Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

berri

I think most pretty new cars have higher premiums because of the added repair costs from all these automated radar/camera type things now embedded into the vehicle.

abacomike

carnaught said:

73 degrees here and sunny, high 40’s at night (great sleep weather). This weekend getting down to the high 60’s, 30% chance of rain. Sorry, but it makes up for our summer 100’s (don’t have to shovel it though).

In Arizona, carnaught, there are many other things to shovel besides sand - as you are aware!

bwia

suydam said:

We had AAA for many years, but now with 2 GM cars we could activate Onstar in an emergency, so I dropped it.

Same here. And I have used OnStar twice. The first time they towed my car to the dealership and the second time a guy showed up in a sports car. He removed the damaged tire and fitted a donot replacement that allowed me to drive home without a fuss.

When we had AAA we used them for new car financing (always the lowest rates) and for  auto and home insurance underwritten by Commerce Insurance Co.

abacomike

berri said:

I think most pretty new cars have higher premiums because of the added repair costs from all these automated radar/camera type things now embedded into the vehicle.

I agree with you, berry. There is so much in the way of technology that doesn't take much in the way of parts to repair or fix - it has to do with the labor/shop costs. I thought $80.00 an hour was a lot to pay for shop costs - but when I found out that it's almost double that at most dealership service departments, I excreted a brick. The average mechanic at my Mercedes Benz Dealership earns over $90,000 a year if overtime is included. Don't need a college degree to earn big money today - it's the trades that earn big money - plumbers, carpenters, AC and HVAC specialists. That's the major reason insurance rates are so high. Don't forget the litigious populous when it comes to high liability awards in the courts.

oldfarmer50

ronsteve said:

graphicguy said:

To raise fossil fuel prices is a fool’s play. GM said they are focusing on EVs, as is VW, as is just about every other world wide manufacturer. That will put continued downward pressure on gas prices. Raise bbl oil price? Sure, that’s just hastening the oil refinery’s demise as they now know it.

Eventually it's going to happen. Before the 1973-74 embargo, OPEC could make money at $6/bbl. I'm sure there is still SOME oil being extracted that easily, but most of it can no longer be gotten out of the ground that cheaply. The shale and fracking plays cost closer to $40/bbl, and I seem to recall that all those wonderful reserves off the Brazilian coast that people were talking about 10 years ago would cost $70-80/bbl.

We have already pumped and used most, if not all of the "easy" oil. Eventually there will be a legit supply crisis.

If only they would mandate solar panels on the roof of every Walmart in the country we could turn off all the oil wells. seriously though, all those big box roofs being wasted is a shame.

oldfarmer50

dino001 said:

ronsteve said:

Eventually it's going to happen. Before the 1973-74 embargo, OPEC could make money at $6/bbl. I'm sure there is still SOME oil being extracted that easily, but most of it can no longer be gotten out of the ground that cheaply. The shale and fracking plays cost closer to $40/bbl, and I seem to recall that all those wonderful reserves off the Brazilian coast that people were talking about 10 years ago would cost $70-80/bbl.

We have already pumped and used most, if not all of the "easy" oil. Eventually there will be a legit supply crisis.

To make things even funnier, shale oil supply suffers from lack of transportation infrastructure, which forces those companies to sell it at discount to the benchmark prices to compensate buyers transportation expenses.

The thing with the oil prices is when they get too low, marginal production drops, when they get too high, marginal production goes up. Overlay that with unregulated over-leveraged commodity futures market, where players with small amount of own capital can control pricing (commodity prices are always controlled by last barrel/pound/ton) - of course until they can't and you get those wild swings and overreaches. As the old adage says, best cure for high prices are higher prices and best cure for low prices are lower prices.

Commodity investors and company managements are often very smart and very dumb at the same time. The problem is, we consumers get subjected to those swings and our lives get affected. We should get build-in resistance to that, but planning for uncertain future or contingencies is not strongest suit of an American consumer, so when things happen you get a lot of hysterical reactions. I couldn't believe how irrational people got when oil prices went over $100. Immediate trading of their Explorer SUV at depressed trade price, jumping into undersized small cars and paying top dollar for them. Those thousands of dollars amounted into years of gas at elevated price, but you couldn't convince them. They could "handle" new monthly payment, but somehow extra 50 bucks per month on gas was killing their budgets. It really revealed to me people have zero applied math skills. Sometimes those people were engineers or other types of educated people, you'd think they possess ability to arrange a few numbers and calculate their outcome. I just couldn't believe it.

Quite the opportunity for the clever used car buyer/seller.

imidazol97

Nobody read my text about taking car show selfies of myself and posting them with a new camera or
someone would have commented how nice that would be and suggest I wear a striped shirt.

So don't expect sympathy with the cold that's sweeping down with this global cooling period. Just put on those long underwear. 18 deg. F.

oldfarmer50

When I go to car shows I just take pictures of the cars.

ronsteve

driver100 said:

suydam said:

We had AAA for many years, but now with 2 GM cars we could activate Onstar in an emergency, so I dropped it.

A lot of people dropped AAA because car companies are offering these services now. But, if you keep the car past the warranty period you may want to consider it again.

We plan to always have one car that's out of warranty (the 2-car/1-payment strategy) so between that and the hotel/Hertz discounts AAA is worth keeping.

imidazol97

oldfarmer50 said:

When I go to car shows I just take pictures of the cars.

The cars are better looking than I am. But someone needs to keep up with Driver's picture.

houdini2

oldfarmer50 said:

ronsteve said:

graphicguy said:

To raise fossil fuel prices is a fool’s play. GM said they are focusing on EVs, as is VW, as is just about every other world wide manufacturer. That will put continued downward pressure on gas prices. Raise bbl oil price? Sure, that’s just hastening the oil refinery’s demise as they now know it.

Eventually it's going to happen. Before the 1973-74 embargo, OPEC could make money at $6/bbl. I'm sure there is still SOME oil being extracted that easily, but most of it can no longer be gotten out of the ground that cheaply. The shale and fracking plays cost closer to $40/bbl, and I seem to recall that all those wonderful reserves off the Brazilian coast that people were talking about 10 years ago would cost $70-80/bbl.

We have already pumped and used most, if not all of the "easy" oil. Eventually there will be a legit supply crisis.

If only they would mandate solar panels on the roof of every Walmart in the country we could turn off all the oil wells. seriously though, all those big box roofs being wasted is a shame.

Let's start negotiating with Walmart and start an electric utility company !

cdnpinhead

imidazol97 said:

This old one has patina. Smile. Plus it was used by my brother who was killed in 1944 in WWII. I also have a dolly and hammer he used to shape fenders, etc..

I understand completely. I used to have a Crescent wrench that my dad had on his amphibious tractor while he was on Iwo Jima with the 5th Marine division. I treasured it, but sadly one of the boys lost it about 20 years ago.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

abacomike I just got my Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance renewal for the new policy year effect 12/30/18. They raised my insurance rates from $2280 a year to $3100 a year

. Part of the old insurance company scam. They give you decent rates for 3 years then try to stiff you when you aren't expecting it. Mark it on your calendar, change insurance companies 3 years from now.

We have been with State Farm for about 20 years, every time we shop around they tend to be competitive so we have found no reason to switch. The only issue we had was they weren't very competitive for the bike.

cdnpinhead

dino001 said:

It really revealed to me people have zero applied math skills. Sometimes those people were engineers or other types of educated people, you'd think they possess ability to arrange a few numbers and calculate their outcome. I just couldn't believe it.

That lotteries are so popular also illustrates a lack of applied math skills among the general public.

pensfan83

Well this is interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/us/ohio-business-pay-taxes-with-bitcoin-trnd/index.html

abacomike

Love those heated seats in my car.  First time I have ever used them.  49 degrees this morning.  Brrrt!  

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

The question is.......who belongs to AAA and what are your thoughts?

I don't have a drinking problem so I don't have any experience with them.

But seriously in 40 plus years of driving I don't think I ever had a need for any roadside assistance. Several flats that I have changed myself and the one time I ran out of gas I was literally pulling into the gas station when the car died. Had to push the car maybe 40 to 50 feet to get to the pump.

That being said the Hyundai came with roadside assistance for a period of time/miles and my motorcycle insurance has it (hard to carry a spare on a bike, but I do have a patch kit). 

snakeweasel

abacomike said:

I thought I asked you guys up north “nicely” to keep your cold weather up there and leave us alone!  Lows in the 40’s tonight down here and highs only in the 50’s tomorrow.  Now cut that out - keep your cold weather to yourselves!

Lows in the 40s? Right now we would kill for a high of 40.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

I thought I asked you guys up north “nicely” to keep your cold weather up there and leave us alone!  Lows in the 40’s tonight down here and highs only in the 50’s tomorrow.  Now cut that out - keep your cold weather to yourselves!

We can’t help it. Driver100 keeps sending us all his lousy weather and we have to put ours somewhere.

Hey, this last one came across from the mid West and hit Chicago. But, yes, this one came from the North...but, remember, it originates in the Arctic, it just happens to pass through us on the way to you.

This last one I was dreading the drive into work. However not many people 9n the road so while slow driving traffic kept moving.

I did notice that the city I work in had installed energy efficient bulbs in their traffic lights. How do I know? high efficiency bulbs give of practically no heat so the snow that accumulates on the lens doesn't melt.

bwia

What's up with Genesis?

It would appear that sales of the Genesis brand have tanked. But not really. The problem is that there are not nearly enough stand-alone Genesis dealerships. According to Hyundai franchise dealership arrangements only Genesis dealers can sell the Genesis brand. Hyundai can longer sell the Genesis G80 and G90. This has led to a messy situation for 2019 models.

Hyundai dealerships with left over 2018 Genesis models can continue to sell them but not the 2019. That's why the 2019 G70 is so hard to find. It is only available at stand alone Genesis dealerships. What a mess. Would anybody care to explain?

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:

When I go to car shows I just take pictures of the cars.

OK admit it, the models you are taking pictures of don't have wheels.

suydam

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

Mr_Shiftright

Had a good experience at the local AAA office yesterday. I was able to register the "new" car I bought for 2019, insure it, drop some coverages on the Mini, which is going to be sold, applied for title in my name, made some adjustments to my homeowner's policy. All done in 30 minutes a few blocks from my house. Nice.

oldfarmer50

pensfan83 said:

Well this is interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/us/ohio-business-pay-taxes-with-bitcoin-trnd/index.html

That makes absolutely no sense to me, especially since BitCoin is in freefall these days. By the time Ohio processes the payment it could be worth 10% less.

Good opportunity for BC holders wanting to bail though.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

The question is.......who belongs to AAA and what are your thoughts?

I don't have a drinking problem so I don't have any experience with them.

But seriously in 40 plus years of driving I don't think I ever had a need for any roadside assistance. Several flats that I have changed myself and the one time I ran out of gas I was literally pulling into the gas station when the car died. Had to push the car maybe 40 to 50 feet to get to the pump.

That being said the Hyundai came with roadside assistance for a period of time/miles and my motorcycle insurance has it (hard to carry a spare on a bike, but I do have a patch kit). 

My Mitsu came with roadside assistance which I used when the battery died but I don’t know if the Ford had it. Doesent matter since I run some pretty beat up iron and few years have passed when I didn’t use AAA at least once. I’ll always keep the service in case of the lug nut problem.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

Love those heated seats in my car.  First time I have ever used them.  49 degrees this morning.  Brrrt!  

I was in Tampa for Christmas once when it was 48 and you would have thought it was the end of the world.

stickguy

My dealer is putting up a stand alone genesis store nearby, but they are selling the g70 out of the Hyundai store still.

driver100

imidazol97 said:

Nobody read my text about taking car show selfies of myself and posting them with a new camera or
someone would have commented how nice that would be and suggest I wear a striped shirt.

So don't expect sympathy with the cold that's sweeping down with this global cooling period. Just put on those long underwear. 18 deg. F.

I try to read all posts but sometimes someone posts when I do, I don't renew the page, and when I come back I miss posts occasionally

If you want to take pictures of yourself posing with cars in a horizontal striped t-shirt please be my guest, I don't mind the pressure being taken off of me..

driver100

ronsteve said:

driver100 said:

suydam said:

We had AAA for many years, but now with 2 GM cars we could activate Onstar in an emergency, so I dropped it.

A lot of people dropped AAA because car companies are offering these services now. But, if you keep the car past the warranty period you may want to consider it again.

We plan to always have one car that's out of warranty (the 2-car/1-payment strategy) so between that and the hotel/Hertz discounts AAA is worth keeping.

Good plan!

driver100

imidazol97 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

When I go to car shows I just take pictures of the cars.

The cars are better looking than I am. But someone needs to keep up with Driver's picture.

One day I am going to take a new picture....I have a great idea for it....and will banish the old picture from your mind forever.

dino001

cdnpinhead said:

dino001 said:

It really revealed to me people have zero applied math skills. Sometimes those people were engineers or other types of educated people, you'd think they possess ability to arrange a few numbers and calculate their outcome. I just couldn't believe it.

That lotteries are so popular also illustrates a lack of applied math skills among the general public.

Lotteries are not really about math skills. They're more about human's inability to "feel" correctly a probability of events. We tend to act disproportionately on things of high impact but low probability and arbitrary appearance, such as a lottery, plane crash, terrorist attack, one patient with Ebola virus on the other side of the country, but underestimate things of much higher probability (such as car accident), especially if we have at least an illusion of control (it can't happen to me, I'm a good driver).

driver100

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

Never had the joy of picking up a TripTik Road map?

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

abacomike said:

Love those heated seats in my car.  First time I have ever used them.  49 degrees this morning.  Brrrt!  

I was in Tampa for Christmas once when it was 48 and you would have thought it was the end of the world.

I saw that this morning at tennis when it was 44F. All the northern guys had shorts on........the Floridians had long pants and jackets.

snakeweasel

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

I haven't had an alternator or starter problem since 1980. I rarely have battery issues and when i do it's usually time to replace anyway. 

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

Never had the joy of picking up a TripTik Road map?

Nope but I have experienced the joy of planning my own trip.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

Love those heated seats in my car.  First time I have ever used them.  49 degrees this morning.  Brrrt!  

I was in Tampa for Christmas once when it was 48 and you would have thought it was the end of the world.

I saw that this morning at tennis when it was 44F. All the northern guys had shorts on........the Floridians had long pants and jackets.

A couple of christmases ago we were in Orlando and the temps got down to the low to mid 60s. We saw people with parkas on, we were in shorts and tee shirts.

Mr_Shiftright

snakeweasel said:

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

I haven't had an alternator or starter problem since 1980. I rarely have battery issues and when i do it's usually time to replace anyway. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can change that. Want to buy a Mini Cooper?

jmonroe1

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

abacomike said:

I thought I asked you guys up north “nicely” to keep your cold weather up there and leave us alone!  Lows in the 40’s tonight down here and highs only in the 50’s tomorrow.  Now cut that out - keep your cold weather to yourselves!

We can’t help it. Driver100 keeps sending us all his lousy weather and we have to put ours somewhere.

Hey, this last one came across from the mid West and hit Chicago. But, yes, this one came from the North...but, remember, it originates in the Arctic, it just happens to pass through us on the way to you.

This last one I was dreading the drive into work. However not many people 9n the road so while slow driving traffic kept moving.

I did notice that the city I work in had installed energy efficient bulbs in their traffic lights. How do I know? high efficiency bulbs give of practically no heat so the snow that accumulates on the lens doesn't melt.




How do you half stop a vehicle?

jmonroe

jmonroe1

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

You will now.

jmonroe

ab348

Welcome back JM (or JM1)!! Where have you been?

dino001

jmonroe1 said:

high efficiency bulbs give of practically no heat so the snow that accumulates on the lens doesn't melt.



How do you half stop a vehicle?
jmonroe

Once it half stopped, how do you half start? That's even a bigger question...

jmonroe1

dino001 said:

jmonroe1 said:

high efficiency bulbs give of practically no heat so the snow that accumulates on the lens doesn't melt.



How do you half stop a vehicle?
jmonroe

Once it half stopped, how do you half start? That's even a bigger question...

Yeah, I forgot about that.

jmonroe

snakeweasel

Mr_Shiftright said:

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

I haven't had an alternator or starter problem since 1980. I rarely have battery issues and when i do it's usually time to replace anyway. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can change that. Want to buy a Mini Cooper?

Sorry not into clown cars.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

oldfarmer50 said:

When I go to car shows I just take pictures of the cars.

OK admit it, the models you are taking pictures of don't have wheels.

Do they still do that at car shows? I’ve never seen models hanging off cars but maybe the big city shows go more extravagant. While I have no trouble admiring good looking women I think they are a distraction when I’m looking at metal beauties.

berri

I've actually heard people talk/bag about buying $50 or $100 worth of lotto tickets to improve their odds on big jackpots. If you look at the odds of winning, such a purchase barely moves the probability needle, so lack of math knowledge can be a factor in lotto and gambling.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

suydam said:

@snakeweasel : Never had a dead battery, alternator or starter problem, or flat tire?

Never had the joy of picking up a TripTik Road map?

I found a TripTik in the door pocket of the PT. I think it was from 2010.

jmonroe1

ab348 said:

Welcome back JM (or JM1)!! Where have you been?

I've been around but as I mentioned awhile ago I'm helping Son #1 with his endeavor of flipping a house. Last Saturday we (me) installed a new circuit breaker panel (replacing an ancient fuse box) so that is one major item that is now completed. The next big item will be removing a large 8 foot wide window and installing a 6 foot sliding door out of the dining room onto a future concrete pad. This will be done this coming Sunday because the temps are supposed to be in the mid 50's. So that has taken some of my time but when I check in here there are a lot of posts to catch up on and I didn't want to jump in on something that has already been settled.

Having said that, I can't believe some of the guys are still having lug nut problems. As I have said before, that has never been a problem for me because any time someone touches my wheels I check all 20 lug nuts before leaving the parking lot. Therefore, if and when I find an over tightened lug nut I have the guilty party use THEIR torque wrench / impact driver / cheater bar, etc. to break it loose. Then I use my trusty 20 inch 4-way lug nut wrench to do the tightening. This wrench has never failed me so I don't plan on fixing something that ain't broke. For me this is the easy fix but there may be other ways to correct the problem before you have a flat and you have no way to get the wheel off, usually at an inopportune time. I know, you can call for help IF you have cell phone coverage and you are willing to wait for help to arrive. Me, I'd rather take matters into my own hands while I am still able to turn a wrench.

jmonroe

pensfan83

oldfarmer50 said:

pensfan83 said:

Well this is interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/us/ohio-business-pay-taxes-with-bitcoin-trnd/index.html

That makes absolutely no sense to me, especially since BitCoin is in freefall these days. By the time Ohio processes the payment it could be worth 10% less.

Good opportunity for BC holders wanting to bail though.

Other than tax scams, lack of actual benefit to the business owner, and possible tax implications to the business owners for selling Bitcoin it makes perfect sense

ab348

jmonroe1 said:

I know, you can call for help IF you have cell phone coverage and you are willing to wait for help to arrive. Me, I'd rather take matters into my own hands while I am still able to turn a wrench.

Heh, I had this exact thought on Monday. It was a mild, sunny day after a week of crummy weather and I had a prepaid carwash code I had to use before the end of the week, so I decided to do that since the ATS was looking a bit dirty. I took it to a newish touchless wash place run by the Shell station I use. They built the wash after the station and it is a standalone building well-removed from the retail portion and way out back. When the door opened for me to drive in I noticed a banner overhead that was new from the last time I was there, saying "If You Have a Problem in the Wash, Call xxx-xxx-xxxx". It was at that moment I realized I forgot my cellphone at home. If I got trapped in there with the thing not turning off or whatever, it would not have been fun because no amount of horn honking would have been heard given the location.

graphicguy

oldfarmer50 said:

pensfan83 said:

Well this is interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/us/ohio-business-pay-taxes-with-bitcoin-trnd/index.html

That makes absolutely no sense to me, especially since BitCoin is in freefall these days. By the time Ohio processes the payment it could be worth 10% less.

Good opportunity for BC holders wanting to bail though.

Just mentioned that to a business colleague. Give it a year. You’ll hear of some outrageous shortfall in Ohio’s coffers because of bitcoin payments. Something tells me there’s a state representative who has a hand in this with a sizeable bitcoin holding.