Today’s automotive paint is durable and resistant to stains and has a high gloss. Vehicles of today primarily utilize a two stage paint process know as base coat, clear coat. There are a number of three stage colors that have become popular. The best example is the pearl white that General Motors uses on the Cadillac. When viewed from different angles the paint color appears to change. This is due to the mid coat, which is applied after the base coat and before the clear coat. The mid coat contains pearlescent powders that cover a broad color spectrum. If you look closely, you can see the small flakes of purple, reds, blues and other colors that give the pearl look to the finish. This type of refinishing is also known as” Tri Coat” with some paint manufactures.This three stage process drove painters crazy when attempting to match colors. Typically, when a fender replacement was needed, blending the color back into the door to achieve a proper color match was required. In preparation for the blending operation all items are removed from the door such as handles, glass, moldings and trim. The base coat or first stage was applied to the fender and partially into the door. The second stage is the application of the clear coat, which is applied in two coats over the fender and complete door.With the addition of another spraying process after the base or first stage, the blending into the door did not produce an acceptable color match. The industry had to come up with a solution to this problem. The answer required a procedure known as zone refinishing.The same type of damage that previously required blending into the door now includes the preparation and refinishing of additional undamaged panels along the same side as the repairs. Depending on the color and location, it may be necessary to paint the entire side of a vehicle in order to achieve a proper color match. There are also custom colors that appear to change drastically when viewed from different angles. One example is changing from a rust color to a deep purple and the car actually appears to undergo a change of color as it moves towards or away from you. This is due to the addition of special pearls and xirallic effects.Xirallic effects are aluminum oxide platelets which are then coated with metal oxides. These platelets are manufactured synthetically using a new crystallization process. The cost of this type of additive is expensive compared to typical pearl type applications. The addition of the three stage refinishing process takes considerably more time to complete. In conclusion the three stage refinishing process is here to stay and adds pleasant visual affect to the cars of today.
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Top 10 Ways To Get Cheap Car Insurance Rates – Part 2
Saving money on car insurance is something that almost anyone can do easily, and in Part 1 of this article we discussed five ways to be able to get cheap car insurance rates. These included safe driving, shopping for car insurance before you buy your car, shopping online to get the cheapest car insurance rates, raising your deductible, and considering whether or not to carry collision coverage for your vehicle if it is older. Here are the last five ways to get cheap car insurance rates:6. Believe it or not, your car insurance rates can be affected by your credit rating, so keep it as high as you can. Increasingly auto insurers are using a person’s credit score to factor into the overall amount that they quote you for car insurance, so keep any errors that come up off your credit record, and pay your bills on time to not only improve your credit standing but also give you low cost car insurance rates.7. If you happen to drive your car less than the average person check with your car insurance provider to see if they offer low mileage discounts, as you will find that many do.8. Buy your homeowners and car insurance from the same insurance company. Many insurers will give you a good break on insurance if you buy more than one type of coverage from them. Typically, homeowners and auto insurance makes a good fit for both you and them, so ask them about getting both policies at once from them and see what the savings would be. Sometimes it can be substantial.9. See if you can get group auto insurance. Many times you can get much cheaper car insurance rates by getting it as a group through your employer or through a large association that you may be part of. It never hurts to ask any possible group that you are affiliated with if such coverage is being offered.10. Check into all the discounts that each provider offers. For instance, some offer discounts for non-smokers, for those that install anti-theft devices, for older drivers, and so forth. Just ask as many questions as you can of the companies that you are considering to do business with, and see what they have to offer in the way of discounts. You will never know if you don’t ask.Saving money is something that we all like to do and you can actually save quite a bit of money with car insurance if you are well-informed and do your homework. So follow the suggestions given in this article and most likely you can be one of those consumers who have the cheapest car insurance rates too.
Automotive Advertising Agencies Leverage Viral Marketing Through Social Media and New Technologies
Consumers own the dealership of tomorrow, today… so get to know your new boss! Monetizing social networking is the challenge of the day and automotive advertising agencies that hope to serve their auto dealer clients need to apply new technologies and consumer-centric solutions to put their customers to work for them.One constant in the auto industry is change, and since human nature is also a constant, most productive change is driven by technology. New technology driven solutions are able to integrate proven real-world selling systems with efficient and scalable online platforms to sell more vehicles and service with less staff. Auto dealers know they need to leverage social media and the viral marketing messages that it generates, but they don’t have the resources or skill sets to do it; yet! Salespeople and brick and mortar dealerships will always have a role in the sales process, however tomorrow’s virtual dealerships are already being built. Automotive advertising vendors have developed a variety of customer-centric online applications that blur the line between the real and the virtual world allowing dealers to use C2C comments to market to social networks from the inside out vs. B2C that does it from the outside in.The explosive growth of Internet based digital marketing by auto dealers has been fueled by dealer’s needs vs. their wants as advertising budgets have been reduced in synch with reduced sales volume and profit margins. The initial investment for many dealers was limited to building their online virtual showrooms as consumers replaced their local car row with the Internet Super Highway as the place to shop for a vehicle. The consolidation of brick and mortar facilities may have been accelerated by a shrinking economy and government dictates however, the writing has been on the virtual wall for some time. Technology has always served as the catalyst for change and the Internet has proven to be the platform to introduce the next evolution of the auto industry.From the auto dealer’s perspective, Internet based social networking was initially perceived as the virtual version of a Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, Community Event, Fraternity, etc., etc. linked by technology that serves as a central communication and distribution tool. This limited understanding and application of social media was based on the presumption that B2C marketing messages were the objective as dealers attempted to replicate proven real world selling processes translated onto the World Wide Web as an extension of their virtual showrooms.Relationship based selling processes in the real world were presumed to be transferable onto the World Wide Web, but based on experience; not so much! Dealer-centric messages relying on the fact that people like to do business with people that they like are diluted when filtered by the glass wall that isolates the customer from the dealer. The logic to — Sell yourself, sell the dealership, sell the vehicle and then justify the price — is an accepted wisdom based on the one constant that has survived in both the real and the virtual world — Human Nature! Unfortunately, human nature also drives the need for consumers to seek the path of least resistance when looking for information to satisfy a need — like purchasing or servicing a vehicle — and the next generation of consumer-centric social networking and C2C marketing satisfies that need better than an auto dealer can; or ever will.Internet based social networks represent an online community of likeminded consumers who have a strong influence on their online friends. Auto dealers recognize that they must invest and involve in these online communities as people, not as an auto dealer. However, they will always be perceived as an outsider with self serving interests no matter how much they try to join in on the conversations. Their best intentioned efforts to prioritize the interests of their online friends to earn their trust and consideration when they need a new vehicle — or service for their present one — will always be suspect.