Studio711.com – Ben Martens

When you spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new car, it’s more than a little frustrating to have the dealer slap their thirty cent emblem on the back and give themselves free advertising. I didn’t push it when we bought our car because every car on their lot already had it, but it sure is tacky.

I’ve heard that you can remove stickers and emblems before, but I was nervous about screwing up the paint or the clearcoat. I emailed car guru MattM for some advice, and with that (and some YouTube videos) as training, I headed out to the garage. My tools were warm water, a sponge, hair dryer, a plastic putty knife, Goo Gone and a micro fiber cloth. Here are the steps I followed. Please note this was the first time I’ve ever tried this and if you screw up your car, don’t blame me.

1. Use the warm water to clean the area and start heating up the emblem. Dry it off.
2. Fire up the hair dryer and warm the emblem and the area around it. Don’t leave the hair dryer in one spot for too long as it’s possible to make the paint bubble up. Your goal is that the emblem or sticker should feel warm to the touch, but not hot. Think about how your car feels when it’s been sitting out in the sun on a 100 degree day. I didn’t get near that hot but that was my gauge for how far I was willing to go.
3. Use the plastic scraper to carefully start to lift up the emblem. Try to pull it off leaving as little of the glue behind as possible.
4. Use your micro fiber cloth and the Goo Gone to remove any remaining glue.
5. Wash the area again and check for any remaining residue.
6. I waxed the area just in case I’d removed any wax or clearcoat in the process.

It all worked remarkably well for me. You can’t even tell that anything was there!

Is it just me or have glasses gotten crazy expensive? They lure you in with the price of the frames, then add a half dozen coatings and gimmicks to the lenses, and suddenly those glasses cost more than your monthly car payment.

I’ve heard enough people talking about warbyparker.com that I’m going to give them a serious look the next time I buy glasses. Here’s their concept in their own words

Warby Parker was conceived as an alternative to the overpriced and bland eyewear available today. Prescription eyewear simply should not cost $300+. The industry is controlled by a few large companies that have kept prices artificially high, reaping huge profits from consumers who have no other options. By circumventing traditional channels and engaging with customers directly through our website, Warby Parker is able to provide higher-quality, better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the price.

If you don’t live in a place that has a showroom, there are a couple tools available. You can upload a picture of your face and then see the frames on your face. Once you get your choices narrowed down a bit more, they’ll send you a sample of the various frames which you then mail back. Additionally, for every pair of glasses you buy, Warby Parker will donate a pair to charity.

It seems like a great company that is producing some quality products, and I’m eager to give them a try.

Tyla’s parents recently got a new car so as we chatted about our purchases, we briefly discussed them being “made in America.” They bought a Chevy and we bought a Ford, so they’re both made in America, right? But what does that even mean? Is it made in America if the company is headquartered here, if the car is assembled here, of if the parts are sourced from the US? I decided to do some research.

ABCNews.com lets you look up the percentage of parts in your car that were made in the US. (It’s a bit vague though and I can’t even tell what model year it references.) The Chevy Captiva that Tyla’s parents bought comes in at 26% while the Escape says 65%. So clearly the badge on the car doesn’t indicate where the parts come from.

Cars.com has an American-Made Index that “highlights the cars that are built here, have the highest amount of domestic parts, and are bought in the largest numbers by Americans.” 2011 is the most recent data I could find, but in that year, the #1 car on their list was the Toyota Camry. Number two was the F150 which has historically done very well in most years of their study. The amount of “American-ness” of a vehicle can vary from year to year as new sources are found for parts or production lines to decrease costs. For example, in 2010, the Ford Escape was #3 on the cars.com list but in 2011, it didn’t make the top 10.

Some websites say that assembly is a good place to look for how much of the money ends up in America. So by that mark my Subaru Impreza is a good buy because it’s assembled in Lafayette, IN. But if you look it up on ABCNews it contains 0% American parts!

In all my research, I didn’t find any cars that were assembled 100% in the USA with 100% American parts by a company headquartered in this country. Cars are a great example of multi-national corporations sourcing materials and labor from around the world to bring you a product. Using country of origin as your top priority when buying a car is going to make your life difficult.

If you want to buy stuff that’s made in America, it’s a lot easier to start with things that have fewer components. Something like a car is just too difficult to figure out these days.