now, whether or not this raises my premium - since i've only had that
policy for a matter of days before i made my first claim - is another
question.
2010-04-28
windshield chip fixed
now, whether or not this raises my premium - since i've only had that
policy for a matter of days before i made my first claim - is another
question.
2010-04-26
Ways to Hedge Your Lifetime Service Contract Bet
If you've read what I've said about buying a lifetime service contract and think you might want one, but aren't sure, there is a way to hedge your bet ...
If your car is new to you, it's covered by a 3 month/36,000 mile warranty and a wrap at this point in your car's lifetime is really just superfluous. By waiting, if you get rid of your car (i.e. sell or crash it), you haven't lost any extra money on the wrap if your car were to suddenly "go away." Waiting also gives you a chance to see if you're going to modify your ride (which, depending on what you do, can also nullify the contract).
It also gives you three years to decide if you want to keep your car a long time. Do note, however, that you must buy your lifetime service contract before four years/48,000 miles -- after that, the option isn't available to you as a buyer.
From a game theory point of view, waiting has three possible snags:
Chrysler drops your ability to purchase a lifetime wrap
I thought this was possible and is why I bought one almost immediately after they were offered. To be honest with you, I'm surprised they're still offering them. But at the point in time of this re-write (March 2013), they've been offering them for five years and for sure the possibility of buying a contract would be gone if it was a corporate money loser. The opportunity to buy them well stick around indefinitely.
You pay more money
If I had waited, I would have paid $366 more than at the point where I bought it; which is to say it would have been 21% more than the original price. Yes, it's true I lost the use of that money -- including possibly investing it -- but let's be honest, I wasn't going to do that and neither are you.
You forget to buy one
You have to purchase a contract in the first four years/48,000 miles. If you miss those magic numbers, you can't buy a service contract. (Pushing up against this deadline also gives you less of a chance to find the lowest price.)
Buying a service contract immediately gives you a couple small advantages:
Free rental car when you take your car in for service
Dealerships will try to keep you from doing this so they don't have to fork over the money/do the paperwork. That's the bad news. The up-side is you'll probably get your oil changed first of all the people in the waiting room.
Roadside assistance
Think: something that is AAA-like. This is only good for the first seven years/100,000 miles. Unless you perpetually run out of gas, get flats you don't feel like changing or continually lock yourself out of your cars, this isn't a big deal.
Concierge service
You talk on the phone with people who can't use Google as well as you can. I list it only for completeness -- not to suggest it's actually worth a damn.
If you do buy a lifetime service contract, I strongly recommend that you buy a one with a $100 deductible (the highest amount possible). By doing this you're paying the lowest possible premium for your contract. Eventually you will get rid of the car (or you'll die and the car gets rid of you); the instant that happens, you didn't need the extra coverage in the contract anyway. Thanks to inflation, $100 will seem to be less-and-less (relatively speaking) in the future anyway, so even the deductible hit to your pocketbook won't be that strong.
Let's look at a real-life example: mine. At $0 deductible my contract was $1270 more than what I paid. In the service sense of the word, I would have to make 13 trips to the dealer before it would be "cheaper" for me to have bought a $0 deductible (and in this case, yes, I have invested that money to cover the difference). Right now the continual car is at 57,000 miles and I've made no service contract trips to the dealer yet (although my air conditioning has failed and as of this second I do need one).
So let's be overly pessimistic and say I'll need a service every 50k miles. In order to make 13 trips, my car would have to go 600,000 miles. Assuming I continue to drive 20,000 miles a year, that would be 30 years from now -- and I'd be at a questionable driving age.
Remember, that's making a lot of abusive assumptions. If you assume I'll need less service, or I start driving less, those numbers become much smaller.
To keep a stupid story short, my advice is if you decide to buy a lifetime service contract on a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge, you should get the $100 deductible. If you aren't likely to modify, crash or sell your ride, you should buy the contract immediately. If you think any of those three things are likely to happen, you should wait until right before you cross out of the 3 year/36,000 bumper-to-bumper that comes with a new vehicle.
(And don't be afraid to buy one online instead of from a dealer. It's the exact same policy and it's good at all Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge dealers. Look at chrysler.com if you have any doubt as to whether or not a dealer is "real.")
If your car is new to you, it's covered by a 3 month/36,000 mile warranty and a wrap at this point in your car's lifetime is really just superfluous. By waiting, if you get rid of your car (i.e. sell or crash it), you haven't lost any extra money on the wrap if your car were to suddenly "go away." Waiting also gives you a chance to see if you're going to modify your ride (which, depending on what you do, can also nullify the contract).
It also gives you three years to decide if you want to keep your car a long time. Do note, however, that you must buy your lifetime service contract before four years/48,000 miles -- after that, the option isn't available to you as a buyer.
From a game theory point of view, waiting has three possible snags:
Chrysler drops your ability to purchase a lifetime wrap
I thought this was possible and is why I bought one almost immediately after they were offered. To be honest with you, I'm surprised they're still offering them. But at the point in time of this re-write (March 2013), they've been offering them for five years and for sure the possibility of buying a contract would be gone if it was a corporate money loser. The opportunity to buy them well stick around indefinitely.
You pay more money
If I had waited, I would have paid $366 more than at the point where I bought it; which is to say it would have been 21% more than the original price. Yes, it's true I lost the use of that money -- including possibly investing it -- but let's be honest, I wasn't going to do that and neither are you.
You forget to buy one
You have to purchase a contract in the first four years/48,000 miles. If you miss those magic numbers, you can't buy a service contract. (Pushing up against this deadline also gives you less of a chance to find the lowest price.)
Buying a service contract immediately gives you a couple small advantages:
Free rental car when you take your car in for service
Dealerships will try to keep you from doing this so they don't have to fork over the money/do the paperwork. That's the bad news. The up-side is you'll probably get your oil changed first of all the people in the waiting room.
Roadside assistance
Think: something that is AAA-like. This is only good for the first seven years/100,000 miles. Unless you perpetually run out of gas, get flats you don't feel like changing or continually lock yourself out of your cars, this isn't a big deal.
Concierge service
You talk on the phone with people who can't use Google as well as you can. I list it only for completeness -- not to suggest it's actually worth a damn.
If you do buy a lifetime service contract, I strongly recommend that you buy a one with a $100 deductible (the highest amount possible). By doing this you're paying the lowest possible premium for your contract. Eventually you will get rid of the car (or you'll die and the car gets rid of you); the instant that happens, you didn't need the extra coverage in the contract anyway. Thanks to inflation, $100 will seem to be less-and-less (relatively speaking) in the future anyway, so even the deductible hit to your pocketbook won't be that strong.
Let's look at a real-life example: mine. At $0 deductible my contract was $1270 more than what I paid. In the service sense of the word, I would have to make 13 trips to the dealer before it would be "cheaper" for me to have bought a $0 deductible (and in this case, yes, I have invested that money to cover the difference). Right now the continual car is at 57,000 miles and I've made no service contract trips to the dealer yet (although my air conditioning has failed and as of this second I do need one).
So let's be overly pessimistic and say I'll need a service every 50k miles. In order to make 13 trips, my car would have to go 600,000 miles. Assuming I continue to drive 20,000 miles a year, that would be 30 years from now -- and I'd be at a questionable driving age.
Remember, that's making a lot of abusive assumptions. If you assume I'll need less service, or I start driving less, those numbers become much smaller.
To keep a stupid story short, my advice is if you decide to buy a lifetime service contract on a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge, you should get the $100 deductible. If you aren't likely to modify, crash or sell your ride, you should buy the contract immediately. If you think any of those three things are likely to happen, you should wait until right before you cross out of the 3 year/36,000 bumper-to-bumper that comes with a new vehicle.
(And don't be afraid to buy one online instead of from a dealer. It's the exact same policy and it's good at all Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge dealers. Look at chrysler.com if you have any doubt as to whether or not a dealer is "real.")
Should I Buy a Lifetime Service Contract on My Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge?
(for search engine hits, this could be thought of as Should I buy an extended warranty on my car? even though, in a technical and legal sense of the word, a service contract isn't a warranty. Another spin on this would be Should I buy a Maximum Care Service Contract?)
I get the occasional email/comment here from people asking about lifetime service contracts (aka "lifetime warranty," "unlimited warranty wrap") and feel compelled to write an over-riding article on the concept ...
(Although I'll be making reference to Chryslers here, the exact same ideas apply to all Chrysler Group LLC vehicles, namely Dodges and Jeeps. In fact, their service contract prices and terms are identical to all Chryslers.)
Should you buy a lifetime service contract on your car?
Really, there's no cut-and-dried answer to this. Only you can make the "right" choice, but I can give you enough questions, comments and ideas to lead you to a decision that'll make the most sense in your case ...
Before you ask yourself anything, be prepared to be ready to be brutally frank in with yourself in your answers. In my wanderings through the world I've been struck, time and time again, by how few people are able to either be honest with themselves, or even focus on "larger truth."*
In the purist's sense of the word, by buying a lifetime service contract, you're making a bet against yourself ... You're saying you believe the car you're buying will suffer more repair problems over the period of time you own it than you'll pay up-front with a service contract.
Never forget the prime rule of service contracts: All companies make money on these contracts or they wouldn't offer them.
My guess is the way they make the most is simply by pandering to the new American trend of fear. In our collective lifetimes, Americans have become afraid of everything: terrorists, swine flu, illegal immigrants -- you name it. In keeping with this, people fear their cars will break down and will buy a service contract.
Chrysler knows, full-well, that the average American owns a car for 5.1 years, but will own a Chrysler for 4.9 years. If you fall into that category (and odds are good that you do), and you buy a lifetime service contract, Chrysler makes more money by default -- you could have bought a shorter (five, six or seven years; with 60,000 to 100,000 miles).
Looking at it this from any offering company's point of view, they make money on you buying a service contract if one of three broad things are true:
The last is the one that is under contention and the one that you can work to influence. Although I don't have any solid evidence from Chrysler, it's probably safe to assume that they'll do all they can to back out of paying out against a service contract.** That means for you to get paid you'll have to follow everything in the contract to the letter. (That also means you'll have to read and think ... God forbid.)
If you're dealing with a Jeep, Chrysler or Dodge, have a look-see at the hi-lighted version of the maximum care wrap service contract. Speed read it and just look at the hi-lighting if you want -- those are the things that I think are of particular interest, sort of freakishly strange or flat-out gotchas.
(If you're thinking about some other vehicle, or contract you should read that first ... I'll wait for everyone right here until you come back.)
Howdy. Now that you're more aware, you need to ask yourself seriously how long you plan on holding onto your car. Be honest. Here are some less-obvious things that could affect the term of your ownership:
You should NOT buy a lifetime service contract if ANY of the following are true:
A lifetime service contract may make sense if you don't fit in any of the categories above and, especially, if one or more of the follow true:
I get the occasional email/comment here from people asking about lifetime service contracts (aka "lifetime warranty," "unlimited warranty wrap") and feel compelled to write an over-riding article on the concept ...
(Although I'll be making reference to Chryslers here, the exact same ideas apply to all Chrysler Group LLC vehicles, namely Dodges and Jeeps. In fact, their service contract prices and terms are identical to all Chryslers.)
Should you buy a lifetime service contract on your car?
Really, there's no cut-and-dried answer to this. Only you can make the "right" choice, but I can give you enough questions, comments and ideas to lead you to a decision that'll make the most sense in your case ...
Before you ask yourself anything, be prepared to be ready to be brutally frank in with yourself in your answers. In my wanderings through the world I've been struck, time and time again, by how few people are able to either be honest with themselves, or even focus on "larger truth."*
In the purist's sense of the word, by buying a lifetime service contract, you're making a bet against yourself ... You're saying you believe the car you're buying will suffer more repair problems over the period of time you own it than you'll pay up-front with a service contract.
Never forget the prime rule of service contracts: All companies make money on these contracts or they wouldn't offer them.
My guess is the way they make the most is simply by pandering to the new American trend of fear. In our collective lifetimes, Americans have become afraid of everything: terrorists, swine flu, illegal immigrants -- you name it. In keeping with this, people fear their cars will break down and will buy a service contract.
Chrysler knows, full-well, that the average American owns a car for 5.1 years, but will own a Chrysler for 4.9 years. If you fall into that category (and odds are good that you do), and you buy a lifetime service contract, Chrysler makes more money by default -- you could have bought a shorter (five, six or seven years; with 60,000 to 100,000 miles).
Looking at it this from any offering company's point of view, they make money on you buying a service contract if one of three broad things are true:
- You never have a problem
- You have a problem, but never make a claim
- You make a claim, but they are able to deny it
The last is the one that is under contention and the one that you can work to influence. Although I don't have any solid evidence from Chrysler, it's probably safe to assume that they'll do all they can to back out of paying out against a service contract.** That means for you to get paid you'll have to follow everything in the contract to the letter. (That also means you'll have to read and think ... God forbid.)
If you're dealing with a Jeep, Chrysler or Dodge, have a look-see at the hi-lighted version of the maximum care wrap service contract. Speed read it and just look at the hi-lighting if you want -- those are the things that I think are of particular interest, sort of freakishly strange or flat-out gotchas.
(If you're thinking about some other vehicle, or contract you should read that first ... I'll wait for everyone right here until you come back.)
Howdy. Now that you're more aware, you need to ask yourself seriously how long you plan on holding onto your car. Be honest. Here are some less-obvious things that could affect the term of your ownership:
- Your likelihood of a bad accident or hardcore vandalism (neither of which are covered)
- Gas being $7-$10/gallon (I'd say this is likely within a decade)
- Your life expectancy
- How easily you are "bored" by the car you drive
You should NOT buy a lifetime service contract if ANY of the following are true:
- You believe your car will experience fewer mechanical problems (in dollar amounts) than the price of your service contract
- You plan on modifying your vehicle (that can invalidate the contract)
- You won't religiously service your car in accordance with your owner's manual
- You live in an area that is several hundred miles removed from a reputable dealer
- You plan on holding onto your car less than seven years or 100,000 miles -- including passing the car along to relatives (other service contracts make more sense if these things are true)
- You have reason to believe you will live fewer than seven years
- You plan on moving your car outside the US
- You tend to get in a fair number of accidents (or a serious accident is likely)
- You believe that the vast majority of the problems in your car will come from the powertrain (this is already covered in your powertrain warranty if you're the first owner for 2007 - 2009. you can get a powertrain only contract if this doesn't apply to you)
- You have a manual transmission and are most worried about clutch problems (clutches aren't covered)
- You're paranoid by nature and automatically assume Chrysler will renege on the contract
- You do your own car maintenance and can't keep track of receipts or records of your work
- You believe your car is at high risk for theft
- You have any off-road use that could be classified as "severe"
- Your car is likely to be caught in a flood
A lifetime service contract may make sense if you don't fit in any of the categories above and, especially, if one or more of the follow true:
- You put an excessive number of miles on your car
- You often drive in unusually hostile road environments (extremes in temperature, weather, extremely rough roads [but not off-road -- this is specifically excluded])
- You'd rather not worry about fixing your car
- You don't know where you'd get money for a major car repair
- You insist on having all your car maintenance done by a dealership
- You have reason to believe your car may be prone to failure
- Your over-arching plan is to never buy another internal combustion car
- Your car is fully loaded and/or has a top-of-the-line factory stereo
- Your car is a convertible -- especially if it's a hardtop convertible (the convertible motor is covered by the warranty, but a cloth top is not)
- Your car was manufactured in the US (I rented a Dodge Calibre that was US built and it was of a considerably worse construction than my Mexican-built Cruiser)
With a little bit of thought and your best guesses about your personal situation, you should have a pretty good idea if a service contract is for you or not. Good luck with your decision ... I hope your car breaks if you buy a service contract -- I hope it doesn't if you don't.
If you've read all the way through here, you might also be interested in my advice on ways to hedge your service contract buy ... could give you a chance to not shell out the money yet as you try to decide as a lifetime service contract makes sense.
*{An example that comes to mind immediately: I was working at Danger on the hiptop (ultimately known as the T-Mobile SideKick) and a tradeshow customer -- probably a high tech analyst -- asked what the durability of our device would be. I hate people who give canned answers to questions so rather than be the typical corporate stooge and say that that had not yet been determined (the easy, safe and completely non-informing answer), I explained that although we hadn't gone beyond prototypes, I would expect publicly released final units to last a couple of years.
"A couple of years? As in two?"
"We're not final yet, but that's what I'd expect."
"And you think that's acceptable?"
I un-corked on him. "Yes, I think that's acceptable! How long have you ever used a cell phone?" He hemmed and hawed, acting like the poser that he was. That only boiled me faster. I pressed and pressed and pressed until he admitted he'd never used a cell phone for longer than four months.
In other words, any piece of crap would work for him and two years didn't actually make any difference ... So when I say honesty toward yourself, I mean don't be like that guy.}
**{note that as of March, 2013, I've had five service contract repairs (paying $500 out of my pocket for roughly $2400 worth of work. To this point in time, Chrylser has never even acted as thought they wouldn't pay or honor a claim ... So this original comment may be over-paranoid.}
If you've read all the way through here, you might also be interested in my advice on ways to hedge your service contract buy ... could give you a chance to not shell out the money yet as you try to decide as a lifetime service contract makes sense.
*{An example that comes to mind immediately: I was working at Danger on the hiptop (ultimately known as the T-Mobile SideKick) and a tradeshow customer -- probably a high tech analyst -- asked what the durability of our device would be. I hate people who give canned answers to questions so rather than be the typical corporate stooge and say that that had not yet been determined (the easy, safe and completely non-informing answer), I explained that although we hadn't gone beyond prototypes, I would expect publicly released final units to last a couple of years.
"A couple of years? As in two?"
"We're not final yet, but that's what I'd expect."
"And you think that's acceptable?"
I un-corked on him. "Yes, I think that's acceptable! How long have you ever used a cell phone?" He hemmed and hawed, acting like the poser that he was. That only boiled me faster. I pressed and pressed and pressed until he admitted he'd never used a cell phone for longer than four months.
In other words, any piece of crap would work for him and two years didn't actually make any difference ... So when I say honesty toward yourself, I mean don't be like that guy.}
**{note that as of March, 2013, I've had five service contract repairs (paying $500 out of my pocket for roughly $2400 worth of work. To this point in time, Chrylser has never even acted as thought they wouldn't pay or honor a claim ... So this original comment may be over-paranoid.}
2010-04-25
Warming up a car engine
this passed along to me by my pal, cap'n happy -- i don't know his
source.
my rule of thumb on the continual car is idle until the engine RPM
naturally kicks back (it's about 10 seconds).
i also let it idle at all stop lights and intersections, but shut it
down (continually) in things like drive-thrus.
{4/28 -- this came from fortune magazine}
***
"In the past, when cars had carburetors, engines used thick oil that
required warming up," says Mike Harrison, Ford's V-8 engine programs
manager. Today's thinner oils allow engines to be driven away sooner,
making
idling unnecessary.
His rule: If you're operating your car above 0° F, you can drive away
within
10 seconds (he advises 30 seconds for temperatures below zero).
Experts also say you'll save gas by turning off your engine if you're
going
to idle for more than 30 seconds -- some studies suggest even less
time.
According to an EDF report published last year, unnecessary idling will
waste between $44 and $392 on fuel annually (range depends on fuel
prices,
idling habits, and vehicle type).
But won't shutting the car on and off wear down the starter and battery?
Two
extra restarts each day will average about $10 a year in repairs. "If
your
engine is operating fewer hours, there's less wear on the most
expensive
parts," says Jeff Bartlett, an auto editor with Consumer Reports
source.
my rule of thumb on the continual car is idle until the engine RPM
naturally kicks back (it's about 10 seconds).
i also let it idle at all stop lights and intersections, but shut it
down (continually) in things like drive-thrus.
{4/28 -- this came from fortune magazine}
***
"In the past, when cars had carburetors, engines used thick oil that
required warming up," says Mike Harrison, Ford's V-8 engine programs
manager. Today's thinner oils allow engines to be driven away sooner,
making
idling unnecessary.
His rule: If you're operating your car above 0° F, you can drive away
within
10 seconds (he advises 30 seconds for temperatures below zero).
Experts also say you'll save gas by turning off your engine if you're
going
to idle for more than 30 seconds -- some studies suggest even less
time.
According to an EDF report published last year, unnecessary idling will
waste between $44 and $392 on fuel annually (range depends on fuel
prices,
idling habits, and vehicle type).
But won't shutting the car on and off wear down the starter and battery?
Two
extra restarts each day will average about $10 a year in repairs. "If
your
engine is operating fewer hours, there's less wear on the most
expensive
parts," says Jeff Bartlett, an auto editor with Consumer Reports
now things heat up
the air conditioning on the continual car has stopped working. this
will be the first *true* test of the lifetime service contract because
air conditioning is fully covered (assuming i'm reading the entirety of
the contract right) and i'm well-beyond the 3/36 original
bumper-to-bumper of the car.
will be the first *true* test of the lifetime service contract because
air conditioning is fully covered (assuming i'm reading the entirety of
the contract right) and i'm well-beyond the 3/36 original
bumper-to-bumper of the car.
2010-04-22
what are the odds?
got a stone chip in the windshield. i assume it was a meteorite.
note for god: use a bigger rock.
55,285 miles
2010-04-15
54957 mile service
chrysler still has not fixed their 3-for-1 coupon, so i head up to stoneride chrysler jeep of dublin who were running a coupon on their website.
in, out, (no inspection problems, again). $31.
the only hitch? i get a speeding ticket for the first time in my life on the way home. so much for saving money.
in, out, (no inspection problems, again). $31.
the only hitch? i get a speeding ticket for the first time in my life on the way home. so much for saving money.
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