Classic Cars Nissan

Have you been putting off applying for a car loan because the banks have tightened their requirements? Do you think your credit is not good enough to get approved for that new Nissan that you have been wanting? If so, put those thoughts aside because getting an auto loan has just gotten a little bit easier.

The government now has a program in which auto loans are guaranteed because they are sold to investors. This means that banks are being less stingy with their money and more consumers are hearing those four glorious words – “You have been approved.” But that’s not even all of the good news! In addition to relaxing their high standards recently, lending institutions are charging consumers less for their loans with lower interest rates. This is good news for the auto industry which has certainly seen better days than in the last few years.

During the third quarter last year, lending institutions increased the number of loans they gave out by more than five percent when compared to the second quarter. Those numbers are reported by Experian Automotive. The month of December was even better for car buyers with average credit. Part of the reason for December being a good month is also because dealers are trying to lessen their inventory in time for the new year, but it was still a silver lining that we can all appreciate.

So get down to your Nissan dealers and apply for that auto loan if you’ve been putting it off. With the relaxed standards, you may just hear those four coveted words – “You have been approved!”

Baby, it’s cold outside, and that means hot chocolate by the fireside, the holiday season with friends and family – and some of the deadliest road conditions of the year. Stay safe this winter by preparing your Nissan with these tips on how to make sure your visibility is at its peak, even though the snow is doing its best to obscure the road.

Many people do only a partial job on clearing snow and ice off their car, trusting that they can manage with only partial visibility until the defroster kicks in and does the rest of the work from the inside. While I know you don’t want to be outside any longer than you have to, bearing the cold for just a few minutes can save your life.

Clear your windshield, making sure to chip every bit of ice off. The ice can make visibility problems worse by creating a cold spot that contrasts with the warm air you’re going to have blowing from the heater. That combination will fog up your windows and make it harder to see.

Don’t neglect your other windows! You use those windows far more than you think to get a full vision of the road around you, and in wintertime you need to have absolutely no blind spots. If someone else loses control of their vehicle along your side, you’re going to want to be able to see them coming.

Make sure your rearview mirrors are clean of ice, too. You’ll need them to see what’s happening behind you, and it’s easy to forget about them until you’re already well on your way down the road.

Brush all the snow off the hood, roof, and trunk of your car. Many people only worry about the windows, but the snow on the rest of your car can actually be much more of a hindrance to your visibility than you think.

As your car warms up, snow and ice that had seemed pretty solid will start to slide off your car. For the stuff on your hood, that means it can fly right up against the windshield – and partially melted snow is likely to stick. You could wind up with no visibility just when you least expect it. If you’re doing 80 on the freeway, that’s not going to turn out well.

As for the roof and the trunk – the snow on the roof can slide down to obscure your rear window, but that’s the least of your worries. The snow along the top and back end of your vehicle can fly off and obscure the windshield of the person driving behind you, which can also cause an accident. If they brake suddenly and skid, they’ll sail right into your car.

So take that extra five minutes and make sure you have full visibility in your Nissan before you head out on the road. You’ll be three steps ahead of everyone else on the road – and that means you’ll be getting home safe and sound, instead of getting sideswiped because you couldn’t see.

And for the best Nissans on the road today, check out our new model specials here. You’ll be driving in style – and in safety.

Awhile back, the engineers at Nissan created a one-of-a-kind paint for the automaker’s vehicles that “heals” itself if it gets scratched. Now, the Japanese company has licensed its “Scratch Shield” paint to a mobile phone company, too.

The mobile phone company – NTT DoCoMo, Inc. – is going to offer the paint as an application for its phones sold in Japan. The paint was designed and created with the help of Advanced Softmaterials and the University of Tokyo in 2005.

“Scratch Shield” helps the paint restore itself from fine scratches. In most cases, it only takes a few hours to “heal” itself, but more extreme cases could take up to a week to restore the natural finish. In addition to restoring itself, the paint is more scratch-resistant than other types of paint used on some models of Nissan vehicles. Since mobile phones are susceptible to being dropped and other abuses, “Scratch Shield” is a natural fit for the product.

This isn’t the first time the Nissan company has licensed its products for non-auto companies. In the past, the automaker has licensed its infrared image sensor and its around-view monitor. Look for more breakthrough technologies from this company that continues to look for ways to improve safety and durability throughout the world.

The Philadelphia Phillies gave it their best shot at back-to-back baseball championships earlier this month. Unfortunately, the New York Yankees were just a tad bit better and took that dream away from the Phillies. But now it’s time to look forward instead of dwelling on what the team should have done. Here are some of the changes you may see in the Phillies lineup for next season.

• Officials are considering a decision on whether or not to keep Pedro Feliz – the team’s third baseman. Although he is good in the field, Feliz “does not provide the optimal offensive production out of the position,” according to an article in Bleacher Report.
• Mark DeRosa of the St. Louis Cardinals, is a viable option for the Phillies as he can play six positions and has a lifetime batting average of .272.
• If the team decides not to sign Feliz, Chone Figgins of the Anaheim Angels may become a great addition to the team. He played in the 2009 All-Star Game and he has an average of nearly .300 along with 42 stolen bases.

Of course, this is all speculation and no major decisions have been made. Whatever the team decides, you can join your Philadelphia area Nissan dealers in cheering on the Phillies in 2010!

If you have been paying attention to the texting while driving debate, you know that several states in the nation have already banned drivers from doing those two activities at the same time. Legislators in Pennsylvania have been debating the issue for some months now and The Keystone State may be the next to ban this bad habit.

The bill has already been introduced into the state’s House of Representatives and the state’s Senate. If it passes, Pennsylvania would become the 15th state to ban texting and driving because it is such a danger. “Many people accept that it is increasingly dangerous to drive a vehicle with all of the distractions,” said State College Police Department Captain Dana Leonard.

The ban would restrict all drivers in Pennsylvania from text messaging while operating their vehicle. Younger and less experienced drivers will be prohibited from using any wireless communication devices at all. In addition, the bill would also create a public education awareness program designed to reduce the number of distracted drivers throughout the state.

Are you still texting and driving behind the wheel of your Nissan cars? Is it a bad habit that you are trying to break? Let us know your thoughts abut the ban below.

Now that we are into November, the cold and frigid winter weather is just around the corner. Depending on the area of the country you live in, you may have already experienced a taste of it. Hopefully, you have already prepared your Nissan cars for winter. If you haven’t, however, here are some tips to make sure your Nissan makes it through the winter and beyond.

Look for Windshield Chips or Dings
Have you ever heard of something called “thermal stress”? It’s something that often occurs during the winter and it can destroy your windshield if it has any weakness in it at all. It starts with a small chip and the cold weather can turn it into a large crack that cannot be fixed without replacing the entire windshield. Pay a few bucks and get the small chips repaired before the cold weather arrives to avoid any further windshield damage.

Check Your Fluids
Make sure your antifreeze is 50/50, meaning half water and half concentrated antifreeze. Pure antifreeze can freeze at low temperatures which is why it is important to mix it with water. Also, check other fluids, especially your windshield wiper fluid. If you live where it snows a lot, this is going to come in very handy.

These are just a few things to keep in mind to prepare your Nissan cars for the winter weather. A couple minutes of maintenance now can save hours of repairs in the cold weather.

This is our last installment for now in honor of last week’s National Teen Driving Safety Week. Here are some final suggestions for helping your teen stay safe behind the wheel of your Nissan cars.

• Restrict anything that distracts them. This includes cell phones, earphones and MP3 players. All of these devices require the person to take their eyes off the road even if it is for a split second. If you find them breaking this rule, consider taking away driving privileges or confiscating their devices.
• Require them to wear their seat belt. This should be a habit they have already learned by watching you over the years. Unfortunately, teen drivers have the lowest rates of seat belt usage of any other driving group.
• Let others know about your rules. Talk to the parents of your teen’s friends so they know your rules, too. This way, they can keep an eye on your teen when they are around to make sure they are following your rules. They might even use some of your rules with their own teen!

Teen drivers have one of the highest rates of traffic accidents. Don’t let your teen be a statistic – do everything you can to keep them safe when they are behind the wheel and you are not around.

As we discussed on here last week, your teen is at just as much risk behind the wheel whether they are driving after school during the week or after midnight on the weekends. That’s why we would like to offer some suggestions to help them stay safe regardless of when they are behind the wheel.

• Set up some clear rules and write them down. This way, you and your teen know exactly what is expected of them and there is no misunderstanding because it is in writing. When your teen follows the rules, gradually increase the amount of driving you let them do. When they break the rules, take away a few liberties until they prove they can follow the rules that you set.
• Be a good example. Teen drivers learn most of their driving habits from watching their parents over the years. Be a responsible driver and your teen will be more likely to do the same thing.
• Don’t allow too many passengers. The risk of getting distracted and getting into an accident is increased when there are too many passengers in the car. During the first few months of driving, your teen should not have any passengers besides a parent. After that, allow them one passenger at a time for several months until they get more experience.

These are just a few suggestions offered by your Nissan dealers to help your teens stay safe behind the wheel. We’ll have just a few more suggestions next week. Don’t miss it!

Do you let your teen drive your Nissan cars to school every day? If so, they could be at a greater risk when they are driving home from school. A new study by AAA shows that there were as many young teen drivers involved in fatal accidents between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. during the week as there were between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Saturday nights. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) backed that up by reporting that about 50 percent of all fatal traffic accidents involving teens occurred between 3 p.m. and midnight.

“While it’s smart for parents to be concerned about their teen driving during [late night hours], they should also be engaged in their teen’s driving activities in the time period right after school,” said Michele Mount, the director of public affairs for AAA New Jersey.

One reason for these findings is because there is a lot more traffic on the roads during the afternoon hours. Commuters are in a hurry to get home during these hours and the increased traffic and hurriedness contributes to more accidents.

With National Teen Driving Safety Week coming up, Your Nissan dealers would like to offer some tips on how to help prepare the teen drivers in your household. Be sure to come back next week for those suggestions!

Do you remember when you were a kid and people talked about cars of the future that would be able to communicate with each other? At the time, it seemed like a futuristic fantasy. But many of those things that people just talked about are becoming a reality.

Nissan engineers have been working on a piece of technology that allows cars to “communicate” with each other to avoid collisions. Using the same idea that fish use when they are in a school, the new robotic cars remove the human equation from driving in order to make safer roads and highways.

EPORO, or Episode Zero Robot, is the name given to these robotic cars. The name refers to the ability to produce absolutely zero emissions while also avoiding accidents. While it’s just a concept right now, the technology to produce the actual collision-avoiding vehicles is right around the corner. And we have fish to thank for the idea.

“We, in a motorized world, have a lot to learn from the behavior of a school of fish in terms of each fish’s degree of freedom and safety within in a school and high migration efficiency of a school itself,” explained Toshiyuki Andou, Manager of Nissan’s Mobility Laboratory and the principal engineer of this project.

Until these robotic cars are available, visit a Nissan dealer near you for a car with the latest and most innovative safety features in the industry. You owe it to yourself and your family.