Easy access cars, extended warranties, eliminating odors

By Kristin Varela

August 27, 2012

3 minutes to read

Looking for a small car that is easy to get into? Think inside the box, and tall as well as small, with cars such as the Kia Soul, Nissan Cube and Scion xB.

These box-shaped cars are aimed at younger buyers, but they also hit the mark with“more experienced’’ drivers who appreciate the easier entry and exit they provide compared with most cars because of their upright styling and tall doorways. All of the above have compact exterior dimensions but roomy, flexible interiors, and they are five or more inches taller than most cars, so you don’t have to bend like a pretzel to get into the front seats.

If you’re OK with buying a used car, the Chevrolet HHR and Honda Element (both discontinued after 2011) also would be good choices. Honda billed the Element as a dorm room on wheels for 20-something jocks, but their grandparents were more interested because of the easy entry/exit and roomy interior.

Are extended warranties worth it?

Let’s say you are supposed to walk off the lot with your newVolswagen Jetta and the salesman offers you an extended warranty. Should you purchase it?

Maybe not. Are you aware that you probably will not use the extended service contract for the first three years/36,000 miles of driving because most repairs are covered byVolkwagen’s basic warranty? Ditto for the five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty. In other words, your money will be tied up in a benefit you may not be able to use until your standard VW warranties expire.

A Consumer Reports survey published in 2008 concluded that only 22 percent of vehicle owners who bought a service contract received more in benefits than they paid for the contract, so odds are that you won’t save money in the long run.

Before you decide, pretend you own a 2008 Jetta TDI, and the powertrain warranty will run out in six months. Shop around and find out howmuch it would cost to buy an extended service contract for a 4-year-old Jetta and see how that compares to buying one now. You might decide to wait a few years— when you might actually need and be able to use an extended service contract.

Curing car smell

Summer can be an olfactory challenge for any family car, what with wet towels in the trunk, spilled milkshakes on the carpet, and lord know what odors remain after lending your car to your teenage son and his friends on a Saturday night.

How to rid of those pesky smells? There are a million and one products out there that claim to eliminate tough vehicle odors, but as with many things in life, what works best is simple and involves Arm & Hammer. That’s right, plain old baking soda.

It’s removed odors from our fridges and freezers for decades, and it works just as well in cars.

Step 1: Locate and remove the offending odor creator from your car. In my case, I’ve not only removed and washed the musty towels, but I’ve also learned to drape them over my kids’ booster seats to help keep the boosters cool when the car is parked in the hot summer sun.This also dries the towels to a Saharan crisp.

Step 2: Sprinkle (or better yet, dump) several boxes of baking soda onto your car’s carpet. Be sure to use fresh baking soda and not boxes stolen from your freezer that are full of years’worth of lingering garlic odors. Pouring baking soda on car carpet seems scary, especially if you have black carpet, but just trust me and dump away.

Step 3: Give the baking soda time to work its magic.The longer you leave it on—about a week seems to work well for stubborn smells—the more odors it will absorb.

Step 4: Find an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner. Now that the odors are safely trapped inside the baking soda, you must remove every trace of it. A shop vac works well, but an industrial-sized one at the gas station or car wash works even better. You get bonus points for sucking up loose Polly Pocket shoes.

Step 5: Now that all the gross smells are gone add a light scent to the car’s interior. Some people like the“new-car smell’’on those little cardboard trees that you buy at the car wash. Not me. I prefer a small sachet of dried lavender or fresh rosemary from my garden. Check out Cars.com’s recent rundown of the latest car air-fresheners for some guidance.