When most people get a bulls eye or star break in their windshield they figure they just have to wait for it to become a crack so the insurance company will file a claim. When you do this you will have to pay your deductible before the work is done. When you have your windshield repaired instead of replaced your full coverage insurance will pay 100% of the repair.

You can choose any facility you want to do the repair and they will contact the insurance company, help you file a glass only claim for repair only and it usually takes less than 30 minutes to do a repair and call in the claim. Repairing your windshield helps the environment by keeping glass out of landfills and you keep the factory windshield seal so there are no leaks. All repair companies that I know of give a lifetime warranty on repairs so you may never have to replace your windshield unless something actually cracks it bad enough.

Most insurance companies will allow repairs up to six inches in length. As long as the damage is not in the drivers direct view it can be repaired and is nearly invisible when done correctly. Look in your local phone book to find an auto glass service provider to help you with any questions you may have and they will gladly help you. You can even ask your insurance agent about it and he may be able to recommend a repair shop to you.

If you have any kind of small damage to your windshield you should have it repaired as soon as possible because road vibration or more rocks hitting the glass can cause a lot bigger problem and cost you a lot of money.

The elimination of PST on used cars and trucks has had little impact on vehicle sales in Moose Jaw.
The idea was a Saskatchewan Party promise during the recent provincial election campaign and took effect when the new government came into power Nov. 21, retroactive to Nov. 8.
“After the initial announcement, people were a little hesitant because they wanted to hold off until the election was all said and done,” said Stan Topola, business manager at Village Ford Lincoln.
“After that, we saw a little bit of an increase in used vehicle sales.”
Tim Giokas, used car manager at Murray GM, hasn’t seen any increase in used vehicle sales, while Kim Hoffman, owner of Grand Auto Sales, said used vehicle purchases at his lot have gone from about one a week to three a week starting Nov. 20.
Although he’s pleased with the tax exemption, Hoffman wishes the government would go a step further and include all used vehicles, not just light cars and trucks.
“We sell motorhomes and motorbikes here and you still have to pay PST on them,” he said. “And on three-ton trucks.”

Chrysler LLC said Friday it is recalling nearly 600,000 Dodge trucks and vans to address concerns that the vehicles could shift out of park without the key in the ignition.

The recall affects 576,417 2001-2002 Dodge Dakota trucks, Dodge Durango sport utility vehicles and Dodge Ram vans and the 2002 Dodge Ram pickup. In some cases, long-term wear on the gearshift assembly could erode the height of the shift blocker, creating the potential for the vehicle to shift out of park.

Chrysler spokesman Max Gates said there have been nine incidents involving injuries connected to the issue. No fatalities have been reported, he said in an e-mail.

Owners will be notified beginning in January 2008 and dealers will replace the gearshift blocker and bracket assembly.

 Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales of the Port of Cebu said they seizedu Friday three containers of trucks and tires estimated to be worth P6-Million.

The first container, consigned to Hoc Kuantat Trading, arrived in the Port of Cebu last October 25.

Already alerted by customs OCOM Visayas-Mindanao operatives, the shipment was swiftly subjected to x-ray scanning, which confirmed the suspicion that the container was misdeclared.

Cebu Collector Ricardo Belmonte said the said shipment is considered abandoned and forfeiture proceedings would follow, in favor of the government since the consignee did not file for entry before the thirty day-grace period lapsed.

The second container was consigned to Musashi International Trading Corporation and was declared their shipment as “used truck replacement parts.”

Pittsburgh’s fleet of salt trucks and snow plow vehicles is more than ready to keep the roads clear this winter, officials said.

Half the city’s dump trucks used to spread salt are less than 18 months old, and 15 of the rest were purchased less than five years ago, said Guy Costa, director of public works. Those trucks cost an average of $100,000 each, Costa said. The trucks feature large plows.

The city has 19 pickups with smaller plows to handle narrow streets and alleys, Costa said, and half of those were purchased in the past year. Close to 80 operators work in shifts when ice or snow hits.

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico - A sprawling junkyard on the edge of this Sonoran border town might seem like the last place to find a car stolen from the streets of Phoenix. But here they sit by the dozens.

There are 5,000 cars, trucks and vans in various states of disrepair, from gleaming new sports cars to bare chassis. About 200 were stolen in the United States, 40 to 50 of them in Arizona. One is a blue Nissan bearing three different vehicle identification numbers, which are supposed to be unique to each car.

Commander Jesus Zamora Orozco leads San Luis Rio Colorado’s eight-man stolen-vehicles unit, which formed six months ago to return the stolen cars to owners.

Zamora’s new team represents growing cross-border cooperation to stop criminal car-theft rings that have plagued border states for years and are expanding into other crimes.

Chrysler LLC’s recent sales figures appear to prove that minivan demand is not dead even though rivals have scrapped their entries in the segment.

Consumers and dealers are giving thumbs up to Chrysler’s new family haulers. In October, the first full month of sales of the redesigned Chrysler Town & Country and the Dodge Grand Caravan, sales were up 4.8 percent over the same month last year — in a market segment that has shrunk 6.5 percent year-over-year.

Among manufacturers offering a minivan in their 2008 line-up, Honda was the only other to show growth in the segment, with a 30 percent increase over October last year. Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. have dropped minivans from their offerings.

Chrysler’s continued success with the segment it helped create in the 1980s is predicated on attracting more buyers such as Amante Bustamante, who last month purchased a 2008 Town & Country Limited. The 35-year-old’s purchase is his first minivan and first-ever Chrysler product.

Bustamante, from Ashburn, Va., purchased the van primarily to haul his family, including a 3-year-old and another on the way, on vacations and to a range of activities.

The styling and entertainment features made the Town & Country stand out against competing vans and SUVs.

Keeping passengers happy

“It’s all about keeping the passengers happy,” he said, adding that second and third-row video monitors, a satellite television package and stow-away seats were major selling points.

Bustamante has some qualms about the van’s uphill shifting and placement of control buttons, but said overall he’s very satisfied with his purchase.

Other buyers also are happy with their new vans, said Sylvia Marino, executive director of community operations at the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

“Reaction is extremely positive,” she said. “People feel they have great amount of power; Swivel ‘n Go seats are a hit; and the comments often are ‘My wife and kids loved it.’ ”

Potential for growth

Dealers say the Chrysler vans, loaded with family-friendly features, are attracting customers even without incentives.

“It’s a home run,” said Bob Shuman, operator or Shuman Chrysler Jeep in Walled Lake. “I’ve got people moving out of larger SUVs and into minivans, and I’ve got people coming from competing products and going into the Town & Country.”

While $3-plus gasoline could make a minivan attractive to buyers who otherwise might consider less fuel-efficient seven-passenger SUVs, Chrysler’s best potential for growth is to attract drivers of other manufacturer’s minivans, said Erich Merkle, vice president of vehicle forecasting for IRN Inc.

“They’ll pick up former Ford and GM buyers … and they could take something away from Toyota,” he said.

Merkle said the Chrysler minivans are off to a strong start in the market place, but the real test is still to come.

“It will be important to look at how these vans do in March through July,” he said. “That is the time of year people really look at minivans as they are planning family road trips.”

For reasons that scarcely require elaboration, “lubricity” is one of my favorite words. It is, first of all, fun to say, all slippery with sibilance. Second, many fine things are lubricious in nature. Easy dinner conversation, for instance. The balanced slickness of a well-oiled pistol (caution: Avoid combining dinner conversation and pistols). In fact, lubricity might even be counted as one of the universal cues of quality. Whenever a thing has a heft and substance that nonetheless yields to effortless operation — a Waterman pen, for instance, or the stout zipper on Prada boots, or the gliding drawers of a Pegaso desk — that registers as a thing well made.

And that brings us to the 2008 Audi S5 Coupe . The S5 — the performance variant of the A5 Coupe , with an extra 89 horsepower in the snout — is another in a lengthening line of Ingolstadt ’s products that deliver crazy-great performance with a refinement and absence of stiction that makes them feel like they are lubricated with angels’ tears. Or the fatty renderings of an enchanted ermine from some Russian folk tale. Whatever it is, these cars’ moving parts seem to commune in a way that has banished friction to the dustbin of physics.

This quality — which manifests itself as smoothness in operation, and absence of noise and vibration is even more notable because the S5 has so darn many moving parts. Obviously, there’s the lump of reciprocation under the hood, a slightly de-tuned version of the 4.2-liter direct-injection V8 found in the R8 sports car. With its super-stiff deck, counter-balance shafts, active engine mounts, lightened and micro-polished valve train assemblies and silicon-impregnated cylinder linings, this dual-cammer revs with a lightness, a willingness, that makes it feel like it’s topped off with 5 quarts of 0W-nothing-weight motor oil.

The S5 is fitted with a conventional six-speed manual transmission (automatics will come later, but there are no plans to offer the DSG “manumatic” gearbox so beloved by Audi-ence members). Not surprisingly, the S5’s clutch pedal action is light and precise, but it’s the way the clutch engages — with no palpable vibration, or even a dry whisper as it meets the flywheel — that is so uncanny. It’s like the clutch is a felt-buffing wheel stolen from Harry Winston. This refinement is no minor feat, considering the S5 sings 354 hp at 6,800 rpm and 325 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm. When that clutch hits the flywheel it sounds like cattle getting romantic. Mooooooo.

Along with Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, tens of thousands of Bay Area residents added ethanol, hybrid technology and hydrogen to their holiday menu.

When the 50th annual San Francisco International Auto Show opened its 11-day run at the Moscone Center at 10 a.m. Thursday, the line stretched to Howard Street, down Third Street and onto Mission Street, prompting show officials to open the doors early. About 45,000 people were expected to attend the show on Thanksgiving, said Kevin Diamond, director of the event, which is sponsored by The Chronicle.

Thanksgiving Day is typically the show’s third-biggest day and part of many families’ holiday traditions, Diamond said.

“You spend two or three hours here, you go home and have your turkey dinner, and you’re done for the day,” he said.

This year’s auto show has a decidedly green tint - both in the color of the exhibits and in the gasoline-saving technologies on display. Saving the planet - or at least saving on gas - is the big selling point at this year’s show, although no sales actually take place.

“From gas friendly to gas-free,” says Chevrolet’s display in white letters against a green background. Next door, Toyota has a huge illuminated picture of a green slice of bamboo, and beneath it, the new hybrid Highlander sport-utility vehicle. As part of its display, show-goers can compete against each other in a touch-screen “green technology quiz,” answering such multiple-choice questions as: “Which sustainable resources can be made into biofuel?” (Answer, according to Toyota: “Corn, sugar cane, grass and wood.”)

AAA of Northern California, which most drivers associate with yellow tow trucks instead of green vehicles, shows off several alternative-fuel vehicles, including a fuel-cell car, vegetable-oil powered pickup, natural-gas police car, a battery-powered electric sedan and a plug-in hybrid car. All are modifications of manufactured vehicles.

“A lot of people aren’t waiting for the manufacturers; they’re doing it themselves,” said AAA spokeswoman Jenny Mack. She said the organization is trying to help its members understand what technologies are available now and in the near future. “It’s not for everybody, but we want people to know what’s out there.”

The plug-in hybrid and electric cars seemed to be drawing the most attention, she said.

The show’s biggest draw, however, appeared to be its smallest vehicle: the plug-in electric Tango commuter car. A 3 1/2-foot-wide two-seat car, with the seats one behind the other, is skinny, sleek and fast - able to go from zero to 60 mph in four seconds.

Only one of the vehicles - which are handmade in Spokane, Wash., and sell for $108,000 - is on the road. The first went to actor George Clooney; the second, on display at the show, will be delivered to Google senior software engineer Jorg Brown in a couple of weeks. Ten more are in production, with six bound for the Bay Area.

Bryan Woodbury, vice president of the Commuter Cars Corp., which makes the Tango, hopes to start mass production of a lower-performance version of the car - zero to 60 mph in seven seconds - with a lower price of about $18,000. But before he can do that, he needs to attract $50 million in financing. By putting the skinny vehicles - two can fit side-by-side in a typical highway lane - on the road, and in the hands of well-known and well-heeled people, he hopes to attract the financing. Within two years, he said, his company could be producing 10,000 Tangos a year.

“We have lots of multimillionaire investors who are interested,” he said. “But they want to see us get cars on the road first.”

Ada Lai, a South San Francisco business owner, was impressed and would consider buying the cheaper model.

“I can’t wait for this to come out,” she said. “It’s so cute. It’s a cool car. I live on the Peninsula and constantly go up and down the Peninsula. You can charge this overnight and you’re ready to go 150 miles. That would get me a lot of places.”

But not everyone at the auto show was interested in getting small. The Hummer display, despite being pushed into the back of the hall, still attracted a lot of visitors. People took pictures of their kids sitting behind the wheel or poking their heads out of the sunroof. And many adults took their turns in the driver’s seat as well.

“We’re getting plenty of attention,” said Rhonda, a Hummer product specialist who did not want to give her full name.

In the Cadillac exhibit, a worker named Tiffany stood on a revolving stage and touted the environmental virtues of the hybrid version of the huge Escalade sport-utility vehicle, due to be released next summer, to an audience of one.

Drivers can enjoy “all the comforts of a full-featured luxury SUV,” she said, “while still doing your part to help the environment by using less fuel” and emitting fewer pollutants.

Visitors to the show couldn’t help but notice the green trend, and some said it was not surprising at a time when concern over global warming is accelerating perhaps as quickly as worries about gas prices.

“That’s the trend now,” said Mark Draffen, 35, of San Mateo. “It sells. SUVs were popular for a while, now hybrids. They try to give people what they want - and that’s the buzz now.”

The auto show continues through Dec. 2.

Lexus has improved since 2006 to rank highest in customer satisfaction with the new vehicle sales process, as the industry recorded overall improvement and achieved a record high for a second consecutive year, according to the JD_Power and Associates 2007 sales satisfaction index.

The study measures customer satisfaction based on dealership facility, salesperson, paperwork/finance process, delivery process and vehicle price.

Lexus ranked highest in satisfying buyers with the new vehicle sales process, achieving an SSI score of 897 on a 1,000-point scale, and improving by 10 points from 2006. Following Lexus in the rankings were Hummer, Jaguar, Lincoln and Mercedes-Benz.

For a second consecutive year, the industry achieved a record high overall SSI score, improving by 5 points to 852 from the previous record of 847 set in 2006.

“Lexus improves by four rank positions from 2006, which is a gain driven primarily by increased customer delight with the dealership facility, salesperson performance and vehicle price,” said Tom Gauer, JDP’s senior director of automotive retail research. “For example, Lexus salespeople show particular concern for helping customers stay within their budgets, choosing the right vehicle for their needs, as well as for making the negotiation process clear and understandable. Hummer receives a score of 895, up by 21 points from 2006, and improves notably in the vehicle price and paperwork/finance process.”

The study found that 44% of new vehicle buyers reported spending more than they planned for their new vehicle. These customers provided satisfaction scores that averaged 67 points less than customers who said they spent within the amount they had budgeted. However, a salesperson who carefully explains the vehicle’s features and demonstrates its value can more than compensate for this decrease in satisfaction.

“While all new-vehicle buyers hope to get a good deal, customers are receptive to spending more than they originally budgeted provided that the salesperson does a good job of educating the customer about the features and benefits that they are receiving,” said Gauer. “Customers are looking to the salesperson to help them buy a vehicle that fits their budget, but they are certainly open to spending more if the salesperson can successfully convey the value of the vehicle.”

The study also found that customers whose expectations were exceeded during the sales process were much more likely to return to the dealership for customer-paid service work. Approximately 61% of customers who described their sales experience as “above expectations” said that they would definitely return to the dealership for paid service, compared with 37% of customers who said that their experience merely met their expectations.

The 2007 study was based on responses from 38,654 new vehicle buyers who registered their vehicles in May 2007.