Audi TT-S pricing announced (UK)

Audi UK has announced prices for the TT-S roadster and coupé.

The coupé will sell for £33,380 while the roadster will start at at £35,380 both OTR.

TT-S is a new name on the market, coming in, without a clear direct rival as far as its two German counterparts are concerned. At introduction, it will sport the same overworked 2.0-litre VW company mill, which for this application will produce 200kW and torque of 350Nm. The 0 – 100km/h time should be just 5.4 seconds for the 6-speed manual coupé and 5.6 seconds for the roadster.

Buyers who choose the dual-clutch S-tronic will go 0.2 seconds quicker off the line. A new damping system called Audi magnetic ride will help to change the driving character of the car by varying suspension for different road surfaces and situations.

LED daytime running lights also feature and standard 18-inches alloys, though an upgrade to 19-inch 5-spokers is available at £750.

Car Parts: Backbone of Any Car

One of the vehicles that are hugely liked world over is cars. Perfect utility machines, they contribute handsomely and eradicate quite a few troubles from one's life. Indeed, there cannot be two thoughts about the fact that cars indeed are a multi-utility phenomenon. Not only does it eradicates one's commuting troubles but also adds handsomely to one's status symbol as well. It is extremely surprising and ironical, therefore, that people don't give as much attention to car parts or car accessory that they should be giving. No wonder then that most of the people start complaining about the bad performance of their cars almost as soon as they purchase them.

A few examples would explain the whole point pretty easily. Take the case of car mats. In spite of the fact that they provide extremely important service to the cars yet they are not taken that seriously by people. Imagine a part of the car that saves it from dust and rain and provides cushion to feet thereby making the journey comfortable is not given its rightful due. Nothing can be as baffling!

Similar is the case with spare parts. Such integral car parts but again not given as much attention as is their right. There are times on several occasions when you cannot get the proper silencer or combustion pipes etc. and have to wait for days for them to arrive to get the short coming fixed. Had a careful attention been given to these essential components then situation would not have deteriorated that much.

These points should communicate the point pretty nicely that a careful observation to car accessories or car parts while purchasing cars would go a long way in helping people combat such critical times. All that you need to do is to pay slight attention to these essential components to give that edge to your car.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/car-parts-backbone-of-any-car-326130.html

Top Advantages to Buying Car Insurance Online

It is very important to research all of the many car insurance companies available to make sure that you get the best rates and best coverage. Car insurance is critical to keeping you and your family protected against injuries and accidents. In fact, now you can buy car insurance online.

There are many independent websites that can assist you in choosing the right coverage at an affordable rate. By using one of these companies, you know that you will get unbiased results because they do not partner with specific companies.
There are quite of few great websites on the web that give the user a friendly visit. They offer features such as compared rates to other insurance companies that can help you make your decision based on the lowest rates. They also will allow you the feature to purchasing them online
Others, you can submit a claim online, and they have a program that can help you quickly repair the damaged vehicle. With this program, you will be driving your car again in no time. By choosing one of their mechanic shops, they can speed up the repair time.
There are so many different companies that you can use to buy car insurance online. By receiving free quotes from several of these companies, you can do some easy comparison shopping to choose the company that is right for you. Comparison shopping is critical to finding a good reliable company.

The most important thing for a driver is to be insured. By insuring yourself, you protect you, your financial health, and those family and friends that are riding with you.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/top-advantages-to-buying-car-insurance-online-321650.html

AFA's Ford Boycott Is Anti-Christian

A recent article I saw on Pajamas Media estimates that the ongoing American Family Association boycott of Ford is doing serious damage to Ford's sales. This is debatable. I propose that the boycott is actually anti-family.

The American Family Association is continuing to press its boycott against Ford, in an attempt to convince Ford to stop supporting homosexual community groups through its philanthropy, and to stop advertising to gay customers. The AFA chose Ford out of all of the automakers because at the beginning of the boycott, Ford was in financially the worst position. (I suspect that title may now actually belong to Chrysler, behind its private equity wall. )

The AFA's boycott is wrong, in my opinion. * First, on biblical grounds:

18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is
great, and because their sin is very grievous;

...

18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the
righteous with the wicked? 18:24 Peradventure there be fifty
righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the
place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 18:25 That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far
from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 18:26 And
the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city,
then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me
to speak unto the LORD, which am but dust and ashes: 18:28
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou
destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there
forty and five, I will not destroy it.

18:29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there
shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's
sake.

18:30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will
speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I
will not do it, if I find thirty there.

18:31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
LORD: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I
will not destroy it for twenty's sake.

18:32 And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet
but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I
will not destroy it for ten's sake.

--Genesis 18, Project Gutenberg King James Bible

Granted, the bible says that homosexuality is an "abomination". But God was willing to spare Sodom from destruction if there were even only 10 righteous men in the city, which had a population of thousands. This is an illustration of God's attribute of mercy--even though the Sodomites were sinners, he was convinced by Abraham not to mete out collective punishment.

Ford has about 283,000 employees. Quite a few of these (probably the majority of U.S. employees) are Christians. Is it right to potentially hurt so many, not to mention the dealers, suppliers, and others who benefit from Ford's business because Ford sends some money to homosexual causes?

I have no idea how much Ford has spent on gay marketing and donations. The largest gift AFA mentions was $250,000 that the Ford Fund donated to build a community center. But compare this to the $87,000,000 total that Ford spent on philanthropy in 2006. Of that, $13,000,000 alone was given to United Way of Michigan in 2006 (Source).

Ford's gay support is a drop in the bucket.

The AFA, in its zeal to fight its culture war against the gay movement, is willing to destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of Christian employees, and eliminate millions of dollars of charitable giving to pro-family causes.

Even if the AFA is successful, it isn't clear what they will accomplish, other than expanding their own influence.

Here is a list of other companies that are listed as being very gay friendly (100% score), according to the Human Rights Campaign report of 2004:

Fortune Rank, Company
108 Aetna Inc.**
305 Agilent Technologies Inc.*
110 American Airlines (AMR Corp.)**
69 American Express Co.*
301 Apple Computer Inc.**
40 AT&T Corp.*
401 Avaya Inc.**
n/a Bausch & Lomb Inc.
78 Best Buy Co. Inc.*
452 Borders Group Inc.*
200 Capital One Financial Corp.
n/a Cargill Inc.
402 The Charles Schwab Corp.*
n/a ChoicePoint Inc.
174 Chubb Corp.*
100 Cisco Systems Inc.*
8 Citigroup Inc.*
430 Coors Brewing Co.*
31 Dell Inc.*
n/a Deutsche Bank
149 Eastman Kodak Co.**
n/a Faegre & Benson*
4 Ford Motor Co.*
74 The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.*
11 Hewlett-Packard Co.
9 IBM Corp.
53 Intel Corp.**
26 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.**
274 Keyspan*
n/a Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant Group Inc.*
n/a Kraft Foods Inc.*
113 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
422 Levi Strauss & Co.
243 Lucent Technologies Inc.**
36 MetLife Inc.
n/a Miller Brewing Co.*
n/a Mitchell Gold Co.
n/a Morrison & Foerster LLP
61 Motorola Inc.*
118 Nationwide*
322 NCR Corp.**
499 New York Times Co.*
184 Nike Inc.**
350 Owens Corning*
62 PepsiCo Inc.*
25 Pfizer Inc.*
179 PG&E Corp.
57 Prudential Financial Inc.
n/a Replacements Ltd.**
n/a SC Johnson & Son Inc.
n/a Southern California Edison Co.*
n/a UBS Financial Services Inc.*
49 Wells Fargo & Co.*
161 Whirlpool Corp.*
n/a Worldspan Technologies Inc.**
130 Xerox Corp.**

It's clear why Ford was chosen from this list--it's high profile, American, and in bad financial shape. If the AFA had chosen Dell, for example, their leverage would have been dramatically less.

Here is a list of other automakers from the 2008 HRC report:

Company, Score
Chrysler 100
General Motors 100
Subaru USA 85
Toyota USA 90
VW USA 100

In addition, gaywheels.com lists BMW, Mitzubishi, Nissan, and Mercedes as being "gay friendly".
Which means that the only major companies left that are not are Honda, and Hyundai/Kia. The AFA web site does not endorse Honda, Hyundai, or Kia, surprisingly.

Whether we agree or not, all major automakers have some level of support for the gay community

*I'm ambivalent on this issue personally. I think gays should be treated with dignity, but I don't support the official redefinition of marriage to include gay unions.

Rally Racing, Michigan Style

Subaru vs. deer.


Rally Car Crushes Deer - Watch more free videos

How Does Car Insurance Work

Many of us know we have to have car insurance(or car insurance northern ireland) in order to get our license and tags. However there are some that don't really understand the actual policy or how it works to protect us. There are also different requirements for having a loan or lease on a vehicle rather than just owning it out right. Insurance companies ask a lot about our daily lives such as how we use the car, where we park it, and other aspects of driving to ascertain the risk we might pose to the vehicle they are covering.

Car insurance works in that we choose a level of coverage whether it is just liability or includes comprehensive and collision. There is also a choice in the amount of actual coverage regarding motorist, uninsured motorist, and medical. The amounts and type of coverage you choose is what will determine the premium you will pay on a month to month, six month, or yearly basis depending on the terms of your policy.

The amounts you have chosen and the type of coverage will tell the car insurance company how much they will have to pay out in the event of an accident caused by you or another driver. In other words they cover the damage that affects the car. For certain damage like windshields you will have a deductible that you have to meet in order to process a claim. If you have damage to your car from a break in, a rock thrown at the windshield, or an accident that you have been in you have to report the issue to the company in order to get a payout. The car company is going to ask for full details regarding the claim, the information from the accident claim, such as any ticket given to you and of course any damage to the other car if you caused the accident. They will ask that the car be taken to one of their mechanics that they have in their company logs. The mechanic is then going to report the amount of damage and how much it will cost to fix it. The car insurance will then take the quote and all information. In some cases they may consider the car totaled and will not offer any settlement towards fixing the car.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/how-does-car-insurance-work-315908.html

First Car Buying Tips

I don't know about you, but when I bought my first car I didn't have a lot of information to go on for the process. I admit I had two cars previously to the first car I bought, but those deals were made by my father. He was the man with the money and he was paying for the cars outright. So when I decided to trade in my car for a different model and a newer vehicle I needed a little help from those who had bought cars before. I didn't want to make a mistake and get an unfair deal from a dealership or private owner. The great thing was I had my parents to help me find the information I needed to purchase that car. I even had my mom come help me make the deal. It took us a little over five hours and closing the joint, but I walked away with one of the best deals on a 2000 vehicle that I could have for my financial state as well as my credit history.

Car Buying Tips

What you need to know about buying your first car is quite simple. First you need to know all about the car you are interested in buying. You need to know what that car would cost new, what the used retail price is for a dealership as well as a private sale, and what condition the car is in. You also need to know if it has any bells and whistles added on to it as that will affect the price. Kelly Blue Book and other consumer reports will allow you to find out all of the information you need for a general search. Armed with this information you can negotiate a fair price. If you have a trade in you should also know the value on that for trading it in to a dealer as opposed to selling it privately.

You also need to know about your credit history. You need to know where your credit scores stand. You also want to know where you will stand regarding the dealership score. The look at your FICO score as well as a risk score that they calculate. They are basically looking to see if you can afford the car you are interested in buying. If you don't have a credit history that is very lengthy you can expect any car loan to be offered a little higher than seems fair. They are just trying to establish your risk and since you don't have much of a history they consider you more of a risk.

Once you know both the car facts and the financial situation you are in you are ready to deal. You let the dealerships know that you have done your homework. Also let them know you are willing to walk away if the deal isn't to your specifications, not there. There are several tactics they can use like saying, "We have to make some profit," or "I work on commissions." You have to be in control not the other way around.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/first-car-buying-tips-314790.html