These are not "shady" deals, but I think that all 3 favor the dealership, and not the auto owner. 1. Extend the warranty from 5 to 7 years for $1480 and get the money back if no claims. This is a free loan of $1480 to the dealer for 7 years and it probably does not cover much, maybe just the drive train. These parts are already warranteed for 5 years. What happens if the dealership changes hand, goes out of business, or re-incorporates before the 7 years is up? These days, auto dealerships are very fluid and a long term, fixed business arrangement for 7 years is more rare than new dealerships. Do you thnik you will own this vehicle for 7 years? What happens to your money if you replace this vehicle within 5 years? 2. Rust proofig for $848 or more option at $1248. The time to add rust proofing to a vehicle is when it is new and the surfaces are clean. This one is a maybe. Some sources say it is wasted money. It all depends on what is done. If it merely duplicates the coatings already placed by the manufacturer, it is not very helpful. It may offer some protection if you live on a gravel road where the undercarraige gets pelted with stones on a regular basis. If they add coatings to the interior of the doors, be careful here. Too much in the wrong place can gum up the workings of electric door locks; It can plug door drains. If you live in the "rust belt" where road salts are used extensively, it may some added value. This one is a judgement call. 3. Accident and health insurance. This is assurance (to the dealer) that you'll have cash to pay off the loan in case of debilitating accident or sickness to you. Very likely, it will be written to the effect that in case of accident or illiness, the car loan is the first item to be satisfied. If you are employed, have adequate health and life insurance, this is not needed. For a long trerm loan, say 5 years, the dealer (and loan agency) is very anxious to make sure that the loan covered.

I'm sure this insurance company practice has been common -- but generally unknown to the public. I was surprised to get a notice in our auto insurance bill INFORMING me that State Farm does consider your credit rating when setting your rates. They stated that my DH's report was closed to inquiry, so they had used mine! Years ago we applied for a store CC to save 10% on a large purchase. When the clerk ran my DH's soc. sec. number our report was incorrect, listing another name and another address! We contacted one of the reporting agencies to rectify it. (Partial success.) It was then that we decided it would be prudent to freeze. I think we have 'unfrozen' on only two occasions since then -- simple to 'open' the record at one reporting agency for X hours and to only X company. We seldom require credit -- not opening new accounts for CC's or establishing utility service, etc. However, I had not thought about hiding our *good* credit causing us trouble. Now it's State Farm...what else? The credit reports are so rife with errors -- that the report keepers refuse to correct -- that I wonder how *credible* they can be!

We have Farm Bureau for home and auto. Also have a life insurance policy with them (hubby) and have had both boats and rvs insured through them. We have had FB for probably 25-30 years. In this house we have had 3 roofs in 18 years. This one has been on a while (knock on wood!). For several years we had some bad spring storms with some serious hail. Both times FB was wonderful to work with. We didn't have to submit multiple estimates and the claim was paid quickly. Last year on a day I was working, I was coming back from lunch and a student and I collided. Police could not assign blame (I honestly think we were changing lanes at the same time) so each of us handled our own vehicle. They are great to work with on an auto claim. We had to use them once before for an auto claim and the one body shop in the area we would choose to use is set up with FB. All you do is take your car in. They handle everything, even a rental car if needed. My only complaint is we had a wonderful agent for years, and are not so fond of the younger agent who took on his clients (original agent retired). But it's a personality thing, I can't say he doesn't do his job. In both the roof claims and the recent car claim, our rates didn't go up. The home owners did eventually, with an explanation of so many claims, etc. due to storms in the area. It was not a major increase though. We do get discounts for having multiple policies, for having an alarm system, for having fire coverage, etc. I manage my grandmother's affairs and she has had Travelers for years. She also had a claim a few years back due to hail and they were good to deal with. However, they did the depreciating method, which I do understand. Her rates seem high compared to ours.

Why even consider the unique laws of New York or Massachusetts if you don't live there? Kind of silly in my book. And the paranoia of someone else "driving" your car is moot too since I don't know of a state where insurance isn't reciprocal. I'm insured on your car and you're insured on my car (with permission of course). So as long as you OK him coming and using your car, you're covered. Check with your agent of course for your local laws but that's probably the case. Having collision insurance is for one reason. If the benefit of paying the insurance offsets what you could get out of it if something happens. I think you should drop the collision altogether. I don't think $4k would break you to lose it if it's totaled out. You're better off putting that money toward higher liability, higher uninsured and underinsured coverage and maybe an umbrella so it benefits you. There's really no down side to suspending the coverage when you're gone. Why pay for it when there's no way you'll use it? You'll keep the comprehensive which is all you really need under those circumstances. Again, check with your agent but I don't know of a place this wouldn't apply. And you wouldn't need liability since you're not driving it. Even if your son DOES drive it while you're gone, it's usually covered by his insurance (again, check with your agents to be sure). As Elmer said there's benefits to running a vehicle but a few months sitting likely isn't going to be an issue with the caveat that I don't know how fragile or sensitive Jags are. I've had vehicles sit for a year or more without being started. The biggest issue is your upper level lubricant is usually gone so it'll take a few seconds to get the oil back up there, pressure to build in the engine and tranny, etc. If you're leaving it a long time you might want to prep it, but check with your mechanic. I'd bet they'll tell you 3 months is no big deal. Any time you use a charger you should be using it in a well-ventilated area as a charging battery does give off gasses. Nothing to be paranoid about but something about which you should be educated. Oh, and here, there's also a rental car coverage that has to be dropped if you drop collision. So there's an additional saving. If you have a good agent, and why do business with them if they're not, they should be able to explain this and help guide you on your decision. Couple months ago I had a sit down with my agent and we went over my coverage. Got back my fogey class discount, tweaked coverage and he encouraged me to consider dropping collision soon. I will on the next renewal since I already paid it when we met. Put on a $1 mil umbrella, upped the liability/un/under and a couple other tweaks and the net result was actually about break even or even less and when I drop collision/rental it'll be more savings. As a side note, I've always said there's 4 things you want the best you can get and in no particular order they're doctor, lawyer, mechanic and insurance agent. You'll benefit big time in the long run if you keep that in mind.