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Finding a good used-but-new-to-you car has never been an easy proposition. Sifting through car ads and dealer lots trying to decipher the secret code of used car talk is an exhausting process.

Does “easy to handle” mean you won’t have trouble pushing it out of the road every time it stalls? Is “classic” an accurate way to describe its status or is it simply old. Will it be covered by state “lemon laws”?

For people who simply don’t have that much time or patience, online used car shopping would seem ideal. You can use search engines and keywords to arrive at exactly the vehicle you are looking for. However, even a good process can have some snags along the way and online used car buying is one arena where it’s best to be aware of them.

What’s The Real Story?

It’s best to use reputable online dealers and people approved by your state’s Better Business Bureau. While you may think you are getting a better deal from an advertisement off Craiglist or a community online bulletin board, it’s much harder to know how much of what they say is true and enforce that truth in a dispute.

Make sure to research the seller and find out as much as you can about where the car came from and its history. Websites such as CARFAX offer vehicular history but their information comes from insurance and public notice claims, not the private things people don’t want to disclose. Those sites can also alert you if the car has been registered as a stolen vehicle. The more you can verify about the car and the seller, the better your purchase experience will be.

What’s The Real Picture?

Used cars advertised online always seem ready for their close-up, but some pictures don’t give you a realistic view. Similar to the nightmare stories that come out of the world of internet dating, the picture you get and the car you end up with may not be the same thing.

The seller can be placing a picture of the car from when it was new, or show one side on the car while neglecting to photograph the big scary dent on the other. Some cars, like cover models, may even have their pictures “photoshopped” before placement. If possible, see the car before agreeing to purchase or put a down payment on it or if its in another city ask a friend or acquaintance who is close to take a look.

Always require the seller to supple pictures of all sides of the vehicle and interior. Ask them to send you a picture of the car with the daily newspaper on the hood with the date visible. That will ensure it’s a recent picture.

What’s The Deal?

Every state has differing laws about how to handle disputes when it comes to used car purchases. Check the laws in your state and the state you are buying the car in to make sure you meet the requirements to be protected. Have the seller put in writing the condition of the car and note any problems, dents, or wreck history the car may have.

Also put in writing the full terms of the agreement including the terms of payment, how the car is going to get from the seller to the buyer (and who pays for that), the disclosed condition of the car and any photographs the seller supplies. Keep hard copies of all emails and transactions during the purchase. If there is a discrepancy in the car’s appearance or condition, document it with photographs. The more clear things are spelled out, the better protected both the buyer and the seller will be.

The internet is a friendly place full of people ready to make deals and sell treasures. Buying a used car online is one way to find what you are looking for quickly and make an easy transaction in the process. Like any other friendship or business relationship, in online used car buying trust must be earned

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Got a car suitable for traveling over rough terrain? Then water sport is a true adventure for you. The sport is a wonderful opportunity for you to show off your driving and winching skills to a whole bunch of people. But are you ready to winch or be winched out of those bog holes in the playground? You’d better read all the things you need to know about different winches which could be very useful for you and your friends.

Electrical Winches

Powered by a double-battery system, this will be very advantageous for you. Although it gets its power from the battery of the vehicle, it also gets power from a deep-cycle type of battery that operates on its own. Thus, this kind of winch will never affect your engine’s function, radio, lights, etc.

Mechanical Winches

There are two types of mechanical winches. It can be either drum or capstan. The drum type’s power is drawn from the car’s engine carried to the winch through a shaft. This type tends to have greater power than electrical winches because it works well if and only if the car engine is working well. Meanwhile, capstan’s power relies on the vehicle’s engine still but is carried directly using a dog clutch locked in the crankshaft pulley. Just like the drum type, a capstan works while the engine is working. But to effectively put the capstan into use, you must have the necessary skills in using it. You must also choose the right rope with the right diameter so that the slip will be minimized and the rope won’t get caught by itself for it will lead to a very dangerous consequence.

Hydraulic Drum Winch

From the name itself, this winch gets its power from a hydraulic pump with the help of the car’s engine. The winch is driven using a hydro motor. Aside from its high power, the advantage of the hydraulic type includes not being affected even if it’s submerged into water.

Motorized, Portable, Mechanical Drum Winch

This kind of winch is uncommon; however it has a very fascinating system to boot. Unlike the usual winch where the vehicle’s engine is used, the engine powers of a chain saw are utilized supplying power to a little drum winch. However, this type can be very noisy.

Hand-operated, Mechanical Wire Rope Winch

This type won’t need your car’s engine. However, it needs users to exert physical strength when dealing with it. It’s definitely not made for fragile hands.

James Brown writes about StreetBeatCustoms.com promotion code, Motorcycle-Superstore.com coupon code and tirerack.com coupon code

Pimp My Ride is a popular television program produced by MTV and involves taking a car that may be in bad condition and restoring as well as customizing it and, in its original form, was hosted by rapper Xzibit. The focus of Pimp My Ride is to choose young car owners between the ages of 18 to 24 who are living in the Los Angeles/Southern California region and, normally, the show begins with a participant showing his or her car to MTV to try to convince them of the need for it to be “pimped”.

Once this has been done in Pimp My Ride, then rapper Xzibit pays a visit to the owner’s house and after a careful look and some wisecracks about the defects in the car makes the owner a promise of completing its restoration. Then the car is transported to a custom body shop of either West Coast Customs or Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) where their shop teams put in new components and parts and generally give the car a complete makeover, right from the interior to its exterior.

Every car selected on Pimp My Ride has been customized for the owner, keeping in view his or her interests and personalities. This may include getting a complete new paint job for the car, changing of accessories, getting chrome work done, changing the tires and rims as well as internal electronic add-ons such as DVD players, video games and TFT screens. However, the makeover in Pimp My Ride is mostly cosmetic in order to just get the car to function once again though there have been instances when the entire engine has been replaced with higher performance engines.

While the majority of cars get customized work done on them, there have been a couple of occasions when the car was simply in too bad a shape. One such instance was when the car was actually two parts of a Ford Escort that had been welded together to form a single unit and this car was thought to be too unsafe for the makeover. On another episode, an auto mechanics student had put together a vehicle that was clearly impossible to pimp, without jeopardizing the safety of the owner. In both cases to give both owners a brand new car with extensive customization for its new owners.

Pimp My Ride is hugely popular because of the colorful personalities of the participants, especially the West Coast Customs’ staff and owner. In addition, there are also fancy electronics involved as well as tough interiors and the presence of experts such as Alex, the tire expert, and the paint and body expert, Buck which adds more flavor to the show.

The main attraction of the show is that it answers the dream of all of us who dream of having a car that everyone wants to get a closer look at, instead of hoping no one notices us driving it.

For drivers of old beat up cars, there is hope.

Pimping a ride was inspired by the Pimp My Ride TV show. Drive on by the site to learn more more about pimping your ride. http://www.pimpingaride.com

The Buick Riviera that was released and sold in the year I was born, 1965, was quite a vehicle. It was the last year for the “first generation” Riviera model – and by far the best. A unique, recognizable body style that encompassed a spacious cabin and housed a powerful V8 engine has now become a sought-after gem of classic car collectors. I was fortunate enough to have one for a few months in my youth. Here are some of its power stats:

*0-60 in 8 seconds
*Quarter mile in 16 seconds
*Top speed observed 115 MPH
*Mileage 13.2 MPG

With a 401 Wildcat under the hood, I had no trouble getting where I wanted to go. And while the body was large, it was quite maneuverable thanks to the standard equipment power steering and stiff heavy-duty suspension. And who says getting there fast can’t be in style? Check out some of the features it came with:

*Front bucket seats
*Bucket-style rear seats
*Cruise control
*Tilt steering wheel
*Center console floor-shifter & storage comp.
*Power windows, including wing-window!
*Driver side 4-way power seat
*Air conditioning
*AM/FM radio with power antenna

This 1965 car had more stuff than my 1985 Toyota did! I can remember cranking up the radio with the cruise control on doing 75 while adjusting my power seat, the tilt wheel, and the power wing windows. Ah to be young again – those were the days.

But the real feature that made the 1965 Buick Riviera stand out from all the other years were the hidden headlights. Tucked out of sight by the clam-shell covers that opened and closed automatically on the outer edges of the vehicle, they were moved back into the grille for all future body styles (where they had been the previous 2 years.

Back in the mid-80’s these cars were a lot easier to find, but there are some original vehicles still sitting in driveways out there is suburban and rural America. You might be able to pick one up for $1,000 if you do your homework. Less populated areas away from big metro cities are your best bet for discovering one of these hidden gems.

Find one, invest some time and/or money into restoring it, and you will have something special. It’s a good investment too; you just can’t lose restoring classic American cars.

There is another unique Riviera worth mentioning here, and that is the 1972 model, otherwise known as the “torpedo back.” A neighbor-mechanic of mine told me they love those things in Las Vegas (this was in 1985). I have never owned one of those – not yet anyway!

Andrew Kasch is a classic car enthusiast. You can read more about his second car and see a photo gallery at his site: http://www.1965buickriviera.info

What was your earliest memory of auto racing? I remember watching a weekly TV show called “Jalopy Races From Hollywood”. This was my earliest memory of having interest in following the sport of auto racing.

One of my most favorite memories when growing up in the 50’s and 60’s was being able to hear the auto racing action [stock cars and open cockpit midget] at Freeport Speedway in Freeport New York, from two [2] towns away. They ran races during the summer on Tuesday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. Going to the races as a spectator was also a rush for me.

I loved everything about it, the smell of racing fuel, burning rubber, sawdust and hot dogs from the food concessions. During the late 50’s and early 60’s the racing drew large crowds of spectators. I can see in my minds eye to this day, all the activity, the vendors selling race collectibles, the sound and smell of the concession stands [pop corn, hot dogs and the like. I can still hear the beer vendor as his went up and down the stands yelling out the familiar phrase of "Get Ya Cold Beer Here" Of course I was too young to become one of his customers. Other vendors sold copies of Speedway News, programs, hot dogs, replica racing flags and many more items.

Some of the great racers that ran a Freeport Stadium are Les Ley, Jim Lacy [One of my favorites], Bruno Brackey aka the Flying Mailman due to his day job, George and Ed Brunnhoelzl, George Brunnhoelzl Jr. [George Jr. built the famed Brunnhoelzl jack used by many NASCAR Winston Cup teams today.], Axel Anderson, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Charlie Jarzombek, Gary Winters, Fred Harbach, George Wagner, Bill Spade, Tom Baldwin, Red Raynor, Reinhardt and many more.

Freeport Stadium had gone through a series of different promoters over the years. This list included the names Kedenburg, Larry Mendelsohn, Duke Donaldson, and Don Campi. Duke Donaldson was well know as the voice of Freeport Speedway. As the track announcer, Donaldson for many years opened a race event with announcing, “Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to Freeport Stadium, the oldest continuously-run racetrack in the United States” and thanking everyone for visiting “Freeport Speedway in tropical Freeport.” His style did much to create a feeling of great action and professionalism for any given race event.

The second half of the 60’s began a decline in the popularity of stock car racing in Freeport. There were still many promotions being done but paid attendance declined.

Racing at Freeport took a final curtain in 1983 after 50 years of continuous operation.

Bill Wallmuller aka Mr. Merokee is the author of several information guide Websites such as: http://www.auto-racing-sports.com