Ask Patty Blog Carnival Week Around the Auto World: December 26th

We hope your holidays were great and that you spent time with your loved ones and family, the most important part of the whole season! Even though people were on vacation, we still had submissions and we appreciate that! This week we will be wrapping up the posts on holiday wishes coming true as well as some issues about pollution (yuck!). Set aside the new toys for a minute and dig into the latest Ask Patty Blog Carnival!

It was a Merry Christmas for Karen Slaydon and her kids this year. Through the help of the Mary Martha House and a lovely gift of a Volvo station wagon, the once homeless divorcee was able to complete her schooling at the prestigious Paul Mitchell School in Tampa and she is well on her way to a better life for her and her family! The gift of the car was priceless!

With all the after-Christmas shopping going on, you will want to be sure you take extra precautions to prevent break ins while you are away from your vehicle. Thieves will target cars filled with packages and bags from stores. WBKO from Bowling Green has some great tips you should know to avoid losing all your newly purchased items.

Make sure you don’t lose your keys during this busy week! Most new cars have ignition keys with computer chips embedded in them and they can be really costly to replace. A woman who bought a Mercury Sable from a used car dealer was only given one set of keys and found it would cost her $132 to get a second key made! Ouch!

Ten years ago, Terry Franz started Cars for Christmas. He gave away some cars from his used car lot (as a promotion) to people who couldn't afford them. Franz now gets people to donate their used cars, mechanics volunteer to fix them up and local charities help him find deserving recipients. This year alone, his group has given away more than 200 cars.

In energy-related news, New York has started an initiative for a $10 million program to convert 574 hybrid vehicles in the state fleet to be plug-in hybrids. According to The Energy Blog, New York state has embarked on a $10 million program to convert 574 hybrid vehicles in the state fleet to be plug-in hybrids.

Speaking of electricity, one couple in Salem, Oregon, decided to convert their car’s engine into an electric motor. The couple spent $10 a day on gas for their 29-mile commute, but now it costs them between 30 and 60 cents a day!

Longo Toyota-Scion-Lexus of Los Angeles gave the city of El Monte $100,000 to fund several programs jeopardized by the city's recent $6.1 million budget deficit. City Manager James Mussenden said without Longo's donation the programs, which affect more than 3,000 children, had a good possibility of getting cut. What a great holiday gift from Longo!

The Car Blog asks an interesting question: Which would you prefer? They are referring to the two production electric vehicles, the Tango and the Tesla. One is sexy and looks like a super car, the other… well, it’s cute, but it’s nothing “super,” unless you consider the mileage it gets, or the fact that it can split lanes like a motorcycle. Join in the conversation on the Car Blog.

The AutoBlog updates us on the Motor 4 Toys drive that exceeded 10,000 toys for the California Highway Patrol Chips For Kids Program. The program is completely volunteer (down to the web site building, the workers and the car show associated with it) and of course, the toys go to a great cause! Congrats to a job well done this year!

And one last word of safety: Make sure you are driving safe as you head to all of your holiday destinations, and don’t speed! According to AAA reports, speeding triples the odds of crashing.

Thank you for all of your submissions! Make sure to submit next week! Please remember to submit your article using the online form or by emailing Breanne at Breanne@askpatty.com.