileage cars is liability insurance. This coverage protects you against liability you bear when you cause damage or personal injuries to other motorists.


However, this coverage does not coverage you and your vehicle against injuries and damages respectively caused by you. It is not a bad idea to drop some of the coverage you have bought for your high mileage car. One of the coverage you can do away with is collision coverage. This kind of car insurance pays for damages on your car and not the other motorist’s vehicle.


Another coverage that you may need to drop when using a high mileage vehicle is comprehensive coverage. This insurance policy covers damages that are unrelated to collision including storms, theft, fire and earthquakes. If you have collision and comprehensive coverages, and a claim is made against those coverages, they can easily equal the value of your car.


In this situation, your car is considered as totaled for auto insurance, which means that it is not insurable anymore. When an accident occurs, an insurance company sends adjusters to evaluate the damages and the value of the car. A car is considered as totaled if the cost of repairing is more than its current value.


If the value of your car has diminished, holding these kinds of coverage may only be a burden to you. Because an old car will experience mechanical breakdowns, you may consider other coverages like towing, mechanical breakdown and rental car reimbursements.


In summary, when your vehicle depreciates to a large extend after many years of use, you should review the insurance coverage you have purchased for the vehicle. You may be paying more premiums than what the value of the car is and this is a burden to your finances.


Opting for a liability insurance which is a mandatory coverage and doing away with other coverage like comprehensive and collision may help you save money in your insurance payment. You also need to ensure that you drive carefully and be prepared to meet the cost of your car damages and personal injury costs when you are at fault in causing an accident. Otherwise, the liability for damages of other motorist’ vehicles is covered by the liability coverage.


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Driverless Cars Set to Hit the Automobile Market By 2015

It is a curious anticipation for driverless cars to hit the market by 2015 but technology always amazes people. Rumour has it that driverless vehicles could actually be on the market by 2015. Different companies are at advanced levels of developing and testing driverless automobiles including the giants in the motor vehicle industry such as Ford, BMW, Audi, GM, Volkswagen, Google, and Volvo. 

Google's driverless cars an ongoing project

Google has taken a center-stage role in running a project dubbed Google driverless car which brings together technology advances for self driving cars. The project is led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun among other big brains in the science and tech world. Google carried out successive tests that involved a fleet of an Audit TT and six Toyota Prii. The cars navigated over 140,000 miles across the streets and highways of California.

Apparently only one accident was witnessed during the test but this occurred in a rare testing occasion when a human was actually driving.  Google also took another test featuring 1000 miles and during this testing, no accident was reported. The road to unveiling a truly driverless car seems to have progressed to greater heights. 


The designers of these cars argue that they will eliminate accidents on roads, which have taken away lives of many motorists, pedestrians, and passengers. Many of the notorious accidents witnessed today arise from driver errors. The precision of driverless cars is expected to improve the flow of traffic, which is another daunting thing experienced in big cities and towns. 


Driverless cars cockpit

This means that the traffic jams may be reduced significantly. It is also thought that the cars would allow commuters to embark on other things when travelling such as sleep, read, work or make discussions while aboard the vehicle. As the innovative designing and testing automated cars in the market continues, Audi has voiced its ability to have a fully automated car on the market by 2015 however; this is subject to the wishes of the drivers and whether they are really prepared for such a big thing in just a few years to come.

In Las Vegas this year (2013), Audi made remarkable comments that it would have a technology that could be applied to remotely park cars in parking areas using smartphones or tablets and this is by 2015. These systems are a series of other technological developments that will have been unveiled before the grand launch of the driverless cars.


However, prior to the autonomous cars, the market is expected to get releases of semi-autonomous vehicles. This may happen in about few months and the use of the remote parking apps could be a step above the semi-autonomous cars. It is expected that towards the end of 2013, Mercedes-Benz will sell vehicles, which are capable of steering themselves in a lane.


The auto control systems are aimed at being in-charge of the car to avoid crashes. In the driverless cars, Google seems to be posing stiff competition as it has already begun testing its self-driven cars that use Google’s mapping system. However, the big challenge is whether car buyers will be willing to pay for such technology. And, as Dr Wolfgang Durheimer, a member of Audi’s board of management that handles matters pertaining to technical development says, it is a question of how much consumers will be willing to pay for the advanced self driven cars.




Facebook Continuous Battle with Sophisticated Malware Attacks

Facebook heightens its network security as it continues to be targeted by internet attackers. In February 2013, a phishing attack was executed which loaded malicious software onto most laptops of its employees. The social network company employees had their laptops attacked by an attack dubbed as “watering hole”.  Facebook admitted the attack but said that no user data was compromised. This social network platform hosts more than a billion users and any breach of security could put confidential user’s information at stake.

Although Facebook said that no data was stolen from the attack, it remains a concern for many Facebook users who may feel that their information may be confiscated and ends up in hands of hackivists. Responding to the February attack, Facebook said that last month (January 2013), the company discovered that its systems had been targeted in a sophisticated malware attack.


The occurrence in February happened when some of its employees visited another mobile developer site which had been compromised. When the employees visited the mobile developer website, their laptops were remotely installed with malware that was founded on a previous unknown exploitation named as “zero day” exploit of Java programming. A zero day attack is an attack that exploits a vulnerability that has previously not been known in an network or computer application.


This means that the attack occurs at day zero of any possible awareness of a network vulnerability. To further elaborate on this term, developers consider an attack as zero day when they have zero days to address the vulnerably and provide a patch. Facebook responded swiftly to the February Java flaw vulnerability and remediated all the machines that had been infected.


The law enforcement was also informed of the attack. Facebook further said that it tracked the infection and discovered that it occurred from one laptop and all its laptops were fully-patched. The "zero day" vulnerability was undetectable and easily bypassed the Java sandbox protection leading to the infection by the malware. Following the attack, Facebook also alerted Oracle about the Java flaw and a patch was provided that addressed the vulnerability.


In yet another blow, in late march 2013, Facebook user accounts were said to have been infected with a virus containing a disturbing video. According to the New Britain police department, it said that police had learned that the virus presented itself as a friend sharing a video. If a user opened the video, the virus could attach to the user’s Facebook account and was easily shared to the friends of the user who shared and opened the message.


It would be difficult to detect that it was a virus because it looked as though the video was being shared by a friend but in the real sense, it was a virus. The police department issued a warning that the video was very disturbing because it featured a child pornography and parents were advised to advise their children who have Facebook accounts to refrain from clicking any shared videos.


In addition, users were advised to delete the shared video immediately if it was possible. This social network company has a zero tolerance for child pornography and it said that it will work hard to get rid of such content from its network site. This video orchestrated virus infiltrated Facebook account by inviting users to “Watch this if you’re curious,” The minute a someone clicked on that video, the malware took control of the Facebook user’s account and then began propagating the same malicious link to friends of the user.



Lamborghini Veneno: the Spiking Power Acceleration and Speeds of the Veneno

The Veneno engine is modelled out from the Lamborghini Aventador LP-700 and it is the world’s most outstanding sports car with cartoonish design but 275 pounds lighter than the Aventador. This Lamborghini for sure, is the poster you will find pinned on walls by children. It can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in as short as 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 221 mph (355kmph). The Veneno was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show with a lamborghini price tag of $3.9 million and apparently all the cars are already sold out. 

Lamborghini Veneno

A total of four cars were built and three sold while one referred to as number 0 was designed as a test vehicle and is the one displayed at Geneva. The display Veneno car bears all three colours of the Italian flag. The other three cars that are sold out each feature a single colour of the Italian national flag that is; red, white and green.

The interior of the car is designed of carbon fibre with grey metallic look for the body. The design of the Veneno is derived from Lamborghini Aventador that has a horsepower of 691 compared to Veneno’s 750 horsepower. The Veneno has a 6.5-liter V12 engine the same as the Aventador’s engine. In addition, Veneno has seven speed transmission and permanent all-wheel-drive. 

Lamborghini Veneno

The hypercar has been built from decades of aerodynamics research. In fact, a seven year old kid was hired to design the visual look of the car something that demonstrates why this is the car poster to find pinned on walls by children. The 220 mph hypercar had its name coiled from a legendary lethal bull fighter ‘Veneno’ which was the strongest and most aggressive bull.

Veneno bull was one of the fastest bulls in history of bull fighting. Its name become famous after the bull gored to death José Sánchez Rodríguez at Sanlúcar de Barrameda's arena in 1914. The Veneno car aerodynamics is pegged on that power of a bull. The engine of the car has larger intake path with highly optimized thermodynamics coupled with more rated engine’s crankshaft measure or revolutions per minute (rpm).


Lamborghini Veneno


Its light weight is achieved from the super strong carbon fibre material that forms the monocoque or the single cell chassis along with the outer skin. The car has aluminium sub-frame, and scissor design doors that open up and out. The front end of the car is designed to function as a massive aerodynamic wing, which helps keep the car pinned to the ground when cruising at the super high speeds.

Among the three personalities who bought the Veneno cars are current owner of Lamborghini Long Island and former customer of Ferrari, Antoine Dominic, and Managing Director of Tequesta Investments from Florida, Kris Singh. These guys spend $4 million each to own two of the three Veneno hypercars that were designed for sale. In total, only four Veneno cars were built with three sold out and one at the display show in Geneva. 


Lamborghini Veneno

Other specifications of Lamborghini Veneno
•    Automatic shift system
•    7 gear system
•    Curb weight of 3,190 lb
•    4 valves per cylinder
•    Permanent all-wheel-drive
•    Gas fuel
•    V12 engine cylinders
•    Displacement 6500cc
•    No air compressor

In essence, the Veneno design brings out an exceptional aerodynamics and cornering ability with optimum downforce and less dragging effect. It has a perfect cooling system ideal for the high performance engine. The car has 20 inch front alloy wheels and 21 inch rear wheels fitted with fibre ring around the rims that functions like a turbine thus delivering additional cooling air to cool the extreme power carbon-ceramic brake system discs when they get hot. 


In addition, the Veneno has razor-sharp lines, four large exhaust end pipes separated by a splitter, and an arrow-shaped front as well as an adjustable rear wing. What a fantasy car design and power of the Lamborghini Veneno?


7 Steps to Succeed In Affiliate Marketing

Although affiliate marketing continues to be one of the top methods of making money on the internet, it is only benefiting a few marketers. The main reason why people fail in this business is not because it is difficult to carry out but because the aspiring marketers do not follow the strategies needed to succeed. Whereas it is easy to make fortunes with affiliate business, if you do not follow the tactical methods, you are like to flop and quite before you have earned any dollars. It is true that many people have registered in multiplies of sites only to end up throwing their hands up. 

The trueth is that companies are willing to offer great rewards in form of commissions for those who manage to influence customers to make buying decisions. Today’s consumer is very selective and needs to be vanished with information about products and services they intend to purchase. You need to motivate them and lure them to make a buying decision. This is where things no nuts when affiliate marketers try to venture in this lucrative business. Below are simple steps that will help you succeeding in your affiliate business;

1.    Chose the right affiliate program
The building block to succeeding in affiliate business is to choose a reputable affiliate programs that can make you money. With the proliferation of affiliate businesses on the internet, this is not easy. There are programs that will promise easy ways of making money but when you start selling the products, you hardly make any tangible sales. 


Many people rush to choose a program based on the commission it offers. Although the higher the commission you get, the more money you can make, the main question is; are the products or services sellable? One thing you can determine that an affiliate business will make you money is to check for the sell-through rate. This is the rate at which the merchants are able to convert lead prospects into sales.

2.    Dig down to find a good niche 

When choosing the right niche to do affiliate marketing on, you need to ensure that it does not pose a lot of competition. For a neophyte in affiliate business, it may be challenging to flourish amidst an environment dominated by the big professional affiliate marketers. You may be faced with problems to draw traffic in your blog or website because of the huge competition. There are niches that have been described as hotly contested and they include mortgages, credit cards and cancer treatments. You need to choose a less competitive yet a lucrative niche that can make you money. 

3.    Create a blog content that matches your affiliate product

When you are selling products, you need to create content that will provide more information about the goods and services. It is essential that you have a product that you have tested or have interest on. This way, you will provide useful information which can guide the readers of your blog to visit the merchant site. Your blog draws traffic which is directed to the merchant website. 


The more relevant, interesting, educative, and informative your blog content is, the more you will get targeted traffic which is likely to make a buying decision. In addition, you may be asked by prospective buyers to provide more information about features, pros and cons of the products and this should give you an opportunity to showcase your knowledge about the product. If you do not use the product, you may not be able to give any useful comments. 

4.    It’s essential to build your list of customer
In most cases, affiliate marketers direct their traffic to the merchant sites and do not keep their records. Building a list of prospects can help you in selling your affiliate products. Marketers often think that since they are selling other people’s products, they do not need to create their own lists of customers. This is a mistake because you need to occasionally make follow-ups on those readers and invite them to visit your blog to check for new products or running promotions.

5.    Keep your blog or website tidy

The clarity of your blog site will show professionalism and the ability of the readers to get the information they want easily. Clustered and crowded sites often confuse the readers and they are likely to abandon your blog site. The banners should be placed in vantage points where they can be easily clicked by the readers. You image and reputation can be boosted by clarity of your site.

6.    Measure your results

You need to measure that traffic that visits your blog and against that which proceeds to click on banners. Tracking the performance of your blog site and the activities of the reader can help you make key decisions and adjustments to resolve issues which may be impairing you from realizing good sales from an affiliate business. 

7.    Do not put your eggs in one basket... consider several merchants
Whereas it is not advisable to have excess merchants in an affiliate business, the marketer should emphasize on two or three merchants. When you spread your marketing efforts to only a few merchants, you are more likely to get better results than having many merchants or just one merchant. With a few merchant, you can position their banners in your site without causing distractions.