Today's new vehicles/winter weather

[Diamondpilot]

I don't like ABS, I hate traction control. What a horrible feature.

I have to say I am the opposite. My first real vehicle with all that was my 08 Nissan Titan. It has a system that will apply the brake or stop the rotation of a particular wheel. It turns off automatically if you go to 4 Low or you can turn it of with the simple press of a button. It works really well and does a great job of preventing mud and such from being slung.

They call it VDC, vehicle dynamic control.

Chris

 

[Bob77064]

My 4wd Tundra has abs, stability and tracton control. The traction control is good on ice or wet roads. But in heavy mud the raction control will not let you spin the wheels to throw the mud out. that wil get you stuck.

 

[Martian]

Modern convenience comes with more troubles. Have a 1953 Farmall Cub that starts every time, and it amazes me every time. You have to start it and let it warm up good but I would bet it over anything I have to start. Plus it's so much easier to work on then the new stuff.

 

[dstig1]

Extended warranties are simply insurance. I read a newspaper article that gave a really good reason why not to buy them: The purpose of insurance is to cover the kind of financial disaster that would either destroy or seriously damage your financial position. You spread your risk out with the rest of the policy holders so that it only costs you a small amount to cover a potentially big loss. Nobody was ever financially ruined if the VCR went bad. And the cost of the warranties means that skipping even just a few of them has already saved yourself enough to cover the loss of a DVD or cellphone or something.

Car extended warranties kind of fit in the middle ground here. A tranny is expensive, but it isn't catastrophic for most people, just hurts a bunch. Hard to argue that you need an extended warranty if you don't keep a car a long time too, and few people seem to keep them long. If you don't have much faith in the durability of the car, maybe you should buy a different one, or trade around the time the warranty expires.

Never bought an extended warranty and never will. I do all my own work on just about everything, from cars to DVDs to appliances. Wouldn't be worth it to me.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Extended warranties are simply insurance. I read a newspaper article that gave a really good reason why not to buy them: The purpose of insurance is to cover the kind of financial disaster that would either destroy or seriously damage your financial position. You spread your risk out with the rest of the policy holders so that it only costs you a small amount to cover a potentially big loss. Nobody was ever financially ruined if the VCR went bad. And the cost of the warranties means that skipping even just a few of them has already saved yourself enough to cover the loss of a DVD or cellphone or something.

Car extended warranties kind of fit in the middle ground here. A tranny is expensive, but it isn't catastrophic for most people, just hurts a bunch. Hard to argue that you need an extended warranty if you don't keep a car a long time too, and few people seem to keep them long. If you don't have much faith in the durability of the car, maybe you should buy a different one, or trade around the time the warranty expires.

Never bought an extended warranty and never will. I do all my own work on just about everything, from cars to DVDs to appliances. Wouldn't be worth it to me.

Very well said.

Chris

 

[jeffsw6]

I don't think I'd purchase an extra extended warranty on a new vehicle. Who knows, you might buy one that spends all its time in the shop even before the mfr warranty is up, and end up getting rid of it / lemon lawing / whatever, and then you paid for that extra warranty and never even got to that many miles/months.

Used is a different story IMO. The news keeps saying that a lot of people can't come up with $1000-$2000 in case of an emergency, and an auto repair can easily cost that much, and you often do not know how the vehicle was cared for by its previous owner.

The thing to watch out for is the details of the warranty. The one I bought on my 05 Suburban supposedly cost $1300 but I bought it at the dealership when buying the truck so obviously the price was bundled up in the sale price of the truck, who knows what it really cost. It was good for so many miles/months but only up to a certain dollar value of repairs, I think it was around $5000. I figured the real cost to me for the warranty was maybe $1000 and I thought the chance of that truck needing a $1000 repair before the warranty ran out was pretty fair. It did turn out that I got my transfer case sensor or motor or whatever repaired under it, and a transmission gasket, and all the expensive dealership labor, I think it would have been around $600 or $700 if I had to pay for it, but I never saw a bill. Did I waste $300 or did I have some extra peace of mind when purchasing a used truck? In my mind it was the later, but everyone should decide on their own.

 

[mjncad]

The worst case of someone trying to sell me an extended warranty was for an electric powered string trimmer made by Black & Decker. The trimmer cost me $28 and the cashier asked if I wanted to spend $5 extra for an extended warranty.

I gave him a look, and said, "You've got to be kidding; but at least your boss should be happy with you for doing as you were instructed to do."

This was at the defunct Home Base in the early 90's. I still have the trimmer; but never use it anymore since I have a gas powered one.