Websites to Avoid: cars

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Installment #54 - Car Shopping Sites

It's that time again! I'll be getting my driver's license reinstated in April and will have to buy another car. Ugh! As if the money involved wasn't bad enough - for taxes, and insurance, and the registration and tag, which has recently gone up in Florida - shopping for the "perfect" car is a nightmare!

Of the 18 websites, I found the usual numbers of suspects - 8 were OK, 7 have excessive popups or aggressive spam, and 3 were big no-no's.

Here are my results:

BAD:

autotrader.com
cars.com
automotive.com

DUBIOUS:

usedcars.com
edmunds.com
carsdirect.com
carmax.com
thebiglot.com
autoweb.com
carsforsale.com

GOOD:

And, of course, I will definitely comb through my city's Craigslist!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Installment #51 - Car Repair Advice

I recently bought a 2002 Ford Taurus used car and, as one would expect, it needed work. Taking it to a repair shop is risky when you don't know much about cars or their repairs. So I needed to research what mechanics told me by posting the cars's problems in several forums. I checked out only 9 web sites and 1 was too new to judge, 2 were plagued with 3rd party cookies, and 6 were good.

Here are my results:

BAD (3rd party cookies):

ford-forums.com
fordforums.com

TOO NEW:

askcarexpert.com

GOOD:

Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

The Internet has become a part of life - of the world's estimated 6.7 billion people, 24.7% of them use the Internet - that's over 1.6 billion people - and boy, does that excite the "cyber-creeps!"

But, adware and spyware are not the only things that can make a website "bad." Websites need to be checked on several issues - excessive or potentially dangerous spam, the integrity of the site's downloads, their use or abuse of third party tracking cookies, reports of malware, browser exploits, phishing, scams, or bad shopping experiences, and, of course, virus infections.

I rely a lot on Siteadvisor (by McAfee) - SA can either be used online (my preference) or downloaded. WOT (Web of Trust) and Finjan Secure Browsing are browser add-ons available as free downloads. I use all three!

However, word of mouth and personal experience are equally vital. That is why my blog/website is one of many vehicles of precaution you need to use faithfully.

Protect your Computer!

Even though you may have security software installed (free or not) and regularly run them, never let your guard down and "click" without thinking!

Be sure to use a firewall, anti-virus protection, anti-spyware, and system optimizers and/or cleaners - and defrag your PC on a regular basis!

Update these programs weekly, if not more! New infections surface every day!

(NOTE: Personally, I use Avira anti-virus, Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareGuard, Advanced System Optimizer, Ccleaner, IOBit Security, Diskeeper Lite defragmenter, and Windows Firewall & Windows Defender (Microsoft) - and, of course, my browser is Firefox with AdBlock and Finjan enabled!)

Websites to Avoid

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Installment #54 - Car Shopping Sites

Friday, May 1, 2009

Installment #51 - Car Repair Advice

Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

Protect your Computer!

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My Favorite Safe Websites

IMPORTANT ADVICE