If you’re in the market for a new car this year, you’ve probably got it narrowed down to a chosen few, based on your specific criteria.  Usually, new car buyers do their narrowing down by price, color, style, type, safety specifications, etc.  But have you considered buying a car based on how well it knows you?

Consider, for example, the most recent model Mercedes Benz or Volvo, which creates a profile of you (and up to 6 other drivers) based on your driving traits.  While you’re driving, it matches your profile against the driving scenario - how long you’ve been driving for, the time of day or night, your ability to coordinate your steering, etc.  Maybe you’re kind of swerving, or jerking the car back into lane, or you’ve been driving for five hours straight or it’s 3:00 a.m.  The car knows these things.  When it senses that something isn’t quite kosher, it alerts you with a buzzer and an icon on the dashboard (of a coffee cup, naturally) flashes.

The Saab goes one better.  While it incorporates much of the same wake-up features as the other imports, it also vibrates the driver’s seat.  Of course, that vibration might have the opposite effect on some drivers… nothing like a great massage while you’re speeding along at 90 mph, is there?

Do you have some sort of anti-theft device on your car?  You don’t?  You know that you should, especially since one car is stolen every 25 seconds.  Last year, more than $6.5 billion worth of vehicles were stolen in America.  That’s an awful lot of money.  “It’s too expensive to get a good anti-theft system, and the cheap ones aren’t all that effective, so why bother?” you claim.  You’re kind of right, and you’re kind of wrong.

The fact is a good anti-theft device may be expensive, but you have to understand that if you have a good system, your car insurance may offset the cost of it.  Intrigued?  You should be.  Depending on where in the country you live, your state insurance regulator may require, by law, that the insurer to give you a discount, sometimes up to 35% of your car insurance premium.  And even if its not decreed by law, shopping around for a different insurer may net you the discount that will allow you to put in that expensive car tracking or anti-theft system.

Even if you don’t have the expensive kind, most anti-theft devices should get you an insurance discount.  The only exception may be those types of devices which you have to manually set - insurers just can’t rely on your say-so that you remembered to put on or activate your anti-theft device.  Generally, the more high tech your anti-theft gadgetry, the higher your discount.

For maximum discounts on your car insurance, layer those “cheap” anti-theft devices like the Club, keyless remotes and VIN etching.  When it comes to protecting your car, there’s no such thing as over-kill.

A potential car thief always looks for a good reason to steal or break into a car; maybe you left some enticing packages in the back seat or a laptop or cell phone on the floor of the passenger side.  A thief will typically make a quick reconnaissance of the car’s perimeter, looking for evidence of an alarm system (or even better, an unlocked door) before he makes his attempt.  What will it take to stop him?

A good alarm system.  But good alarm systems cost money; something that not everyone has in this economy.  Even if you let your Lo-jack subscription expire, you’ve still got that sticker in the window don’t you?  Why the heck not?  Go get a sticker or decal for their anti-theft service, or any similar car tracking service, and display it proudly in your window.  Now, that may or may not stop a professional thief who will know how to disable the system, but it will stop an opportunistic petty thief.

You might also want to consider making your car a little less appealing.  A car that is scratched up and dented isn’t any fun to steal… “Jeez, Joe, if you were gonna boost a car couldn’t you have found one that didn’t look like something my crazy Uncle Elmo would drive?”  Make it so that even a car thief wouldn’t be caught dead in it.  Can’t do it yourself?  Let your kids key the car a bit, or ride into it with their bicycle or scooter.  Is that still too drastic for you?  You can actually buy faux rust and scratch stickers that you put on your vehicle to make it look like someone’s already trashed it.  A cheapskate sticker comes to your rescue, again.