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Getting About When You Ain’t What You Used To Be
The Baby Boom generation is getting older. We all know the effects that this generation has had on the world in general, including the automotive world – would the VW Beetle and the Mini have been as popular in the 1960s if families hadn’t needed somewhere to fit their Boomer children (and the older Boomers became more mobile and took the wheel)? Around the world, planners and developers are looking at this generation and are wondering what the effect will be on the roads as they hit the golden years.
One vehicle marque that has put a bit of thought into this is Toyota. To meet the foreseeable demands of an aging population that (a) isn’t quite as fit and flexible as it used to be, (b) still wants the freedom of the motor vehicle, Toyota have come up with the Welcab concept. The Welcab is not an individual model but it is a set of features that are incorporated into popular Toyota models, such as the Hiace van and others, such as the Previa and Estima. In a nutshell, a Welcab equipped vehicle is set up so that mobility scooters and wheelchairs can get in and out of them easily – or the occupant of the wheelchair/mobility scooter can get in and out without too much hassle. And yes, this does include drivers who get around in mobility scooters the rest of the time.
Of course, it’s not just older drivers who benefit from the Welcab concept. Drivers with limited mobility and drivers who act as caregivers to the disabled or otherwise wheelchair-bound are also catered to by the Welcab. The most popular Welcab is the Hiace van with a wheelchair access ramp at the rear, as commonly seen in wheelchair taxis and vehicles owned by nursing homes.
Toyota’s Welcab vehicles come from the factory floor with all the features set up for limited-mobility drivers and/or passengers, which makes them different from the after-market additions that can be fitted to other vehicles to make them suitable for wheelchair users, such as the gizmo fitted to a Subaru Legacy driven by a guy I knew with cerebral palsy – this gizmo lifted his wheelchair off the roof of his car and popped it down by the driver’s seat to be unfolded and climbed into, and vice versa.
Other vehicle manufacturers are getting into the act, especially (it seems) in Japan. Mitsubishi has the Hearty Run (one of those “use the dictionary as a dartboard” names); Honda has the Fit Sports and the Almas. Honda also has the swivel seat option in the Jazz. Other marques are getting on board, although most cars for limited-mobility drivers tend to be after-market adaptations rather than factory floor versions.
Given that none of us are getting any younger and that we’ll all be a bit old and creaky one day, it’s likely that we’ll see more cars coming off the factory floor with ease-of-access features.
In the meantime, however, if you’re finding it a bit harder to get in and out of the car, an after-market swivel seat might be the way to go – these usually look like two discs stuck together, allowing you to get in and out a bit more easily.
Towing it right.
Every now and then, most of us have need of a trailer. There are many different trailers and loads one can tow. There’s the camping trailer for the weekend away; or what about the caravan, instead, for a little more luxury. Perhaps some of us will have a horse and will require a vehicle to tow the horse float. Most of us could do with a small trailer to get rid of household rubbish to the dump. One thing that’s very easy to do, particularly if you have little experience, is to mismatch a heavy load to a small tow vehicle. Now there’s no way a Mini is going to pull a tandem trailer full of wood without straining. What are some things to look out for?
Firstly, do you have the right vehicle to tow? Some of the very small cars on the market are, in fact, not well equipped for towing. A lightly built vehicle is going to struggle to tow much more than 500 kg and sometimes the vehicle manufacture will actually state in the car’s manual that it is not fit to tow. Do check whether your Ford Festiva or your Fiat Punto is actually recommended for towing. Sometimes it comes down to the car’s structural integrity being too light to cope with the stresses that a trailer will put on the car’s bodywork and chassis – and the manufacturer will state this.
When considering towing, make sure that your car has good brakes, plenty of torque and power, is preferably rear-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive and has a suitably rated towbar for the task at hand. Light trailers are, generally, fine for any type of car.
Front-wheel-drive cars with a load on the back are ok for light towing that is done on the flat; however, for heavier trailers front wheel-drive cars are not ideal. Their front wheels can sometimes struggle for traction and cause a lot of stress on the car’s driving componentry – particularly when going uphill on gravel roads. In some cases, the gradients on gravel roads will be too steep for a front-wheel-drive car to cope with and you’ll get nowhere. It’s very funny for bystanders to watch but not so great for the driver of the car, and the repair bills.
A little trick to remember when towing a trailer: Make sure that your load is well distributed on the trailer. Have the heaviest part of the load sitting over the trailer’s axle/axles. If you don’t distribute the weight correctly on the trailer, the unbalanced weight can greatly affect the vehicle’s handling, making driving dangerous. Numerous times trailers that have too much weight behind the axle have caused the tow vehicle to jack knife. Also, with too much weight sitting in front of the trailer’s axle the tow car can be pushed heavily down at the rear which lightens up the front end grip and steering characteristics – tow vehicles can sometimes keep going in a straight line instead of going around the corner when this is the case.
Do check that the bulk of the load is sitting over the axles and is secured so that the load does not move.
Try a bit of practice at backing! It’s not always as simple as it might seem. Do master it before heading down to the dump. Many times I’ve seen plenty of people smiling at the driver who is trying to back the trailer with little success.
Stuff You Might Not Know About With Loans.
When you’ve just about got enough money together but not quite or you need the whole lot to buy that new car, what are the options? Maybe you shouldn’t get the loan. There are some big items that we may need to take a loan out for. I’m thinking of a house, particularly. A new car is also one of those big items that do swallow a lot of cash. Being wary of over spending for that new car – or anything for that matter – is a good check for whether you might be able to hold off and save up the cash first before being to hasty in signing the dotted line for a loan.
Yes, you might want the car but if you saved up before you bought the car, then quite a large sum of money can be saved in interest payments that you would need to pay in a loan – making the new car cheaper to buy in the long run. It’s amazing how quickly interest can build up on a car loan.
If you are running on a tight budget, it is probably wise to hold off getting a loan because failure to meet the payments on a loan for a car definitely affects your credit rating in the future. A month or two of lower income or higher demands on your usable income (for example: a larger food bill, your rent goes up, car repairs…) means that it is a lot harder for people on a tighter budget to meet the demands of a car loan’s repayments. If you are already paying for rent or a mortgage, and your margins are tight, do think very carefully before applying for a car loan.
So, what happens when it all goes pear-shaped? Missing one of the loan repayments usually results in a late fee. Loan agents would usually give you a call and remind you that you were not able to provide the payment on such-and-such a date. In most cases, lenders would try to work with you and determine a new date when you would pay for the missed payment.
Digging yourself a deeper hole to get out of is when a payment has been delayed for 30 or more days. In the event where you were not able to pay the loan premiums for almost a month, lenders would be looking at this as a serious lapse and would most likely report this to credit reporting agencies.
As outstanding loan repayments continue to build up for 90 days or more, repossession of the vehicle is the final outcome. Money lenders would send an agent that would handle the repossession process. A lot of the time, police officers are involved to ensure that the re-possession process goes without a hitch.
Finally, lenders will usually resort to legal action when you are not able to meet the payment terms provided by the lender. After your car is sold on, the lender would sue you for not paying the amount you owe from the lending company. It gets really scary here because if you lose in court, you are required to pay the amount you owe, the penalties involved, and the expenses spent by the lender in seeking legal action. Ouch!
There are such things as manageable loans. Sometimes they really are necessary (like when your car has died and you need a new one). As long as the loan repayments sit well inside your means to pay them, you’ll probably be fine.
If you are finding it difficult repaying any car loan or multiple loans, here are a few tips to help:
- know exactly how much you owe
- stop using the credit card
- work out which loans are charging the most
interest and pay these ones off first - do whatever you can to retire any debt (for
example: taking on a second job and
using that income for paying debts off) - if you don’t have the cash for it, you probably don’t need it.
On a positive note: keeping yourself free of debt means that you are much more capable of saving up for things in the future. And remember, Private Fleet are committed to finding all new-car buyers the best deals around.
Now…That's How You Pack a Boot!
Travelling by car is easy most of the time. Carry some passengers and luggage along with you,
and space suddenly is something that you have to go searching for. A lot of the modern vehicles offer plenty of
ingenious storage space. But what can
you do to enhance the luggage carrying capacity of your vehicle when, all of a
sudden, that cavernous boot is looking very full, and tight for space?
How much storage space you’ll need is something worth
thinking about when purchasing a new car.
Sure… if it’s just you and your other half getting away for the weekend
in a Honda S2000 or BMW Z4, then you’re not going to need the world’s biggest
boot. However, if you are looking to
take your family and enough gear for the long weekend away with you, then these
little roadsters won’t cut the mustard.
Be sure to have, on hand, a vehicle that will provide plenty
of boot space, and/or enough horses under the bonnet to tow a small trailer to
your destination. This is an easy way of
getting all the bodies and their essential baggage to where you need to go. Car specifications will often provide
information on the volume of a cars boot space.
A sedan with at least 500 litres of boot space is starting to become
useful for the small family weekend away.
This, naturally, almost doubles when a station wagon or 4WD is the
alternative.
Obviously, fitting your car with a towbar will give you the
option of taking a small trailer away on holiday. Space grows magnificently; however the fuel
costs for the trip will increase as the trailer adds to the drag on the car’s aerodynamics,
not to mention rolling resistance.
As mentioned above, many of the new vehicles on the market
offer storage space. Depending on the
car, you’ll find it under the boot floor, under the back seats, under the front
seats inside a central console, in a glove box, up in the roof space and a
number of other places, too. The storage
spaces zoned around the passengers are great places for putting eats, drinks,
gloves and hats, games, sun-block, emergency kits and the like.
Here is a useful tip for when the luggage piled up beside
the car looks like a small mountain. When
it’s as big as this, we often wonder how the heck we will get all the stuff
into the car. When I’m really pushed for
space, things like boxes and large square containers are the first to go. It’s much easier to fit the same amount of
stuff into soft bags. These bags with
all the bits and pieces you are taking inside fit snugly up to each other, lessening
the amount of unused air space in your fully loaded boot.
If there is no way round it and you do need to take a large
box, esky or suitcase, pack these at the base of the boot space, leaving the
softer things like blankets, sleeping bags and jackets etc. to sit on top and
around the hard containers to squish down and compact nicely, allowing you to
take more things, if you need to. Try
it – you’ll be surprised.
Level 2, 9 Help Street