QUIZ ABOUT CAR KNOWLEDGE

How are you at your knowledge of cars these days? Things have probably changed a lot since you’ve poked your head under the hood. Want to find out? Take this little quiz. The answers are at the end, Five points for each correct answer; four points for each second-best answer. Beyond that, well … our moms taught us if you cannot say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

How much actual steel is put into an average car today?

1. a) Twenty-five percent
2. b) Fifty percent
3. c) 60 percent
4. d) 65 percent

Airbags are set to go off when the car hits an object dead on going:

1. a) The rate of deceleration
2. b) 5-8 mph
3. c) 5-10 mph
4. d) 10-15 mph

How many coats of paint are put on a car today, particularly one that’s being fixed?

1. a) one
2. b) two
3. c) five
4. d) 10

Cars today are made to:

1. a) Crumble up and absorb impact around the driver’s cage
2. b) Absorb impact with the front, steel grill
3. c) Have a front, steel grill, which absorbs impact

A new bumper on a Toyota Echo, the smallest car Toyota makes, will cost this much to replace.

1. a) $75
2. b) $150
3. c) $250
4. d) $300

What percentage of used parts, to hold costs down, is a bump shop likely to use to fix a car in what most people would agree is a medium-type accident?

1. a) Depends on the bump shop
2. b) All of them, but some will charge you for all new parts. And how will you know, anyway?
3. c) They try to use as many as they can find to help recycle
4. d) Not many – the mark-up on brand-new dealership parts is just too much for any one man to resist

At what point will your insurance company total your car?

1. a) Ha ha ha , oh, this is good, ha ha, total the car, get a load of this
2. b) When the damage approaches or exceeds 50 percent of the car’s value
3. c) When the damage and value equal the value of the car
4. d) When the damage simply exceeds the value of reassembling the car?

Long ago, when a man was a man, he carried a tool box in his car to fix problems on the fly. Today, that toolbox:

1. a) Is as good as it ever was at fixing the same problems
2. b) Due to computers, ballast
3. c) Unless you have a particular computer, the right software and carry it around in your back seat, nice to pull out and have a good cry over

Means the dealerships have a hammerlock on your you-know-what’s