2012 is here!

Happy New Year!

Negligent repair shops play with your safety.

Here in Amarillo - bring your repaired vehicle in for a FREE post-repair inspection at Bernards Advanced Collision!

Slick streets mean more cars to fix ..

Coolest car of the month ...

Yeah we think the fin is over the top but that's the point isn't it? Check out the lines on this 2010 Dodge CHALLENGER HPP Daytona custom conversion show car. Wonderfully rad & bad!




LINK FOR MORE PHOTOS

Videos: Does Progressive use Snapshot against you?

Video we found on YouTube concerning Progressive Insurance and their "Snapshot" driving monitoring system.


TV investigation into the "truth" about Progessive's Snapshot:

Images from Cruise Night - 11-5-2011

Click to enlarge:












All photos (C) Steve Douglass

New 789 Chevy?

I had to share this cool car in an e-mail I received.

- Thought you might enjoy looking at this

unusual Chevy. It's a 1957, 1958 & 1959

Chevy All Rolled Into One!

This car was built by N2A motors

(No Two Alike).

Unbelievable! The company is planning a

Production run of about 100 vehicles. It

sits on a Corvette C6 chassis, Front

styled like a 57 Chevy, side like a 58,

rear like a 59. Hence the designation

"789."

Is this a hot looking car, or what !!


(You probably need to be at least 50 years old to really appreciate this! )

580hp Camaro ZL1 convertible revealed

Top Gear: 580hp Camaro ZL1 convertible revealed

Has Chevrolet heeded none of Sir John Dalberg-Acton's legendary, chilling advice? That all power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely?

One can merely speculate as to whether the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 convertible's 580hp corrupts; whether that stratospheric power output will liquidise rear tyres, raze poorly fixed hairpieces and vaporise your spine. That's right, dearest Internet badgers, the new Chevy Camaro ZL1 drop-top now produces 580 horses and 556 torques. It is Chevy's most powerful drop-top ever. Ever.

The coupe version of the ZL1 recently did a lap of Germany’s 13-mile-long Nurburgring Nordschleife race track in 7:41, putting it in the same league with supercars like the Mercedes-Benz SLS and Porsche 911 GT3.

Pricing has not yet been released, but is expected to fall in the $50-$60,000 range.
Unfortunately for potential buyers who live in four-season states, the ZL1 Convertible doesn’t go on sale until the end of 2012, so they’ll have to live another summer without it.
At least that gives them plenty of time to pick a new hairstyle.

And you wonder why your insurance rates are high?

New York DA fighting auto insurance industry ...

Spotlight on soaring car insurance costs

By Tanya Powley


The car insurance industry has had a busy week.
On Thursday, the Office of Fair Trading, the consumer watchdog, announced it would launch an investigation into soaring car insurance premiums.

Any motorist who has had to renew their car insurance recently will be fully aware of how big these rises have been. We’re not just talking about price increases of 10 or 20 per cent. Family members and friends alike have complained to me that their premiums have often doubled in price.

In fact, according to the AA’Insurance Premium Index, average insurance premiums have rocketed by as much as 40 per cent in a single year. To make matters worse, this follows a 30 per cent rise in premiums in 2010.

The consumer watchdog is set to examine whether there are any competition or consumer issues that need to be addressed. It will start collecting evidence of over-pricing and is expected to publish its findings in December.

So the OFT’s probe into insurance costs is likely to be welcomed by motorists up and down the country.

But that’s not the only good news for motorists this week.

On Friday, the government announced it would ban the referral fees paid by lawyers and claim management companies to insurers in personal injury claims.

The payment of referral fees has been repeatedly blamed by insurers as one of the main factors pushing car insurance premiums upwards.

Often termed the insurance industry’s “dirty little secret”, insurers will sell on the details of their customer’s car accident to a personal injury lawyer who will in turn pay the insurer a referral fee for doing so.

This then leads to an increasing number of personal injury claims being made as lawyers and claim management companies phone and send texts to the motorist encouraging them to sue for compensation.

Insurers are blaming this increase in claims for the rise in insurance premiums as they look to pass the legal costs onto the motorist, while pocketing the referral fees that led to that claim being made in the first place.

It is this system that the government wants to remove. Justice official Jonathan Djanogly said: “The ‘no-win, no-fee’ system is pushing us into a compensation culture in which middle men make a tidy profit which the rest of us end up paying for through higher insurance premiums and higher prices.”

“Honest motorists are seeing their premiums hiked up as insurance companies cover the increasing costs of more and more compensation claims. Many of the claims are spurious and only happen because the current system allows too many people to profit from minor accidents and incidents.”

Top stolen cars!

It's something almost everyone relies on.

It's their vehicle. And to have it stolen could obviously be very inconvenient. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has released its new report on the most stolen cars in America.

The 1995 Honda Civic is the most stolen car in America. It had held that position since 2007.

Since 2007, car thefts have remained consistent but dropped by almost nine percent in 2007.

"The continuing national decrease in vehicle theft is a positive sign that the fight against vehicle theft by law enforcement, the insurance industry and the NICB continues to be effective," said Robert M. Bryant, NICB's president and chief executive officer.

As for theft prevention, the NICB says everyone should use simple, low-cost suggestions to make vehicles less attractive to thieves. It recommends: common sense, a warning device, an immobilizing device and a tracking device.

The report was based off information from the National Crime Information Center.

The following are the 10 most stolen vehicles, according to the NICB:
Honda Civic (1995)
Honda Accord (1991)
Toyota Camry (1989)
Ford F-150 (1997)
Chevrolet C/K 1500 (1994)
Acura Integra (1994)
Dodge Ram Pickup (2004)
Nissan Sentra (1994)
Toyota Pickup (1988)
Toyota Corolla (2007)

Amarillo Cruise Night July, 2nd 2011

Click to enlarge:

(C) Steve Douglass

Self portrait in a Cadillac ...



Old truck - Old Glory ...



Three generations of motorheads ...


Stang ...





Fuzzy dice ...


Cushman Ken ...


Cool hat ...


Goldsmobile ...


Van blue ...


Metal mouth ...

American "Buffalo & Kat"


All Images (C) Steve Douglass - approved for private use only! Publication or reproduction requires permission from teh photographer. Contact: webbfeatproductions.com

Just how important is your windshield replacement installation?

Organized Scams Defraud Consumers And Insurers Alike, Costing Billions Of Dollars Annually

NEW YORK, April 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If you have been involved in an auto accident that just didn't feel right, it might not have been an accident at all. More and more criminals are devising elaborate staged vehicle accidents—complete with fake injuries—to collect on insurance policies, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Not only can these staged accidents cost honest policyholders and auto insurers billions of dollars annually, but they create unsafe conditions on roads and highways—particularly when the scheme goes wrong.

"Staged auto accidents are a dangerous criminal activity that targets innocent drivers with increasingly bold schemes aimed at defrauding insurance companies," said Loretta Worters, vice president with the I.I.I. "Not only do honest policyholders ultimately end up paying more for auto insurance, but those committing the fraud can cause serious injuries or death."

Staged accidents aren't the only way to defraud consumers. Fraud may be committed by a number of different parties involved in an insurance transaction: applicants for insurance; policyholders; third-party claimants; and professionals who provide services and equipment to claimants. In addition to staged accidents, common fraud practices include "padding," or inflating actual claims; misrepresenting facts on an insurance application; and submitting claims for injuries or damage that never occurred, services never rendered or equipment never delivered.

Fraudulent automobile accidents occur more frequently in urban areas, where there is a greater number of vehicles, and in wealthier communities because drivers there are perceived to have better insurance coverage, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) noted. Criminals often target new, rental or commercial vehicles because they are typically well insured. Furthermore, criminals tend to prey on women driving alone and senior citizens since they are perceived to cause fewer problems and are less likely to be confrontational at accident scenes.

Such organized scams are especially common in states that have so-called "no-fault" auto insurance, a term used loosely to denote any auto insurance program that allows policyholders to recover financial losses from their own insurance company, regardless of fault. Twelve U.S. states have no-fault auto insurance laws, with Florida topping the list of no-fault states with questionable claims involving staged accidents.

The best defense against becoming involved in a staged accident and auto insurance fraud is to know what to look for. According to NICB, here are some of the more common staged accident scenarios:

Swoop and Squat: Usually involves three vehicles; two are driven by criminals, the other is the victim. The driver of the "squat" vehicle positions his vehicle in front of the victim's car. The driver of the "swoop vehicle" pulls ahead of the squat vehicle and internationally cuts it off, thus causing the squat vehicle driver to hit his breaks. The victim cannot react in time and rear ends the squat vehicle. The swoop vehicle races off and is not seen again. The innocent motorist states the swoop vehicle caused the accident, but because that driver cannot be located, the victim has to pay the vehicle damage and personal injury claims of passengers in the squat vehicle.

Side Swipe: Typically occurs at busy intersections with dual left turn lanes. The criminal positions his vehicle in the outer lane. As soon as the victim's vehicle drifts into the outer turn lane, the criminal side-swipes it.

Panic stop: Here the criminal typically drives an older vehicle filled with passengers. The criminal positions his car in front of the victim's while a backseat passenger in the criminal's vehicle watches and waits for the innocent motorist to be distracted, for example, by a cellphone call. As soon as the victim is distracted, the driver slams on the brakes, causing the innocent motorist to rear-end the criminal's vehicle. The victim's insurance company must pay for vehicle damage as well as injuries that the passengers may claim to have suffered from the accident.
Drive down: In this scheme, the victim merges his vehicle into traffic after being motioned to do so by the criminal. As the innocent driver begins to merge, the criminal speeds up and causes a collision. When questioned, the criminal denies motioning the victim to merge into traffic or gives excuses

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE PRNEWSWIRE.COM

Texas House approves 85 MPH Speed Limit ..

Everything is big in Texas and now even the speed limit will be the biggest in America. The Texas House of Representatives have recently approved a new transportation bill. Part of it allows the Texas Department of Transportation to set speed limits to 85 MPH on select interstates.

Texas already has over 520 miles of interstate where the highways have a speed limit of 80 mph. The states of Montana and Wyoming have enjoyed an 80 mph speed limit for more than a decade on hundreds of highway miles as well. One area that may receive the 85 mph speed limit in Texas is a long stretch of Interstate 10 where you have a flat long line of sight with wide lanes and good shoulders.

You have to wonder, is raising the speed limit to 85 mph in any area of the U.S. such a good idea? Insurance companies don’t seem to think so. Jerry Johns, a spokesman for the Southwestern Insurance Information Service believes that such an increase of the speed limit in just some areas will have a dramatic impact on the death and injury rate on those highways in which the 85 mph speed limit is implemented.

Although drivers already exceed 70 mph speed limits on highways, 85 mph could not only raise the stakes, literally, but raise fuel consumption during a time when gas prices are nearing record highs again. Despite highway deaths falling to the lowest level since 1949, an 85 mph speed limit could have detrimental effects on that statistic.

We should also think about the added skill and vehicle capabilities required to maintain a speed of 85 mph on some of America’s roads. It is bad enough that we have people who carelessly reach excessive speeds on U.S. interstates and highways. The DOT would need to conduct a thorough safety analysis of roadways before they can post an 85 mph speed limit.

Do you think it is such a good idea to implement an 85 mph speed limit? If so, where should it be posted? If you object, tell us why in the comments area below.

Amarillo Cruise Night - April 2 -2011

Click to enlarge each photograph: