There’s fair, and then there’s fair or not as the case may be. Looking around our fair land, it would be great to see only good stuff. But the world isn’t made like that. We found a vast expanse of space, and then the people came and messed it up by building places to live and burning fossil fuel to fill the air with city smog. And people, being people, stayed selfish and potentially criminal, so some areas have a bad record for behavior. Of course the wealthy can buy their own plots of paradise and build a wall around it. Security guards keep the rest of the world at bay. But the rest of us have to live in this urban sprawl where the problems of unemployment and the credit crunch are putting everyone under pressure.

So where do we choose to live? Most of us are trapped into an area by birth. It’s surprising how hard it is to leave our roots even when things start going bad. When we do move, it’s usually to find work. This again can be a trap. Sometimes, the places with work are in the rougher neighborhoods. Then we’re into playing the game of deciding just how far we want to commute everyday from our haven to work and back. And don’t think this is just a problem for the individuals. It’s a problem for local government as well. There’s the mayor and the elected officials with the responsibility of providing a safe place to live, a good place for business. If people are moving out of an area or refusing to move into it, this is bad for the local economy. There are less people paying taxes, so there’s less money to spend on anything important.

You know how it goes. A set of new tires for your car is quite expensive but it’s a necessity you have to pay for, otherwise you simply won’t be able to drive. But when you’re offered to buy road hazard warranty, is it a necessity like the set of tires or you can live well without it?

A typical road hazard warranty isn’t necessarily the most expensive thing you can get for your car, but when most of us are looking for ways to cut costs, spending additional hundreds of dollars should have a good reason for doing so. So what is a road hazard warranty and what will it cover if you purchase it?

We all know that the road conditions aren’t always perfect, especially if you have to drive far from large federal routes. Potholes, debris, garbage and other pleasant surprises can make you a good day not behind the wheel but on the roadside waiting for a towing truck. Of course, car tires are designed to serve for a long time, but you can’t make them work like a charm if the roads you drive are just too bad to keep them intact for a long time. And in most cases tire manufacturers aren’t providing any warranty against problems caused by factors other than actual tire defects.

Auto insurance abuse and fraud has become quite a problem in the past few years as there was a rise in fraud reports and diversification of schemes used to affect fraud victims. It has come to the point where many drivers feel that the auto insurance quotes and rates they get are too high because of the abundance of fraudulent claims filed to insurance providers. In fact, each claim filed by using an abuse or fraudulent scheme ultimately leads to the overall increase in rates for all consumers, who even didn’t face fraud on their own.

In order to minimize the risk of auto insurance fraud and abuse, and protect lawful car owners from becoming victims of illegal schemes, insurance providers and experts recommend following these five helpful tips that will protect you paying for an abusive claim:

It won’t be big news for car owners saying that some cars are just too good to not get stolen every now and then. To our regret, car theft is something that happens in our country on a regular basis, and those who do it have particular tastes and interests when tracking down their victims. In some cases there’s even a hunt for particular car makes and models, which makes insurance providers adjust their rates accordingly. Who wants to insure a car for cheap when it’s very likely to be stolen, right?

According to the 2009 National Insurance Crime Bureau, the following are the top 10 most commonly stolen cars in the US:

1. ’94 Honda Accord
2. ’95 Honda Civic
3. ’91 Toyota Camry
4. ’97 Ford F-150 Pickup
5. ’04 Dodge Ram Pickup
6. ’00 Dodge Caravan
7. ’94 Full Size Chevrolet Pickup
8. ’94 Acura Integra
9. ’02 Ford Explorer
10. ’09 Toyota Corolla

It’s titles to articles that really get people annoyed. It would probably be OK to say Mercedes-Benz make better cars than BMW. Somehow, it’s acceptable to compare the strengths and weaknesses of brands. But once we get into the area of individual skills, passions are involved. There would be hours of argument on whether Dario Franchitti is a better driver than A.J. Foyt. Most adults know how to drive and, as fans of Indy heroes, they will appreciate an everyday skill raised to the highest level. All this is safe territory. No one feels threatened by talk of the best, particularly when one is now retired. But start talking about whether you or your partner is the better driver, and egos are on the line – tempers are likely to get frayed very quickly. We are all proud of what we do. That’s a part of what gives us the confidence to keep doing it. Accusing A of not being as good a driver as B is entering a potential war zone.

Yet, if you go to the people who collect evidence about traffic accidents – that’s a range of people from the ambulances that carry drivers to hospitals, to the police and courts who decide whether anyone should go to jail, to the insurers who have to pick up some of the bills – they will all tell you the same story. Ambulances carry fewer women drivers. They are less likely to be injured because they drive more slowly than men. Women are less likely to break the law than men and so pick up fewer tickets and rarely commit offenses serious enough to justify jail time. Insurers prefer women drivers because they are rarely in serious accidents as drivers. They are injured seriously as often as men because, in most cases, they are being driven by men who ignore the basics of safe driving.