NorCalCars.com has given its private party classifieds section a facelift! Over the years thousands have added cars to our classifieds section making it one of the more popular areas of our site. As you likely know the old classifieds was a little slow and hard to navigate so we have developed a new cleaner format. Stop by our new NorCal Classifieds section and let us know what you think!

Some of the new features include better photo uploading and display, easier visitor navigation and better navigation for the search engines so that more people will be able to view your ad which will help you sell your vehicle quicker.

Unfortunately, we were unable to move our old database over to the new format, this means that those who had cars for sale will need to re-enter their information. While we apologize for this inconvenience in the long run this will help you sell your vehicle faster as the search engine traffic improves.

Thank you for bearing with our changes and Happy Selling!

Click it or ticket

Summary from Traffic Safety Facts 2009: A Compilation of Motor Vehicle Crash Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the General Estimates System

Here are some of the facts in the latest Traffic Safety Facts Report (2009) compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Fatal crashes decreased by 9.9 percent from 2008 to 2009, and the fatality rate dropped to 1.14 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel in 2009.
• The injury rate per 100 million vehicle miles of travel decreased by 6.3 percent from 2008 to 2009.
• The occupant fatality rate (including motorcyclists) per 100,000 population, which declined by 22.7 percent from 1975 to 1992, decreased by 26.8 percent from 1992 to 2009.
• The occupant injury rate (including motorcyclists) per 100,000 population, which declined by 13.6 percent from 1988 to 1992, decreased by 40.0 percent from 1992 to 2009.
• The nonoccupant fatality rate per 100,000 population has declined by 60.2 percent from 1975 to 2009.
• The nonoccupant injury rate per 100,000 population has declined by 51.9 percent from 1988 to 2009.
• The percent of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities has declined from 48 percent in 1982 to 32 percent in 2009.

Summary of Police-reported Motor Vehicle Crashes

• More than 5.5 million police-reported motor vehicle crashes occurred in the United States in 2009. Twenty-eight percent of those crashes (1.52 million) resulted in an injury, and fewer than 1 percent (30,797)
  resulted in a death.
• Midnight to 3 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays proved to be the deadliest 3-hour periods throughout 2009, with 1,024 and 1,072 fatal crashes, respectively.
• Sixty-one percent of fatal crashes involved only one vehicle, as compared with 32 percent of injury crashes and 32 percent of property-damage-only crashes.
• Nearly one-half of all fatal crashes in 2009 occurred on roads with posted speed limits of 55 mph or more, as compared with 23 percent of injury crashes and 23 percent of property-damage-only crashes.
• Collision with another motor vehicle in transport was the most common first harmful event for fatal, injury, and property-damage-only crashes. Collisions with fixed objects and noncollisions accounted for only 19 percent of all crashes, but they accounted for 46 percent of fatal crashes.
• Thirty-two percent of all fatal crashes involved alcohol-impaired driving, where the highest blood alcohol concentration (BAC) among drivers involved in the crash was .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. For fatal crashes occurring from midnight to 3 a.m., 66 percent involved alcohol-impaired driving.

Summary of Vehicles Involved in Crashes

• More than 95 percent of the 9.6 million vehicles involved in motor vehicle crashes in 2009 were passenger cars or light trucks.
• Large trucks accounted for 7 percent of the vehicles in fatal crashes, but only 2 percent of the vehicles involved in injury crashes and 3 percent of the vehicles involved in property-damage-only crashes. Of the 3,215 large trucks involved in fatal crashes, 73 percent were combination trucks.
• The proportion of vehicles that rolled over in fatal crashes (21.4 percent) was more than 4 times as high as the proportion in injury crashes (5.2 percent) and nearly 18 times as high as the proportion in property damage-only crashes (1.2 percent).
• Compared with other vehicle types, utility vehicles experienced the highest rollover rates in fatal crashes (32.3 percent) and in injury crashes (9.3 percent). Pickup trucks experienced the highest rollover rate in property-damage-only crashes (2.3 percent).
• Fires occurred in 0.1 percent of the vehicles involved in all traffic crashes in 2009. For fatal crashes, however, fires occurred in 2.9 percent of the vehicles involved.
• Regardless of crash severity, the majority of vehicles in single- and two-vehicle crashes were going straight prior to the crash. The next most common vehicle maneuver differed by crash severity: negotiating a curve for fatal crashes, turning left for injury crashes, and stopped in traffic lane for property-damage-only crashes.
• Motorcycles in fatal crashes had the highest proportion of collisions with fixed objects (25.0 percent), and large
  trucks in fatal crashes had the lowest proportion (3.7 percent).

Statistics about the Drivers, Passengers, Pedestrians, and Pedalcyclists involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes in 2009

• A total of 33,808 people lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes in 2009. Another 2.22 million people were injured.
• The majority of persons killed or injured in traffic crashes were drivers (63 percent), followed by passengers (28 percent), motorcycle riders (4 percent), pedestrians (3 percent), and pedalcyclists (2 percent).
• Per 100,000 population, persons 21 to 24 years old had the highest fatality rate, and persons 16 to 20 years old had the highest injury rate. Children 5 to 9 years old had the lowest fatality rate, and children under 5 years old had the lowest injury rate per 100,000 population.
• For every age group, the fatality rate per 100,000 population was lower for females than for males. The injury rate based on population was higher for females than for males in every age group, except for people over 74 years old.
• Of the persons who were killed in traffic crashes in 2009, 32 percent died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes

Summary of information by State

• Traffic fatalities dropped by 10 percent from 2008 to 2009 for the Nation as a whole. Forty-one States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico showed decreases, ranging from 1 percent to as much as 26 percent.
• The pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 population was 1.33 for the Nation. Florida had the highest rate (2.51), and Wyoming, with two pedestrian fatalities, had the lowest rate (0.37). O About 1.9 percent of all traffic crash fatalities in 2009 were pedalcyclists. Maine, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia reported no pedalcyclists killed.
• In 2009, all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had seat belt use laws. All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico also had laws requiring children of certain ages to be restrained in child safety seats.
• Motorcycle helmets were required for all riders in 20 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in 2009. Twenty-seven States had helmet requirements with exceptions (age, rider type, roadway type), and three States
  (Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire) did not require helmets at all.
• In 2009, it was a criminal offense to operate a motor vehicle at a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 g/dL or above in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

All information recieved from reports published at www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov

The World’s Coolest Cars, Historic Warbirds, Demolition Derby, Quirky Contraptions

Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show Expands to Two Days, April 28-29, 2012 at Half Moon Bay Airport

1950 Custom Peterbilt

HALF MOON BAY, CALIFORNIA — For a remarkable and singular experience, there’s nothing that matches up to the Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show — Half Moon Bay’s massive celebration of mechanical ingenuity, power and style known as the “Coolest Show on Earth”. It’s a whimsical, fascinating, amusing, curious and
absolutely unique show and tell spectacle featuring 2,000 magnificent driving, flying and working machines from the 20th and 21st centuries. The world’s coolest cars of every era and style, model-T fire engines, vintage busses, custom motorcycles, tricked out trucks, sleek streamliners, one-of-a-kind antique engines and tractors and historic military aircraft will be among the mesmerizing displays.

This year’s 22nd annual show is expanding to two days — April 28-29 — and adding a Championship Demolition Derby (on April 28) to the lineup of awe-inspiring attractions. “Over the years, we’ve had countless people ask why we didn’t do two days,” said show chairman Chad Hooker of Half Moon Bay. “We’re excited about the potential to grow the event and this will give us the opportunity to raise
critically needed funds for the Coastside Adult Day Health Center,” he said. The show is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Half Moon Bay Airport, located in the picturesque seaside town of Half Moon Bay about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

• *The show’s first ever super-gnarly Championship Demolition Derby (Saturday, 1 pm).
• *”Mustang Madness”, a spectacular display of America’s Premier World War II Fighter.
• *The one-of-a-kind “Molnari Gyrocycle”, a flying, space-age motorcycle
• *U.S. Army NIKE HERCULES long range missile making a rare public appearance.
• *The super sleek “Ack Attack” Bonneville streamliner, a world land speed record holder along with myriad speed machines in “World Record Wonderland”.
• *”Dreamcycles”, a super cool display of the world’s finest custom bicycles.
• *”Strega”, a highly modified P-51 Mustang and 8-time class champion at the Reno Air Races.
• *Magnificent military aircraft including the Estrella Warbird Museum’s Douglas C-47 (regarded as the World’s Greatest Aircraft of its time), YAK Russian fighters and an impressive array of T-6 and T-28 military fighters and trainers.
• *”Dream Big”, the ginormous, mind-blowing World’s Largest Monster-Cycle.
• *Aerobatics pilot Eddie Andreini doing fly-overs in his bi-plane, YAK Russian fighter and P-51.
• *The inimitable Blastolene Brothers extreme, mega-modified machines.
• *”El Diablo”, an astonishing jet-powered flame-effects device designed for “Burning Man”.
• *1909 Bleriot, the first aircraft to fly across the English Channel.
• *Thrilling rides in helicopters, bi-planes, Beech 18 and T-6 military trainers and P-51 Mustang.
• *1904 Holsman Hi-Wheeler, antique automobile part of Coastsider’s family tree
• *Unimotorcycle racing with dueling speed merchants on one wheel battling head to head.
• *Meticulously restored vehicles from the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation.
• *Refurbished fly-wheel engines from the Early Days Gas Engine & Tractor Association.
• *Roots of Motive Power’s collection of restored logging equipment.
• *Monster truck rides, go-kart rides, kid’s amusements, food and live music. Proud owners show up in cars that come in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Spectators will get a rare up-close look at antique horseless carriages and Ford Model T’s, fanciful touring and luxury cars, powerful sports cars, custom cars and street rods, muscle cars, vintage and modern era high-performance race cars, quirky art and pedal cars, modified street machines with cutting edge styles, exotic high-performance cars, stylish European cars, ultra cool low-riders, sporty compacts, modified imports with flashy graphics, fashionable hip-hop urban show cars, homebuilt kit cars, super-charged turbo cars and trucks, “green” technology/alternative fuel vehicles, streamliners, dragsters, funny cars, gassers, and jet cars.

Hundreds of aviation wonders are expected to be on display — stylish homebuilts, classics from the 40’s and 50’s, vintage warbirds, sport and ultralight aircraft. Highlights include “Mustang Madness”, a spectacular display of America’s Premier World War II Fighter; the Estrella Warbird Museum’s historic Douglas C-47 (regarded as the World’s Greatest Aircraft of its time), “Strega”, a highly modified P-51 and dominant 8-time class champion at the Reno Air Races, YAK Russian fighters and an impressive array of T-6 and T-28 military
fighters and trainers, many doing fly-overs during the show. Thrilling rides will be offered in helicopters, vintage bi-planes, Beech 18 and T-6 military trainers and P-51 Mustang.

The inaugural Dream Machines Demolition Derby will take place on Saturday, April 28th at 1:00 p.m. Watch demolition derby participants as they put their choice of any two wheel drive cars to the ultimate test. They will crash, smash, and ram other vehicles in the arena, yet keep their own vehicle in operation. The drivers must endure while judges keep score on the sidelines and decide which of the drivers are the most skilled to be declared a winner in the spectacular competition. There is a $5,000 prize purse with the first
place winner pocketing a hefty $3,000.00. Those interested in entering can visit the derby website at
http://www.hollandracingpromotions.net/ or call the derby office 707-485-8687.

Rounding out the activities will be radical Unimotorcycle Racing, food and drink, amusements for kids, and live music featuring the “Festival of West Coast Blues” hosted by the Stan Erhart Band with Saxophonist Nancy Wright and Special Guests Wendy DeWitt and Kirk Harwood (10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday), The Inciters, Known as the West Coast’s Premier 60s Soul Band (1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday), The Seducers with Pedal Steel Master Joe Goldmark (10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday) and Curtis Salgado, BMA Soul/Blues Male Artist of the Year (1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday).

Spectator admission is $20 ($30 for 2-day pass) for adults, $10 ($15 for 2-day pass) for ages 11-17 and 5+, and free for kids age 10 and under. Tickets are available at the gate only. Half Moon Bay Airport, at 9850 N. Cabrillo Highway, is located on Highway 1, about 20 miles south of San Francisco and 5 miles north of Highway 92. For information, call 650-726-2328 or visit http://www.miramarevents.com/

Toyota and Lexus announced a couple of their planned debuts for the 2012 New York International Auto Show. The new Lexus is the sixth-generation of the Lexus-ES, while the new Toyota sedan that will be debuted has only been identified as “all-new U.S.-designed sedan”.

2013 Lexus ES

New York International Auto Show

The public days for the NY Auto Show this year are April 6-15. If you are a member of the press you can check out the new debuts and concepts on April 4-5 with a special sneak preview on April 6th. Pre-paid member tickets will allow an early access at 9am on April 7.

Along with showing off the new concepts and debuts many of the manufacturers are holding special events like the “Camp Jeep outdoor off road Ride along” and the “EV pavilion Indoor Ride along” that lets you experience some of the new Non-emission vehicles being developed. There is also the “LeMay Museum Exhibit” showing off some of the best classic car you will ever see! There is also an automotive career day and autograph signing sessions with Rafael Bello, Victoria Sosa and Antonio Pierce.

Online Tickets and Discount Tickets

Discount and group tickets can be purchased by going online to the New York Auto show site (here). Ticket will not be sold at the show so they must be purchased ahead of time. Tickets are non-refundable and go for $15 for an adult, $5 for a child, with group tickets (20 or more tickets) for $13 per ticket.

It’s about time for Redding’s Top Automotive event. Redding Kool April Nites (cool april nights). Once again there is a 2000 car cap so if you are planning on entering a car you probably want to get things started, registration ends on April 11 and the show is from April 17-22. You can find more information in our car show calendar on 2012 Kool April Nites.

Redding Kool April Nites

Kool April Nite Cruise

The cruise will be on the usual route starting with Hilltop Drive, across Dana Drive, down Churn Creek, across Cypress Avenue and then back up Hilltop. People usually start staking off their favorite areas to watch the cruise early in the day (sometimes the day before), so if you are planning ot have a large group it’s a good idea to get an area early. If your group is pretty small just make sure you get to where you want to be before the roads start closing around 6pm.

Kool April Nites Dance

There are 3 bands in the schedule this year for the dance. the one for Friday night is “the Cottonwood Band”, Saturday will a tribute to the Beach Boys followed by a tribute to the Beatles. Every year I’ve went the bands are well worth the $10 cover charge and you can buy beer at the dance (which after a hot day in the sun is a real bonus!). This is a family event so you see a lot of kids and a lot of people like to dress up to get the real feel of the event.

Once again Kool April Nites should be a great show! You get plenty of opportunity to get up close to check out the cars and they have some great “Trailer Queens” in the Convention center building.

Toyota Financial Services (TFS) as well as Lexus Financial Services (LFS) are offering their lease customers yet another car insurance that can be added to the list while leasing a car, the “Excess Wear & Use Protection Plan” the EWU. This one is set to cover all the little dings, scratches and other imperfections incurred of the course of driving a car for several years (but of course not without limits).

This new insurance will cover certain “beyond” normal wear and tear items like:

• Interior cuts, burns or stains
• Damage to tires, rims or hubcaps
• Broken or scratched windshield, window, mirrors or lights
• Damaged bumpers, body dents, dings or scratches
• Missing parts or equipment

The goal of this insurance is to allow you to return the car at the end of the lease without paying a deductable, requesting a reimbursement from a insurance company or even submitting a form, that is if the damages fall within specific guidelines.

Well, what do you think? Is it worth buying yet another insurance to complement our growing list? Leave us a comment about what you think.

Powered by a 200 hp, 2.0 liter 4-cylinder engine the new Scion FR-S is sure to thrill! Holding to the traditional Front-Engine, Rear-Wheel drive design of most of the better sports cars the Scion delivers exceptional performance.

2013 Scion FR-S Specifications

D-4S fuel injection

The Scion FR-S is a joint effort of Toyota and Subaru, using Subaru’s horizontally opposed engine and the D-4S fuel injection developed by Toyota. The D-4S fuel injection system combines both port fuel injection (PFI) and GDI injectors that utilize a dual fan spray.

This interesting combination of the two fuel injection technologies take advantage of each methods best characteristics to produce a high power, low emission engine while also decreasing fuel consumption. In short the port injectors receive the highest demand on startup to decrease the emissions of the cold engine with only minimal use of the direct ejectors.

At low and medium loads both injector methods fire together and at the highest loads direct injection is the primary means of delivering fuel. Using this combination of port and direct injection the Scion reduces the accelerate carbon build up (especially on the intake valve stems) caused by direct injection while the direct injection minimizes flow loss.

Pure Balance

Well almost. Actually the 2013 Scion has a front-to-rear weight ratio of 53:47 which is close to the optimum 50:50. The good balance combined with a low center of gravity will give the sports car a tight quick feel on the corners with good overall handling. The handling is also aided by a dynamically tuned suspension setup consisting of MacPherson struts up front and a double wishbone system in the rear. The Subaru flat boxer style engine allows the engine to be mounted in mid-vehicle and low on the frame to further lower the center of gravity.

Scion FR-S Safety Features

The Scion FR-S incorporates the usual array of Scion safety features like Traction Control (TRAC), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Enhanced Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Brake Assist (BA), an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), and Smart Stop Technology (SST), all part of the Star Safety System. There are also 6 standard airbags, diver and front passenger, front seat mounted, and side curtain.

Got you interested? Well, you can test drive a 2013 Scion FR-s this spring and take one home for about $24,200 if you like a manual transmission and $25,300 if you prefer a 6 speed automatic that features paddle shifters and rev-match technology.

Chevrolet’s latest offering to the war of the mini-cars, the Chevy Spark will be unveiled at the 2012 Los Angeles International Auto Show on Nov 16th. This mini-car is designed to attract a younger audience with its electronics and entertainment features as well as fuel economy and sporty design.

2013 Chevy Spark

One of the sportier features is the hiding of the rear door handles giving the impression of the Spark as being a 3 door hatchback instead of a 5 door hatchback, this was accomplished by hiding the handles in the C-Pillar area. Keeping to the theme of “sporty” Chevy has also developed some “sporty” names for the available colors like Salsa, Jalapeno, Denim, Lemonade and Techno Pink, as well traditional hues such as Grey Area, Black Granite, Silver Ice and Summit White.

Chevy Spark Safety Features

Chevy employs a number of safety features for crash avoidance like StabiliTrak and ABS. There is also a rollover sensing system; three-point safety belts in all four seating positions; seat belt pretensioners in the front driver and passenger seats; the LATCH child seat attachment system; releasable pedals; adjustable head restraints; and a collapsible steering column.

Chevy Spark Specifications

Check out the NorCalCars Specifications sections for the 2013 Chevy Spark Specifications.

While the majority of the people visiting NorCalCars.com are looking to buy a new car or research a car before they buy one, many are car dealers looking to find ways to promote their dealership website. This post is devoted to those used car dealers looking to promote their website.

If you build it, they will come

One major misconception of new website owners is that all they need to do to have a successful website is to create one. Unfortunately this can be likened to building a new car lot in the middle of the desert with no roads leading to your business. You might have the best selection of cars at the best price but likely you are going to be the one person that knows it.

While Google and the other search engines will likely find your site and index it, at this point it will likely not show up in the search engine results. To get Google to start showing your website in the result pages of the search results requires that you promote your car dealers website.

Promoting your Dealership web site

To get your dealership website to show in the search engine results requires that you promote your site. There are three ways to promote your site, advertisement (payper click and others), SEO (search engine optimization), and Social networking. For this article I will be talking about promoting your site with social networking and how to do it. If you would like to know more about why social networking is one of the major ways to promote your dealership website read this article on “Why More Businesses Are Getting Into Social Media Marketing To Improve Web Traffic“.

Social Networks

One of the first things a car lot owner should do after creating a new website is to register with all the major social networks. These sites would include Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, myspace and even Youtube (automotive videos are a great way to promote your car lot). Register with the social network using a user name as close to the name of your dealership as possible.

After you register, create profiles on each site. Be sure your profiles accurately represent your business and if possible include your contact information.

Next step is adding content.

For Twitter I like to tweet about my latest used cars for sale. Many people will use the RSS feed provided by twitter to watch your inventory to see if you get a car that they are interested in. You can also tweet other points of interest.
Likewise keep your Facebook account updated with all of your latest used cars. These page get indexed by Google and will often provide quite a bit of traffic to your website, most of which is interested in buying a car or at least are researching cars.

For YouTube you will need to create videos to upload. Many new cameras can create “YouTube ready” videos. Create a video for each of your cars and upload to youtube. It’s even better if you can also create some funny videos (perhaps even professionally done) that might produce viral traffic to your site.

The more sites that have your site information the better. The links from these sites will make your dealership website stronger in the search engine results. In addition having your information in these strong websites can block out any bad reviews your dealership might get. Unfortunately no matter how hard you try, there will be some that will not like you services and will complain online. These pages can make it so those bad reviews only show after a searcher has looked at several pages of search results.

Social networking isn’t the only way to promote your car dealer website, but it is one that you should not ignore. Spending just a few minutes per day will be rewarded with more site visits and ultimately more used car sales.

TORRANCE, Calif., March 7, 2012 – Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. (TMS), today announced that it will conduct a safety recall involving certain 2009 Camry and 2009 to certain 2011 Venza vehicles to replace the stop lamp switch. Approximately 70,500 Camry and 116,000 Venza vehicles are covered by this recall.

During installation of the contact-type stop lamp switch on one of the North American assembly lines, silicon grease may have reached the inside of the switch and caused an increase in electrical resistance. If this occurs, warning lamps on the instrument panel may be illuminated, the vehicle may not start, or the shift lever may not shift from the “Park” position. In some cases, the vehicle stop lamps may become inoperative.

Toyota is currently obtaining the necessary replacement parts. Once the replacement parts have been produced, we will send a notification by first class mail advising owners to make an appointment with an authorized Toyota dealer to replace the stop lamp switch at no charge. The repair will take approximately 30 minutes depending upon the dealer’s work schedule.

Additionally, certain 2005 to early 2009 Tacoma vehicles will be recalled to replace the steering wheel spiral cable assembly. Approximately 495,000 Tacoma vehicles are covered by this recall.

Due to the combination of steering wheel spiral cable design and characteristics unique to the Tacoma chassis, friction between the spiral cable and the retainer in the steering wheel spiral cable assembly may occur in some vehicles. Friction over time may result in loss of connectivity to the driver’s air bag module. If connectivity is lost, the air bag warning lamp on the instrument panel will remain illuminated after starting the vehicle and the driver’s air bag may be deactivated, preventing deployment in the event of a crash.

No other Toyota vehicles are involved nor these models distributed outside the North American market. Toyota is not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by these two conditions.

Detailed information is available to customers at www.toyota.com/recall and the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.