Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

oldfarmer50 · May 2017

driver100 said:
On May 31st I will be getting together with the guys from the old neighborhood....for the 5th year in a row. These are guys I knew from the beginning until we all split for college or university. Most years we get between 14 to 18 guys. Most became teachers and principals, some engineers, one judge, a few businessmen.....all turned out to be nice guys. Just one was a murderer, murdered a girlfriend and also killed a friend who was a passenger in his car....did that while DUI. He hasn't been invited and doesn't know about our annual get together....and hopefully doesn't find out.

My grandfather had a "last man" group with fellow service member from WWI. He got the bottle of Brandy when he outlived the rest but he was 90 by then and couldn't drink it.

abacomike · May 2017

bwia said:

abacomike said:

When I go walking at the mall in Boca Raton, I sometimes stop at the frozen yogurt store to get 6-7 ounces of "no sugar added" coffee or vanilla yogurt and I sprinkle on sliced almonds to give it a crunchy texture.

So at about 11:15 AM, I get my frozen yogurt and I sit down to enjoy it. This woman walks into the store, sits down at my table and starts to stare at me. She looked to be in her late 60's or early 70's, blond (dyed of course) hair, slim. And not unattractive. After about a minute of this, I politely asked if I could help her. She then says, "...Michael, I want a cup of vanilla with chocolate fudge and peanuts on top, no whipped cream!" I asked her why I should buy her frozen yogurt and then asked her how she knew my name. She responded, "...so you don't recognize the person who took your vitginity almost 60 years ago - shame on you, Michael ------- (last name withheld for obvious reasons)!

Good grief - I then remembered who she was - my first real girlfriend in 9th grade. It seems she moved to Boca Raton last year after her husband passed away. Of course I bought her a vanilla frozen yogurt with fudge and nuts "sans" whipped cream and we had a good 1/2 hour of conversation and updates since we last saw each other over 1/2 a century ago. What a small world!

And of course we exchanged phone numbers - for good old times!!!

Reminds of an old episode of 2 1/2 men when Charlie was waiting at a bar to meet an old flame Jill. But to his surprise that old flame turned out to be a man. Jill had gender reassignment surgery and even went on to date Charlie's mother.

So Mike, since you did not readily recognize this person could she have been one of your old 9th grade class mates? After all you said you went to an all boys school. Interesting.

I should have looked more closely at her face to check for "stubble"!

I remember that episode - Chris O'Donnell played Jill/Bill - one of the funniest episodes of the series.

jmonroe · May 2017

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:
On May 31st I will be getting together with the guys from the old neighborhood....for the 5th year in a row. These are guys I knew from the beginning until we all split for college or university. Most years we get between 14 to 18 guys. Most became teachers and principals, some engineers, one judge, a few businessmen.....all turned out to be nice guys. Just one was a murderer, murdered a girlfriend and also killed a friend who was a passenger in his car....did that while DUI. He hasn't been invited and doesn't know about our annual get together....and hopefully doesn't find out.
My grandfather had a "last man" group with fellow service member from WWI. He got the bottle of Brandy when he outlived the rest but he was 90 by then and couldn't drink it.

So you sat him down and showed him how you did it, right?

Nice grandson. :@

jmonroe

abacomike · May 2017

To those of you who have mothers alive, wish them a Happy Mothers Day for me - they deserve trophies for surviving our upbringing.

To those, including me, who no longer have living moms, may our memories stay sharp for as long as we live so happy and warm thoughts Of Mom will always bring joy and love to our internal beings.

And perchance there are mothers out there who stay in the shadows of our forum, Happy Mothers Day!

driver100 · May 2017

abacomike said:
To those of you who have mothers alive, wish them a Happy Mothers Day for me - they deserve trophies for surviving our upbringing.

+1

bwia · May 2017

Happy Mothers Day and shout out to all to grandmothers and single dads-who play the role of moms.

driver100 · May 2017

bwia said:
Happy Mothers Day and shout out to all to grandmothers and single dads-who play the role of moms.

+1 (and I'll drink to that too!)

Michaell · May 2017

driver100 said:

bwia said:
Happy Mothers Day and shout out to all to grandmothers and single dads-who play the role of moms.
+1 (and I'll drink to that too!)

plus foster moms, step moms and moms to fur-babies

isellhondas · May 2017

jmonroe said:

stickguy said:
How are you expected to recognize someone from that long ago? I barely recognize pictures of my family from back then.
Some peoples looks don't change all that much and I seem to be one of them. Keeping your hair helps a LOT. I can't tell you how many people over the years have come up to me and said, "aren't you jmonroe, I'm XXX"? It is embarrassing because sometimes I don't even remember their name let alone what they used to look like.

A few years ago I went with Mrs. j to her 50th high school reunion. I did not graduate from that high school but I went to grade school with a lot of her classmates from another feeder school till 8th grade before my family moved from the Burgh to the suburbs.

When we were checking in a women at the desk that was passing out the name tags looked up and said, "hi jmonroe, you won't even need this because you haven't changed a bit". I took it as a complement but Mrs. j just had to put in a dig saying, "oh I wouldn't say that. He's changed a bit since I first met him and not for the better either". What I thought was my pal at the desk replied, "I was just talking about his looks not his demeanor. I'm sorry to hear he still has a problem with that".

Like I said..."some people never change".

jmonroe

I'm lucky since I have all of my hair. Everyone knows me at the reunions and I'm happy for that!

I have five or six people on my email list that go back to kindergarten and many others from Jr. high and high school. We are a pretty close knit group but as the years have passed it seems we lose someone every year or so. At first it was Viet Nam, drugs or car accidents. Now, it's cancer and other medical issues.

Can't hold back the years!

abacomike · May 2017

I just got back from the long, long drive to my Mom's and Grandmother's final resting place. The cemetery is about 50+ miles south of where I live - it's down in Southwest Miami Dade. What was very nice is that the caretakers had a booth set up on the main road in the cemetery and they were handing out flowers and stones to each mourner who arrived to visit their loved one's grave(s) - absolutely no charge - I tried to give them $20.00, but they refused.

I placed a rose on each gravesite and a pink stone on each footstone. The purpose of the stone(s) is to show whomever passes by, the family and/or loved ones of the deceased visited the grave. It is a very, very old custom. Mom's been gone 20 years now and grandma has been gone 27 years. I miss them both dearly.

There is one more grave there which was supposed to be for my Dad's final resting place - but Dad changed his mind back in 2007 and pre-paid for cremation and placement of his ashes in a small crypt at the South Florida National Cemetery. I asked him several times why he did that and he merely said to me, in answer to my inquiry, that he wanted to be near veterans, like himself, who had served their country in dignity. He was a decorated WWII veteran (Bronze and Silver Stars) and wanted me to see to it that his wishes were honored - which I did.

So I asked the Cemetery Administrator when I was there what I needed to do if I wanted to use the empty grave. He said I needed to have my brother send me a notarized letter stating that it was agreeable to him that I be allowed to use the grave since we both own the plot. Once I receive the notarized letter, I need to bring it to the administrator along with the deed to the plots. They would then change the ownership to me. Good grief, so much to got through. Hopefully I'll get to it before I die.

Mr_Shiftright · May 2017

I definitely want to be buried--I'll feel needed that way

jmonroe · May 2017

Mr_Shiftright said:
I definitely want to be buried--I'll feel needed that way

I won't have that problem because I'm going to live forever.

Somebody has to stay in here and show the newbies the ropes so it might as well be me.

jmonroe

Mr_Shiftright · May 2017

Well if that's your goal---so far so good, it looks like.

tbirdmarco · May 2017

@Michaell nice that you do keep with sum of your frends on facebook and Lincton. that is one thing that I do have to joyen Lincton. hope you had an good weekand. have an good up cumming week. going to Canada as you no from CCBA on Thursday! much neaded vacation. mom is doing all of the driving. wish could help out! but as you no cant it is what it is. tried to set up Edmans on my phone it is giving me problems so will only be able to read no postings for me for an little over one week.

oldfarmer50 · May 2017

Seeing ads for the 2018 Lexus LS500. It's nice to see that they were able to afford to put a nice 5.0 in there for only 3x the cost of a Mustang.

I must admit 471hp is pretty impressive and the interior photos I've seen are nice.

But what's with that grill?

tbirdmarco · May 2017

@oldfarmer50 found that funny the only person that you still do talk to from high school ws your brother in law!. don't no y it is what it is. have an good upcumming week!.

tbirdmarco · May 2017

and totally agree with everyone above happy mothers day to all living moms singal moms steep moms moms that are no longer with us. think did cover it all lol lol.

tbirdmarco · May 2017

hope this does help a lot of you guys. have preached this stuff since I was an little kid. this place has an podcast to as whell every Saturday.

Below is a short, partial lis t of true maintenance items
For more information, see our Maintenance Category.
Proper transmission service, every 30,000 to 60,000 miles
Coolant replacement, every three to five years, depending on pH
Oil change every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, depending on driving habits
Timing belt, 60,000 to 100,000 miles or not longer than seven-years
Tires, when tread reaches 2/32 inch or not longer than six-years
Battery, at any sign of leakage, load test failure or around three-years
Things that are NOT maintenance
Wheel balance, proper balance last the life of the tire
Wheel alignment, only needed when there is a problem
Injector flush, quality fuel allows injectors to clean themselves
Engine flush, more frequent oil changes or much more effective
Shocks and struts, only needed when there is a problem
Intake cleaning, snake oil
Marco Gallo
Direct Choice Auto Finders

bwia · May 2017

If I had the skills I would open a shop to retrofit these polarizing grills

driver100 · May 2017

Michaell said:

driver100 said:

bwia said:
Happy Mothers Day and shout out to all to grandmothers and single dads-who play the role of moms.
+1 (and I'll drink to that too!)
plus foster moms, step moms and moms to fur-babies

+1 and I will drink to that too. Kind of getting plastered here today

driver100 · May 2017

Marco, The others seem to be OK but I am not sure about these two.

Proper transmission service, every 30,000 to 60,000 miles

Oil change every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, depending on driving habits

I believe transmission can easily go 100000 miles without touching it, and oil changes are much longer than that these days. Many with synthetic oil like mine and previous BMWs is 15000 miles. Today's oil can go the limit, and they are monitored. If you throw your oil out early you are doing a disservice to the environment from all the latest literature I have been reading.....it is made to last longer and engines are built to higher standards these days. Just MO IIRC.

oldfarmer50 · May 2017

Marcothecarguy1986 said:
@oldfarmer50 found that funny the only person that you still do talk to from high school ws your brother in law!. don't no y it is what it is. have an good upcumming week!.

Simple answer: we married sisters.

(Not our own though!

)

qbrozen · May 2017

I don't agree with 100k trans services, even if the manufacturer (who often did not build the transmission) claims it is so. Too many experiences with several different makes of vehicles have trained me to follow a far stricter regimen on transmissions than the manual states.

Just as one anecdotal example, ZF suggests changing out the fluid in the 6-speed auto used across many different vehicles, including my previous 135i, every 60k. What does BMW say about the transmission? Lifetime fluid that never needs changing.

abacomike · May 2017

Delete

tjc78 · May 2017

oldfarmer50 said:

@oldfarmer50 found that funny the only person that you still do talk to from high school ws your brother in law!. don't no y it is what it is. have an good upcumming week!.

Simple answer: we married sisters.

(Not our own though! )

I have female cousins (sisters) who married brothers and live next door to each other.

I'm not kidding.

My stepbrother lives across the street from my mother (well until her house sells)

At least I moved 1.5 miles away in the next town!

abacomike · May 2017

I agree that LS500 grille is hideous

tjc78 · May 2017

abacomike said:

I agree that LS500 grille is hideous

It's a Lexus thing. I was looking at some sedans last night and the ES has the same look. Shame, nice cars otherwise.

Sandman6472 · May 2017

A new Wawa is being constructed about 5 miles up the road. in northern Broward County. Palm Beach County has a few up and running now as well as some around the Naples/Ft. Myers area from what I've heard. There will be gas pumps from what I can see plus the store. Have heard great things about their subs so will be nice to stop in a few weeks after they open. Also hoping their gas prices are competitive but think they will be. Paid $2.35 the other day near work but saw $2.27 in Miami on Friday. Very pleased since I'm averaging about 38 mpg's on the expressway in my 1.8t Golf, not bad actually. Keep it around 73 the majority of the time with folks flying by me but would rather be mid pack or towards the back to be honest as I always try to leave early enough so never in a rush but glad to have that extra boost if necessary.

The Sandman

tjc78 · May 2017

Here in Jersey Wawa's gas prices are usually very competitive.

Good coffee
Breakfast sandwiches
decent Hoagies (Subs)
Every drink imaginable
Every snack imaginable

Does anyone know, do the Florida ones get Tastycakes? If so that would be pretty cool since they are usually a Philly area thing.

Here in the Philly area people make jokes about how Wawa is practically a lifestyle, they are everywhere.

carnaught · May 2017

tjc78 said:

abacomike said:

I agree that LS500 grille is hideous

It's a Lexus thing. I was looking at some sedans last night and the ES has the same look. Shame, nice cars otherwise.

Speaking as someone who owned a Lexus with that ubiquitous Lexus spindle grill, time for them to move-on past the Darth Vader look.

BMW is finally starting to move away from their essentially unchanged and dated interiors and dashes on their "3" and "5" Series models from 10 or more years ago.

mlevine · May 2017

sandman 6472,
I pass the area where Wawa is being built on state road 7. Waiting for it to open. Good coffee and will be able to pick up a hoagie for lunch.

Sandman6472 · May 2017

Too bad I live south of it just south of the Sawgrass which I use to get down to work. But if the food is that good and the gas prices better than others, might make the drive. Just glad that we get the choice of more places to try new stuff. Only drawback will be the increase of traffic at that intersection and that stretch of 441, pretty crowded now with the Walmart and BJ's a mile down the road. This will only bring more traffic but such is progress I suppose but still a shame that every piece of vacant property along that stretch of 441 is now taken with retail. Not sure the roadway was meant to carry so much traffic!

The Sandman

tbirdmarco · May 2017

@qbrozen I am with you like to tell peapol to change all flewids trans and the cullent every 5 years or 50k miles. owial every 3 to 5k miles. try to keep the family cars going and keped for an long time.

stickguy · May 2017

Oil at 3K is not needed, but I am with the others that I plan to service the trans on a regular basis. Especially having some Honda V6 transmissions. They definitely get done every 30K or so

tbirdmarco · May 2017

@driver100 tuff to no who to trust so much stuff on the net see whair you are cumming from.

tbirdmarco · May 2017

@oldfarmer50 got it was wondering lol lol. my moms to of her sisters marred to brothers witch are my uncles. same as you guys.

driver100 · May 2017

We checked out a mausoleum that does cremations and they do have glass display cases for sale if you like...they put your urn inside with some of the things you want to display.
Some guys had golf balls, tennis rackets, models of Ford F-150s, Tim Hortons cups, trophies, etc in their display case.

jmonroe · May 2017

Marcothecarguy1986 said:
@Michaell nice that you do keep with sum of your frends on facebook and Lincton. that is one thing that I do have to joyen Lincton. hope you had an good weekand. have an good up cumming week. going to Canada as you no from CCBA on Thursday! much neaded vacation. mom is doing all of the driving. wish could help out! but as you no cant it is what it is. tried to set up Edmans on my phone it is giving me problems so will only be able to read no postings for me for an little over one week.

I don't know how this place is going to survive without the two of us.

I'm outta here for a week myself starting on Tuesday.

jmonroe

driver100 · May 2017

jmonroe said:

Marcothecarguy1986 said:
@Michaell nice that you do keep with sum of your frends on facebook and Lincton. that is one thing that I do have to joyen Lincton. hope you had an good weekand. have an good up cumming week. going to Canada as you no from CCBA on Thursday! much neaded vacation. mom is doing all of the driving. wish could help out! but as you no cant it is what it is. tried to set up Edmans on my phone it is giving me problems so will only be able to read no postings for me for an little over one week.
I don't know how this place is going to survive without the two of us.

I'm outta here for a week myself starting on Tuesday.

jmonroe

Well, we will have a lot more cyberspace that we will be able to use.

Both of you have good trips................JMonroe.....where are you going?
Marco...where in Canada are you going....it is a pretty big country?

abacomike · May 2017

driver100 said:

@Michaell nice that you do keep with sum of your frends on facebook and Lincton. that is one thing that I do have to joyen Lincton. hope you had an good weekand. have an good up cumming week. going to Canada as you no from CCBA on Thursday! much neaded vacation. mom is doing all of the driving. wish could help out! but as you no cant it is what it is. tried to set up Edmans on my phone it is giving me problems so will only be able to read no postings for me for an little over one week.

I don't know how this place is going to survive without the two of us.

I'm outta here for a week myself starting on Tuesday.

jmonroe

Well, we will have a lot more cyberspace that we will be able to use.

Both of you have good trips................JMonroe.....where are you going?
Marco...where in Canada are you going....it is a pretty big country?

+1

karhill1 · May 2017

In determining whether an extended service contract (AKA extended warranty) a person should consider how these contracts are priced.

First, the provider of the contract employs highly paid experts who determine the average expected payout under contracts for every vehicle.

Second, the provider adds profit to that amount and sells the contract to the dealer.

Third, the dealer adds additional profit both for the dealer and the F&I manager and sells to the customer.

To illustrate, as an example.

The provider may determine it will pay on average $800. The provider will add several hundred as profit and sell to the dealer for $1,200.

The dealer will add additional profit, we all known this can be 100 percent or more, and sell to the customer for $2,400.

So, for an expected payout of $800, the customer will perhaps pay $2,400.

An extended service contract is nothing but a bet. As with all bets, the house (dealer) wins.

graphicguy · May 2017

So, had to be in Louisville on business. Decided to take a couple of days off and make it a long weekend. Stayed at the Galt House. Had reservations with a conf #, but they had some sort of convention (archery) and was sold out. After waiting at check in for 5 mins or so, the front desk told me they did not have the room I had reserved. Getting irritated, I asked them to make reservations for me at a similar hotel in downtown Louisville. They finally found me a room at the Galt House. 2 room suite with two bathrooms a living room, wet bar, and a balcony overlooking the Ohio River. Nice recovery on their end.

Did the Bourbon Trail (at least a small part of it). Evan Williams and Bulleit distilleries are right in downtown Louisville, both offered tastings, both were excellent tours.

Have some friends who live in Nashville, another couple hours south of Louisville, so dedided to visit them as they've been inviting me down for a while. But, I first had to stop at the Corvette Museum. You can set up delivery of your new Corvette there, and they had two of them set up while I was there on Friday....one convertible and one Z06. Fun to watch them get a primer on their new cars and drive them out of the museum. They also had a large display of the Corvettes that were swallowed by the sink hole. Some of those they were able to restore. Some, were basket cases. They displayed all of them and showed how big the hole was they fell into (very large). They also had security video of when it happened (at 5:30 in the a.m.). The motion and sound sensors picked up the incident. No one was present but I bet it would have been quite scary if there was anyone there....loud and floor dropping underneath you. Would have done it for me.

Nashville is a great city. Always fun. Building cranes everywhere downtown. It's growing and healthy.

Reported the Q50 got 28 MPG for the entire trip...about 75% highway. There were times the MPG readout hit 32 MPG, but that was on the rare flat portions of I65. It was a great travel companion. While both my Cadillacs and BMWs had highly accurate on board MPG readouts, as I always check them manually, too. The Q50, quite surprisingly, was dead on accurate down to the "tenths". It was exactly right on 4 out of the 5 times I filled up. The other it was off, it was only off by 1/10th. Amazing how much compute power is in today's cars.

I noticed a new "scam" during my travels. At interstate fuel/convenience store locations just off the exit, there were families with a dog. They were usually right to the side corner of the convenience store, or just behind the store, still visible as you enter the store.

The "family" points to a person who might show interest in the dog. The targets I saw would say something like...."AHHHH LOOK HOW CUTE?", or something similar. They've trained the dogs to be friendly, and if you're a "dog person", you would go over to pet the dog.

That's when the family, usually one of the kids, tells the unknowing suspect how they're car broke down, don't have money for a hotel, or need money to buy the part for the repair, etc.

People at two stations were forking over, not just singles or 5 dollar bills, but $20s, $50s and $100.

If I had noticed it once, I might have believed they were stranded. I saw it 3 times at 3 different fuel stops with 3 different "families".

dino001 · May 2017

I used to buy extended warranties on some products. Both it for a car, dishwasher, TV set and a new overhead microwave, tire road hazard coverage. The prices did not appear that high, in comparison, always lower than in many other places for same type of coverage. Then, after about 10 years or so, I made a quick tally of how much I spent on the warranties vs. how much benefit I cashed out in form of value of repairs. Wasn't even close and I did cash out on couple of occasions. So, I stopped buying them.

I have enough money now to bear several hundreds, or thousands of any repair and have enough emotional strength to bear a thought of doing so. I won't be happy about it, but it won't ruin me. It may ruin my day, but not my finances.

It all goes to an issue of what is purpose of insurance - to me it's financial a security provided in case of low probability-high loss event, such as catastrophic illness, significant damage/destruction of a house, car. Not a $500, or even $3000 repair of a vehicle, or a refrigerator. Same thing goes for minor medical treatment, by the way. Not try to get political, but our problems with healthcare system can be rooted (in large degree, anyway) to an attitude that a doctor, or medication should somehow be free, just because old medical plans were telling us that was the case. "All you can eat free medical buffet" insurance is going away, thankfully, but that was one of the reasons why the prices rocketed up. I remember, when I was switched by my employer from that to a high deductible plan (happened a while ago) with extra consideration in form of HSA match funds, I wasn't thrilled. But today I think, it's the best way to go - introduces some reality check on the every day basis and still provides enough safety for catastrophic situations (as much as the old plans did - you only know how well you're covered when it all happens). I have a friend, who was paying ungodly premiums for his low-deductible plan (the company offered both options) for years, just because his wife couldn't get here head wrapped around the concept of total amount of money spent on premium plus doctors (i.e. money she couldn't see), vs. amounts charged on the bills for her family's doctor's visits (high deductible shows real prices paid, vs. low deductible has those small unrealistic copays). His low deductible premium plus copays difference would have covered the HSA contribution, or even maximum out-of-pocket limit. But the numbers were just too overwhelming for her and emotions (fear of $150 doctor bills, vs. $20 copay with hidden payment in the premium) were just too great. That's, ladies and gentlemen, how you sell insurance or extended warranty. FEAR.

I don't buy extended warranties, or to be more precise I don't buy them at prices offered. I would buy one, but most likely at a price that nobody would sell it to me.

dino001 · May 2017

graphicguy said:
That's when the family, usually one of the kids, tells the unknowing suspect how they're car broke down, don't have money for a hotel, or need money to buy the part for the repair, etc.

People at two stations were forking over, not just singles or 5 dollar bills, but $20s, $50s and $100.

If I had noticed it once, I might have believed they were stranded. I saw it 3 times at 3 different fuel stops with 3 different "families".

I have not seen a "family", but there was this guy with a gas can at a station asking for money "for gas". So I say "put the can on the ground, I'll pour gas there now". Of course, he mumbles something and walks away. Same guy "works" that station a few weeks later. I also once offered a "hungry" person to buy a sandwich, here and now. Similar response. This really made me a little heartless.

ab348 · May 2017

Speaking of extended warranties: I have only bought a few and none in recent years. When I bought my plasma TV in '08 I did fork out for one because of two things: I had just gotten stung on a bad Sony HDTV that failed after 3 years, no help from Sony even though it was a chronic problem with that model. Second, after that experience I was dubious of expensive technology in general. Of course that second set (a Panasonic) has been flawless and is still going strong. So I spent a few hundred bucks on peace of mind and am OK with that.

The only other one, though, was a hoot looking back on it. In the mid-'80s I bought my first microwave oven. To me back then these were high-tech miracles and nobody else in my family even had one at that point. I bought it at Sears, a Kenmore, on clearance. I think it was maybe $250 - they were expensive things back then. For some reason when they asked me about the warranty plan I said sure because it was like $20. I got my money's worth out of that. The thing would die when it wasn't being used. You'd get up in the morning and it would be completely dead like it was unplugged. Back to the depot, it would stay there for about a week, they would find the problem, fix it. This happened 3 or 4 times over a few years. The last time it happened the guy told me there was a fuse in it that apparently was the wrong one from the factory and every time it blew they would replace it with a similar one which was also undersized. Eventually someone figured it out and put in a bigger fuse, no problems ever again. I used it for years after that and eventually gave it to the son of a buddy who was setting up his first apartment. AFAIK he still uses it.

dino001 · May 2017

ab348 said:
Speaking of extended warranties: I have only bought a few and none in recent years. When I bought my plasma TV in '08 I did fork out for one because of two things: I had just gotten stung on a bad Sony HDTV that failed after 3 years, no help from Sony even though it was a chronic problem with that model. Second, after that experience I was dubious of expensive technology in general. Of course that second set (a Panasonic) has been flawless and is still going strong. So I spent a few hundred bucks on peace of mind and am OK with that.

That's actually a classic setup. Recent "trauma" makes us decide to pony up, whereas statistics are quite clear - probability of having two bad appliances in the row (or more precise - conditional probability of having another bad appliance after just having one bad) is even smaller than general probability of having a bad small appliance. So, rational thing would be to NOT buy one, yet being emotional animals, we would exactly do the opposite, to avoid the "trauma" of what we just went through. Insurance companies know all of that - they make their decisions made based on math models (not always correct). Of course, the experience is different - for them a single bad event is a part of statistics, for us it may be ruined weekend, expenses, general bad taste in the mouth, so we will do a lot to avoid feeling this again, even if rationally it doesn't make much sense.

imidazol97 · May 2017

There have been multiple branches to the discussion of extended warranties.

First on appliance warranties, I just say no because I'll buy a new one if something happens. On the large double-door refrigerator, I did buy the Lowes warranty because it's a service warranty. I don't picture myself pulling this one out of its built-in hole because it's wider and designed differently than the previous one which I did repair often both inside (thermostat for defroster) and behind (compressor startup relay). Five years.

Second on autos the aftermarket warranties. I wouldn't touch one. I've heard too many callers to radio mechanics about trying to get their car repaired and the exclusions in the contract IF the company hasn't already gone out of business.

Third on autos, I bought GM's warranty because it's covering bumper-to-bumper the things that aren't covered under the drivertrain warranty. If something should happen to me, my son had the ability to take the Cobalt and now the Cruze in for service, receive a loaner for most things and know it will be fixed. Same for my wife with the Malibu. The GM warranties are transferable if the car is sold to a relative or other buyer AND have a refund for unused portion of the warranty.

I asked about how other companies handle their warranties that are backed by the car companies themselves. It sounds like there are differences.

imidazol97 · May 2017

There have been multiple branches to the discussion of extended warranties.

First on appliance warranties, I just say no because I'll buy a new one if something happens. On the large double-door refrigerator, I did buy the Lowes warranty because it's a service warranty. I don't picture myself pulling this one out of its built-in hole because it's wider and designed differently than the previous one which I did repair often both inside (thermostat for defroster) and behind (compressor startup relay). Five years.

Second on autos the aftermarket warranties. I wouldn't touch one. I've heard too many callers to radio mechanics about trying to get their car repaired and the exclusions in the contract IF the company hasn't already gone out of business.

Third on autos, I bought GM's warranty because it's covering bumper-to-bumper the things that aren't covered under the drivertrain warranty. If something should happen to me, my son had the ability to take the Cobalt and now the Cruze in for service, receive a loaner for most things and know it will be fixed. Same for my wife with the Malibu. The GM warranties are transferable if the car is sold to a relative or other buyer AND have a refund for unused portion of the warranty.

I asked about how other companies handle their warranties that are backed by the car companies themselves. It sounds like there are differences.

nyccarguy · May 2017

High School friends? I had 3 close friends in High School. My friend Jason died very suddenly when he was 27. Scott & Dan are the only people from a graduating class of 400 that I keep in touch with. I have no desire to ever go to a HS reunion. I'd rather take the money and take my beautiful wife out for a nice night.

28firefighter · May 2017

nyccarguy said:
High School friends? I had 3 close friends in High School. My friend Jason died very suddenly when he was 27. Scott & Dan are the only people from a graduating class of 400 that I keep in touch with. I have no desire to ever go to a HS reunion. I'd rather take the money and take my beautiful wife out for a nice night.

Amen. My graduating class was 97 - two of them remain my best friends (they're twin brothers) and if I never see anyone else from HS again, I will not be upset.

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