Thousands of accidents happen monthly and if you find yourself as a part of this statistic, you’re not alone, so don’t worry.  Since people don’t get into accidents every other day, some drivers have no idea on what to do once the accident is done with.  I compiled a quick list on what you need to do in order to file an automotive insurance claim.

File a police report – When the accident happens and if it’s too late now, make sure that you filed a police report.  If you did, great, if not, you’re going to be in trouble because you’re going to be missing that big piece of accident.  Anytime you get into an accident, it’s important that you involve the police.  This is going to be your outside party that views the situation to see who was at fault.

Get info – After the accident, you’ll want details from the drivers of the other cars.  Whoever was involved, make sure that you grab all their information off their driver license.  This will make the process easier.  Grab a phone number, name, address, and license plate number of the vehicle.

Take pictures – The more evidence you have, the better it is for the insurance company.  Since most cell phones have cameras on them, you can simply take a picture of the accident on the spot.  This way, you can draw out what exactly happened.  Take a picture of the surroundings, the people involved, the cars.. everything!

Call your insurance company – When the accident is done with, call the insurance company as quick as possible.  You’ll want to file this claim as soon as possible to allow the company to get together the appropriate paper work.  From there, the agent will guide you on what you’ll need to do next.

If you’re not at fault, you will still want to contact your carrier.  The chances are that the other carrier will pay all the costs such as your deductible.  This way, you won’t have to pay any costs at all seeing it wasn’t your fault at all.  Every carrier is different so refer to your terms and services for more information.

Adjuster comes – After you file your claim, you’ll either have to bring your car to a location (if you can drive it) or chances are an adjuster will come to your home to look at the damage.  The adjuster will make notes of all the damage and will take pictures for the insurance company.  From there, the adjuster will give you more information on what will happen next.

Claiming an insurance claim is a pain, I know but the reason you have to have so much evidence is because of the growing number of fraudulent claims.  To prevent these, the insurance companies go more into detail.  As long as you’re honest and follow these tips, your insurance claim process shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Do you and your family go on a lot of driven vacations?  If so, you may agree that riding in a car after a while can be extremely boring.  When having kids who can’t sit in a car for more than a few hours you need some kind of entertainment.  There is no reason for a boring car trip.  There are many ways to make a driven vaction more fun.  Need some ideas?  Read below and find out some of the fun gadgets that are on the market so you can start enjoying those long, boring car rides today.

• Nintendo DS – This nintendo is one of the funnest nintendos out on the market that has a reasonable price.  There are many games that you can find to go along with this.  Nintendo DS carries games that help you learn new languages, help your vocabulary skills, math skills and just fun games for children.
• PSP – This is a great system.  Do you like to watch movies, play games and like to look at photos?  If so, these are all included with the PSP.  This is great entertainment for children and is fun for adults as well.
• Portable DVD Players – What’s more fun than watching a movie during a boring car trip?  This is a great to spend a few hours entertained and feeling like you’re at home.  Portable DVD Players are highly recommended by their customers and are loved by children.
• Ipod – There is nothing worse than listening to the driver’s music throughout the whole trip.  You can easily put an end to that with an Ipod.  Start enjoying your trips by listening to your favorite music.  Don’t want to spend alot?  That’s understandable, check out the nanos and smaller systems!
• Laptop – Laptops are one of the best entertainment systems on the market.  You can buy affordable laptops with fun games on them and even have internet access!  Yes, while you’re riding in the car you can have internet access!  Check out verizon’s new internet adapters.

Don’t make car trips long and boring.  Start to enjoy being on the road by having good entertainment!  Want to say goodbye to boring car trips?  Consider some of the gadgets above!

Making sure you keep up with your car’s maintenace is very important.  Not only do we want to keep our cars running for a long time but we want to make sure they are taken care of properly.  When we keep up with our car’s maintenance we keep our car healthy and running properly.  One of the most important things to keep in mind is the tire inflation.  If your tires aren’t inflated the way they should be it can be extremely dangerous to drive.  Driving with deflated tires can cause an accident, tire damage and cost a lot of money to fix.  To make sure that you’re not driving with inflated tires you will need a tire gauge.  Don’t have one already?  Check out the top 5 tire gauges on the market.

1. Accutire MS – 4350B Programmable Digital Tire Guage:  This tire guage is the most liked guage on the market.  It is digital, easy to use and is very accurate.
2. Accutire MS – 4400B Pistol Grip Digital Tire Guage: The Accutire MS – 4400B is rated #2 on the market.  This tire guage is very inexpensive and is very easy to use.
3. Accutire MS – 4021B Standard Digital Tire Guage: This tire guage is rated #3 on the market.  The easy digital system makes it easy for you to read the pounds in your tires and is very easy to use.  Don’t want to spend a lot of money?  No problem, this tire guage is very inexpensive.
4. Moroso 89560 Tire Pressure Guage, Dial Type, 0-60 psi: Like the old fashioned look?  This tire pressure guage gets put on the tire and raise the pressure meter as it measures the pounds.  Very easy to use but more on the expensive side.
5. Accutire MS – 4652B Key Chain Digital Tire Guage: This is a great tire guage.  Want something that is smaller, easy to use and something you can carry with you?  This tire guage has a keychain for an easy attachment so it’s there when you need it.

As you can see there are many great tire guages on the market.  These top 5 are the most popular and were choosen as the best tire guages on the market.  In need of a tire guage?  Be sure to check out the top five listed above!

Are you unsure whether or not you want to lease a vehicle or if you should buy?  This is a common question among all car buyers at first.  There are many ups and downs to buying a car and leasing a vehicle.  If you are considering leasing a vehicle check out the benefits below to help you decide.

Brand new – The best part of leasing a vehicle is that it is brand new.  You don’t have to worry about a vehicle that might be messy or have parts to it that you don’t like.  Also there is not customization from a previous driver.  A lot of drivers like to put tacky things in their car.  When leasing you get what just comes out of the shop.

Latest technology – When you lease a vehicle you also get the latest technology options.  You can get vehicles with the best GPS, sound systems and all the other great features cars have to offer.

It’s not yours – Often people don’t want to have to worry about selling a vehicle, and keeping up with the maintenance of the vehicle.  If you don’t plan on keeping a vehicle for very long you may want to consider leasing.  This is a plus side to people yet a disadvantage to some.  You just have to look at the situation.

Less up front – If you need a vehicle fast and don’t have a lot of money to start off with you may want to consider leasing.  A lot of dealers don’t require money down and if they do it’s not as much as a person would charge most of the time. 

As you can see there are a lot of advantages to leasing a vehicle.  It you’re still debating whether or not you should lease or buy, try writing out all the ups and downs to both aspects.  Take a look at your situation and see what will work best for you.

Are you debating on whether or not you should buy a vehicle or lease one?  This is a common question among all car buyers at first.  As we all know there are many benefits and downsides to both.  Need some benefits of buying a vehicle to help you decide?  Check out some of the upsides of buying a vehicle below:

Customize - When you buy a vehicle, the car is now yours.  You are able to do whatever you want to it.  You can make any adjustments you want and put any custom accessories and gadgets in.

Insurance – When you buy a vehicle you can also get whatever insurance you want.  So if you’re looking to save the most money it make help to buy a vehicle.  When you lease a vehicle they will make you get the best insurance possible just in case of any damage.

You can get money back – Once you buy a vehicle and it’s yours you can sell it later.  Say you buy a vehicle for $15,000 and you drive it for 2-3 years, you can probably sell it for just a couple thousand less.  When you lease you get all the luxuries of a new vehicle but you will never see any of that money again.

Damage – Are you a new driver or is the car for a younger driver?  If so you may really want to consider buying a vehicle.  If you damage the car in anyway it is your car.  You don’t have to worry about telling the dealership and all that to get it fixed.  You can get it fixed when you want and have it just be your problem, not anyone else’s. 

No certain mileage – Once you agree to lease a vehicle, there is usually a certain amount of miles that you can put onto your lease.  Usually you get agreements for 10,000 miles a year and all different kinds of plans.  If you buy your own you don’t have to worry about a charge or penalty against you if you go over on the mileage. 

As you can see there are many advantages and benefits of buying your own vehicle.  Many first time drivers like to buy a vehicle just because they are new to the road.  Leasing is also great, but it seems like there is  a lot more freedom when you buy your own vehicle.