Caring For the Car You Have

Having a nice vehicle can sometimes make us feel good about ourselves and in our own mind, creates value and importance. But just as important as having a new vehicle is taking care of the vehicle you have.

During these financially difficult times, buying a new car can be too costly and can even break us when we could simply take your existing car and have it fine-tuned. This can include making sure the engine is in perfect working order to checking out the vehicle’s body and assessing whether it has dents or dings that could be repaired. A well-maintained car that is spotless can make you feel as good as a newly purchased vehicle.

Americans today are spending 15% to 20% of their take-home pay on car payments– this doesn’t take into account the other costs of a vehicle like gas, insurance, tags and maintenance. Why do people spend so much to have a new car? Sometimes it is due to crafty car salesman, other times it is peer pressure. The problem is, once you have committed to a car payment, you are stuck with it– no cutting back on it as with other expenses such as eating out and groceries. You have to make the payments or let the lender repossess your car. The later is hardly an option, as you would still owe the difference between your loan balance and whatever the car brings at an auction, plus your credit becomes nearly ruined.

So what can you do to avoid becoming over your head in debt with a car payment? First, ask yourself whether you need a new car or can you make an investment in your existing car and bring it up to almost new condition. Remember how car loans work. The first part of the loan you are primarily paying the interest while the second half of the loan is applied to the principle owed on the car. What often happens though is that people will trade in their car in the middle of a loan when little has been paid toward the principle, which leaves them upside down. An upside down loan means you will owe more than the car is worth after up to three years, therefore if you try and trade it in, you won’t get back as much as you owe. This is followed by the need to roll that debt into the new car purchase and the cycle starts again.

Another reason you should just keep the car you have and care for it is that cars are more dependable these days and can be driven past 200,000 miles. If you are tempted to try and justify the cost of repairs on your old car in order to buy a new car – do the math. If your new car is costing $7,000 a year or $530 a month – putting $1,500 into your car in one payment, even twice a year, is still cheaper. Most people’s vehicles run fine; they just don’t feel it looks as good as it used to. If this is the case, take your car into a body shop and ask for an estimate. There are new methods for repair small dents and dings in your car including what is called paintless dent repair. Such repairs don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Follow this up with having your car washed and waxed – this will make a world of difference. Last, have the inside cleaned and detailed. With just doing these few things your car will be as good as new and you will feel even better about yourself than what a new car might have to offer.

David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Hail Damage Repair Austin (PDR), technologies, practices,techniques and Paintless Dent Repair in Austin Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com

Will All Cars Soon Be Made of Plastic?

Car manufacturers are rushing to design and engineer a more fuel-efficient yet affordable vehicle. While doing so, much of the metal that made up the cars of yesterday will be replaced with highly sophisticated and much lighter plastics.

When we think of cars, we traditionally picture them as being made of metal, iron and steel. But according to the director of automotive studies at the American Plastic Council's Automotive Learning Centre, "Ten years ago, about 150 pounds of plastics were on the average North American vehicle. Today, more than 250 pounds are being used. We expect more than 320 pounds of plastic to be on 2010 cars." These figures are especially important when one considers that every pound of material used in an automobile speaks for billions of dollars being spent by the automotive industry.

What does this mean when one major type of material is replaced by another? To start, it affects individual industries. Companies who produce metals will suffer while those who are making plastics will grow. Of course the types of plastics used in cars has to meet regulations which means companies who are plastic suppliers have to keep up with the demand and science of making more and more sophisticated composites. Such composites must be engineered at the molecular level to exhibit specific physical properties such as scratch resistance, flame resistance and greater degrees of stiffness.

But it doesn’t stop here. Although a plastic company may come up with a new plastic, it also has to be incorporated into the design of a car and proven that it can reduce costs and improve the product. This is tricky to do when there are also numerous requirements on the plastic industry such as how the plastic will be recycled to finding ways to educate design engineers about new materials and their properties.

The most common plastic used for vehicles is a lightweight, high-strength aerospace material called carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. It's used in the doors, hoods, fenders, chassis and also in support frames for the engine and transmission. This plastic can be molded into almost any shape the designer wants.

What about recycled plastic? At the Geneva Auto Show, Hyundai announced a concept vehicle using recycled plastic bottles to create most of its outer skin. The QarmaQ, an Intuit word for “dwellings made of Earth, whalebone, and animal skins”, was an idea brought about by Hyundai’s Europe’s Design and Technical Center, along with GE Plastics. The design of using plastic as opposed to glass and steel, they say, allows for a 130-pound weight reduction, equaling 20 gallons of gas savings every year.

In addition, to the use of recycled plastic bottles, the rest of the vehicle uses less chemicals and paint than regular vehicles. A new Exatec coating protects the glass outside, preventing it from scratching and also reflecting heat to keep the inside cool.


Plastics’ other advantages besides making the weight of the car lighter and improving its fuel efficiency is that it is also more durable than metal, which can rust and wear. And while a more fuel-efficient vehicle that costs less seems appealing, there is also the downside. One example is the design of the new car by Tata, which will be first seen in India. It is expected that in a country of 1.1 billion people, sales of small cars are expected to double to two million in the next three years. This means double the air pollution and double the already crowded roadways.

So is designing a lightweight plastic affordable car going to be the answer to tomorrow’s transportation problems? It’s hard to tell, but one thing is sure, it is a trend that is here to stay.

David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Hail Damage Repair Austin (PDR), technologies, practices,techniques and Paintless Dent Repair in Austin Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com

Go Green - Choose Paintless Dent Repair

The business of auto body repair can be quite hazardous to the environment. A number of chemicals and solvents may be utilized in order to satisfy our desire for vanity in our vehicles. While the final result looks great, in most cases the same or better results can be obtained through paintless dent repair, which uses no harmful chemicals and restores your automobile’s finish to its pre-incident state.

There are three main ways in which harmful chemicals enter the body: breathing, absorption through the skin, and swallowing (less common forms of chemical entry include injection or entry through the eyes).

Most commonly harmful chemicals are absorbed into the body through the breathing in of gases, vapors, mists, dusts and aerosols released into the atmosphere from industrial processes. One such offender is auto body shops.

The byproducts of body shop work may include harmful chemicals such as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), benzene, formaldehyde, acetone, acid mists, solvents, metal fumes, lead fumes, and zinc fumes. Additionally various detergents, enamels, paint aerosols, paint thinners, resins, abrasives, and cutting oils can be released into the atmosphere during the auto repair process.

Many jurisdictions require certain safeguards be followed to minimize (but not eliminate) environmental contamination resulting from the discharge of auto body repair shop chemicals. Recapturing mechanisms are somewhat effective at decreasing the amount of harmful chemicals released into the environment, but they are not fail safe. Furthermore, even if recapturing is successful, the harmful chemical byproducts must still be disposed of in some fashion. Quite simply, everything ends up in the environment in one form or another.

Much of this is unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with having a desire to protect your investment in your automobile and wanting to keep it looking in great shape. However, the vast majority of repairs that have been traditionally performed by body shops can now be done via paintless dent repair technology.

Paintless dent repair technicians are able to restore dents, dings, hail damage, and creases in auto bodies without the use of any harmful chemicals. The process is simple, quick, and cheap when compared to the costs (both out of pocket and environmental) associated with traditional means of repair. Furthermore, the end result of paintless dent repair is often preferable to that of body shop work as it makes use of your car’s original finish. This eliminates any depreciation of your vehicle resultant from having a non-standard finish applied, as well as solves any problems regarding matching of paint.

If your car has suffered hail damage, dents, dings, or creases, do yourself and Mother Earth a favor – take it by a paintless dent repair expert first – you and your children will be glad that you did.

David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Hail Damage Repair Austin (PDR), technologies, practices,techniques and Paintless Dent Repair in Austin Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com

When to Choose Paintless Dent Repair

Paintless dent repair is a wonderful solution for many types of vehicle body repairs. It is more affordable than traditional repairs, preserves the value of a vehicle, eliminates the use of environmentally harmful chemicals and solvents in the repair process, and takes much less time to complete. It is covered by most insurance policies and typically comes with a workmanship guarantee. Many paintless dent repair companies will even travel to your home or office and complete the repair while you wait.

There are a number of situations in which paintless dent repair is the better choice over traditional repairs made at a body shop. These scenarios are outlined below.

1) Hail damage. Hail damage can cause a large amount of damage to vehicles located across a wide geographic area. In such cases, body shops can become backed up for months at a time as they become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of repair claims to which they must attend. Paintless dent repair provides an option for quick repair of hail damaged vehicles without the hassles of having to deal with body shops. As hail damage does not usually cause sharp creases in the metal or chip the paint, paintless dent repair is an ideal solution to restore your car to its original finish.

2) Dings. Dings can be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from shopping cart damage to pebbles thrown against your car while driving to dings from the impact of a car door in a parking lot. These types of dings can be very annoying, but fortunately are prime candidates for paintless dent repair. The dings usually occur on the hood of a vehicle (pebble or stone damage) or along the broad side body panels of a vehicle (shopping cart damage and dings from car doors). The broad, relatively flat surfaces of the panels affected by such damage does not require the services of a body shop. In fact, if you were to take your car to a body shop for the repair of this type of damage they would likely use paintless dent repair anyway.

3) Fender benders. More serious dents than those described above can occur in minor collisions with other vehicles or stationary objects. Don’t let the size of the dent discourage you from seeking the assistance of a paintless dent repair professional – it is not the size of the dent which makes a repair a good candidate, it is rather the type of a dent. A broad shallow dent in a body panel can usually be fixed using this method. Even many creases can be repaired in this manner provided the paint is not chipped or otherwise damaged.

While the vast majority of damage that can occur to the body of a vehicle can be repaired using PDR methodology, there are some damages that are not appropriate for this type of service. Some examples of damages not suitable for paintless dent repair would be sharp creases, punctures in the metal, tears in the metal, or in any situation in which the original finish of the vehicle is not intact (such as broken or chipped paint, scratches, and scraping).

If you are in doubt about whether or not your vehicle can benefit from paintless dent repair, it is best to take it to a PDR specialist for an opinion prior to taking it to a body shop. You would be surprised at the many types of vehicle damage that are responsive to PDR.

David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Hail Damage Repair Austin (PDR), technologies, practices,techniques and Paintless Dent Repair in Austin Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com

Selecting a PDR Company

A large urban area is struck by a hail storm. Millions of dollars of damage results to thousands of vehicles in the area. Body shops and insurance claims become backed up for months. What is the best way to get your vehicle back into shape quickly and affordably? Paintless dent repair, also known as PDR, is typically the best solution for most types of hail damage.

While PDR technology cannot repair all dents, most dents which do not result in a cracking of the paint can be corrected using this method. Many companies offer paintless dent repair, especially in the scenario provided above. In fact, when there is a major weather event which affects a large urban population, many paintless dent repair companies pop up seemingly from nowhere. This is because large teams of PDR storm chasers follow hail storms around the country and temporarily set up shop in the affected locations.

Choosing a company to make your paintless dent repairs can therefore be a challenge. You want to be cautious of fly by night companies who have no previous reputation in your community. Therefore, it is important to select a company who is able to provide references, who is an established business, and who guarantees its work.

First off, check to see if the company has a website. Look on the website to see how long they have been in business (even if not in your area). Make sure they have a telephone number which you can call regarding any future problems you may have. After all, if they have only temporarily set up shop in your city you may not be able to return to the location should a problem arise.

Ask for any guarantees in writing. You may also check with your insurance company to see if they have heard of the company. Also make sure that the insurance company will approve a reimbursement for damage incurred which is repaired using paintless dent repair.

If the company you are considering provides you references, check them. Don’t just blindly trust references, especially online recommendations. These can easily be fabricated. Ask for the names and contact information of previous customers who have used the company.

Checking with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any complaints about the company may also prove useful. Searching online for the company name may turn up any customer feedback regarding the company, be it positive or negative.

Finally, common sense is best. If the company seems helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable, that is a good sign. If they are evasive or do not seem to be willing to provide information to you which you would find helpful, remember there are plenty of other paintless dent repair companies out there which would be happy to assist you.

David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Hail Damage Repair Austin (PDR), technologies, practices, and techniques and Paintless Dent Repair in Austin Texas
. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com

Paintless Dent Repair

If your car has received dents, dings, or creases as the result of a fender bender, shopping cart collision, or hail damage, paintless dent repair, also known as PDR, is typically the best solution for the repair of the damage. Not only does paintless dent repair restore your vehicle to its original state, it does so affordably and quickly. Paintless dent repair is cheaper than than most work performed at a body shop, and can often be done while you wait. Additionally, paintless dent repair is approved by most insurance companies for reimbursement.

Paintless dent repair does not require sanding, bonding, filling, or paint. Instead, it relies on the use of special tools which take advantage of the fact that most auto bodies are made of metals which have “memory”. The memory of a metal is its tendency to seek out the original shape or curvature it originally had when it was manufactured. The use of high strength metal in manufacturing as well as resilient paint finishes contributes to the effectiveness and simplicity of the PDR process.

Paintless dent repair is suitable for most vehicles manufactured after 1990 and works well for large or small dents so long as the surface of the paint has not been cracked. As paintless dent repair takes advantage of your car’s original finish, there are no issues with respect to matching of paint, and your vehicle is restored to its original condition.

While most dents can be fixed in a short time “while you wait” (and some PDR companies even offer mobile service in which they come to your location), more extensive damage, such as hail damage, which involves numerous dents can take more time. Even so, the PDR process is still typically quicker and cheaper than more traditional, body shop repair processes would be.

Paintless dent repair has other advantages as well. Not only is it more affordable and quicker than traditional body shop work, it is environmentally friendly. No harmful paints, sprays or solvents are utilized. Paintless dent repair also preserves your car’s original finish, which helps maintain its value (cars which have their original finish on them resale for a greater amount than those with aftermarket finishes). Body shop work typically involves a depreciation of the value of a vehicle. This is simply not the case with paintless dent repair.

Paintless dent repair provides a host of advantages over other means of automobile body repair. If your car has experienced dents, dings, or hail damage, it would be wise to investigate the options provided by PDR.


David Etienne is the founder of FIX-A-DENT, the premier provider of Professional Paintless Dent Repair services in the United States. Established in 1993, FIX-A-DENT continues being the leader in Paintless Dent Removal (PDR), technologies, practices, and techniques. For more information, please visit http://www.fixadent.com