Keep the Car Running?

Q: I’ve always heard that if you’re just dashing into the store or doing some other quick errand (and someone else is staying in the car), it’s more fuel efficient to leave the car running than to turn if off and back on. My brother says that’s not true. What’s the real deal? A: Unless you’re driving a very old car, turning your car off and then turning it back on does not use more fuel. The reason: now that cars have fuel injection, it takes practically no gas to turn a car on. There’s also the planet-saving motivation of creating fewer emissions when you turn off the vehicle for four or five minutes. Q: Our daughter is 22, a wonderful girl, but she has made several unwise financial choices. She’s finishing school at the end of summer, has a job lined up, and that’s wonderful. The worrisome part is that she has her heart set on buying a car that we know (because we know what her salary will be) she cannot afford. I think we’re sincerely prepared to let loose of her, but we’d like to help her understand at her salary her car-buying ambitions are too high. Are there any guidelines we can discuss with her to take the emotion out of the conversation and allow us to focus on hard-and-fast realities? A: Sort of. Most financial experts believe a young person should spend no more than 15 percent (some go as high as 17 percent) of his or her monthly income on car payments. The problem, of course, is she probably can get a loan that’s proportionally much higher (but lots of lending institutions granted mortgages significantly higher than they should have, and we all know how that turned out). Someone her age will be in acquisition mode for many years ago come - because there’s stuff she needs: a good sound system, proper wardrobe for work, furnishings, better computer, iPhone, well, you get the drift. And at the same time she should be putting money aside for eventually buying a house, a rainy-day fund, and, well, you get that drift, too. Several websites allow her to plug in a car’s price, down payment and interest rate, and it will compute the monthly payment. That may be a little more real world for her. What’s your question? Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, driving and repairing your vehicle. Email Sharon@ctwfeatures.com.