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Comments
Honda Pilot Tires and Wheels
I'd check with my insurance company about covering the whole thing.
I don't know how wet the snow was, which can/will contribute to its weight. But, it seems reasonable that in Northern states 8-10 inches of snow, or more, is not uncommon.
Lots of cars with lots of snow on top would mean lots of broken sun roofs.
Just seems something is wrong with this picture! :sick:
Kip
i don't know how much snow one could literally pile on top of a vehicle before it would tend to slide off, even if everything around the vehicle were also piled high with snow with no place for it to naturally go, but even with wet or frozen ice, i would think the sunroof should have handled it.
it's possible the glass had a material imperfection to begin with or something hit it during transport or driving and there was a minute crack / fracture.
whatever, i would think Honda would pick it up since this seems so unnatural of an occurence.
also, i'd avoid making claims on insurance unless they are absolutely necessary fiscally, and in this case, i don't think so. to what, use your deductible and incur an incident against your insurance record? nope. no way.
i think i would consider approaching the dealership first, and paying out of pocket what i had to, going insurance last.
i'm not sure of the type of sunroof (sliding or power) but this might provide an idea of the cost of the glass:
http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/jsp/mws/prddisplay.jsp?inputstate=5&cat- cgry1=Pilot&catcgry2=2006&catcgry3=5DR+EXL+RES&catcgry4=KA5AT&catcgry5=SLIDING+R- OOF
A friend busted his sunroof years ago on an Explorer - he was quoted $700 for a little ol' piece of glass but his insurance paid the whole thing. link
Here's another thread that may be of interest:
cccompson, "Questions About Auto Insurance & Accidents" #1945, 23 Jul 2006 4:51 pm
This would be a good question to revisit in that Questions About Auto Insurance & Accidents discussion, or maybe Marsha7 will drop by with his .02 sometime.
hey, give me your full name, the insurance policy number, your address, the the name and phone of your agent and i'll be happy to make an inquiry on your behalf. :surprise:
but seriously, don't you believe we are rated based on a formula that involves number of claims, claim frequency per unit time (among other things)?
insurance war story: i've personally been red-lined because i had a vehicle stolen and totaled, then two years later i submitted a claim because a tree limb fell on my car which resulted in a claim for replacement of the hood. one year later, i received a speeding ticket for doing 45 in a 30 zone.
i was a professional male in his late 20s at the time, having paid a pretty penny for insurance for 10years or more . both losses were no-fault, the speeding ticket was my fault... i guess i was red-lined for good reason. :lemon:
you know they are in the biz of making money, and you probably also know they have actuaries with all sorts of mathematical modelling expertise predicting if you will be a future loss to them. their best customers are those that make no claims.
so i think it's best when making a claim, one does so out of necessity, not because you are paying for the insurance to begin with. twisted, i know. :sick:
i've heard from other people anecdotally that they had their rates raised after inquiring about a loss they experienced (which they did not use their insurance for). i think a loss is a loss, even if they don't pay out. hey, i could be wrong.
unscientific, but it's my belief and i'm sticking to it. :shades:
steve_, "Questions About Auto Insurance & Accidents" #2304, 6 Jan 2007 10:45 am
Note that I tried to limit it to glass claims under comprehensive coverage instead of collision, but I doubt that the responses will stick to that.
fwiw, I've had two or three windshield cracks fixed with the mobile glass outfits (gluing the chip) in the last few years with no out of pocket and my rates haven't jumped 40%.
I did that and the cost of the new installed windshield was less than $300. The deductible is $1000. It would be foolish in my case to file a claim.
Local agents make a living on the commissions from your and my premiums. (In my case he insures House, cars, and "Umbrella Policy".) It would be very foolish of them to file a needless claim and take the chance of eventually loosing us as a source of income because someone else in the company profiles us as a bad risk.
Dealing with mail order type insurance may possibly be different. We may not have a particular agent. When we call to ask about a possible claim, we may get get a salaried "COMPANY" person that is instructed by the company to gather "ALL INFO". Therefore a claim may have been filed even though we were simply asking a question.
Whether or not a "CLAIM" was filed, a note may have been added to our file. :mad:
"Hmmm... This guy has call 3 times this year concerning damage. Might be a bad risk to the COMPANY"!
Paranoid? Mistrustful?...... YEP!
Kip
i've tried to add some additional background in the auto insurance forum steve has pointed us to. i'd like to see if an anonymous insurance adjuster or actuary will be willing to provide supporting information on this topic.
i suggested in the other thread, even if you are no-fault in an accident, being involved and part of some "incident report" may bump a portion of their mathematical models w.r.t. risk and rate determination.
if i'm correct, i would think that if you were were male, single, young, renting, maybe driving a car that tends to be stolen frequently, living or working in an area with high claims, this would be fiscally important to pay attention to. :shades:
First, many companies will not cancel you or increase your rates just for inquiring about a possible claim. Many companies will not cancel you or increase your rates if nothing was paid on a claim. However, filing too many claims in any given period, whether large amounts or not have been paid, may be considered too high of a frequency of claims and have a negative impact. Further, your "loss ratio" ... the amount of claims paid vsthe amount of premium you've paid ... will also affect your premiums. Obviously, if the company has had to pay out significantly more than what you've paid in premiums, whether the claims were your fault or not, you could see an increase in your premiums.
Now, if your agent is filing a claim for you when you just call to inquire whether something is covered or not, it is time to find a new agent. Many agents are not like that. Try calling an Independent Agent who represents many companies rather than going to a Direct Writer who handles only one company, like State Farm or Allstate. We encourage our customers to file an "incident report" so that it doesn't negatively impact the insurance company's right to investigate at a later date. Remember that it is your duty to file a claim within a certain time period of the claim date. If you read your policy (and yes, I know they are not easy to read, even the "simplified" versions are written by lawyers for lawyers), you will find this information about your duties as an insured.
There are many reasons why your rates could go up, and they could have nothing at all to do with your loss history. I can talk about the state I am, as I know their rules the best. The state puts out "set rates" and these rates are based on many things. The frequency and severity of OTHER PEOPLE'S claims could negatively impact your rates, and that is because, as you pointed out, the insurance companies are in the business to make money. They are not, as many people would like to believe, non-profit organizations. For example, I live in an area where we have frequent hail claims. I have not turned in hail claim on my roof since I purchased the house 14 years ago. My neighbors have turned in 3 in the past 5 years. This is not uncommon and the insurance industry as a whole is losing money in this area due to hail claims, so they raise rates across the board or they raise deductibles or both. Anyway, many companies will file deviations to these state rates based on their experience with claims, and this could be either higher or lower than the state rates. It pays to shop around.
I know this probably won't answer all of your questions, and probably won't affect your opinion of the insurance industry, but I wanted to attempt to set the record straight.
I think the jury is still out but I thought of a solution - we simply get every US driver to call their insurance agent once a week and ask a hypothetical claims question. That'll destroy the actuarial curves and the companies will have to abandon that criteria in setting rates. :shades:
I agree with 777, to a point.
I firmly believe It has to do with the company and the person we are talking too, as per above post.
I think the jury is still out but I thought of a solution - we simply get every US driver to call their insurance agent once a week and ask a hypothetical claims question. That'll destroy the actuarial curves and the companies will have to abandon that criteria in setting rates. :shades:
Now that should work!!
Kip
i promise not to beat this anymore but, note the agent indicated the claim in question wouldn't affect his/her rate...so they processed it. and again, i'm not being paranoid - but this isn't the sort of thing i trust my agent to fully disclose (or be fully informed of).
maybe it's because i'm married to a lawyer, and i dig what is and isn't explicit (in writing or communication). wait, what does that mean? :confuse:
i wonder, now the claim has been made, how has this person's rating / risk been affected such that a subsequent claim may result in some bump (or drop of coverage). or how might it delay having a rate fall? or how might it impact the rate one gets when and if combining house and vehicle policies or separating them? and what if one's about to add someone like a son or daughter to the policy?
bottom line...we don't know. whatever, it certainly didn't improve the rating or risk of the policy, that's for sure. i assert it probably hurt it. that is why i prescribe to a policy of avoiding a claim if fiscally practical.
We are in agreement here!
Kip
if you call your agent and inquire, they don't have to put in a claim, no disagreement, *BUT*, can they flag your file based on the fact you are inquiring about a loss you did experience? if so, can THAT piece of information be used against you?
But good luck finding a pay phone....
I'm not aware of a default setting that recognizes you are looking for the nearest Walmart & not one 500 miles away. You will have to manually enter the city, state, and name via several input screens.
My wife & I stopped using the NAV after a month because it is so frustrating. Try one of the handheld units at your local electronic stores they are very user friendly. Also, the maps are updated for free over the internet & contain recent data, poi's, roads unlike Honda's outdated maps.
My wife and I have been very happy with our Pilot. We are only 6 months and 9,000 miles into ownership, but we love the vehicle. Our fuel economy has been normal for a 4WD SUV this size (18.02). The leather seems pretty standard to me (I have owned three vehicles with leather and ridden in hundreds - there is nothing special about this leather, but nothing bad either). The cargo net is a cargo net, what exactly were you expecting from that particular item? Bluetooth is not a common item on a vehicle in this class, so how can you attack the Pilot for that omission.
I regret that you seem to have purchased what you consider a lemon, and good luck getting it bought back by Honda, seriously. I encourage you to purchase a Tahoe LTZ (or something similar) and be happy.
You are typing in "W-a-l - M-a-r-t," your local "WALMART" (they decided to misspell the name in the phone book) is not showing up, but the guys in Hoboken that spelled it "Wal-Mart" pop right to the front of the line. Instead of the Nav defaulting to things nearby, it just finds the closest "exact" match. There are ways to begin to work around those issues, but they take some time and trial/error work.
The system does leave much to be desired, but my wife and I have found it to be on the whole beneficial. Good luck, don't give up on the system yet. :shades:
I traded it for a 2006 and now have 14,000 miles on the new vehicle. I had one issue in the first month with a 'check gas cap' light which was resolved by consulting my owners manual.
These vehicles have been perfect for me and my family. I get 23 highway and 17 city. No complaints.
Also, we are living at a high altitude, is there anything I should adjust? The car will be primarly used at 9,000 - 12,000 feet.
Or you can buy a Lexus and have all that you asked for- for $20-30k more.
As for resale, it will do much better than an explorer! (Not that resale for SUVs is particularly good right now)
Sorry you're not happy with your ride. Hope you do better next time.
tom
Me or better We too like our Pilot.
My wife purchased it in Oct 06, exl + nav and now has about 8000 miles on it. She traded in a 95 ex Oddessy, (sp)with 77000 miles on it. Yes my wife does not drive it far.
No problems so far. My lexus rx330 gets a little bit better milage and in more comfortable, but the Pilot has more get up and go, and was lots less costly. Pilot about 17-18 in city, about 22 on highway. Lexus about 19 in city, and 23 on highway.
I think the hard part when buying a new car, is the chance one takes that it will not meet the expectations of the purchaser. I have bought cars I have regretted, but not recently.
Good luck to all and stay safe.
jensad
If you're experiencing difficulty with your navigation system, I would suggest you contact the manufacturer of your system for further assistance. I suspect they maybe more qualified to assist you.
I currently own a Pioneer Avic Z1 and let me tell you, it's fantastic system. But I am not able to use the blue tooth because of very bad echo problem.
I also traded in a newer design 2005 Toyota Tacoma 4 Door for this vehicle. I was very happy to see that it was awarded the INSURANCE INSTUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY award for frontal & side crash TOP SAFETY PICK.
About the mileage, I average about 18.5 mix city/hwy driving. I've experienced better mileage on out of town trips.
It's not a perfect car...show me one that is.
By the way, I just picked up my Pilot from the dealer this afternoon. I was complaining of Tire Pressure Indicator on and a unknown source high pitch noise during slow speed acceleration. They fixed the TPI bec we've had extremely cold mornings lately by adding air to all 4 tires. It also appears they repaired the annoying high pitch noise as I don't hear it anymore. "Bent back firewall near axle" ...IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY.
I've got to admit, I've been in a few rental SUV's lately while I'm out of town. I find the interior of other SUV's a lot nicer. Oh well, the price you pay for first generation vehicle.
Oh and in regards to fuel mileage, I hope you're not expecting to get even close to the EPA estimate posted on the window stick. It's a know fact, that formula will be changed soon as it is very inacurate. If you have 4wd, i assume you'll get even worst mileage.
Good luck to you! If you sell it, let us know how much you sold it for.