Personal essays from a young journalist in the Sunshine State.
This weekend, I’ll be heading “home” to Boston for the Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference. Here is a list of speakers, as well as a list of participants. I’ll do my best to blog during the sessions I attend, so I hope you’ll visit Word on the Street and offer feedback on the posts.
If you’re looking for a good read, check out Poynter’s Wonders of the Journalism World project. I contributed to the project with the help of my talented colleagues, Roy Peter Clark and Ellyn Angelotti.
A story I wrote appeared in today’s St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. The story is about a trio of signers who will be interpreting a production of H.M.S. Pinafore tomorrow, March 8, at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center.
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Kristen Willbur has trouble keeping her hands still. She uses them to communicate, express emotion and give meaning to what otherwise would go unheard.
And as a professional sign language interpreter, Willbur regularly gets called on to interpret plays. It’s not something most interpreters do, but those who take the gigs do it because they love theater and telling engaging stories.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Willbur will have a good one – H.M.S. Pinafore, a classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera.
Willbur, Sandra Sanders and Greg Morrow, all from the Tampa Bay office of Sign Language Associates, have endured more than a month of late-night rehearsals to learn the opera. For the Sunday matinee, they’ll interpret it for a patron who plans to attend the show.
As storytellers of the stage, the trio of signers gives silence a soul.
When they interpret dialogue, they convey words, feelings and intent. When interpreting songs, they change the flow of their hands, mimicking the speed and rhythm of the song.
“When the song is about a fair maiden, then most likely our signs will show soft, flowing movements,” said Willbur, 33, of Lakeland, who has been signing for four years. “It’s a lot like listening to someone sing a capella. You don’t hear any music, but you know it’s a song. Signing music has your hands flowing through the air like physical poetry.”
With music and lyrics by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore tells the story of a naval captain’s daughter who goes against her father’s desire for her to marry a high-ranking officer and instead falls in love with a lower-class sailor.
“If you had to count the most enduringly popular comic operas and musical dramatic works in general in this part of the world, you have to include H.M.S. Pinafore on the fingers of one hand,” said Constantine Grame, who plays the part of Ralph Rackstraw, the lower-class sailor, and who is musical director of the production. “It’s a story that pokes fun at classes, and it’s a period piece given its musical style and setting. Its gentle social commentary is just as relevant today as it always was.”
Willbur and Morrow will share the interpreting for the male actors, with Willbur playing the protagonist’s role and Morrow playing the antagonist’s role. Sanders will interpret all of the female roles.
“For the roles we try to keep consistent with male/female,” Willbur said. “But in our profession we have more females than males, so sometimes this isn’t possible.”
The characters’ lines aren’t interpreted verbatim. In fact, the copy of the script Willbur, Sanders and Morrow have been using isn’t the same one the actors have used. There are slight differences in the characters’ lines, Sanders said, but the overall story line is the same.
Only a small fraction of signers interpret theatrical productions, Sanders said, in part because of stage fright or a lack of interest in theatre. A production with the cast size of H.M.S. Pinafore generally requires four signers.
“We put weeks and sometimes months of preparation into a show on our own time,” said Sanders, 29, of Tampa. “Interpreters who do plays, concerts, lectures, etc., do it for the love of it, not for the pay.”
They do it, too, Willbur added, for the sake of good storytelling: “Who tells a better story? A businessman lecturing about an event, or a grandfather that re-enacts the movements and sounds of the event to reel you into the story? That’s what we try to do with songs. We want to capture what the actor/actress is feeling deep down inside.”
The feelings, Willbur says, are best captured with helping hands.
Freelance writer Mallary Jean Tenore is the James N. Naughton fellow at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists that owns the Times.
If you go
‘H.M.S. Pinafore’
What: Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera
Where: Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center, 324 E Pine St., inside City Hall
When: 8 tonight, March 13 and 15 and 2 p.m. Sunday and March 16. Sign language interpreters will join the cast for Sunday’s matinee.
Tickets: $20 general, $18 for center members and students
Information: Visit http://www.tarponarts.org or call (727) 942-5605
I took a road trip across the state to Cocoa Beach this past weekend for a get-together with young journalists in the Chips Quinn scholar program. I didn’t want to have to worry about checking e-mail or updating social networking sites, so I left my laptop at home and didn’t check my e-mail all day Saturday or Sunday. I came back feeling relieved that I had taken a virtual break; it felt good to spend more time with a book than with a computer screen.
When checking my e-mail and browsing through some news Web sites Sunday evening, I came across a New York Times essay by Mark Bittman called “I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really.” I think most people, especially tech-savvy younger folks, can relate to this article’s message. Sometimes, we just need to step away from the screen and into the outdoors. That’s where the stories are, that’s where people are, that’s where we learn what life is like beyond the confines of our inner worlds.
Photo by Mallary Tenore
A story I wrote about Leap Day and the Year of the Frog ran in yesterday’s St. Petersburg Times.
When Dan Costell holds a Panamanian golden frog in his hand, he might as well be holding gold. Stunning yellow, the little frogs have long been Panama’s national symbol of good luck, but they are disappearing.
A lethal fungus called chytrid is killing off the Panamanian goldens, and other frogs across the world. The fungus attaches to the frogs’ skin and prevents them from breathing and taking in water, said Costell, a reptile and amphibian keeper at Lowry Park Zoo. “Frogs are indicators of how our environment is going,” he said. “They’re the first species to be affected because they absorb the environment into their skin.”
One-third to one-half of the world’s 6,000 amphibian species are estimated to be facing extinction. This leap year has been designated the Year of the Frog by conservation organizations. Zoos and aquariums across the country will hold events Friday, which is Leap Day, and through the weekend.
The Florida Aquarium in Tampa will recognize Leap Day and the Year of the Frog with reduced admission and exhibits on frogs from Florida, South America and Africa.
Lowry Park Zoo plans to celebrate Saturday, when more families are likely to visit the zoo. Costell and other herpetologists will give presentations throughout the day. Costell has spent his week turning the zoo’s discovery center into an amphibian center. Coqui frogs, tadpoles and the Panamanian golden frogs will replace the green tree pythons, sea horses and Schneider’s skinks that now inhabit the center. The new center will feature interactive displays where zoogoers can learn about Florida’s native and non-native frogs and listen to the sounds they make.
Sentinel frogs
Frogs are important for the environment because they consume tremendous numbers of insects, helping prevent crop damage and disease. Frogs also are an important food source for other species, and amphibians have a huge role in medicine and research.
“Many medical compounds have been found because of the secretions in their skin or the microbial communities on their skin,” says Shelly Grow, conservation biologist with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Frogs are considered an early-warning system for problems that affect humans. “If chemicals in the water cause mutations and reproductive problems in frogs, think what it could be doing to the rest of us,” said Vicky Poole of the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
One of the most basic ways people can help protect frogs is not to use fertilizer in their lawns. Because frogs take in water through their skin, they are especially sensitive to water quality and can die from fertilizer runoff that ends up in streams and rivers.
If pollution and fungus continue to plague frogs, the remaining amphibians will soon only be found in captivity at zoos. And only some, like the Panamanian goldens, have been successfully bred in captivity.
Few people seem to realize this, Costell said, and even fewer understand what a world without frogs would entail.
“Some people come here to the zoo and they say, ‘Man, it’s only a frog,’ ” Costell said. But when he holds his charges in his hands, he knows better.
Leap Day deals
The Florida Aquarium and Lowry Park Zoo are joining a nationwide celebration of Leap Day to raise awareness about dangers facing frogs and other amphibians.
– Friday, Florida Aquarium will offer a Leap Day admission rate of $29 for up to four (a four-person visit would normally cost $72) and free admission to anyone born on Feb.29. (813) 273-4000; http://www.flaquarium.org.
– Lowry Park Zoo plans to celebrate Leap Day on Saturday with a scavenger hunt for kids and talks by herpetologists throughout the day at the zoo’s discovery center. (813) 935-8552; http://www.lowryparkzoo.com.
For more information, go to http://www.amphibianark.org.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story. Freelance writer Mallary Jean Tenore is the James N. Naughton fellow at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists that owns the Times.
If you like frogs (as I do!), take a look at The Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s gallery of frog photos.
I never thought I’d be a Twitterer who twittered tweets. That’s what I told myself when I first started researching Twitter and its benefit for journalists. Now, I use Twitter on a daily basis, not so much to tell people what I’m doing but more so to keep up with what people are talking about and to find interesting links to news articles and Web sites.
I started keeping track of news organizations that have Twitter pages and interviewed journalists to hear how they use them. Based on what I learned, I wrote two articles about Twitter and its use in the newsroom: “Newsies Twittering on Twitter” and “Experimenting with Twitter: How Newsrooms Are Using It to Reach More Users.” Lately, I’ve been teaching my colleagues at The Poynter Institute how to use Twitter. I’ve put together a Twitter tip sheet, which I’ve copied and pasted below. Feel free to add any feedback you might have.
How have you found Twitter to be helpful, if at all?
TWITTER
“I never thought I’d be a Twitterer who twittered tweets…”
Setting up a Twitter account:
1.) Go to http://www.twitter.com
2.) Create a username, password and profile
Twitter asks:
“What are you doing?” You have 140 characters to respond to this question. Your “followers” (Twitter friends) can read your updates.
What’s the point?
Twitter is a form of microblogging. Many news organizations are using this social networking site to post breaking news updates. Some news organizations, such as The New York Times, have RSS feeds fed to their Twitter page. Others only post Twitter updates when major events take place.
You can also use Twitter to find story ideas, pose questions when looking for sources for a story and to see what’s irking people/what people are talking about on a given day. To do that: You can’t just go and update your station’s twitter account. Or your station’s Web site. You need to get inside these networks and become a part of communities. If you’re just sending information, you’re essentially a broadcaster. You need to receive and take part in the back-and-forth.
What do I put in a “Tweet” (Twitter update)?
Some people write random thoughts, pose questions, post links to interesting articles, comment on public events as they’re taking place. This happens, for instance, during presidential debates, major sporting events, etc. The more people/news organizations you follow on Twitter, the easier it will be to see how the site works.
Who’s on Twitter?
To find out who is a “Twitterer” (Twitter user) you can search for people in the Twitter search box, or you can type in the following URLs: (The name after the “.com/” is the Twitterer’s username.)
• Poynter: http://twitter.com/Poynter
• The New York Times: http://twitter.com/nytimes
• The Portland Oregonian: http://twitter.com/oregonian
• The Orlando Sentinel: http://twitter.com/orlandosentinel
• Atlanta Journal Constitution: http://twitter.com/ajc
• National Public Radio: http://twitter.com/nprnews
• CNN: http://twitter.com/cnn
• ESPN – http://twitter.com/espn
• C/net News: http://twitter.com/CNETNews
• Barack Obama: http://twitter.com/BarackObama
• Newsdesigner: http://twitter.com/newsdesigner
• Center for Innovation in College Media: http://twitter.com/CICM
• Joe Grimm (job updates): http://twitter.com/newsrecruiter
• Los Angeles Fire Department: http://twitter.com/LAFD
• http://twitter.com/steveouting
• Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine blogger, journalism professor at CUNY: http://twitter.com/jeffjarvis
• Andrew Devigal, New York Times multimedia editor: http://twitter.com/drewvigal
• Julie Mason, White House correspondent, Houston Chronicle: http://twitter.com/juliemason
• Amy Gahran, E-Media Tidbits editor: http://twitter.com/agahran
• Steve Outing, E-Media Tidbits contributor: http://twitter.com/steveouting
Here is a more detailed list of news organizations/journalists on Twitter.
**You can also visit http://www.terraminds.com and search for keywords such as “Obama,” “Race and ethnicity,” “Superbowl,” etc., and see a listing of Tweets from Twitterers who have used these keywords in their posts. (Good for reporting purposes when looking for sources.)
Privacy:
Avoid using your full name as your Twitter username. “Tweets” (Twitter posts) can turn up in Google searches.
I could only see his gray tuft of hair from behind a sea of heads, but I heard his powerful words. The words came from Elie Wiesel, a man who survived the Holoucast and survived to tell his story. And boy is it a story worth telling. Even from just hearing him talk for a half hour, I felt empowered and motivated to want to do better.
Wiesel was the guest speaker at Thursday night’s convocation at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. He talked about the value of education, and how it should go hand-in-hand with morality. Wiesel didn’t talk in length about his experiences, but his words reflected years of wisdom — the kind of wisdom that can only come from hardship, discernment of meaning, and survival.
I couldn’t resist writing down Wiesel’s words of wisdom and advice. Here are some highlights from his speech:
“There’s a Chinese proverb that says, ‘When the finger points at the moon, only the imbecile looks at the finger.’ The teacher’s role is to tell you where to look.”
“The world must know how to learn from its own mistakes.”
“Plato called philosophy the ‘silence of a free man.'”
“Knowledge in itself is not enough — it must have a moral dimension.”
“I am not defined by my relationship with God. I am defined by my relationship with my fellow human beings.”
“Racism: It is not only unfair. It’s not only immoral. It is stupid.”
“I’ve always believed that culture is a shield.”
“The Jew in me still believes in prayer. I don’t have the answer to how come the prayers of children are not received.”
Weisel said he once had a professor who asked him who the most tragic character in the Bible is. The answer? God. “He gave us a world, and look at what we are doing to this world.”
Wisely put, Mr. Wiesel …
(As it appeared on http://www.poynter.org)
I just wrote an article for Poynter Online about the public’s distrust in the media. I got the idea for the story after reading Sacred Heart University’s recent media reliability study, which finds that 86 percent of the public agreed (strongly or somewhat) that the news media tries to influence public policies. This is up from 76.7% in 2003, according to the survey.
Instead of playing the blame game and arguing about who is right and who is wrong, who is biased and who isn’t, I wanted to look at what journalists can do to help rebuild trust. After talking with a few folks, I found out about some news organizations that are actively seeking feedback from the public and working to foster a sense of trust and transparency between the public and the press. I’ve copied and pasted the article below.
Why do you think the public is so distrusting of the media?
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When Spokesman-Review staffers meet Wednesday to discuss the paper’s new ethics policy, they won’t be gathering in the newsroom. They’ll be in the public library in downtown Spokane, Wash., fielding feedback from members of the community.
Wednesday’s gathering will mark the last of three meetings The Spokesman-Review has scheduled to hear what the public has to say — good and bad — about the paper’s new ethics policy. The meetings are just one example of what news organizations across the country are doing to help rebuild credibility and trust.
Surveys have told us for years that a growing number of people don’t trust the media. But when you think of this in terms of democratic values, it may not be such bad news after all.
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“We have some critical citizens who are not naively accepting as truth the news they consume,” said Dr. James Castonguay, associate professor and chair of Sacred Heart University’s Department of Media Studies and Digital Culture, who helped oversee the university’s recent media reliability study. “Maybe people see themselves as taking a more responsible and active role in the democratic process to check sources and be more active consumers of news.”
The Spokesman-Review has an online feature, “The Transparent Newsroom,” dedicated in part to hearing the needs of critical, active news consumers. The feature includes 10 blogs and a live Webcast of daily newsroom meetings to help the public better understand the work journalists do.
Here are some highlights from The Transparent Newsroom:
1.) Spokesman-Review editor Steven A. Smith’s blog, “News Is a Conversation.” Created in May 2005, the blog was originally run by five to six community members who wrote about their thoughts on the paper’s coverage. After the blog got to be too much of a commitment for the community members, Smith decided to take over.
 Steve Smith
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He posts to the blog just about every day, covering a variety of news and sharing comments he receives about the ethics policy. He recently posted a list of suggestions that The Spokesman-Review‘s editorial page editor Doug Floyd compiled after the paper’s last community meeting:
Other comments are less practical, such as one older reader’s suggestion that the paper decorate its pages with flourishes and filigree and that it replace its photographs with line drawings and lithographs.
2.) Daily Briefings: A blog that lists updates from The Spokesman-Review‘s daily news meetings and provides readers with links to published stories, videos and blogs that were discussed during the previous day’s news meeting.
3.) Ask the Editors: Spokesman editors Steve Smith, Carla Savalli, Gary Graham and Doug Floyd answer readers’ questions about the paper’s operations and editorial decisions. Some recent questions and comments the editors have responded to include, “Where’s your Afghanistan coverage?”, “Can comments with mature content be moved to another page?” and “The Spokesman-Review needs more relevant local coverage.”
4.) News Diary — Managing Editor Gary Graham writes regularly on this blog about issues in the news and the inner-workings of a newsroom.
5.) Live Webcasts of The Spokesman-Review‘s 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. meetings. Smith said the morning Webcast news meetings attract about 40 to 50 viewers. The afternoon meetings attract about 10 or more. The meetings are also open to anyone who wants to attend them in person, Smith said.
Smith has been a long-time advocate of the civic journalism of the early ’90s. When managing editor of The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, Smith and other editors in the newsroom went to churches, malls and recreation centers to talk to readers about public issues. When he was editor of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo., Smith led an effort to invite community groups to the newsroom to critique and audit the paper’s journalism. Similarly, when Smith was editor at The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Ore., the paper held open news meetings that attracted community visitors almost daily.
Smith compares readers’ standards for the paper to the standards the paper holds for governments and other institutions it reports on. At the root of it all is transparency. The goal is not, Smith said, for the public to start controlling the press or the content it produces, but rather to strengthen the relationship between the press and communities it serves.
“Journalists always retain the right to say no. Transparency is not the same as passivity,” Smith said. “When you’re as open as we are, it’s possible to engage in a debate with readers in ways that we couldn’t in the past. When people pitch us an idea it still has to be vetted in all the ways that stories do: Is it important enough? Does it match up with our values?”
The downside to being so transparent is that the paper opens itself up to criticism from the industry, and it becomes easier for newsroom competitors to see what the paper is up to.
But the positives far outweigh the negatives, says Ryan Pitts, online director at The Spokesman-Review, who helped create the Transparent Newsroom blogs. “We realized that any time you hear from one reader with a question, they probably represent a much larger group that has that exact same question,” Pitts said. “We are really looking at blogs as a way to show that there are actually human faces behind this newsroom.”
People will criticize the paper whether editors know about it or not, so it’s better that editors be aware of the criticism, Pitts said. If it’s good, thoughtful criticism, then the paper will consider making changes. If it’s inaccurate, the paper works to counteract it with the truth.
Similar to The Spokesman-Review, WFTX-TV, a Fox-affiliated station in Cape Coral, Fla., addresses the public’s concerns in its “Viewers’ Bill of Rights” and its “Viewers’ Voice” feature, which gives viewers a chance to discuss their thoughts on the station’s recent coverage of events. In the “Viewers’ Voice” section, WFTX news director Forrest Carr publishes viewers’ concerns — such as one viewer’s belief that Fox 4 has a liberal bias — and responds to them.
In a recent interview with Poynter Online, WFTX’s news director, Forrest Carr, said the station aims to uphold democracy, “giving voice to everyday people, in all their diversity, and helping them to hold the powerful accountable. We state what we stand for. And we hold ourselves accountable to the public.”
At The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., members of the community are invited to attend the paper’s page one meetings. The number of people who attend the meetings fluctuates, and sometimes no one attends, but the invitation is always there, says Linda Williams, senior editor for news at The News & Observer.
The paper also hosts a readers’ panel, which the paper’s public editor, Ted Vaden, oversees. The rotating group of readers who make up the panel meet with various editors on a monthly basis to talk about what they do and don’t like about the paper.
“We ask them to give us feedback … and invariably they say ‘I had a completely different idea about what this was about, and I see you don’t have an agenda, and I see you put thought into this,'” Williams said. “People come away with less of a feeling that’s there’s a group of people making random decisions without a philosophy of reader interest behind it.”
Efforts like these help move us toward a better understanding of the story behind the public’s distrust of the media. Journalists and the public still have a lot of work to do, and the polls will continue to tell us this, but we also have a valuable opportunity to reshape the story together in a way that fosters healthy dialogue, transparency and trust.
[How might news organizations help build the trust of the public?]
Lots of people give me books as presents. They know I love to read and that I someday want a library in my dream house. I laugh when people give me books about love. Once, my grandma bought me Dr. Phil’s book, “Love Smart: Find the One You Want, Fix the One You’ve Got.” She thought good ol’ Phil could give me good old fashioned advice on relationships.
I believe books teach us a lot about life, love, passion, but I’ve never been one to get much out of instructional love books. I’d rather read about Scarlett O’Hara getting whisked off her feet by the handsome Rhett Butler, or about Cecilia Tallis falling for the innocent Robbie Turner in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. I’d rather read books that show, not tell.
Every once in a while, I like to read quote books. Just this week, I opened my mailbox to find a package from my family. Enclosed was the book “Love: Quotes and Passages from the Heart,” with the inscription, “May you find your true love.” Oh my.
I’ve heard a lot of quotes about love lately, like this one from “Sex and the City”:
“Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate. Without them, what would shape our lives? Perhaps if we never veered off course, we wouldn’t fall in love, or have babies, or be who we are. After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it’s comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart.”
One of my favorites is from “Love Actually”: (A bit cliche, but I can’t help but like this movie.)
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspision love actually is all around.”
Love is all around. I don’t need a Dr. Phill book to tell me that.
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(Video part of an “Invisible Narrative” project recently mentioned on Gangrey.com.)
One of my new favorite Web sites is Gangrey.com. Run by a handful of young writers at the St. Petersburg Times, Gangrey is like a well-kept candy shop open to anyone who appreciates good writing. There are often links on the site to quality stories from newspapers around the country, like this one from The Washington Post‘s Hank Stuever, or this one by Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen. The articles generate a decent amount of discussion on the site.
Sometimes the discussion and practice of good writing in the newsroom gets lost amidst talk of multimedia. Figuring out how to tell multimedia stories is no doubt important and good, but writing should never have to suffer as a result. Gangrey’s got the right idea in creating a site that expresses “a writer’s approach to helping bail water out of a sinking ship,” and helps “prolong the slow death of newspapers.”
A Gangrey post featured an interesting YouTube video about a project called “Invisible Narrative.” The project, according to SpicyBiscotti.com, “aims to bring to light an unwritten history and narrative in the spaces that are inhabited daily by nameless and faceless people. The idea is that you [everyone] would carry an ultraviolet pen, writing your thoughts, interactions, and stories wherever you go. If pervasive enough, anyone could throw a black light on any wall and find an account of a life or history that is unspoken and unknown. The ultimate goal of the project is to give the ever multiplying, lifeless and sterile spaces of today a bit of humanity.” So cool.
The project reminds me of the cubicles at Providence College’s Phillips Memorial Library (or Club Phill’s as we used to call it). Many a nights, I would find myself staring at the cubicle walls instead of studying, because the walls told stories. Usually the “stories” were bookmarks in time, proclamations of love, or profanity-ridden: “Mike wuz here,” “Joey loves Mary,” “F—- math exams.” I used to wonder who wrote them and what the messages meant. Where’s Mike now? Did Joey still love Mary? Did Mary ever love Joey?
Good writing, invisible narratives — they’re out there. We just need to find them. What good writing have you stumbled across lately?
My new car — a little big, but fun to drive. A bit of an upgrade from my ’93 Ford Tempo! RIP, little Tempo.
My dad, the car fanatic that he is, sent me a list of car buying tips and a list of recommended cars when I told him I needed to buy a new car. My dad subscribes to seven car magazines, belongs to two corvette clubs and can often be found in the garage polishing or dusting off his car. He wants to move to the south to get away from the snow — and so he can drive his cars year-round rather than having them get “get ruined” from the salty Massachusetts roads. I’ll never quite understand my dad’s love for cars, but I can appreciate it. I especially appreciated it when he sent me the car buying tips sheets. A couple of my Poynter colleagues suggested I publish the tips. I’ve copy and pasted them below, in case you’re in the market for some new wheels. (Even if you’re not, these are good tips to save!)
Dad’s and Consumer Report’s preferences, based on availability, service, dependability, money’s worth:
Acura CL 01 $6,000 to $7,500 (similar to the Honda Accord) mid size, sporty 4 door car
Acura TL 01-02 $6,200 to $8,000 mid size 4 door car (Acuras have a higher than average theft rate)
*Chevrolet Cavalier 04 $6,000 to $8,000 2 and 4 door car, 2 door is sporty
*Chevy Cobalt 05 $7,000 and up. Nice car, 2 and 4 door, 2 door is sporty.
Chevrolet Malibu 03-04 $5,000 to $8,000 mid size 4 door car
Chevrolet Prism 02 $4,900 to $6,500 economy 4 door car
*Ford Escort and Escort ZX2 03 $4,800 to $6,000 economy 2 and 4 door car
*Ford Focus 03-04 $5,000 to 9,000 economy 4 door car
*Ford Mustang V6 01 to 03 $5,200 to $8,200 good looking, sporty, dependable- low theft rate
*Ford Taurus 03 to 04 $2,800 to $6,000 large 4 door car
Hondas have a very high theft rate. That is why I cannot recommend an Accord or a Civic.
*Hyundai Sonata 03-04 $5,200 to $7,000 mid size, good looking, well optioned 4 door car
Kia Optima 04-05 $5,700 to $8,000 economy mid-sized 4 door car
*Mazda6 02-03 $4,300 to $8,000 sporty mid sized 4 door car
Mazda Protégé 03 $5,800 to $8,000 small sporty car
*Nissan Altima 01 $4,200 to $8,000 sporty mid-sized 4 door car
Nissan Sentra 03-05 $5,500 to $8,000 economy 4 door car
Pontiac Grand Prix 02-03 $4,900 to $8,000 sporty 4 door car
Pontiac Sunfire 03-05 $5,200 to $8,000 Pontiac’s version of the Cavalier
Saturn L Series, L300 02-03 $5,000 to $8,000 upscale economy 4 door car
*Saturn S Series (SL 4 door or SC coupe) 03-05 $5,800 to $8,000
*Toyota Corolla 02-03 $5,200-$8,000, economy 4 door car
* Toyota Echo 03-04 $5,500-$8,000, ugly but dependable economy 4 door car
*High on the recommended list
Do not consider any Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Audi, Isuzu, Oldsmobile, Saab, Volvo, Plymouth, or Dodge. They are generally very unreliable and often hard to get parts for.
Figure on 12,000 miles per year as an average. In this price range, look for a car with less than 75,000 miles. You can pick up an 03 or 04 with less than 40,000 miles on it.
TIPS FROM DAD ON BUYING A USED CAR:
Don’t let the seller know that you need a car now. He/she will be less willing to negotiate. Every seller is desperate to get rid of his car, so he/she is usually willing to work with you.
Don’t let your emotions get the best of you, and make sure that the salesperson does not see that you are excited about a car. Remain neutral when looking at several cars, because the salesman has to “sell” all of them to you. Don’t make it easy for him. He will work much harder when he is not sure what you want. If he already knows what you want, then the ball is in his court, and you very little, if any bargaining power. Any dealer should give you a 30-day warranty on a used car. Find out what that warranty covers.
Every car you look at a dealership is going to look good initially. Even a bad car can look good from 10 feet away when it is clean and waxed. Walk around the car; are there any cracks in the glass? Are the wheels scraped from hitting the curb? Are their little parking dings? Are the headlight and taillight lens in good shape? What are the tires like? Are they worn unevenly? If the tires on the back of the car are worn unevenly, then they switched the front and rear tires to hide a problem with the front suspension. Does the car sit evenly at all 4 corners? A tape measure is good for this. Measure each fender from the highest point of the fender opening to the ground. The height of both front fenders should match and the height of both rear fenders should match.
Even the least expensive cars manufactured today have good body fit and finish If the gap between different body panels is not consistent from side to side, then there is a good chance that the car was in an accident.
Don’t be talked into spending more money on features that you don’t need. Your Tempo had crank-up windows and one power door lock. It is better to get a lower optioned car in good condition than to get a higher optioned car in worse condition. As long as the A/C works, you are okay. Once you buy the car, make sure you use the A/C every day for a week. They can add refrigerant to a car with a bad A/C system to sell the car, but within a week, all of the refrigerant will leak out. If you don’t use the A/C for a month and then find out it doesn’t work, you have an impossible time convincing the dealer to accept responsibility.
Make sure everything works. Check the radio, heater, automatic trunk opener, automatic gas door opener, power windows and power locks, power seats, cruise control, wipers-all speeds, windshield washer fluid, parking brake, turn signals, horn, etc. Does the car have a spare tire and jack? It is against the law to sell a car without an owner’s manual. Do all of the seat belts work? Are they in good shape? Are the rubber pads on the brake and gas pedals in good shape? If the pedal covers are all worn and the seller says the car only has 28,000 miles on it, the car probably has 128,000 miles on it.
Look at the rubber weather stripping. Bad weather stripping is expensive to replace. Is there any paint over spray on the rubber? If so, then that part of the car has been repaired. If you carry a magnet with you, (take along refrigerator magnet), you can try to attach the magnet to various metal parts of the body. If it doesn’t stick, that part of the car has body filler in it. Of course, the magnet won’t stick to rubber or plastic parts of the car.
Turn the key on, but do not start the engine. Check the lights on the dashboard. The air bag should light, and then go out. Often times when the car has been in an accident the air bag is not replaced, because they cost about $1,500, and the scrupulous auto body shop would rather pocket that money, and you’ll never know you don’t have one until it is too late.
With over 10,000 cars water damaged by Hurricane Katrina, many of those cars have made it to used car lots in the South. Look at the door panels. Are they wavy? Does the carpet look like it has shrunk at all? Is there even a hint of mustiness inside the car? Lift the trunk carpet. Do you see signs of noticeable rust along the inner fenders or in the well where the spare tire is? Is the spare tire wheel rusty? (A little rust in the spare tire compartment is common).
Look under the hood. Check the condition of the hoses? Are they soft and pliable (good) or are they hard or budging (bad)? Look at the serpentine belt, Twist it over, is it cracked underneath? Does the car start right up? Does the battery sound like it is on its last legs? Things like this should not discourage you from buying the car, as they are nomal wear items, but if you can get the dealer to replace them as part of the deal, so much the better. However, follow this method. Write down things like this, but don’t say anything, (you did bring a pad of paper and pen with you, didn’t you?) If you decide you want the car, ask what the price is. Offer less. He is going to ask more than he is willing to let it go for, but does deserve to get paid what it is worth.
After he gives you his price, and talks about the warranty, then you can come back and say that you noticed that the car will need a new serpentine belt, there is a stain on the back seat cushion, and the windshield washer fluid container is cracked. Ask him to replace/repair these things at his offered price. Also make sure that they fix what they say they are going to fix. If you cannot make an agreement, thank him for his time and tell him that you are going to keep looking. Give him your number. Chances are that he is not going to sell the car that day. You can always go back later in the day, or the next day. If he knows that you are walking off the lot and he is missing a $7,000 sale over $200, he’ll likely offer you a better deal.
When you check under the hood, open the radiator, not the overfill tank. DO THIS WHEN THE ENGINE IS COLD. The fluid in the radiator should be a clean green or clean orange. There should be absolutely no rust in the radiator. Check the oil. Is is relatively clean looking? Even new oil looks dirty after 1,000 miles. There should be no traces of water on the dipstick. If the car is an automatic, after you test-drive it, check the transmission fluid. It should not smell burned and should not be brown. It should be red in color. If the car has a standard transmission, how far down do you have to push the clutch in before the car goes into gear? The further down you have to push the clutch pedal, the more worn the clutch is. A clutch should last for at least 70,000 miles. Make sure the break fluid level at the correct height in the master cylinder? If it is low, that usually means that the car has brake problems. If the top of the battery is very dirty and the fluid levels are low, it shows signs that the previous owner did not care much about the car, and that the dealer cares even less.
Drive the car. Hit the brakes. Does it stop in a straight line or does it pull to the left or right. Take your hands off the steering wheel. Does the car continue to drive in a straight
line? If not, the car need front end suspension work or it may have frame damage from a previous accident. At a low speed, turn the front wheels all the way from right to left. A clunking sound on a front-wheel drive car usually indicates that you need new CV (constant velocity) joints. They are the universal joints that connect the drive shafts from the engine to the front wheels. Expect to pay $300 to replace both of them. Look at the boots anyway. They look like black rubber bellows. If they are cracked, or grease is oozing out of them, then you are going to need new CV joints in a very short period of time, even if they are not making noise yet.
Check the exhausts system. Does it look like it is in good shape? Almost all cars now come with stainless steel exhaust pipes, so they should look good.
If you are buying the car from a large Ford dealer on Rte 19, you can probably trust their service department. If you are buying the car from a private party or from a corner used car lot, then don’t even consider it if they won’t let you have your mechanic look at it.
Word on the Street 