Top 5 Tips on Getting The Best San Diego Auto Insurance Rates

If you live in the San Diego area and own a car, you might want to get San Diego auto insurance to protect yourself from future financial worries. Another reason why you might want to get one is because the State of California requires every car owner to insure their cars.

In case you or any of your family member gets into a car accident, your car insurance will cover the costs for the damage on properties and personal injuries, saving you from a lot of worries.

But how do you do it? Before you buy insurance policies, you need to make sure that you have checked with as much San Diego auto insurance companies to get the most attractive quotes. Here are some tips that should help you:

1. Regularly search for quotes. A lot of people unconsciously pay the same premium for years without ever shopping around for rates. The value of your car depreciates as the years go by. There is no point in paying for an old vehicle the same amount you would a new one. It is always best to search for a better quote. Doing it regularly will increase your chances of getting better rates.

2. If you already have an old vehicle,you should seriously consider getting a liability only insurance. When doing this, you need to take into consideration how much the value of your car is.

3. Take a defensive driving course. You can save a lot of money on your auto insurance if you take a driving course. This will help improve your driving record and help in getting you lower insurance rates. Know that a simple 6 hour defensive driving course can save you up to 10% on your insurance premium. Check with your local department of motor vehicles for more information about how you can take this course. There are different ways on how you can take this course. Most of the times, you can take this course by mail, by video, or even online.

4. Make you that you maintain good credit. To have a good credit, you must pay your payments on time. Make sure you are current on your payments so that you will look good in the eyes of your bank and San Diego auto insurance agencies. When you establish a good credit rating, you will be able to lower your premium.

5. Stick to one insurance agency. If you also have life, home, fire, boat or any other type of insurance, do not go to other policy providers. Stick with the same agency. As with having multiple auto policies, most agencies will knock a huge percentage off of your premium for multiple insurance policies.

Oil Analysis for the Poor Man

The best way to establish realistic oil change intervals is via oil analysis. Of course, on many passenger car vehicles that only take 4-6 quarts of motor oil, the cost of the oil analysis is nearly as much as a complete oil change.

So, for some, the more cost effective solution is to utilize a “do it yourself” oil analysis. It won’t offer information as accurate and precise as the ones you’d get from an oil analysis lab, but you will get a pretty decent notion of how well your motor oil is maintaining it’s integrity.

Below you will read about one of six very straight-forward yet incredibly useful methods for checking oil quality without ever having to leave your garage.

You might also want to consider learning a bit more about lubricants and filters in general. The following sites may prove useful for this purpose.

- No More Oil Changes – Tons of motor oil information

- The Motor Oil Evaluator –

- A Motor Oil Forum for discussion of motor oils

The Blotter Spot Test

Putting this simple test into practice can reveal a wide range of potential oil breakdown symptoms that might necessitate an oil change: excessive particulates, condensation build-up, glycol contamination, fuel dilution, failure of dispersant additives, formation of sludge and oxidation products.

While your engine (and the oil) is WARM (not HOT), allow a drop of oil to fall from your dipstick onto a heavy, white, NON-glossy business card. Lay your “oil drop test strip” (the business card) flat, but so that all but the very ends of the card is suspended. For instance, if you’re using stiff card stock or a stiff business card (which you really should be) simply set the card across the top of a cup or mug of some sort.

You want to wait for the paper or card to absorb the oil drop completely which might take awhile. Use the list below to evaluate the condition of your oil based on the DRY oil spot.

- A colorless spot or slight yellowish outer ring = “good” oil.

- A dense, dark deposit zone = Dispersant additive failure

- A black, pasty zone = Glycol (Anti-freeze) in your engine oil

- Center of circle dark with distinct outer ring = Severe oxidation

- A dark center with surrounding rings = Fuel in oil, Fuel dilution

Information for this business card test in: Fitch, J.C., “The Lubrication Field Test and Inspection Guide”, Noria Corporation 2000

Colon Cleaning — Do You Wash Your Car More Often Than You Clean Your Colon?

So how much do you know about your own colon? And who cares? As long as you dont have any problems you dont even need to think about it. Right? Well, maybe. But suppose you could feel better and lose weight if you had a colon cleaning?

I don’t necessarily mean a hydrotherapy colonic cleanse. There are a lot of less invasive methods available today and they may even be safer. But the point is, you can be healthier if you are not carrying around excess wastes on the inside of your body. That makes sense, doesnt it?

Compare cars and human bodies here for a couple of minutes. Both need fuel to function. Your body gets fuel from food and water. Your car gets fuel from gasoline, etc. Both car and body have to get rid of wastes.

Car exhaust system eliminates waste. Human body has a complex elimination system that separates liquids and solids. Liquids are filtered through your kidneys and wastes are released as urine. Solids get compacted in your large intestines (colon) while water is absorbed into your cells. The solid wastes are excreted as feces. You hardly notice these things are happening everyday unless something goes wrong. Pretty remarkable.

You are likely to notice if your car has a problem with its exhaust system before you pay attention to your own elimination system. It is just a bad day, you will say. Or maybe you did not drink enough fluids or drank too much. But when something goes wrong, you pay enough attention to get past the hurdle.

But if it is your car with a problem, you probably stop and talk to the mechanic and ask about the symptoms, right? You want to prevent major problems. Did you catch that? You want to protect your car. How come you don’t do the same with your body? Stop at the doctor and discuss the symptoms YOU had to prevent further problems! Hm.

Is it not strange that you and I pay more attention to our automobiles than we do to our own bodies? Perhaps this is part of the reason for shiny cars and dreadful health issues out there. Your body needs preventive maintenance even more than your car, but when you dont pay attention to it, the ailment continues to get worse the same way a small clink becomes a big clunk with your car. You need a clean colon more than you need a clean car. You can get colon cleansing products online easily.

Really, it is not that hard to add an herbal colon cleanseto your regular body care. Your body can be flushed out just like you flush out your radiator (well, not exactly). Getting rid of all of those toxins in your body can leave you feeling better, healthier, more energetic and maybe even losing some weight as a side benefit. Unclog that colon.

The History Of The Hybrid Car

Just where did a hybrid vehicle get it’s beginnings? Read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular to today’s car buyers and there are many reasons why that should be. But before you even think about choosing which hybrid car to buy, you might want to know a little bit about the history of the hybrid first.

It is surprising, but hybrid cars were invented even before gas-powered cars. In or about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist began making plans for a new type of vehicle. That vehicle or cart would be very simple, nothing complex. Dead simple was all he wanted.

So Ferdinand designed a car that would have four wheels and would run only on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to go through with his plan. He laboured to perfect his dream car. But no one knows if he ever finished because there is no evidence that his concept ever came into existence.

Then in 1769, a man with the name of Nicholas Cugnot designed and developed a carriage that was driven by steam. This vehicle really did go and it went at six miles per hour. This project was all well and good, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed to make the car to go any significant distance.

A break through in hybrid car design finally came when Robert Anderson developed an electrically powered car in 1839. It was the first of its breed and was built in Scotland.

This electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time. However, the only problem was that it was very difficult to recharge the car’s battery. Some pioneers came after Anderson, but they too had a hard time getting the battery recharged easily.

Finally in the year 1898 Porsche manufactured an electric and fuel combustion engine that was the first of its time. The car was called the Lohner Electric Chaise, and it could go up to 40 miles just using batteries.

Soon, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would become today’s hybrid vehicle. In 1999, Honda made its jump into the US market. It came out with the Honda Insight, which was a lightweight two-door hybrid. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the market these days. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s cool to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they need to go. Hybrid cars began life simple, and they are still quite simple today.

Now hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular as people understand them more. Hybrid cars in the 21st century saw a boom in sales when the Toyota Prius came out on the market. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was marketed in America.

Soon afterwards, the Ford Escape hybrid became the very first SUV hybrid vehicle ever made. And so there it is in a nut shell, the history of the hybrid car – today’s most modern on road, mass-produced vehicle.