Thinking about decking the driveway with a new set of wheels this holiday season? Or resolving to improve your ride in the New Year? OMVIC would like to gift you with some great holiday car buying tips. 

Thinking about decking the driveway with a new set of wheels this holiday season? Before you go dashing all the way to the dealership or checking out the nice and naughty list in the online car classifieds, find out if you’re a Dasher, or Blitzen? Take OMVIC’s ‘smart’ car buyer quiz to find out:

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall…the “458 Italia Speciale?”

Rumours swirling around the North Pole claim Santa Claus is considering trading in his trusty team of reindeer for a 597 horsepower “black prancing stallion”. According to the elvish grapevine, the Ferrari’s front and rear movable flaps cut drag and its side slip angle control are better able to tackle unpredictable equatorial cross-winds. An elf at S.L.E.D. (Santa’s Lead Engineering Department), who wants to remain anonymous, described the current sleigh as having the aerodynamics of a “flat-sided igloo”.

Many car enthusiasts will tell you there are two types of people in the world: people who love cars; and, people who are wrong. The former, people who love cars, enjoy going to dealerships and taking the latest models for a test drive. They litter their conversation with terms like, “torque, turbo lag, dual-clutch automatic and direct injection”, while those of us in the latter group, the ones who are ‘wrong’, stare blankly whilst listening to these aficionados.

It is commonly held that Black Friday – the day of mega-amazing colossal unbelievable can’t-be-beat blow-out sales signifying the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season – is so named as it marks the point many retailers turn a profit for the year, going from being “in the red” to being “in the  black.” The more cynical might argue it's consumerism run amuck and a black mark on our society, and perhaps for good reason.

At least five days a week, Kelly Hult, college student and single mom of two toddlers (with a third on the way), commutes half an hour to school in Sault Ste. Marie. “My car didn’t handle the snow-covered highways very well,” explained Kelly with understated charm. “That’s why I decided to trade my 2011 Chevrolet Cruze for a slightly older pickup truck.” She settled on a 2008 Chevy Silverado.

All-In Price Advertising is the law in Ontario. If an OMVIC-Registered Dealer advertises a price for a vehicle (new or used), that price must include ALL fees and charges the Dealer intends to collect – minus the licensing fee and HST.

 

However, as with many rules in life, there are exceptions. 

Jack-o-lantern flames gutter in a chill wind. Discordant music echoes from once serene suburban houses. Lights strobe disorientatingly. Macabre figures adorn once neatly pruned trees. Grave markers appear with eerie and disturbingly piled leaves on lawns that were just yesterday pristine. Eyes narrow….senses heighten.  Ah yes…Halloween.  A time for fear….and fun. The little kids get 2 hours of costumed candy collection; and the bigger kids (i.e. most of us) break out our favourite horror films. So many of us love to get scared. There’s a visceral reaction to it – it awakens our primal “fight or flight” response.

Rental vehicles are usually of the current or previous model year, with relatively low mileage and factory warranty. And because it’s used and there’s no freight or PDI charge they often come with a discounted price. But there are some consumers who forego these benefits and steer clear of daily rentals.

OMVIC is celebrating its 20^th anniversary of providing consumer protection to Ontario’s car buyers, but not everyone knows about this regulator, what they do and how they can help.

There’s a new danger riding in on a storm for used car buyers—flood-damaged vehicles. “Authorities in the US have told us they expect about half a million vehicles to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Harvey alone,” said Tom Girling, Director of Investigations for OMVIC, Ontario’s vehicle sales regulator. “And they expect many of them will end up being exported—including to Canada.”

Vehicles that would have been completely unaffordable two decades ago are now financially accessible. Many consumers can buy the car of their dreams, with no money down, for a monthly, bi-weekly (or even daily) payment that has somehow become “affordable.” But how? Did cars get cheaper? Are we all significantly wealthier? Or is something else at play?

Do know the difference between buying a car from a dealership and buying privately? OMVIC staff will be happy to answer your car-buying questions and provide you with information about your car-buying rights at IMPORTFEST! 

Sending a “child” off to university or college can be traumatic – for the parents of course; the kid will be just fine. So to make it easier to keep ‘em coming home for more than just Thanksgiving and spring break, some parents will head out with their teens on an elusive hunt for a decent, but cheap, set of wheels. It’s worth noting decent and cheap can be difficult to find in peaceful coexistence in the automotive jungle.

When you owe more for a car than what it's worth, you have negative equity. Follow our infographic to find out how easily it can happen.