Many people love driving a new car, yet almost nobody enjoys buying one. If you’ve ever spend your whole Saturday afternoon a car dealership, then you know why. It seems that car salespeople will do everything they can to rush you into a deal so you can spend more money than you’d planned on spending. The worst is spending hours haggling over price, or some kind of added feature that you didn’t want and that they are insisting must go with the car. However, with a little preparation and insight, it’s pretty easy to get the car you want, without spending too much time haggling over price. In this article, you’ll learn how.

The first thing you can do is figure out which car you want before you leave home. This is essential. You must know the exact model, which version, and which features you want. Be very specific when you first visit the dealer to tell them exactly what you want. If they don’t have it, then simply leave, and go somewhere else. What’s even better is if you call around first, and see who has it and who doesn’t. Be careful though, because people will say they have the car when they really don’t, just to get you to visit the dealership.

Another trick is to show up on a Saturday about thirty minutes before the dealer closes. Saturdays are their busiest day, and they’ll all be looking forward to going home. When you show up and ask to see the car you want half an hour before close, they won’t want to waste any time going back and forth on price. Just offer them a decent price, about ten percent off sticker, and they’ll usually take it.

Another thing to do would be to go through a fleet dealer. These aren’t available to everybody, only those who have memberships are credit unions and other organizations. But if you can get access to a fleet dealer, you can save a ton of cash. You’ll be able to buy the car quickly without hassle, and the price will be significantly lower than sticker price.

If you have a trade in, try and sell it before you go shopping for a new car. One way that car salespeople try and increase their earnings is by giving you a low ball figure for the value of your trade in. Don’t accept it. You can usually do better if you sell it on the private market yourself. This may take some, but you can usually save a couple thousand dollars on the overall price of your car if you do it this way.

When you follow these suggestions, you’ll be able to get a new car without much hassle. You’ll save time and money, and may actually enjoy the process. Have fun.

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If you are planning a trip soon, then you are likely in a pretty good mood. Most people are their happiest the days and weeks before a big trip. If people had their way, they would take many more days off, if they could, and travel. Of course, there are two main constraints to living this dream life. One is that most people only get a couple weeks off per year. The other main constraint is that traveling cost money. While getting more than a couple weeks off work is beyond the scope of this article, you will learn some powerful ways to save plenty of cash while traveling.

The first thing to do is travel when nobody else is traveling. The laws of supply and demand apply to air fares and hotel prices just like everything else. When you are traveling when demand is low, you are likely going to get a lot cheaper prices than if you go when everybody else is traveling.

Another idea is to not be locked down on when you want to leave and come back. For example, if you want to leave on Saturday morning, and return on Friday evening, you might be paying a premium, as those are pretty popular times. However, if you can leave anytime, like Tuesday at three in the morning, then you’ll likely be paying less money, since less people like to travel during those times.

If you have friends or family that live in various places, then you can crash on their couch. This is a great way to stay for cheap. Just be sure not to wear out your welcome. Do some chores around the house, or take them out to dinner to repay them for their kindness. Another great benefit of staying at relatives houses is that you’ll likely get a couple of free meals.

If you really want to travel on a shoe string, you can camp out instead of staying at a hotel. Just find a nice park, and set up your tent, and you are good to go.

One way to save a ton of cash is to shop for food at grocery stores. If you eat all your meals at restaurants, you are going to be paying through the nose. However, by shopping at the local supermarket, you’ll save tons of cash. Just buy a bunch of stuff that’s easy to eat, and find a nice park bench to enjoy your meal.

When you follow these tips, you’ll save a lot of money. This means you’ll be able to travel more often.

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Whether you take advantage of Sicily vacations, Tuscany vacations, or another destination, traveling to Italy is an experience many people remember for a lifetime. Italy boasts a nice mix of old world and new world architecture and culture, and is a rich source of history and natural sights. Just like traveling to any foreign country, it’s wise to observe some specific tips when traveling to Italy. Since an Italian vacation isn’t likely to come around very often, you’ll want to make the most of yours, without having to worry about any glitches along the way.

If you want to find the most reasonable prices for your Italian vacation, it may be a good idea to plan to go away from the peak tourist season. June to September is usually the busiest time in Italy as far as tourists go, so planning Tuscany tours or Sicily tours between April and May or September and November may get you the best prices. The line ups will also be shorter for all the main attractions of Tuscany vacations, Sicily vacations and others, and the weather should still be mild. Since you’re traveling to another country, it’s always a good idea to take out travel insurance in case any problems come up. Before you go on your Italian trip, check to make sure your passport is valid for the length of time you’re going to be gone. Ask your travel agent how you should pack for your vacation, as it may vary slightly depending on where you’re going.

Before you leave for your Tuscany vacation or Sicily vacation, get some Euros so you can pay for taxis and other services that won’t take American or Canadian money. Work out your hotel details as part of your Tuscany vacation packages or Sicily vacation packages before you leave. It’s also not a bad idea to learn a little Italian or at least bring along a translation dictionary so you can get by easier. If you live in the US, where the metric system isn’t used, you may want to get a handle on how far certain distances or measurements are, just to make it easier while you’re in Italy. You’ll be dealing in liters of wine, meters and kilometers while on your Tuscany tours and Sicily tours.

Your Tuscany vacation package, Sicily vacation package, or Sicily tours may have your itinerary all laid out for you, but if it doesn’t, there are a few different ways to travel around while you’re in Italy. You can travel by car, train, bus or even bicycle if you’re just traveling locally. If you want to venture away from Italy, you can catch a ferry to countries including France, Greece and Turkey.

As with most foreign vacations, it’s best to guard your credit cards, passports and other valuables against pickpockets while it Italy. Don’t wander around the towns and villages with your valuables in a shoulder bag or anything else that someone can reach into easily. Italy is a safe country, so use common sense and you’ll be fine.

With incredible Tuscany vacation packages for every budget, book your trip today.

As the year turns to 2012, Brazil is now on the clock to complete the many renovations and constructions needed to make Rio de Janeiro one of the best Olympic venues in the modern era. The plans have been grandiose and the Brazilian economy continues to be on the upswing, all things seem to be online and in time. Unfortunately, many hidden issues have started to crop up that threatens not only the safety of the Games but of the Brazilian nation as well.

The following are the major issues regarding the preparations being undertaken by the Brazilian government for the Olympics and other major sporting events being hosted by the South American giant.

Schedule of constructions. This is one of the major issues regarding the hosting of not only the Olympics in 2016 but for the World Cup of 2014. Many of the public works programs have started late and are way behind schedule. Because of the late start, many of the venues are often haphazardly done to complete the structure in time. Ultimately, the quality and the safety of the venues come into question because of the many short cuts undertaken by the contractors and builders to comply with the set schedule regardless of delay.

Poor Quality. The problem of delayed construction is further exacerbated by the shoddy workmanship and low quality materials used for the venues. It is very well known that Brazilian public works projects reek of kickbacks and cronyism. Many watchdogs decry the corruption endemic in past projects. While there are a few high profile politicians that refuse and correct the corruption, the low level administrators are the ones receiving the payoffs and kickbacks for the project. The contractors in turn use substandard materials and make many short cuts to keep costs within the profit margins after the kickback and actual expenses. These include low standard rebars and other cost cutting measures that end up having a high cost low quality venue for the world to see when the Games commence.

Evictions. Because of the high population of poor and underprivileged Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro and other Olympic venues, the government has undertaken a policy of eviction and removal of these “eyesores”. This has resulted in widespread displacement of individuals and families in cities such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife, Natal and Fortaleza. This program has resulted in human rights violations such as the lack of sufficient time to move or access to alternatives. Many removals did not even have adequate plans for relocation such as infrastructure, services and substinence means in the new sites.

The largest and most organized drug cartel in Colombia was named the Medellin Cartel. This is an organized network of drug suppliers and smugglers that has its base in Medellin, Colombia.

The extent of the drug cartel’s operations were found in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. The founders of the cartel were Jorge Luis Ochoa Vazquez, Juan David Ochoa Vazquez, Fabio Ochoa Vazquez and Pablo Escobar.

The rapid increase of illegal cocaine exportation in the 1970’s which reached its peak in 1982 when the drug surpassed coffee as the major export of Colombia, accounting for 30% of total exports. As a result, drug lords became land barons as they purchased large tracts of land in order to launder the drug money earned in the trade. This group was able to amass large wealth, massive landholdings and immense political power. Much of their wealth was put into private armies to protect the landholdings of these drug barons and protection against the Communists seeking to impose taxes.

At its peak, the cartel was able to rake in nearly $60 million per day and the total amount earned by the cartel during its operations was in the total of nearly hundreds of billions. As their influence grew, many members committed missteps that caught the attention of the government. Many were indicted because of the killings that were ordered by drug barons.

The cartel was finally demolished in 1993 through joint operations between the Colombia government, the Cali cartel, the right wing paramilitary groups and the United States government through assassination of senior officers and imprisonment. One of the most instrumental groups in the demise of the cartel was the group “Los Pepes”. This group comprised of members of the Colombian National Police trained and assisted by Delta Force units together with operatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The Colombia government was able to hunt down and kill the Ochoa Vazquez brothers and Pablo Escobar. Other operatives of the Medellin Cartel were assassinated by its rival the Cali cartel group. Ultimately, the drug operations of cartels in Colombia became top security priority of the government. Now, much of the drug operations in the country have been removed but there are still pockets of individual bosses still operating the trade, albeit for local operations. This dark past of the Colombia drug cartel in the country has since been removed for the future of the country.

Bobby Castro is the online editor at Gringos, where he has published a number of articles about Colombia news for expats and many other topics.