Extended Maintenance Contracts – Do’s & Don’ts

I have had extensive experience with extended maintenance contracts. They are very expensive and provide the deception to the consumer that they cover virtually every repair that their client may encounter while owning the vehicle and through the term of the contract. These statements cannot be further from the truth. There are even different levels of these contracts that cover different areas of the vehicle and deceptive sales practices by the issuing dealer (which makes a substantial commission for selling these contracts by the way) fool the naive consumer into thinking they will be fully covered for any repair to the vehicle. This oftens leaves the repair shop looking like the bad guy when they cannot talk the representative from the maintenance contract office into covering a repair on their vehicle or receiving 100% of the repair (minus the deductible – which has varying levels as well – normally depending on how much you spent for the contract).

           The repair shop, trying in earnest to please it’s customer will normally always try to deal with these organizations to obtain coverage for a repair. Oftentimes it depends on how the service facility rep uses their words as to how much of the repair they can achieve coverage for. Use the wrong technical term and the conversation is ended with no coverage and a flag goes in the file which normally means that is the last word and any rebuttal against the decision appears to make the repair facility appear deceptive in pursuing coverage.

           Oftentimes they will cover a repair performed by their methods only and any diversity exhibited by the repair facility will warrant a non coverage. This places the maintenance contract facility in total control of the repair. For instance in our shop a often failed apparatus on a motorhome is an autopark system which automatically applies the park brake when park is selected on the transmission gear selector. Usually the failure is a leakage of the actuator switch which is a seperately available part from General Motors and costs about $30.00 but the maintenance contract people will only cover the autopark assembly which includes the actuator switch which costs $800.00.

              On electrical repairs they normally only cover 1 hour of labor which does not cover the diagnosis of most electrical repairs. They exclude many items from coverage. They exclude many miscellaneous charges that most shops charge. They exclude freon from air conditioning repairs. They exclude transmission fluid from automatic transmission repairs. They claim that these limitations and exclusions are written in the contract but the terminology is very complicated and not easily understood by the  average consumer. The salesman is no help because he wants you to buy the contract. If he completely explained the contract – who in their right mind would buy it!

            From our experience if they cover the repair at all the coverage is usually limited to 50% to 70% of the total bill. The customer always ends up owing the balance. I looked at a contract the other day and the family had paid $5900.00 for the contract on a $136,000.00 motorhome. If you ever do end up recovering near the full paid amount you can best believe that you would have spent at least that much more in non covered and excluded repairs. You would be better off placing the monthly fees you are paying in addition to the payment (which most folks finance this contract amount by the way) into a savings account which draws interest and only use it for maintenance to your vehicle.

            If there are any sales reps or maintenace contract reps out there that disagree with this blog I welcome their feedback. We have dealt with virtually every organization that carries these contracts and have not found a consumer friendly one yet. Visit www.trucktechautoandrv.com for more information on this subject.

Myth of Synthetic Oil Extended Change Interval

There is a myth floating around that I would like to quell. There is a misconception that if you use synthetic engine oil you can extend you oil change intervals as much as twice. I am not writing this article to put down synthetic oil. It is a wonderful product in many ways. It contains super friction modifiers and has viscosity stability control that organic oils just cannot achieve. However when placed in the internal combustion engine enviroment it still catches just as many contaminates as organic oil.

While it is true that synthetic oil envelopes contaminates better than organic oil, they are still there. They envelope the contaminate particles and allow them to collect in the oil filter without harm when they pass through and over vital engine parts.  I personally use synthetic oil and I do extend my oil change intervals but only by 1000 miles. There are absolutely no sludging problems with synthetics and internal engine heat handling is superior.

Idling of engines especially when cold puts gas contamination in engine oil. Now this is a contaminate that cannot be filtered out. While not harmful in small quantities it can build up with these extended oil change intervals. I cringe when I see or hear of people warming car engines up needlessly, like in the middle of summer. Why folks? With today’s fuel injected automobiles and superior lubricants you do more harm than good to your engine by prewarming. In the cold stage the PCM is sending rich fuel mixtures to your injectors. Too rich for an idling engine to burn. So it gets past your piston rings and into your crankcase to mix with your oil. Why not use that rich mixture to drive your car up to operating temperature. Driving will cause the engine to warm faster and stop dumping the rich mixture faster, saving gas and not diluting your oil.

Car Purchase Tips

Truck Tech’s tips on selecting a car for purchaseIn the past, repair shops were only interested in  making money repairing your car. Our shop wants to become actively involved in your vehicle from the selection – throughout the life of the car and all the way into trading or selling the car when your relationship with your car is over. Yes you heard right. Life is all about relationships and you and your car and you and your repair shop are 2 of the relationships in your life. After all a car is usually the 2nd major investment for a family after your residence.1) Select a car with widely available service repair facilities. You don’t want to be locked down  to returning to the dealer for all your service and repair needs especially after the warranty expires. Avoid extended warranty contracts. Most of them only cover about 50% of the repairs and expenses you are going to experience. You are better off paying as you go. Besides if you follow Truck Tech’s maintenance plans you will avoid emergency repairs which are generally the very expensive ones.
 
A) Avoid models that need specialty shops to perform the repairs. 
  A lot of Europeon cars fall prey to specialty shops with 
  expensive labor rates and parts. Choose a car with more choices for repair facilities.

B) Avoid car models that just recently appeared on the market even if they are produced by a major manufacturer. Aftermarket parts which normally tend to be more available and less expensive will not be available for these models for several years. These aftermarket parts prices are driven down by competition and can save you as much as 50% below dealer prices.

C) Check with TRUCKTECH1328@AOL.COM for recommended service intervals for the car you are considering. Some cars may be a bargain on the purchase price but need maintenance such as tune ups more often than others. These cars can drive your expense of operating that car sky high! We will be glad to answer any of your questions about maintenance. D) Choose a car with a good horsepower to weight balance. Just choosing a smaller engine in a car may not guarantee you will obtain good fuel mileage. You need enough engine to push the load. That is physics 101. If a smaller engine is pushing too much load it will certainly use more gas. If you need help deciding on a particular car and powerplant check with TRUCKTECH1328@AOL.COM.E) Pay attention to things that will require frequent maintenance such as rear drum brakes as opposed to rear disc brakes. Rear disc brakes will last twice as long and provide superior braking. An engine with a timing chain which is typically maintenance free for the life of the engine as opposed to a timing belt which requires periodic replacement. A car that is lighter on it’s tires will require less tire replacment. A straight rear axle as opposed to independent rear suspension although not as graceful of a ride will wear the tires less. If you are not sure and need advice email us at TRUCKTECH1328@AOL.COM . We will be glad to answer all your questions. Visit our website at www.trucktechautoandrv.com for further updates.