Car Buying Resources

Looking to buy a car? Here's a list of resources for you to consult before stepping foot at a car showroom:

• 10 Ways to Buy A Car Without Getting Ripped Off (OutOfYourRut.com)
  
  
• Car Dealer Scams to Avoid (Forbes). What to watch out for the next time you're in a car dealer's showroom. See also In Pictures: Car Dealer Scams to Avoid and Tech Options To Forgo.
  


• Beat the "Four Square" Dealer Rip Off (Consumerist). A very detailed breakdown of how a car dealership manipulates buyers with the four-square worksheet.


• Showroom Turncoat Comes Clean (Car & Driver Magazine). Learn the tricks that car salesmen use on unsuspecting customers.
  


• Car Dealers' Tricks to Watch Out For (Car & Driver Magazine). More car salesmen's tricks of the trade.
  


• Car Shopping on the Offensive: 8 Aggressive Buying Tactics (Car & Driver Magazine). How to outsmart the car salesman.
  


• Deceptive Car Salesman Tactics For Popular Cars (My Money Blog)


• Fueleconomy.gov - useful site to check out how thirsty your new car is going to be.


• More than you ever wanted to know about buying a car (Broward College) - a Car Buying 101 site. Great for the newbie.


• Car Shopping Generates Many Questions (Washington Post)


• Smart Car Shoppers Ask to See Invoice (Washington Post)
  


• Dealing and Wheeling (Washington Post)


• CarBuyingTips.com


• TrueCar.com


• US News & World Reports' Rankings of Cars & Trucks
  


• 2010 Cars: Where the Deals Are (Kiplinger.com). Kiplinger Magazine's advice for finding deals for cars in 2010.


• Guide to Getting the Best Value (Kiplinger.com). Kiplinger Magazine's rankings of the best values in cars.

Resources for Medical Care

Are you interested in the background of your medical care provider or institution? Do you want to know what the performance records of your doctor or hospital are? Are you keen to find out whether your doctor has been disciplined or subject to malpractice proceedings? Or you wonder whether your physician or hospital is charging you a fair price for your medical procedure?

Here is a roundup of useful resources for researching into pricing for medical procedures or doing background checks on your medical care provider or institution:

• Price Doc
  Search and compare pricing of various medical procedures across medical specialties, etc.
  


• Vitals
  Database of Doctors. Allows you to do a background check on your physician, as well as assist you in finding a physician or specialist using the criteria that you specify.
  


• Health Grades
  Provides ratings and performance data (including malpractice records on physicians, hospitals and nursing homes.
  


• Why Not The Best?
  Funded by the Commonwealth Fund, this non-profit resource enables you to review and compare the performance of U.S. hospitals on measures of evidence-based care, patient experience, readmission and mortality rates, and costs with peer organizations and national benchmarks.
  

Resources for Doing A Background Check on Yourself or Others

Ever wanted to do a background check on others? Or doing one on yourself?

LifeHacker has an excellent post, Doing A Total Background Check On Yourself, with links to all the reporting bureaus that track every aspect of a person's life.

It can be scary, yet enlightening experience to find out what others are tracking about you.

Link: Doing A Total Background Check On Yourself

Useful Real Estate Resources

Roundup of useful real estate resources:

Searches:

• Neighborhood Scout (good place to start for researching neighborhoods. Limited free service. Crime stats, etc are only available in the premium service).
  
• Trulia.com (useful free site to search for listings, comps, etc)

Advice:

• Set the stage for a top-dollar sale (Kiplinger)
• 10 things your architect won't tell you (Smart Money)
• The other real estate boom: scams (Money Magazine)

See also my previous blog postings:

• Seven New Rules For The First Time House Buyers