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Clark Howard's Tips

Are your car batteries dying often?

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Clark had to replace two car batteries recently and it made him start to wonder if something was wrong with the battery industry.

It turns out that it's not the battery at all, according to the Dow Jones news wire. It's the driver's fault for plugging all kinds of devices into the car's charger plugs.

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Clark bought a device called an "inverter," which plugs into his cigarette lighter. It cost him $12 and allows him to plug just about any kind of gizmo into it. But it has ended up costing him much more than $12, now that two of his batteries have died.

Portable GPS units are the main culprits, according to the report. And there are soon to be millions more of the devices on the market. That's because GPS units will probably be $100 or less by Thanksgiving time.

Try to use chargers in your home if possible.

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