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Mill Creek, OK Car Consumer Discussions

Re: PLEASE HELP - Need advice on extended Warranty .... [roverfish]

by discoman on Sun Nov 09 13:01:44 PST 2008

It sounds to me like the third party warranty company offered them a better kickback so they are pushing it. Also, is the 3rd party something local that the dealership's owner may be a part owner in the company? You might want to inquire at another dealer, possibly in another state or city. I phoned my dealer in Seattle where I have bought 3 vehicles from in the last 10 years. He told me their LR extended warranty prices are comparable to the last one I purchased, allowing for inflation of course. But they haven't gone up anything drastic. Just a few $$$ in the last 2 years. I would be really, really careful with 3rd party warranties. They aren't worth the paper they are written on. I had one on my 2003 Expedition EB, and I got the best one available. It supposedly covered all the AC components, including the rear AC. Except for the $800 worth of parts and labor that broke on mine. It covered the electric windows, except the part of them that broke on mine. The switches yes, the switch controller module, no. So if a switch went bad, I would have to pay $100 deductible to replace a $20 switch plus labor, which came to $120. The controller is a $350 module, plus labor, and not covered. Get the picture? They make it look really good by having a long list of parts. Most of them with familiar or important sounding names, that are covered, so it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling that you are in good hands. But these are the most reliable components, that almost NEVER break. A manufacturer's extended warranty is infinitely better, because athough yes, they are pricier, and designed to make a bit of extra $$ on the back end of the sale (The salesman gets no comission, the back office does), they also cover the important components likely to fail during the warranty period to keep the vehicle in good running condition. This keeps the customer happy because as long as you are getting good warranty service, you will probably purchase a new car from them again. And the current vehicle you will probably trade will be in better condition for the resale too. So it saves them $$ again by not having to spend so much reconditioning your car before they put it on the lot, and they can offer you a better deal on the trade. 3rd party warranty companies don't care as much about repeat business, because they figure if you don't need them, you will never know how little you are actually covered for. This will make you come back to them on your next car because they are cheaper than the Manufacturers. And if you do need them, you will realize what a rip off they are and go with the manufacturer's warranty next time anyway. Hope this helps. :confuse:

Snowy Day Here Too

by the_big_al on Wed Jan 17 13:07:24 PST 2007

It was a snowy day here too yesterday. Snow started in the middle of the day catching everyone unawares and made the rest of the day pretty hairy on the roads. Fortunately I wasn't on the roads except for when I went to my in-laws to get a stew pot. They only live 2 miles away, but it took me about 20 minutes instead of the normal 4. I started out in my truck which is 2wd and has wide directional summer tires on, but the going wasn't too bad. I only made it about 1/4 when I came upon a vehicle that had gone off the road and was creating a traffic back up. This was also on a hill and so I couldn't help but come to a stop on the hill. I groaned, and waited a couple more minutes until I realized I wasn't moving anytime soon. Unfortunatly there wasn't much I could do since I was on a hill and there wasn't really a place to turn around except the construction lot just 10 yards ahead, but there was a car blocking my path to it. The car in front move ahead though just enough for me to get into the lot. It was fun trying to do that. I put it in 2nd and was able to get there without too much slippage. After getting in, I wasn't sure if I would get out, but still in 2nd gear, I was able to pull out and head back the way I had come. I decided it would be wiser to trade vehicles for my wife's front wheel drive. I trades vehicles and went the other way back towards the middle of town where I could get across the creek to the highway so I could continue my trek. I finally made to my inlaws after a couple of detours. On the way back I passed a banged up Corolla sitting in the middle of the road, but no aparent owner of the car in sight. When I got back to where the 1st accident had occured I realized it still hadn't been cleared up, only now I was on the other side of it and no clear way through and no foreseable timeline of when it would clear. So I turn around again and head back the way I came, only this time I decided to go through the golf community to get home since I would have had to back track more than halfway back to my inlaws. I knew the potential for the roads to be worse was greater since it was a little higher up, but I gigured the roads couldn't be any worse than they were already. On the other side of the golf course there was yet another truck (this time 4x4) off in the ditch and all kinds of people milling about. I briefly asked if they needed help and was told everything was good so I continued on home. So in all, a total round trip of roughly 4 or 5 miles ended up being about 15 and almost an hours worth of driving... Needless to say, I stayed home the rest of the day.

Re: Bluetooth [dmelnik1]

by discoman on Tue Jun 24 15:15:19 PDT 2008

Yeah, I looked into having a Motorola unit installed. It's about $400 installed at Best Buy. But I was more into whether or not I can take it to LR to have them install it there. I didn't know if maybe I just had to get the module installed and a new steering wheel or what. I might get the aftermarket just because my wife drives it most of the time and refuses to use the bluetooth headsets. She already got a $400 ticket and still insists on talking on the phone in the car.

Bluetooth

by discoman on Mon Jun 23 13:58:49 PDT 2008

Does anyone know if I can gt the bluetooth added to my 2005 LR3? I have the navigation Package and was wondering if anyone has had it done afterwards

Re: Blocking the sun from sunroofs [derrickh22]

by discoman on Thu Jun 05 13:39:24 PDT 2008

I believe there is also a spray on tint you could use. But that still leaves you with the breaking problem. You could also find a custom shop that will take off the perforated ones and put in solid shades. But it's $$. Another option is to get some thin cloth that matches your interior (Not Black or it will build up heat), and 3M spray on adhesive (The kind used to re-attach headliners like I had to do on my old 96 Disco) and cut the cloth and spray the glue on the cloth and attach it to the blind while it is shut. I did this on my Disco when I lived in Jacksonville, FL and it worked fine. Even retracted OK since it wasn't that much thicker. And it is easy to peel off later if you want to trade, Just make sure you spray the cloth, not the blindm and wait for he glue to be tacky before you put it up. Now I live in Seattle, and have since traded the old girl for an 05 LR3 so it's no longer a problem. Hope this helps.

Re: EPA estimates [stalnaker]

by wvgasguy on Thu Jan 17 09:31:13 PST 2008

Where in WV do you live? I live in Jane Lew. I have several normal trips I take and they are of various lengths. I do garage my car, not heated but probably stays 40F to 50F in the winter depending on how cold it is outside. I don't have to use the car for work. From my house into Weston on 2 lane Rt 19 is about 4 miles. I do this one often. It is pretty level and I have no problems getting 40+ with a cold car. From my house to my church in Lost Creek is about 13 to 15 miles. If I go up Rt 19 and the back way (2 lane / 45 mph) I can get 47 in summer and 39+ in winter on that trip. If I get on the interstate at Jane Lew and get off at Lost Creek (driving a little under the limit) I get 38 to 40 and it doesn't seem to vary much due to the cold. Snow and rain / wind does hurt hard. Driving from Weston to Hurricane on I79 (hilly) and I64 (relatively flat) I have gotten as much as 42 and as little as 35. The 35mpg trip was done at about 80 mph with little reguard to economy. The 42 mpg trip was allowing the car to slow on steep grades and on steep downhills I did not brake and exceeded the limit significantly (this thing rolls easy). Driving to Buckhannon is an experience. It is 4 lane but there is a steep grade going east. Going to Buckhannon (about 12 - 15 miles) I will get between 36 to 37, but by the time I do my return trip I'm back at 39 overall. You can pretty much coast half the way back to Weston. My most frequent trip is to Clarksburg (50 miles round trip). Depending on driving style I get no lower than 35 (fast old style driving), seldom lower than 36 (cold or rain) and 90% of the time better than 37 (with just a little thought about what I'm doing). With a little thought and effort I can always get 38 to 39 round trip. I experimented once on the backroads and made a couple of laps around the Weston-jackson Mill_Jane Lew Loop and drove almost 50 miles and had 48mpg. Remember thought that this is a 25 / 35 /45 mph road loop. In Nags Head (all flat) I drove 300 miles at 45 mpg in mild to heavy traffic However I know that somone new to the hybrid will do differently. My son took the car to Charleston and got 32 mpg. Thought he had done something great and was surprised when I chewed him out ;o) One time for an experiment I drove up Rt 19 to jane Lew, took the back road past Davis Station to Lost Creek and went up Mt Clair Road to Clarksburg. With no traffic and doing really stupid slow driving I got 57 mpg. Just had to see what it was capable of. I have found that the sweet spot for my car is driving on rolling slopes at about 50 mph. The engine running keeps the battery charged and for every up there is a down. The rolling resistance on this is incredible and it appears if you're going fast enough to use the momentum uphill that the battery boost helps significantly if you don't push it hard, yet going down the small slopes the gage drops to 60 and the overall is excellent. I know my driving style and the effort I give is not for everyone. However I enjoy the challenge and find it entertaining to see just how I can do. I don't think I lose much time by driving just under the limit. I find that driving under the limit keeps me from getting packed up with clusters of cars, which is why I normally drove fast. Now instead of catching up with them and slowing down, I simply let them pass. On a trip to Charleston it probably only cost me 10 minutes. I still find myself sitting behind the folks that passed me on the exit ramps. DISCLAIMER: My wife averages about 2 mpg lower than me. Overall FE after 39,000 miles is 37.6 and that includes several trips to Charleston and Ohio by her. Even then she would get 36 to 37 mpg. But her long milage trips add a lot of weight to the overall FE numbers. I keep a lot of records to track this including calculating a corrected FE based on odometer error and computer error. My lifetime average based on the computer is about 38.2 My lifetime calculation based on manual calculations (miles and gallons) is just over 37. If you use your computer to track FE you're probably not doing as well as you think and if you crank it out long hand you actually doing better than you think. Spent a lot of time and blogging on GreenHybrid to develop this. Not sure why oter than I wanted to see if I could come close to driving this for free after all the tax credits. By the way I hope you took the $3750 WV tax credit last year (it ran out though on June 1, 2006 which is why I insisted my dealer give me the first one). My total tax credit is $6350 and on top of that my dealer gives me free tires ;o)