Well it looks like it’s time for my wife and I to look for a new car. It’s not like our car’s broken down or anything like that, it’s just that our Ford Contour is 11 years old and we think it’s time to trade it in while it’s still in good shape and running well.

We haven’t had our Ford since ‘96, no, we bought it used in the year 2000 I believe. Prior to that we’d had two hand me down cars that my parents had been kind enough to give to us when we needed a car so our Contour was the first car that either of us had ever owned.

Our Used Ford is a four cylinder. We’re mostly city drivers - occasionally driving a few hours out of town here and there, but the majority of our driving is short trips within the city so we didn’t need to purchase a car with a powerful engine. Believe me, 4 cylinders is enough and we get great gas millage too.

My wife really didn’t like the other two cars we had. The first car was an old Buick and it had very loose power steering among a number of other problems so she didn’t drive it much. The second car was a Prelude and while we both enjoyed that car ours was a standard and she had never drove a standard before and uh I was pretty lazy about getting around to teaching her so she never did drive that car. Believe me, she never let me forget that!

So our Contour, which we’d purchased at one of the local Ford Dealers from a friend who works there as one of the top salesmen, is an automatic. The wife was adamant that we had to buy a car that she felt comfortable driving. The car actually handles really well. The steering is tight, but smooth.

We’ve never had any major problems with this car either. No engine trouble, no electrical problems - nothing big. Just a few small problems.

For example, we just had part of the manifold replaced. We had a hole in the manifold for oh about a year. Man we had a noisy muffler as a result. Unfortunately we were originally told that to repair the hole in the manifold that they’d have to replace the whole thing and it was going to cost about $1200 - money we didn’t have at the time. Finally, about a month ago when our muffler was making a deafening sound we folded and I took it in to be repaired and the mechanic discovered that the hole could be replaced with a small replacement part. It was still expensive to have the work done, but only about a third of the price we’d originally been quoted.

Other minor problems we’ve had with Ford Contour were a problem with the ball bearings in the wheel freezing up on us when we were on a road trip, and the mechanism inside the door that holds the passenger side window in place broke a couple of years ago resulting in a window that wouldn’t go up anymore. We had both problems fixed quickly and easily.

Considering we’ve had our 11 year old car for seven years we’ve had very few problems. I’ve been really happy with the car. Did I mention that it doesn’t even have any rust on it even though it’s a 100% outdoor car even during our cold winter months? Both of our other Used Cars had quite a bit of rust so I’m really surprised that this one doesn’t have any.

We’ll start looking for a replacement car soon. I think we’ll try to get through the winter with the Ford and then start looking for a new or another used car in the Spring. Since we’ve had a good experience with the Contour we might end up getting another Ford. I guess it will depend on pricing and whichever car we like best when we are shopping for another car.

Anyone else drive a Ford Contour? If you do have you had a good experience with yours?

The funny thing about life is that it can throw you a lot of curves. One day you have a great job, and you own your own home, but then something happens, perhaps you lose your job and you begin having trouble paying your bills. The next thing you know you’ve got a bad credit rating.

Unfortunately, bad credit ratings can stick with you for a while. Even if you are no longer in debt or struggling.

If you live in the UK and you’ve found yourself in debt, arrears, have declared bankruptcy or have County Court Judgments against you, did you know that you can still remortgage with bad credit? That’s right. The Remortgage Guild specializes in assisting people who are in tricky credit situations.

They can assist you by putting you in touch with people who who can give you advice and even get you a quote on a new mortgage. Visit the site to learn more.

Have you ever thought about the benefits of having your carpets professionally cleaned?

Those of you who live in England, particularly in the London and Surrey area might be interested in the services of Southern Counties Cleaning. The company specializes in cleaning carpets for individuals in private homes, and for small to large businesses.

You may already know this, but by having your carpets cleaned professionally you’ll be reducing the amount of dust in the air that you breath and thus reducing some of the common allergens in your home or office. Dust mites tend to live in carpets, and allergens like pollens can get into your carpets too.

A professionally carpet cleaning can help improve your health if you or your loved ones, or office co-workers have allergies.

Southern Counties cleaning does carpet cleaning london as well as Surrey, Kent and west Sussex.

Other than the fact that allergens can build up in carpets, you might think about getting your carpets professionally cleaned in order to prolong their lifespan. Dirt, dust, gravel and such build up deep in carpeting with normal use and as the dirt, sand and tiny stones are walked on they can damage the carpet fibers. Cleaning carpets with professional equipment can remove that grit and keep your carpets not only looking new, but with regular cleaning keep them almost as good as new.

Spills and stains can be removed during a professional cleaning too. I think we’ve all tried to remove an accidental spill in our carpets only to have it either come back when the carpet dries again, or we find that there’s still a mark of some kind on the carpet, no matter how many cleaning solutions we’ve tried.

If dirt and spills are getting on your carpets you might also have bacteria building up in your carpets as well. Bacteria, as well as the many other things that can get into our carpeting can cause odours. Professional cleaning will not only make your carpets look much cleaner, but it should also help the room smell much fresher as well.

My wife and I both have allergies to dust mites and pollens so we don’t have many carpets in our home, but you can bet that the carpeting that we do have in our home professionally cleaned regularly to keep them clean and free of allergens.

Also, when you think about it, it costs a lot of money to either put wall to wall carpeting in your home or office. That’s a huge investment isn’t it? Why wouldn’t you have a professional carpet cleaning done every once in a while in order to protect that investment?

If you live in the UK you might be interested in visiting Advancestart.com where you can get information in the form of a quote about many different types of secured loans.

The website will help you compare over 260 different loan plans in just minutes. If you want to get cheap secured loans, or Secured Home Loans all you have to do is fill in a very small amount of information on the quote form and usually within minutes you’ll begin to get some information about the various types of loans that suite your needs.

Considering that Advancestart.com has connections with many of the lenders I think it would be a good place to start when looking for Secured Loans UK. I mean, they specialize in offering quotes for all types of Secured Loans, so why wouldn’t you start there?

They don’t due credit checks, nor do they ask for any fees or require anything of you other than some initial information about you and the amount of the loan that you’re interested in attaining.