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Today's topics are "Best Of Clark" repeats from recent shows

Charles Shaw wine, an inexpensive brand out of California, has changed the entire wine-selling industry. The Shaw wine -- more commonly called "Two Buck Chuck" because it retails for about $1.99/bottle -- has now sold over 300 million bottles in five years, according to The Oregonian. In fact, one out of every 12 bottles of wine sold in California is now Two Buck Chuck. Maybe it's because the brand routinely does well in blind taste tests. It used to be that $15 was the price point that people would not go below to get wine; but because Two Buck Chuck actually tastes good, people now know that they are able to get good wine for a reasonable price. Now when you go into warehouse clubs and other stores, you find a lot of affordable wine. Clark doesn't really care for wine, but he does love a bargain. So he raises his can of Coke Zero to all those who've discovered that vino doesn't have to cost a lot to be good.

Everywhere you go people think that they're surrounded by the worst drivers in the country. So GMAC Insurance did a study of licensed drivers to actually determine where the best and worst drivers are congregated. The worst drivers are found in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Georgia. The most knowledgeable drivers live in Idaho, Alaska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas. Think you're a great driver? You can take the free test to determine where you rank at GMAC Insurance.

When you use a car dealer to finance your auto loan, the dealer will mark it up as much as they can. But the average black customer buying a new car pays an interest rate that's 40 percent higher than the average white customer -- even after accounting for differences in credit scores. Hispanics, meanwhile, pay almost the same as non-Hispanic whites, just slightly higher. In the used-car market, one in three blacks pay an interest rate that is above 15 percent, while the average rate for a white person is less than 10 percent. Clark thinks it's a shame that this residual racism is still around in 2007.

If you dig deeper into this story, you'll really find that anyone who doesn't get pre-qualified for a car loan will pay more than they should. So Clark advises anybody seeking an auto loan to get pre-qualified at a credit union, which will offer lower rates than a bank. Think about it like this: You may have spent hours researching your car thoroughly, but you've got to do the same on the loan. Dealers are entitled to make money on a loan if you don't do homework and get pre-qualified elsewhere. Historically, that mark-up had been about 10 percent points. After all the legal settlements of the past few years, however, it now is usually three percent. That means if a bank offers you a car loan for 5 percent, the dealer will offer the same loan for 8 percent. So whether you're black or not, it pays to get pre-qualified for an auto loan.

Do you need yet another reason to dump the three monopoly phone companies -- Verizon, AT&T and Qwest -- and their outdated landlines? Well, here it is: Verizon is playing dirty pool by getting into the AT&T game of charging customers a fee for long distance even if you don't use long distance. The Verizon fee is a couple of bucks a month, but AT&T had been charging people between three and five dollars to not use long distance! So unless you absolutely need a landline, why not liberate yourself? Here's the problem the phone companies are facing: They fought very hard to be able to sell long distance, but then people started using their cell phones, pre-paid cards, the Internet and/or cable phone companies to make their long distance calls. In fact, the cable companies usually offer unlimited long distance. So now the monopoly phone companies are fighting a losing battle.

Clark advises anyone who has older parents to go through their phone bill and see if you can save them money by enrolling them in Lifeline, which is a much more affordable tariff-rated service that seniors can get. Also be aware that if your parents have been in same residence since the early '80s, they may be paying a lease for telephones they had back then. Those fees could cumulatively amount to thousands of dollars, so be on the lookout on your folks' behalf. Finally, one last tip for saving money when it comes to your landline: If you pay for an unlisted number, why not just change it to a listed number and make up the name in the listing? Clark doesn't care if you call yourself Abraham Lincoln, the point is just to stop paying extra and unnecessary fees!