Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

stickguy · January 2024

@kyfdx said:
@dino001 A lot of good reasons for delaying taking SSA as long as possible, if you have the cash flow to manage it.

My wife has reached full retirement age, but I still have another year to go. At this point, our goal is to both take it at 70. Using the time in between to convert IRA funds to Roth, until we max out the 12% bracket. It's a drop in the bucket, but it all helps.

I've studied all the claiming strategies, but with us having similar average earnings, and just being 18 months apart in age, none of them matter much. And, if we played with it, the "wrong" person would end up dying first, and we'd have blown it up, anyway.. lol

Same here. We are 2 weeks apart in age. And projected out I think to about $400/month difference at FRA. so doing spousal than switching (or is it the reverse?) doesn’t seem to make sense. Only real decision is when to start. And that is largely a bet in how long you are going to live!

jmonroe1 · January 2024

venture said:

jmonroe1 said:

venture said:

jmonroe1 said:

explorerx4 said:
A new twist on cutting the cord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9glBiIAPpI
————————————————
Damn, why didn’t I think of that? That could be almost as profitable as cheating on my taxes.

jmonroe
My grandson is an electrician apprentice working for a company that has a contract for a building at Penn State.

The new guys get to take all the wire pieces that get cut off during construction.

He throws it in a box in his car at the end of the day. When he turned it in, he got $600.
————————————————
Now you’ve got me curios. How much per pound is copper selling for these days?

jmonroe
I just looked it up. It's almost $4 a pound. He did say the boxes he had it in, in the garage, were really heavy. I don't know how he accumulated so much, but it was over a pretty long time.

I edited this to say that doesn't look right, but I don't know what happened to it.

————————————————-
I think it was when we bought our third flip that since it sat empty for a year or two someone broke in and took the copper water supply lines in the basement. I’d say at best 50 feet of 1/2 inch sweat copper. However, the real prize was the 3 inch sweat copper vent stack that ran from the floor of the ranch house up the wall through the attic and out the roof. Maybe 15 feet of that stuff.

We used PEX for the basement supply lines and PVC for the vent stack. A very easy and cheap fix for the drastically reduced price of the house due to the stripped out copper.

jmonroe

kyfdx · January 2024

@imidazol97 That's the one I used on my last replacement

jmonroe1 · January 2024

oldfarmer50 said:

stickguy said:
got an email from the SSA that my statement was ready, so got ambitious and went to play around in the site with the calculators. Turns out that working longer will only up the monthly by about $12. Now I am sorry we are still spending money instead of just retiring! Not that the benefit would start for a while (shooting for 67) but less incentive to keep adding new years to the list. a wedding, trip to Europe, and a kids wedding this year though takes care of any thought about going sooner! Plus that pesky issue of what to live on until SS kicks in.
Take it sooner, you never know if you’ll be in any shape to enjoy it later.

————————————————
Absolutely.

When I was doing my last stint as a consultant a guy I knew for years and years who was also doing consulting for another group, ask me about SS one day while we were taking a break in the coffee room. He knew I took mine at my full retirement age which was 65 years and 10 months and wanted my opinion as to whether he should wait until he hit 70. I told him he had to make that decision himself but I knew I wanted mine because you never know about what can happen next week. A secretary overheard my advice, came over and said, “take it as soon as you can”. She went on to say her husband was really looking forward to retirement and couldn’t wait until he could retire. He retired, got 2 checks and died unexpectedly. The guy I was talking to said something like, “now I have my answer”.

jmonroe

kyfdx · January 2024

So, those two checks killed him? I think I'll wait until I'm 70.

jmonroe1 · January 2024

driver100 said:
@imidazol97 Yes, the Korky flappers don't seem to be the best quality.
I did install a Fluid Master tower just like the one in the picture, a few years ago and it works fine.
I know you turn the screw to adjust the height of the water but it takes a long time to fill up so I am thinking of leaving it this way, seems to be OK
@stickguy's idea of a rock might be worth a try....I am thinking about it.

————————————————
Try a brick. Why spend all day washing off mud from a dirty rock?

jmonroe

imidazol97 · January 2024

driver100 said:
@imidazol97 Yes, the Korky flappers don't seem to be the best quality.
I did install a Fluid Master tower just like the one in the picture, a few years ago and it works fine.
I know you turn the screw to adjust the height of the water but it takes a long time to fill up so I am thinking of leaving it this way, seems to be OK
@stickguy's idea of a rock might be worth a try....I am thinking about it.

I'd suggest a 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon milk jug, filled with water of course, in the tank if you want to reduce the total volume of water in teh tank. That will reduce the flush volume but maintain the height of the water level above the drain for a faster flow and flush speed. But the total volume of water may not be enough.

I learned that decades ago when I was trained on environmental conservation and water conservation was part of the goal. That was before the 1 quart flush requirements (1.25 gallons?) that lowered the flush volumes.

My Kohler toilets have a foam float on the chain that keeps the flapper open was the water level drops but then that foam float drops with the top of the water level in the tank, closing the flapper at the 1.25 gallon or whatever it was supposed to be. I had to move that foam float up on the chain to get enough water for a satisfactory flush volume. These are the original flappers from 199X, long time ago.

kyfdx · January 2024

Our new American Standard is amazing, as far as flush efficiency on a small amount of water. Was glad to see the 25 yr old Mansfield toilet go..

stickguy · January 2024

You can do all kinds of actuarial gymnastics to figure out the “right” time to take SS but the best advice I’ve seen is take it when you need the money. Unless you have some very good reason to be confident you aren’t going to live very long.

jmonroe1 · January 2024

stickguy said:
You can do all kinds of actuarial gymnastics to figure out the “right” time to take SS but the best advice I’ve seen is take it when you need the money. Unless you have some very good reason to be confident you aren’t going to live very long.

————————————————-
I’m a belt and suspenders, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush kinda guy. But if you want to get technical about the right time, I guessed wrong when I took mine at 65 years and 10 months because I worked till I was almost 73 since I was having so much fun and the pay wasn’t bad either. Still not sorry I was a scaredy-cat.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50 · January 2024

dino001 said:

andres3 said:
Regarding Football - Detroit is renaming the team from Lions to Chokers.

Regarding cars, how valuable do you think those 90-day VROOM used car warranties are right now?

https://www.vroom.com/sell/sitemsg

I'd say $0.00.
Carvana is next. Probably 6-12 months.

I was watching a video where they ran through what Carvana actually paid somebody for their car (thousands over purchase price) and then tried to sell it for $10k over sticker. Then then followed the progression of price reductions until Carvana was losing money from the price they paid.

The video blamed Carvana’s “algorithm” or something but it was obvious that they were making bad decisions on their car purchases and the market is starting to punish them.

oldfarmer50 · January 2024

jmonroe1 said:

venture said:

jmonroe1 said:

venture said:

jmonroe1 said:

explorerx4 said:
A new twist on cutting the cord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9glBiIAPpI
————————————————
Damn, why didn’t I think of that? That could be almost as profitable as cheating on my taxes.

jmonroe
My grandson is an electrician apprentice working for a company that has a contract for a building at Penn State.

The new guys get to take all the wire pieces that get cut off during construction.

He throws it in a box in his car at the end of the day. When he turned it in, he got $600.
————————————————
Now you’ve got me curios. How much per pound is copper selling for these days?

jmonroe
I just looked it up. It's almost $4 a pound. He did say the boxes he had it in, in the garage, were really heavy. I don't know how he accumulated so much, but it was over a pretty long time.

I edited this to say that doesn't look right, but I don't know what happened to it.
————————————————-
I think it was when we bought our third flip that since it sat empty for a year or two someone broke in and took the copper water supply lines in the basement. I’d say at best 50 feet of 1/2 inch sweat copper. However, the real prize was the 3 inch sweat copper vent stack that ran from the floor of the ranch house up the wall through the attic and out the roof. Maybe 15 feet of that stuff.

We used PEX for the basement supply lines and PVC for the vent stack. A very easy and cheap fix for the drastically reduced price of the house due to the stripped out copper.

jmonroe

It was probably the IRS trying to recoup what you stole.😜

stickguy · January 2024

Carvana likely had some duds. But also home runs. What really matters is how they average out in the end!

And IIRC their real profit center was doing financing.

qbrozen · January 2024

ab348 said:

I agree with a lot of this, though the Ravens failed to run the ball as is usually a strength and forced Lamar to be a passing QB.

This is true. And I can't fathom why. When they did run, they did great. Why would you not keep doing it?? Baffling.

ab348 · January 2024

I ‘m no expert on toilets but I have two, installed a couple of months apart 4 or 5 years ago. The main bathroom has a Gerber brand toilet and I like it well enough but the Fluidmaster flapper assembly has a nasty habit of not fully seating once every few flushes and so it runs, shuts off, then runs again in a cycle that goes on until you jiggle the handle. Downstairs, that bathroom has a $99 house-brand made in China big box store special that I bought only because it was on sale that week. It was the cheapest I could find and because that bathroom wouldn’t get much use I didn’t care. But I love that toilet because it flushes instantly with a whoosh like a commercial tankless toilet and fills much quicker than the upstairs one which was 4 times as much to buy.

driver100 · January 2024

ab348 said:
. The main bathroom has a Gerber brand toilet and I like it well enough but the Fluidmaster flapper assembly has a nasty habit of not fully seating once every few flushes and so it runs, shuts off, then runs again in a cycle that goes on until you jiggle the handle.

A Gerber! I thought they made baby food.
I think that flapper not seating properly can be fixed. That was what happened to ours, it would leak I suppose and then I would hear it fill up about every 2 hours, I'd hear water filling up for 10 seconds every 2 hours.
I changed the angle of the handle so it was more directly over the flapper, I cleaned around the seal, I loosened where the handle is attached (that might be the biggest factor), and I put on a new flapper. Maybe I'll get my own TV show.

driver100 · January 2024

kyfdx said:
Our new American Standard is amazing, as far as flush efficiency on a small amount of water. Was glad to see the 25 yr old Mansfield toilet go..

The newer ones don't have flappers and towers do they? Less chance of something going wrong, but if it doesn't work it could cost a lot more to fix...have to call the guy.

driver100 · January 2024

imidazol97 said:

driver100 said:
@imidazol97 Yes, the Korky flappers don't seem to be the best quality.
I did install a Fluid Master tower just like the one in the picture, a few years ago and it works fine.
I know you turn the screw to adjust the height of the water but it takes a long time to fill up so I am thinking of leaving it this way, seems to be OK
@stickguy's idea of a rock might be worth a try....I am thinking about it.
I'd suggest a 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon milk jug, filled with water of course, in the tank if you want to reduce the total volume of water in teh tank. That will reduce the flush volume but maintain the height of the water level above the drain for a faster flow and flush speed. But the total volume of water may not be enough.

A milk jug might be worth a try. I might experiment one day when I don't have much to do. I can probably use more water in the bowl though...but right now it is working well and I'd hate to mess it up

abacomike · January 2024

Since I had my new toilet installed last month, I had to replace the thin plastic seat with an all wood/baked white enamel seat that is comfortable. Now, I’ll have a seatbelt installed for those “gassy” days to prevent “liftoffs”! 🤪😜. Just call me the “gastronaut”!!!

imidazol97 · January 2024

driver100 said:

ab348 said:
. The main bathroom has a Gerber brand toilet and I like it well enough but the Fluidmaster flapper assembly has a nasty habit of not fully seating once every few flushes and so it runs, shuts off, then runs again in a cycle that goes on until you jiggle the handle.
A Gerber! I thought they made baby food.
I think that flapper not seating properly can be fixed. That was what happened to ours, it would leak I suppose and then I would hear it fill up about every 2 hours, I'd hear water filling up for 10 seconds every 2 hours.
I changed the angle of the handle so it was more directly over the flapper, I cleaned around the seal, I loosened where the handle is attached (that might be the biggest factor), and I put on a new flapper. Maybe I'll get my own TV show.

@driver100
I had trouble with some flappers long ago, maybe on the original toilets in the house from the 70s when it was built. A seeping flapper can be helpled by rubbing the sealing edge on the plastic seat with half vinegar and water to dissolve any minerals and remove them by rubbing. Then I rubbed vaseline on the seat and the flapper face. The oiliness keeps the water from being able to "creep" its way between the seat and the flapper by repelling the attracting force of the water molecules for the flapper and the plastic seat.

I found that on the first toilets in the house, the "cleaners" where you put a cake in the toilet tank and that kept the toilet cleaner were damaging the flappers, usually with a chlorine compound IIRC. So no magic cleaners after that. We use good old acidic ZEP bowl cleaners.

imidazol97 · January 2024

Want to verify the tank is losing water slowly around the flapper into the bowl? Put some
food coloring into the tank, then check the bowl in 10 minutes or 30 minutes later, and see if there's color there.

They make a blue dye pellet for plumbing use, but I didn't find those at the stores. I had picked up
a couple of free ones earlier, when the stores hung them out as incentives to check for toilet leaks. After that I used cake coloring.

imidazol97 · January 2024

All this talk about flappers always reminds me of the 20s. And I think of people doing the "Charleston."

My Mom talked about them often she was a teen in the 20s.

I found a couple of flapper pictures I would like to have posted, but I had to
censor them.

driver100 · January 2024

I saw what looked to be a really tiny Smart Car yesterday. It said it was an EV on it and I saw the name Itomic though maybe it said Atomic.
Was it ever tiny.
I don't know if it was a really nice golf cart or an actual car, but I know I wouldn't go on the roads around here in one. Not exactly, but close.......

snakeweasel · January 2024

@imidazol97 said:
Want to verify the tank is losing water slowly around the flapper into the bowl? Put some
food coloring into the tank, then check the bowl in 10 minutes or 30 minutes later, and see if there's color there.

They make a blue dye pellet for plumbing use, but I didn't find those at the stores. I had picked up
a couple of free ones earlier, when the stores hung them out as incentives to check for toilet leaks. After that I used cake coloring.

You guys should just get a Ferguson. I heard those are great.

snakeweasel · January 2024

Oh I saw a rarely seen car today. I wanted to get a picture but I was driving at the time. It was an AMC Eagle and it looked new.

imidazol97 · January 2024

@snakeweasel said:

@imidazol97 said:
Want to verify the tank is losing water slowly around the flapper into the bowl?

You guys should just get a Ferguson. I heard those are great.

Ferguson?

venture · January 2024

imidazol97 said:

@snakeweasel said:

@imidazol97 said:

Want to verify the tank is losing water slowly around the flapper into the bowl?

You guys should just get a Ferguson. I heard those are great.

Ferguson?

A Bundy had one...I think.

oldfarmer50 · January 2024

Speaking of Carvana, they just offered me $23,600 for the Mustang, up $2400 from their December offer. They made that offer estimating 7k more miles than I actually have on it.

Their algorithm must know something I don’t.

oldfarmer50 · January 2024

imidazol97 said:

@snakeweasel said:

@imidazol97 said:

Want to verify the tank is losing water slowly around the flapper into the bowl?

You guys should just get a Ferguson. I heard those are great.

Ferguson?

imidazol97 · January 2024

The Ferguson tractor was my first thought--grew up in farm country, you know.

stickguy · January 2024

oldfarmer50 said:
Speaking of Carvana, they just offered me $23,600 for the Mustang, up $2400 from their December offer. They made that offer estimating 7k more miles than I actually have on it.

Their algorithm must know something I don’t.

spring is coming? In theory, I don't believe it will up here this year though.

driver100 · January 2024

The Ferguson;
@venture

A Bundy had one...I think.

Yup!

ronsteve · January 2024

Murphy’s Law of home ownership strikes again. Not even a week after we commit to re-carpet what we didn’t do in LVP in 2019, we look up while in our main shower and see a dark (water) spot on the ceiling above. It’s just in line with the tub drain in the upstairs bathroom, and now seems to be increasing even though it’s been a couple weeks since the tub/shower up there has been used. Now trying to figure out if it’s a plumber call or somebody else.

I do appreciate this forum because our dishwasher is still the same one from when we moved here in 2012, but I know where to find the dishwasher buying tips!

jmonroe1 · January 2024

ronsteve said:
Murphy’s Law of home ownership strikes again. Not even a week after we commit to re-carpet what we didn’t do in LVP in 2019, we look up while in our main shower and see a dark (water) spot on the ceiling above. It’s just in line with the tub drain in the upstairs bathroom, and now seems to be increasing even though it’s been a couple weeks since the tub/shower up there has been used. Now trying to figure out if it’s a plumber call or somebody else.

I do appreciate this forum because our dishwasher is still the same one from when we moved here in 2012, but I know where to find the dishwasher buying tips!

————————————————
The water leak is a plumbing problem so a plumber has to fix that. If the leak is from the tub drain like you suspect, the plumber will have to open up the ceiling to fix the leak wherever it is coming from. It could be the seal where the drain is at the bottom of the tub (dried out plumbers putty or whatever made the seal) or the trap below that drain point. Once the plumber makes the fix he’ll probably recommend a carpenter to replace any drywall he had to remove that allowed him to get access so he could make the repair.

Unfortunately this will cost some bucks.

Good luck and let us know what the trouble point was.

jmonroe

stickguy · January 2024

if the ceiling is already soaked, might as well cut it out yourself and see what you find. Needs to come out and be replaced.

But, might not be plumbing. I had this situation at the old house. noticed a big wet spot on the kitchen ceiling. roughly under where our master bathroom or laundry room is. So, logically assumed a plumbing leak, so had the plumber out. Cuts a hole out, doesn't find anything bug soggy drywall. checks everything upstairs, nada. Even filled up the shower and plugged the drain to let water sit. Nope. no drips. So I paid a guy to cut a hole in my kitchen ceiling.

left it open for a few months, until one day, it rained hard and suddenly, water dripping onto the kitchen floor out of the middle of the hole (kitchen looked great with that design element!). Stuck my head up there and found water on the drain stack, running down the pipe from above. Finally got out the ladder and climbed into the attic and pulled insulation out and found wetness, and traced it up the vent stack.

turns out that the dopes that did the roof cut a shingle on top of the rubber boot around the vent stack, so it had a nice slit in it. and when it rained really hard rain got through, and travelled down the vent stack until it made a 90 and the water dropped off. onto the ceiling in the kitchen. Must have taken years to finally soak through, but the water dried up pretty quickly it seems so couldn't tell what was going on until a big storm (thankfully we left the ceiling open until the problem was found).

Had a roofer replace the boots, problem solved, then patched and painted the ceiling.

jmonroe1 · January 2024

stickguy said:
if the ceiling is already soaked, might as well cut it out yourself and see what you find. Needs to come out and be replaced.

But, might not be plumbing. I had this situation at the old house. noticed a big wet spot on the kitchen ceiling. roughly under where our master bathroom or laundry room is. So, logically assumed a plumbing leak, so had the plumber out. Cuts a hole out, doesn't find anything bug soggy drywall. checks everything upstairs, nada. Even filled up the shower and plugged the drain to let water sit. Nope. no drips. So I paid a guy to cut a hole in my kitchen ceiling.

left it open for a few months, until one day, it rained hard and suddenly, water dripping onto the kitchen floor out of the middle of the hole (kitchen looked great with that design element!). Stuck my head up there and found water on the drain stack, running down the pipe from above. Finally got out the ladder and climbed into the attic and pulled insulation out and found wetness, and traced it up the vent stack.

turns out that the dopes that did the roof cut a shingle on top of the rubber boot around the vent stack, so it had a nice slit in it. and when it rained really hard rain got through, and travelled down the vent stack until it made a 90 and the water dropped off. onto the ceiling in the kitchen. Must have taken years to finally soak through, but the water dried up pretty quickly it seems so couldn't tell what was going on until a big storm (thankfully we left the ceiling open until the problem was found).

Had a roofer replace the boots, problem solved, then patched and painted the ceiling.

————————————————-
That could be the problem but I’d bet it isn’t.

I’m not sure I understand what you said about a shingle being on top of the rubber boot on the vent stack. I never saw an installation like that. The boots I’ve seen are always on top of the shingles where the vent stack goes through the roof.

jmonroe

snakeweasel · January 2024

@venture said:
A Bundy had one...I think.

Bingo.

stickguy · January 2024

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:
if the ceiling is already soaked, might as well cut it out yourself and see what you find. Needs to come out and be replaced.

But, might not be plumbing. I had this situation at the old house. noticed a big wet spot on the kitchen ceiling. roughly under where our master bathroom or laundry room is. So, logically assumed a plumbing leak, so had the plumber out. Cuts a hole out, doesn't find anything bug soggy drywall. checks everything upstairs, nada. Even filled up the shower and plugged the drain to let water sit. Nope. no drips. So I paid a guy to cut a hole in my kitchen ceiling.

left it open for a few months, until one day, it rained hard and suddenly, water dripping onto the kitchen floor out of the middle of the hole (kitchen looked great with that design element!). Stuck my head up there and found water on the drain stack, running down the pipe from above. Finally got out the ladder and climbed into the attic and pulled insulation out and found wetness, and traced it up the vent stack.

turns out that the dopes that did the roof cut a shingle on top of the rubber boot around the vent stack, so it had a nice slit in it. and when it rained really hard rain got through, and travelled down the vent stack until it made a 90 and the water dropped off. onto the ceiling in the kitchen. Must have taken years to finally soak through, but the water dried up pretty quickly it seems so couldn't tell what was going on until a big storm (thankfully we left the ceiling open until the problem was found).

Had a roofer replace the boots, problem solved, then patched and painted the ceiling.
————————————————-
That could be the problem but I’d bet it isn’t.

I’m not sure I understand what you said about a shingle being on top of the rubber boot on the vent stack. I never saw an installation like that. The boots I’ve seen are always on top of the shingles where the vent stack goes through the roof.

jmonroe

I think they needed to trim a shingle and did it on top of the boot. cutting through that.

they have to go underneath. would not sit flat on top. the flat part gets stuck to the roof deck, then the shingles go on top of that, with the neck part of the boot sticking up around the pipe.

imidazol97 · February 2024

I looked up Bundy's ferguson. I knew I missed something by not liking that show
and not watching. My education has now been expanded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL2YRDzpTL4

tjc78 · February 2024

In my old house I had a vent boot leaking for years and never knew it. The leak never soaked the drywall luckily.

They found it when they did the new roof during the addition we did for my mom.

Contractor was stunned it didn’t leak inside.

abacomike · February 2024

Just got my auto insurance renewal from State Farm - premium for 6 months went from $1198 to $1378. No tickets, no claims. I shopped Allstate, Progressive, Hartford, Liberty Mutual and all of them ranged from $1900 - $2600 for 6 months. Car is almost 3 years old and I drive about 7400 miles a year.

The cost of auto and condo insurance down here in southeast Florida has doubled and tripled over the past 3 years. Remember, no tickets or accidents in over 20 years.

What the heck is going on in this economy?☹️😩😫

driver100 · February 2024

@abacomike You got a good rate. They said car insurance in Florida is averaging $300 a month and in the Tampa area $377. One guy has 2 kids and for a family of 4 he pays almost $17000 a year, his insurance costs almost as much as his mortgage!

dino001 · February 2024

abacomike said:
Just got my auto insurance renewal from State Farm - premium for 6 months went from $1198 to $1378. No tickets, no claims. I shopped Allstate, Progressive, Hartford, Liberty Mutual and all of them ranged from $1900 - $2600 for 6 months. Car is almost 3 years old and I drive about 7400 miles a year.

The cost of auto and condo insurance down here in southeast Florida has doubled and tripled over the past 3 years. Remember, no tickets or accidents in over 20 years.

What the heck is going on in this economy?☹️😩😫

Have you talked to anybody? We all are in the same boat. Progressive doubled my premium in about two years. I dropped them for Allstate, but the savings were not amazing. My current premium is similar to yours and that’s with their Big Brother app, that checks for sudden braking, speed over 80 mph and time of day. So far it promises extra 5 percent rebate based on my driving, plus about $150 off for using it, but it can change mind any time.

dino001 · February 2024

driver100 said:
@abacomike You got a good rate. They said car insurance in Florida is averaging $300 a month and in the Tampa area $377. One guy has 2 kids and for a family of 4 he pays almost $17000 a year, his insurance costs almost as much as his mortgage!

That guy must have a couple of wrecks on the record. And teenagers don’t help, of course.

stickguy · February 2024

Well, any combo of bad regulations, rampant fraud stemming from that, uninsured people, and huge costs from increasing natural disasters.

More payouts, your premiums go up. Plus insurance companies are always looking to rip people off! And lobby ($) heavily for permission to do it.

andres3 · February 2024

oldfarmer50 said:
Speaking of Carvana, they just offered me $23,600 for the Mustang, up $2400 from their December offer. They made that offer estimating 7k more miles than I actually have on it.

Their algorithm must know something I don’t.

Probably something as simple as "When Mustang inventory = < or equal to 1 offers are 1.3(X).

Michaell · February 2024

andres3 said:

oldfarmer50 said:
Speaking of Carvana, they just offered me $23,600 for the Mustang, up $2400 from their December offer. They made that offer estimating 7k more miles than I actually have on it.

Their algorithm must know something I don’t.
Probably something as simple as "When Mustang inventory = < or equal to 1 offers are 1.3(X).

The $64 question is, what is "x" in that equation? KBB? Mannheim aggregate?

andres3 · February 2024

dino001 said:

abacomike said:
Just got my auto insurance renewal from State Farm - premium for 6 months went from $1198 to $1378. No tickets, no claims. I shopped Allstate, Progressive, Hartford, Liberty Mutual and all of them ranged from $1900 - $2600 for 6 months. Car is almost 3 years old and I drive about 7400 miles a year.

The cost of auto and condo insurance down here in southeast Florida has doubled and tripled over the past 3 years. Remember, no tickets or accidents in over 20 years.

What the heck is going on in this economy?☹️😩😫

Have you talked to anybody? We all are in the same boat. Progressive doubled my premium in about two years. I dropped them for Allstate, but the savings were not amazing. My current premium is similar to yours and that’s with their Big Brother app, that checks for sudden braking, speed over 80 mph and time of day. So far it promises extra 5 percent rebate based on my driving, plus about $150 off for using it, but it can change mind any time.

Now that would be an interesting small claims lawsuit, you forced me to brake hard due to your driving negligence, and though the collision was avoided, you cost me my 5% discount from Big Brother!!!!

Might INCREASE collisions as you are incentivized to have "not at fault" wrecks and let them happen rather than "brake hard" and lose that discount. Unintended consequences, or reasonably forseeable?

jmonroe1 · February 2024

abacomike said:
Just got my auto insurance renewal from State Farm - premium for 6 months went from $1198 to $1378. No tickets, no claims. I shopped Allstate, Progressive, Hartford, Liberty Mutual and all of them ranged from $1900 - $2600 for 6 months. Car is almost 3 years old and I drive about 7400 miles a year.

The cost of auto and condo insurance down here in southeast Florida has doubled and tripled over the past 3 years. Remember, no tickets or accidents in over 20 years.

What the heck is going on in this economy?☹️😩😫

————————————————-
My rates have gone up too the last few years but nothing to get upset about. So, I don’t plan on changing companies. I’m with a regional company that is regarded as the best you can do around here. Note that I didn’t say one of the best I said thee best and I’ve gotten that info from several sources like the police, body shops, independent insurance adjusters etc. I’ve been with them since Son #1 got his license back in the late 80’s (except for the 5 years I lived in SC. Had to go with State Farm then because this company didn’t write policies down there).

The reason I went with this company was because the company I had been with for maybe 10 years really jacked up my rate when my Son got his license. I told my old agent I was going to shop around and he told me I’d get the same rates wherever I went because of a teenager being added to my policy. WRONG. Yes, my rate went up but it was reasonable probably because the first thing the agent at the new company asked was did my Son have drivers training at an accredited school. I told the guy yes as far as I knew. He asked what company so I told him. He immediately said, “that’s good they’re on our list”. He then wanted to know if he scored in the top 10% on both his classroom tests and driving tests. I told him I didn’t know about that nor did I ever hear about something like that. All I ever heard was a teenager had to have official drivers school training to get a better insurance rate. While this is true the new agent told me there was more to it than that with his company. The agent told me I should have been told so maybe I didn’t hear it. In any case the new agent looked into it and got back to me the next day and told me not only did my Son score in the top 10%, the driving instructor made a note that said he was one of the best drivers he ever tested. That I did know because the instructor told me that after he took his last test drive but I didn’t give it a second. As far as I was concerned he had to be good or I wouldn’t have left him take his drivers test which was before he got official drivers training. I did to him what my Dad did to me. I had him drive so much he damn near wore out some pants.

FWIW, about 2 1/2 years ago I got a call out of the clear blue from my agent wanting me to verify some info they had on file about us. Nothing changed other than we were both older since I was first asked than info. Then I got some very good unexpected news. My policy was going to be reduced by something like $327 a year.

Needless to say I ain’t leaving this company.

jmonroe

andres3 · February 2024

I reduced my coverage and took on some more risk when driving the TTS (mostly all for fun) to keep my rates reasonable.

I figure with as good as the TTS brakes and handles, and the fact I don't drive it a whole lot, and when I do, it's almost always for fun, that the chances of a wreck caused be my are nil (knock on wood).

I kept full coverage on the S4 because it's a daily driver and complacency can be the enemy of good driving.

Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

Comments

Helpful Tools

Most popular vehicles

Your Privacy