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Hickman, NE Car Consumer Discussions

Insurance Company Thieves..

by oldhippyaw on Tue Jan 01 15:18:04 PST 2008

WARNING After years of paying priemiums to GEICO, I tried to file a claim due to my having some idiot run a red light and clip me on December 18 2007... My car while old (1996) it was in perfect running condition. ALL lights worked (inspite of a chip in the LR brake light case) and the car was just smogged this summer and after necessary work passed with flying colors. The tires and brakes (AND routers) were replaced new also this last summer. Good milage and no problems with ANYTHING on the car. Yea, it was dirty and had some dings and dents here and there. It was in no way a "Beater", which is what the insurance company is trying to say. It may not have looked top end, but mecanically, it was in fantastic shape....it ran like a top. The adjuster claims my car to be worth $747.21. This is a car that the Kelly bluebook shows at almost $4,000. as a dealer price. They say that any "comperable vehicle" sells for less than $1500 in this area and with the deductable. Checking with most car lots in Fresno you see a sale price of $2,500 to $3,500. While I will not say my car was worth $3,500, it was a damn sure worth a lot more than $750. GEICO checks with SALVAGE YARDS to get there prices. Not even reputable auto sales business. According to guidlines they are to use the "personal purchase" value of a car, not the "trade" or "dealer purchase" value. They go to scrapyards - and I know of NO-ONE who would go to a salvage yard to buy a car. I only ask that I be "made whole", which is what the insurance institute says they must do. I simply want either my car back or a vehicle of the same year/make/model in the same condition my car was before the accident. They are attempting to get around that by their underhanded practices. DON'T throw your money away to GEICO! I am looking at filing a lawsuit due to misleading practices through the California Insurance Commission. These theives MUST be stopped. REMEMBER the next time you see a GEICO commercial that that little green lizzard is sneeking into your pocket to steal your money and he will do his best to make sure you don't get back what you deserve. GEICO INSURANCE CO ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF THEIVES. PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. THE COUNTRY NEEDS TO BE MADE AWAIR THAT THESE PEOPLE WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND LEAVE YOU WITH NOTHING. Do yourselves a favor. Tell all your friends as a favor. Tell them about this and about GEICO's practices. It could save them in the longrun. Forward this to EVERYONE you know. I need HELP in finding out HOW to cost these people some of the precious $$$ they have stolen from US. G. M. R. Hickman

Re: OK, here is the best offer I can get on the Pilot EX-L AWD [eddy7523]

by gordonfreeman on Tue Apr 03 06:35:45 PDT 2007

I bought mine from Holmes Honda in Clive. Not sure if you are familiar with the DM area, but it is right off the I80/I35 on Hickman on the western side of town. I went through their internet sales department. The guy was nice and didn't try to push anything. I imagine they tend to treat internet business with a little more respect since they figure you've probably done your research. I test drove the Pilot there about a month before I bought it and the guy said they usually have a ton of Pilots in stock. You can see some of their inventory from the street and it usually looks like there are a lot of them on the lot. That could be one of the reasons they went lower than anyone else. This time of month is probably not the best time to make a deal. I would wait until the end of the month to make the purchase. I believe the 3.9% financing is still going on through the end of the month, but I am not sure about the $2000 dealer cash. I would imagine it is, but you would have to get some quotes from dealers to find out. I could tell which of my quotes were including the dealer cash and which weren't since there was a big gap between the low prices and the rest. I went to Honda's website in the second to last week of the month to get a list of dealers in Iowa, northern Missouri, Omaha and southern Minnesota. It took a few times since you have to search by zip code or city and it gives dealers in about 150 mi radius. From the website, I requested a quote from each dealer. After that, I started getting quotes. Some were good, some were basically at invoice or maybe a little below. Once you get a reasonable offer (mine was $28,500 from the dealer in Iowa City), let all the dealers know what it is and see what they say. This will start flushing them out. Most might say thanks but no thanks. Out of about 20 dealers, it seemed about 5 were willing to play ball. From there, I just tried to get them as low as possible. Don't act too interested. When you get an offer, let them sweat by saying you are still weighing other offers. Let the offer hang out there and don't get back to them for a day. See if they send an improved offer on their own (unlikely). When you are down to the end, send an email to all of them saying you are looking to make a purchase in the next day or so and want their best offer. Some might go lower, some might not. Grill the dealers about how many miles are on the car (if you have a specific color in mind), how long has it been on the lot, etc. Basically act nitpicky about the deal. Whatever they say, sound disappointed. Also, ask what they will throw in in terms of accessories (door guards, all-season mats, etc.). If you could get a few hundred dollars in accessories thrown in, that may swing the deal their way. They came in low on the trade-in so if you have one and can afford to sell it privately, that might be a better option. I guess you'll have to wait and see what they offer. If you do buy from there and are interested in the extended Honda Care warranty, DO NOT BUY it from them. The finance guy said they mark each plan up $300 above cost but that is a lie! I looked at the 8yr/100K plan and they were charging over $2K for it. I bought it online for $1130. I didn't call the guy out on it because I figured I was getting a good deal on the car. You can go to the Extended Warranty forum here to find out where to buy them if you are interested. How far are you from DM? I got the spiel from them about how they normally don't go that low but wanted to keep my business local. They may or may not say the same thing to you. Maybe the dealer will say they want to earn your business and are willing to go lower to get you to drive to them. Gordon, What dealer did you buy from in Iowa? I'm in western Iowa and would want to make sure and hit the dealer you bought from. Eddy

Re: Challenger? [lemmer]

by john_324 on Wed Jul 27 14:49:03 PDT 2005

It seems to me that the way to view the new Charger is against the rest of the current automotive market. In that light, it seems (to me anyway) a pretty cool and worthy car. The "classic" Charger existed in a market where American cars were pretty much IT, except for the European sportscars and a few quirky foreign econo-mobiles. Also, there were also no real emissions standards and hard-core road congestion hadn't really begun yet. Today's market is entirely different. There is an amazing range of choice if one is looking to buy a large, powerful car...both the Europeans and the Asians now offer them, and many are quite high-quality with ammenities and safety features that weren't even conceived of in 1969. In addition to being fast, they also handle and brake well too. Add to this enviromental requirements and how much time the average driver spends sitting in traffic, and there's a lot of things a carmarker has to consider when creating a car that sells and generates a profit (which after all, is the point of being in the business). After all, consider the tale of the GM F-bodies. The modern Camaro/Firebird is an amazing high performance car that was (for better or worse) true to the spirit of the age of the musclecar, rough and raw with great menacing styling. It also isn't made anymore. For all of the fans that praised the car, not enough of them were willing to actually pay money and buy one. That it survived as long as it did was due largely to it being pretty cheap to make, with its components coming from parts bins, other vehicles or just simply old, sunk-cost stuff. So I guess my point is that yeah, the Charger isn't as cool perhaps as those of us here would like (I wanted a coupe too), but in a relative sense, I think it's a great car for its time that captures the essense of its predecessors while still (hopefully) having a broad enough market base to insure that it'll be made for more than a couple of years. And who knows, the next Charger may well come in a coupe form, if this one does well enough; but if this one doesn't sell, a high-powered coupe becomes even less likely. And for what it's worth, when I think "Charger", I see the menacing hitmen's car in "Bullitt", with bespectacled Bill Hickman at the wheel, not the General Lee driven by two hillbillies in flannel... :)

Re: ..and Bill Hickman... [explorerx4]

by turboshadow on Tue May 31 08:08:00 PDT 2005

turbo... what do you mean 'it beats the alternative'? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It means, "Better than being dead." Maybe its a regional thing. All my relatives say it after they make a comment about getting old. Turboshadow

The Bill Hickman smirk.

by emmanuelchoke on Sat May 28 05:24:15 PDT 2005

I'll sometimes use it in traffic when an aggressive driver gets twarted.

Re: ..and Bill Hickman... [turboshadow]

by explorerx4 on Fri May 27 16:18:00 PDT 2005

turbo... what do you mean 'it beats the alternative'? i'm 10 years older than you are, i can sort of remember being 39 (in the good old days). :) since i have the bullitt movie, i'll have to see how the charger send off happens. ;)