On, September 20th a category 4 hurricane that carried 150 mph winds made landfall on Puerto Rico. It has left thousands without power, water, and with limited resources. Now as they try to get back to rebuilding their lives, jobs, and communities they are finding it is very difficult to do so with the lack of transportation. The car sales have naturally decreased dramatically after such a devastation to the island. About 1/4 of the cars were lost to flood damage. Many of the damaged vehicles will most likely end up at Insurance Auto Auctions. We can only imagine that the demand for a vehicle is very high. With people needing to return to their regular daily lives, commuting for work, and taking their children and getting them back to a good routine at school. Simply the supply is just too low when it comes to purchasing a vehicle. But they are doing everything they can to change things little by little, and make them more available. A Fact To Remember We will remember just 6 months ago, when Puerto Rico claimed the Guiness World Record for the longest parade of classic cars: 2,491. It is evident that puerto rico has one of the highest rates for car ownership in the world. Positives For The Future Taking one day at a time, we will slowly see little improvements. As different organizations, associations, and families that were not effected by the hurricane season this year, will continue to try to pull together what they can to donate to the island and the people there. Getting the remainder who stayed on the island back on their feet.

Gas Prices sure can increase quickly, but how long does it take them to come down? It seems like we are constantly watching the prices rise at a rapidly increasing rate. What does this mean for the average consumer? It could mean that we are starting to second guess upgrading to a bigger vehicle, with the extra space and power. Which could signify that we are starting to search for a smaller vehicle one that gets better gas mileage and has a smaller engine. But just because we might need to start looking for a car with a smaller engine that won't consume as much fuel, doesn’t mean we have to downsize the power that we want as well. Honda Accord now makes a Turbo Charged Engine. It is a smaller engine but the turbo gives it the boost it needs to make up for any power losses. Definition A turbocharger, or colloquially turbo, is a turbine-driven forced induction device that increases an internal combustion engine's efficiency and power output by forcing extra air into the combustion chamber. Benefits of a Honda Accord With a Turbo Charged Engine Increased Horsepower- Makes more power at a lower rpm It feels more relaxed to drive Increased reliability of engine Higher Efficiency- Runs off energy that is typically lost in naturally aspirated engines, thus the recovery of the engine improves the overall efficiency of engine What Else is Changing in the Car Industry? We have found more and more cars are being made with aluminum bodies. There are some advantages of this as well as disadvantages. Read along with us as we go over a few. Pros 1. Lightw eight 2. Strength and Durability 3. Safety Benefits When applied to an optimized automotivebody structure, aluminum can provide a weight savings of up to 50 percent compared with the traditional mild steel structure. Due to the reduced weight, the car will use less fuel. Aluminum body structures are equal or superior in strength to steel and absorb twice as much crash-induced energy. We have found  that with Honda they tend to make their hoods and trunks with aluminum which saves on weight, but usually does not affect body shop and insurance rates. Cons Now the we considered the pros. When dealing with aluminum it does not come without its disadvantages as well. 1. Higher costs to repair 2. Inability to be welded easily 3. In some situations it is more difficult to paint Aluminum is more expensive than steel, as much as two to three times more. A drawback that comes along with it being more expensive, is you will find that you are spending more money at the body repair shop. When it comes to welding it isn't as easy as if a steel door panel needs to be repaired. Usually with steel it can be welded back together easily, primed and repainted to look like no damage was even done to the vehicle, unfortunately this can't be done with aluminum. Now, we wait and see, to find out exactly what the future of the car industry will decide to do. Will they completely make the switch to aluminum? Or will they keep using steel because it is what we all know best. Only time will tell.

There she was, sitting on our lot, just waiting for someone to take her for a spin. With the color as bright as the “ 1969 General Lee,” and with a nickname like “ Hellcat." It was the 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT 392. Let me just start by saying the speed on this car is astonishing. W ith a 6.2L V8 Supercharged engine s he goes from 0 to 60mph in 3.6 seconds. D riving a car that handled so well on the road would make those dreams I’ve had since I was a kid come true. So my confession as a salesman is that I thought of a plan to take this beauty for a spin. After the long day of work thinking about it, I decided that the Challenger SRT couldn’t go without being driven, not this weekend. I ended up proposing the plan to my boss that my neighbor was really wanting to see and drive the Bright Fiery Orange Dodge Challenger that we just got in. I told my boss I had to drive it home for “him" on Saturday night so he could take it for a spin. The feeling that came from doing something completely against every bone in my body was invigorating. Not only was I making the plans to drive a car with immense power (much more than my standard vehicle I have now), but in the back of my mind I wondered what my boss would have said if he really knew what I was up to. It was just too thrilling and too hard to let a car like this stay by itself, untouched, no one to drive her, no one to put her speed to the limits. Could I have potentially lost my job for doing something like this? Probably not. Hopefully I would have just gotten a grin followed by a slap on the wrist and a speech to never do it again. I’m stuck here wondering how long it will be before I can pull something like that off again. Maybe if I’m lucky my next dream car will magically pull up on to our lot, waiting for someone to drive her around the block…. and i’ll be there to do just that.