Behind The Scenes

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Expert Tips for Acquiring a New Car: A Comprehensive Guide to Navigating the Dealership and Making an Informed Purchase Decision   If you're buying or replacing an older car, it is essential to be aware of what to expect when visiting the dealership. Here are a few things auto experts suggest you should know before purchasing your next vehicle:  First, determine what features you want in a new car. Take into account your budget, desired options and any trade-in value that may exist. Know your budget Purchasing a new car is an important financial commitment. Therefore, you should create a budget that accommodates your requirements. It is recommended that you spend no more than 10% of your take-home pay on a car. This will leave enough money for other expenses like insurance and maintenance. By setting a budget before you shop, you can ensure you have enough money to cover unexpected costs or changes in income. Knowing your spending limit before heading out on the town will help prevent you from overspending later. Know your vehicle When purchasing a new car, knowledge is key. From features and options to insurance terminology, being an educated car buyer is essential for finding the best fit for you. One

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Top Car Security Tips   Having a solid level of car security is essential for every car owner. According to recent stats, around 56,000 car thefts happened between 2020 and 2021. At the same time, there were about half a million vehicle thefts. This means the belongings inside the car were stolen as well. Since a car is expensive, owners need to go the extra mile when investing in its security. Below, we have mentioned a few tips to improve your car security: ●     Prevent Keyless Theft Keyless entry/start has become a convenient feature for many cars in the modern world. While it is usually helpful, the keyless entry has its drawbacks too. Thieves can break into your car easily without your knowledge. Since most criminals work in pairs, you never know about their next move. They can easily hijack the car signals, diverting them to the nearest accomplice. Use a signal-blocking device when taking your car out for a ride. ●     Use a Car Tracker A GPS tracker is of good help when knowing the whereabouts of your car. Especially if a friend or a loved one has borrowed it for a while, using the GPS tracker will help you understand the exact location of your vehicle. Almost

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How Brands Can Market Their Products in Movies   Movies have a great impact on human psychology. They influence our attitudes and buying decisions. Marketers know this, hence the popularity of product placement today. Statistics show that companies’ global spending on product placement reached $23 billion in 2021. This figure is expected to go up further as more marketers continue to cut down on traditional advertising expenditure. But you need a great strategy to succeed at product placement. Your audience may have the wrong interpretation if the movie storyline doesn’t align with the product. According to one study, pairing the right product with a successful movie can bring up to 89% ROI. Here are four tips brands can use to market their products in movies. 1.   Know Your Audience Movies are categorized into genres. Different genres appeal to different people based on specific demographics like age and gender. For instance, many men love action movies and are more comfortable watching horror films than women. Some movies also appeal more to older people than the younger generation. Know your target audience before you approach any movie marketing agency to get your product featured in a film. Viewers will remember your brand more if the product aligns with

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How to Lease a Car—and the Mistakes to Avoid   Car leasing is at an all-time high. According to statistics, the worldwide car leasing market will be worth $131.10 billion in 2029. Many people prefer leasing cars to buying cars because it’s affordable. They are also able to drive new cars, cars they couldn't afford if they were buying. But leasing can be hard for first-timers—people with little knowledge of how the process works. They may either walk away with a great deal or pay more than they should have. Thinking about leasing? Here are the top 4 mistakes to avoid. 1.   Ignoring Car Maintenance Just because you’ll eventually return the leased car to the dealership doesn’t mean you should ignore basic maintenance. Scratches and dents on the car may cause you to pay more at the end of the lease term. There’s normal wear and tear the dealer won’t charge you for, but they won’t overlook everything. Also, what's considered normal varies by dealer. Check the damages/wear and tear clause to know what the dealer considers excessive damage. Take good care of the car and do not assume the dealer will be lenient. Dealers thoroughly check vehicles at the end of the lease term for

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Top 10 Tips on How to Buy a Cool Car Yet another of my favorite questions, I could easily write 5000 words on the tools, tricks, techniques and evaluation criteria I use personally when buying a car. Let's go into this discussion acknowledging that a lot of people will buy a car just like they pick a girlfriend  - considering looks only, and forgetting about the many issues hiding within. For those people, I can't help you. You're going to make a decision based on emotion and most of the time, you'll get burned, so just buy what you want and don't bother reading these tips. For those who are not led around by the wrong piece of your anatomy, read on. 1) Start with a realistic assessment of your finances. How much cash do you have RIGHT NOW in your bank? What's your credit score? Are you financing? How much can you afford each month? If you don't start with this step, you're wasting your time and the time of sellers. 2) Next, you must assess how you will be using the vehicle? Is it a daily driver? Are you commuting long distances? (ex. 50 miles or more round trip, daily)? Will it

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What's the Best Tire for Your Car?   Little known fact: During my consulting days, I spent two years doing ride-and-drive programs for GoodYear tires. I visited two factories, their corporate headquarters and underwent extensive training on what makes a good tire. All the dealers used to say that the most frequently asked question was, "what's the best tire for your car?" My job was to train the tire dealers about the GoodYear tires so that they could speak intelligently to their customers about the advantages of using GoodYear tires. After each training session (there were two per day), I'd get out on a road course and do some performance driving with a passenger car, a sports car and a light-duty pickup. each with dealers riding shotgun. After years of selling tires, consuming tires, shredding tires and blowing out tires, I already considered myself to be somewhat knowledgeable about tires. Turns out, I learned a lot. I already knew the difference between passenger tires and UHP (Ultra High Performance) tires. I knew about drag slicks, DOT radials, even funny car tires (from my experience servicing drag teams during my tenure at NGK Spark Plugs). In my youth, my job at Super Shops gave me the opportunity

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT2gsN4EXCc&t=197s   Fast Five Mongo Truck from Fast Five   Hello again, Fast fans, Craig Lieberman back with ya. This week, I’ve answered the many requests to learn about this vehicle.   Riddle of the day: what’s old, rusty and goes anywhere it wants?   Harvey Weinstein’s wiener? Nope.   It’s the Mongo truck from Fast Five. Officially dubbed the Heist Truck, it was yet another creation from Dennis McCarthy’s brilliant picture car team, and this thing was purpose-built to reek havoc.   By Fast Five, all semblances of the street racing culture in these movies have been cast aside in favor of heist movies.   As was the tradition with Hollywood’s Picture Car industry, tuner cars were cast aside in favor of big ole, V8 muscle cars and trucks.   Cause we Americans love them, there big block Chevys, small block Fords and pick em up truck.   The result? Universal stopped building show cars for these movies and started building all the cars pretty much as stunt cars. In other words, they would be these cars with whatever stunts they had planned for them in mind.   The build plan basically followed the action sequences written into the script.   In Fast Five, Universal needed a way to hijack and offload cars from a moving train.   Since no production vehicle could do

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Fast & Furious: Stunts That Went Wrong   This is video about some of the stunts that went wrong on some of the Fast and Furious movies.     https://youtu.be/PzNAxnq78f4   STUNTS THAT WENT WRONG   It’s hard to argue that the Fast and Furious franchise is now the undisputed king of car related stunts.   After 20 years and eight movies so far, we’ve seen cars launched into the air, driven off a cliff, dropped from parking garages and crushed by a tank. The action sequences in the more recent Fast movies are seemingly designed just to dispose of unwanted cars. As of this writing, we’re waiting on the release of Fast 9, which has promised to have a sequence in space. Whether a car is involved or not is anyone’s guess. Even fans of other car movies like Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Ronin have to be impressed by the stunts in the Fast movies. Sure, more advanced CG helps, but the stunt teams on the Fast movies make the practical shots look spectacular. And while CG is playing bigger roles in movies these days, action movies are nothing without stunt people. Since the earliest days of movie making, stunts have been part of our favorite movies. These men and women make stunts seem

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  The Fast and Furious: Rejected Cars In this video, I cover the cars that were rejected for the first movie. Basically, why we picked what we picked and why some cars were ruled. Full transcript below the video.     https://youtu.be/qKxAyErDPZ4   VIDEO TRANSCRIPT   REJECTED CARS FROM THE FAST & THE FURIOUS   What would have happened if this car had replaced the Supra as the main car in the first Fast and Furious movie? Would Supra prices still be so crazy?   What if Johnny Tran drove a Mustang instead of an S2000? Would Race Wars spectators have been run over?   This and more in a moment.   OPEN: There have been many great cars in the Fast & Furious movies over the years, but the cars from the first movie have become icons. Some of them have sold for insane prices at auctions after the film’s main star, Paul Walker died in 2013.   The manner in which cars are normally chosen for a movie goes something like this: the Director, Producers and the Picture Car Coordinator discuss the options and a decision is made based on a myriad of factors. The car needed to fit the character, it needed to be suitable for the action sequences written into the script, and had to fit into our meager

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  There were plenty of things Universal got right, but with a project this unique, you had to expect that a couple of things might've slipped through the cracks. In this video, I try to explain the errors and how they came to pass.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQnYJa4U-nQ&list=PLCOhVHzNDzFBfdMwHG5I10mHRW8wPBB_U&index=1&t=52s   Fast & Furious Technical Errors Explained