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Buying a new car and looking at the audio options available to you? With the range of options available this can get confusing.

These days, a number of well known home entertainment brands are working with car manufacturers to make their systems available – for example, Mark Levinson (Lexus), Bose (Nissan, Mazda and Skoda), Harman Kardon (BMW), Bowers and Wilkins and Bang and Olufsen (Audi), Dynaudio (Volkswagen), Infinity (Hyundai), Meridian (Jaguar), Mcintosh (Subaru) and Bermester (Mercedes-Benz).

But what are the components of these audio systems and what do the various terms mean?

Firstly, the amplifier and channels and speakers – these are the components that amplify or boost the audio and make the output louder. The stronger the speaker signal, to less distortion of the sound through the speaker, and higher the quality of output with clearer sound. There are different types of speakers which handle the different ranges of sound – high frequency sounds are reproduced by tweeters, bass is handled by larger low range speakers and subwoofers, while the mid-range is looked after by mid-range speakers.

The number of channels refers to the number of amplifier outputs and the number of speakers that are attached. The more channels there are, the higher the number of speakers and the greater the range of sound and volume that can be reproduced. Channels are sometimes described by two numbers separated by a decimal point. A 12.2 system has 12 speakers and two subwoofers.

Secondly, watts which refers to the electrical power of a sound system. Simply put, the more watts, the more powerful the output – for example, a basic system in a small car may have 50 watts, while an expensive system in a large car may have 1000 watts.

Surround sound, which is next generation stereo uses speakers placed around the cabin to create a greater degree of depth of sound.

Active noise cancelling is a technique whereby the system plays the exact inverse sound wave of ambient noise caused by tyres and wind, relaying it through the stereo speakers. The two opposite sounds actually cancel each other out.

It might seem strange that playing additional sound through a speaker might help improve cabin ambience but the systems can be very effective.

A higher-end system will provide an equaliser – which will allow you to adjust the balance between base and treble, to allow you to customise the sound for different types of music.

Customising your in-car sound system can range from the modest to the magnificent. The simple addition of an amp can lift your car’s sound profile to a much more enjoyable level. But for some people the bigger and bolder the system, the better – the choice is yours.

If you are currently on the hunt to buy a car, then this one is for you! Perhaps you have had the headaches of visiting multiple dealers and car yards, and are frustrated with the process. Whether you are overwhelmed with too much information or frustrated at the lack of information – the car buying process can be complicated, and how do you know you are getting the best deal when you do eventually sign?

This is where car brokers can step in and make your life a whole lot simpler!

Car broker businesses are relatively new to the market in Australia – but the concept is taking off in a big way. A car broker can take you through the whole process of buying a new car. All you have to do is to contact a car broker and discuss what type of car and which model you are interested in.

The car broker will then make contact with all the dealers in their network, to find out who has the make and model that you are looking for available, and at what price. Brokers are dealing with large numbers of requests on a daily basis, and as such, have better negotiating power than you, as an individual buyer, could command. A car broker could therefore get the make and model that you are looking for at a discounted price and/or with extras thrown in. Sometimes car brokers may even get fleet prices, if they have a large demand for the particular vehicle and are able to negotiate a bulk purchase.

Generally speaking a car broker will be able to source a vehicle for you at a better price than you would be able to achieve on your own.  

Do you know what car you are looking for? or what your specific needs are for a new car? Find out which makes and models suit your requirements, this makes it easier for your car broker to bring you relevant deals to suit you.

Other services provided by car brokers can include

• Test drives – using a car broker to arrange test drives can remove a “hard sell’ sales pitch which you may be subject to at a dealership
• Financing – discounted and/or pre-approved finance will be arranged as the car broker will typically have arrangements with one or more car financiers
• Extended warranties can be arranged
• Paint and rust protection, window tinting and other third party options and accessories
• Car insurance
• Valuations for resale or insurance purposes
• Car search – find a specific make and model that you are looking for – some used cars and 4wds are hard to locate and are not often advertised as they are sold as soon as they become available. A good broker will have country-wide network of used-car buyers and will be specialists in locating specific vehicles

For professional and expert car brokers, contact Carbiz today. Carbiz – A better way to buy and sell your car.

Airbags are an important and effective safety device in your car. Statistics show that airbags reduce the risk of fatality in a head on collision by about 30%. Nowadays, we also have seat mounted and door mounted side airbags – and some cars have six or even eight airbags. The airbags deploy in the event of a crash, and provide cushioning for the driver and passengers in such a situation.

However, it is important to take note of the following, because while airbags are a vital safety feature in a vehicle, they can also pose a danger and/or may not function as expected under some circumstances.

• Airbags are designed to prevent injury in the event of a crash, for people seated normally in a vehicle. Do not sit in the front passenger seat with your feet on the dashboard, and also – do not drive with your hands on the centre hub of the steering wheel – in both of these cases, the people seated in these positions could be injured by the deployment of the airbag.
• Similarly, the airbag is designed to prevent injury to an adult sized person – so don’t seat children under age 13 or less than 153 cm tall in the front seat unless the airbag in switched off.
• Don’t put anything in/on the surfaces of the vehicle that may prevent the deployment of the airbag, or may become a projectile if the airbag deploys. Examples of these types of things could be seat covers (for seat mounted airbags), magnets or phone holders and phones.
• If your airbag becomes faulty and a warning light appears – don’t try to fix this yourself. Take your vehicle to a dealer or qualified mechanic.
• If you have an aftermarket bull bar/roo bar fitted, be advised that this could affect airbag operation – make sure that the manufacturer has certified that the bar won’t affect the performance of the airbag system.
• If your car should roll without actually colliding with anything, the airbags may not deploy unless your vehicle is fitted with a rollover sensor to detect the situation where your car rolls. So it is important when purchasing your vehicle, to check not only how many airbags there are and where they are situated – but also how many and what type of sensors the car has.

There are many articles written about car safety – with the majority of these articles focussing on the safety of the driver and passengers inside the vehicle. But what about the person walking, running or jogging on the roads? Pedestrians account for about 18% of road deaths, and as our roads are become increasingly more congested, pedestrian safety needs to become a focus area. Pedestrians struck by the front of a vehicle account for the majority of pedestrian fatalities.

While there are no Australian regulations which apply specifically to the pedestrian ‘friendliness’ of vehicles, ANCAP, the Australian New Car Assessment Program has aligned its crash test and assessment procedures to the European Experimental Vehicles Committee’s (EEVC) component tests representing the three most important mechanisms of injury for pedestrians : head, upper legs and lower legs. In the ANCAP tests, up to 42 points are allocated to results relating to adult and child simulated impacts in the areas of the bonnet, windscreen and front of the vehicle.

Car manufacturers are increasingly employing techniques such as crumple zones and deformable structures in order to lessen the possible injury to a pedestrian on impact. Another technology that is emerging is that of the active bonnet. In the event of a collision an active bonnet system will  cause the bonnet of the car to lift by a few millimetres as soon as contact with the font bumper is detected – allowing some space between the engine which will cushion the impact of a person.

Mercedes has recently filed patents for a safety system that applies the principle of airbags on the outside of the vehicle, with airbags fitted in the A-pillars which will deploy on impact, effectively cushioning the impact of a person.

These technologies focus on lessening the impact of a collision with a pedestrian – but obviously, first prize would be to avoid this situation entirely.

One safety system which helps to avoid a pedestrian collision is auto emergency braking (AEB) and forward collision warning which can stop your vehicle and avoid  obstacles ahead. In some cars the system operates only for lower speeds, and in others, a warning is provided to the driver if a potential collision is identified – this technology is applied differently in various vehicle makes and models.

Into the future, we can expect that systems that rely on vehicle-to-vehicle communication will start to be deployed – using other vehicles nearby to relay information that alerts the driver to road hazards, including pedestrians. It is to be expected that, with advances in technology such as this, pedestrian road fatalities can be dramatically reduced in the future, in spite of our ever increasingly congested roads.

Do you know how to safely merge, change lanes and enter a freeway – or are you that driver that causes gritting of teeth and frustration for other drivers as they ever so slowly sail onto the freeway to the sound of screeching brakes behind them?

Situations such as this can be the cause of very serious accidents – if the driver behind is not alert and able to react in time.

Some drivers are just, to put it plainly, inept – while others may interpret the rules of the road differently and unintentionally.

In Australia, we have two different types of merge. Firstly, the dotted line merge, which is when a lane comes to an end, and a dotted line separates the end of the lane and the entry into the next lane. This is like the highway onramps and offramps. In a dotted line merge, the car in the lane with the dotted line has to give way to the cars in the other lane. This means that even if you are a nose ahead of the car in the adjacent lane – you need to slow down and give way to this car. From an etiquette perspective – if you are the driver in the lane into which the dotted lane car is merging – it is really polite to speed up or slow down to make room for this driver. If you are merging, match the speed of the cars in the lane that you are merging into – don’t try to enter a freeway doing 40 km/h – you will be an accident waiting to happen. Try not to stop in the merging lane especially when you enter a freeway – you need to achieve the speed of the cars travelling on the freeway safely, within the distance available to you, without losing momentum while also timing the availability of a gap in the cars that you will be able to get into.

The other type of merge is where two lanes become one, and the dividing line stops. In this case, whoever in in front has right of way. Good etiquette in this situation is to take turns to merge – like a zipper.

As far as changing lanes is concerned – keep left and overtake right on multilane roads. On a highway, make sure to use the fast lane for overtaking and move back into the slow lane when safe to do so.

It’s one thing to buy a car – new or used – but the responsibility doesn’t stop there. How do you keep your newly acquired vehicle in tip top running order? Here are a few pointers for you, to help you keep your car running well for as long as possible.

You are probably not a mechanic – and there are certain vehicle maintenance tasks that are best left to a qualified mechanic. However, there are some common sense things that you can do to increase the serviceable lifetime of your car, and help you to save money on those sometimes expensive repairs.

First of all – ensure that you have an owners manual for your vehicle. If you have bought a used vehicle, and the manual is missing, ask your local dealer or download it in pdf format from a reputable website. Secondly – when in doubt, read the manual. You will find all sorts of useful information here, from recommended tyre pressures for various loads, to details on fuel and oil and so on.

Always make sure that you equip your car with the best tyres that you can afford, and then make sure that you maintain them on a regular basis by checking the tyre pressure (when the tyres are cold), ensuring that your tyres are rotated and balanced every 10000 km and that the tyre tread is above the minimum specified by law (1.5mm). Don’t forget about your spare tyre!

Although your oil and fluid levels will be checked at each regular service, it’s a good idea to do this yourself, at regular intervals between services. The brake and radiator reservoirs are the clearish plastic containers under the bonnet – and they have a line indicating the optimal fluid level. The oil level can be checked using the dipstick (check your owner’s manual). The dipstick is a long rod with a coloured handle at the end, that you can pull out all the way from the bottom of the engine block.

Another item that you should check on regularly, is your battery. You can check these levels by unscrewing the caps on top of the battery and making sure the water level inside is just touching the ends of the caps. If you need to top it up, use only demineralised water, and remove the two power cables (black first) before you do so, taking care not to overfill the battery and spill acidy water everywhere.

If you are not keen on any of these tasks – look for a service station where they can assist you. It will really help to keep your car on the road for longer and also reduce any cost of an expensive repair that possibly could have been avoided.

Getting in your car and driving is still one of the most dangerous things that you do each day. Car manufacturers have done a lot in recent years to improve the level of safety in some of the latest models, with features such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure technology and collision avoidance systems – but what can you do if you own an older vehicle that doesn’t come with these safety features?

Well, the good news is that there are a number of things that you can do to upgrade the safety level of your vehicle:

Upgrade your tyres. Get some advice on the best possible tyres for your car – tyres that will deal with wet weather conditions as well as dry, and will provide you with the best traction on the road to improve handling of your vehicle.

If your car’s entertainment system is not the most modern, and you need to plug in your smartphone or tablet, you may land up with a mess of wires and a distraction when you try to adjust the controls. Have a look at buying one of the following:

• A multi-port USB car adaptor, so that you don’t have to unplug and replug while you are driving
• Retractable USB cables which will reduce the amount of wire hanging about in the front of the car
• A docking station for your smartphone which will make your phone easier to see and adjust
• Or the best (but most expensive option) which is to install an aftermarket stereo system that links to your devices wirelessly.

Install a reversing camera – important if your vehicle is one where it’s just not possible to see everything behind you. This could just make the difference between life and death for someone walking, riding or playing behind your car.

Install a blind spot warning system. Sometimes, a standard physical check by turning your head may not be enough – poor lighting and bad weather conditions can mean that you miss something.

Take off that bull bar – its really not necessary in the city and on suburban streets. A vehicle fitted with a bull bar can kill a pedestrian at half the speed of a vehicle without one. If you don’t have reason for a bull bar, replacing it with a standard bumper will make your car safer for pedestrians, other drivers and cyclists.

If you are embarking on a long trip this December, make sure that your car is roadworthy and all the mechanics have been checked over by a qualified mechanic.

Start out with a clean car (you will feel better if this is the case), and don’t overload your vehicle. If you pack too much, you and your passengers will feel very cramped in the car, and it won’t be an easy task to find things you have packed. It will also take longer to unpack when you reach load limit. destination, and most importantly, you run the risk of exceeding your vehicle’s safe load limit – your car’s suspension will be put under extra strain making your car potentially difficult to handle and your brakes won’t function as effectively as they should to name but a few of the problems associated with overloading.

Take along a stocked roadside emergency kit, some food for the road and a sunhat and jersey or jacket in case you happen to be stranded on the side of the road at any time.

Always ensure that you and your passengers wear seat belts – and don’t turn off that annoying alarm that warns you that someone in the vehicle has not buckled up.

Drive at the recommended speed limit for the road you are on, taking into account the weather conditions. If the weather is bad – slow down. If the weather gets really bad – find a place to stop and wait until it eases.

Don’t drive when you are tired. A drowsy driver is just as dangerous as a drunk driver – take turns with another driver in the car, or if this isn’t possible, pull over and get some sleep.

Pay 100% attention to your driving – no mobile phones, fiddling with the entertainment options and so on. Leave that to your passengers, and concentrate on getting you all to your destination safely.

If the road is busy, maintain a following distance appropriate for the road and weather conditions – and a minimum 2 second gap between you and the car in front of you.

There is not a lot that you can do to change the way that other drivers behave on the roads – but you can focus on your own driving, and a little care and courtesy will go a long way to keeping you and your passengers safer on the roads.