We at your favorite Maryland Pre-Owned vehicle center (well we think we are your favorite and if not then we should be!) have always thought the phrase “There’s an app for that” didn’t apply to EVERYTHING. Well apparently we were wrong. We stumbled upon this little article about a new app to help save fuel. How sweet is that! Imagine the fuel savings you could get if you use this with any of the fuel efficient vehicles found here.

When the discussion turns to apps for the iPhone, it’s far easier to think of things that the iPhone can do than it is to come up with a list of stuff that itcan’t. DriveGain has introduced a new iPhone app that promises to save drivers up to $205 a year in fuel costs by following some simple visual and spoken cues.

The DriveGain app uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS system to calculate the vehicle’s speed and rate of acceleration and deceleration. The visual displays include a recommended gear indicator and some sliders that drivers try to keep in the green. In addition, the app calculates fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, fuel cost per mile and much more. By following the on-screen cues, DriveGain claims that it can help users save hundreds in fuel while reducing CO2 emissions by up to 660 kilograms per year.

The DriveGain app is currently only available for manual transmission vehicles, but automatics will be supported soon. The apps database has over 16,900 different cars to choose from and can be used on the iPhone 3G and 3GS, as well as on the iPod Touch and iPad. iPhone 4 support is coming soon. To download the app click here.

SOURCE [DriveGain]

[Via: Auto Insurance]

Since winter was a little rough and we are sure your car is way dirty we thought you might want to get it washed. Here is a fun way to get it acomplished, although you have to go to Argentina.

What happens when you combine a flooded underpass, a traffic-jammed overpass, and a passenger train in Buenos Aires, Argentina? You get a real-life Six Flags water attraction. Those people standing near the train tracks? They need towels. Hope everyone up on the road above had their windows closed.

http://www.youtube.com/v/UzGwUhIXLDk&hl=en_US&fs=1&

[Source: YouTube]

The following steps are devoted to helping you select, price, locate and test-drive the vehicle that is best for you. After reading and completing these steps, you will be ready to move on to the 10 Steps articles to buying a new car, buying a used car, or leasing a new car.

Step 1: What kind of car do you need?
If you examine your needs rather than wants, you will quickly discover what the right car is for you. Take a moment to think about what you use your car for. How many people do you need to transport? What type of driving do you do most often? How long is your commute? Is it important that your next vehicle get good gas mileage?

In too many cases people choose a car for its styling or because it is a trendy favorite. If you do, you might either exceed your budget or have to go car shopping again soon. Let your needs, not your wants, drive your decision. Here are a few other questions to keep in mind when you begin your car-buying process:

Do you want a manual or automatic transmission?

Do you really need four-wheel drive? Or all-wheel drive?

What safety features do you want?

Do you require a lot of cargo capacity?

Will you be doing any towing?

Do you have a bad back and need flexible seating positions?

Will the car easily fit in your garage or parking space?

Don’t want to wait until tomorrow for the remaining tips?  Follow this link to skip ahead.

Here’s a bit of fun info we found while scouring the web. It’s your chance to own a piece of history, while we admit that a coupe complete with bullet holes would have been a cool piece of history to own the repaired and restored version might go over easier at the local drive in. Still, we would rather have the holes!

If you saw Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, the car above may look familiar. It isn’t just the same model that the notorious John Dillinger used to escape The Law in one of the most daring shootouts in American history – it’s the actual car. And the same one used in the movie.

After robbing banks across the country, Dillinger and his gang took refuge in the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, on April 22, 1934. When the proprietors alerted law enforcement to their presence, the FBI – led by the legendary Melvin Purvis – arrived on the scene and shot the place up. Dillinger, along with two of his cronies, escaped out the windows into the woods nearby before stumbling upon Robert Johnson driving the Ford Model A coupe you see here. They commandeered the car and the driver along with it, and escaped to Minnesota as Dillinger smashed the rear window and opened fire with his tommy-gun at pursuing law enforcement.

The bullet-ridden car remained in the possession of the Dillinger family for decades until it was carefully and faithfully restored by the producers of Public Enemies for use in the scene depicting the historic chase. Now the coupe will be up for auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, by Barrett-Jackson.

If you can’t snag this sweet piece of history when it goes up for auction on Saturday at Barrett-Jackson come by and see us and we can hook you up with your own piece of Ford history. Maybe a barley used Ford Mustang, just promise us you won’t be robbing any banks with it.

Source [AutoBlog]

Distracted driving in the nation as well as the Shop Car Center area is becoming a very real concern in the age of texting, cell phones, touch screen navigation and fast food. So what is a government to do to stop the madness? New laws? More police enforcement? Maybe at some point, but for now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has created a new website called distraction.gov. The site provides facts and figures that shows how distracted driving affects your ability to drive safely while also working as a news feed for new distracted driving legislation.
 
  You may have heard that driving while texting makes you 23 times more likely to get into an accident, but the NHTSA site gives more alarming stats. For example, the site claims that driving while talking on the phone makes you as much of a hazard as someone driving while over the legal drinking limit. The site also claims that 6,000 people died in distracted driving accidents in 2008 and that drivers using hand held devices in the car are four times as likely to seriously injure themselves in an accident. Even more disturbing is the fact that the NHTSA found distracted driving fatalities went from 8% in 2004 to 11% in 2008.
 
  Head over to distraction.gov for more interesting info, but try not to pull up the site on your mobile while you’re on the road. And try not to get distracted by Ray LaHood’s eyebrows when you click.
 
  [Source: Distraction.gov | AutoBlog | Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images]