(removed)!!! Florida law prevents dealers from discounting the GM Protection Plan?

[jake75]

When I click that link I just get a list of warranty providers.The Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services may have an answer for you. http://www.doacs.state.fl.usHowever, the legislators of many states often rip off their own citizens with anti-competition laws that favor those who coontribute handsomely to their campaign funds.In Pennsylvania the state artificially fixes the retail price of milk. No coupons or rebates allowed on milk either.In Ohio the state sets minimum markups on beer and wine. Ohio also fixes the price of title insurance that you need to buy when you buy a home or refinance.Ohio also has a law that allows dealers to charge a $250 doc fee and not disclose it when advertising a price. Guess what - virtually all dealers charge a $250 doc fee. (Not long ago it was $100.)In some states the price of gasoline has to be marked up a minimum amount. In certain states gasoline retailers are often forbidden to run certain types of promotions such as sweepstakes.Wisconsin has a law that requires all butter to bear a USDA or Wisconsin grade - whereas everywhere else you can just buy butter that meets federal FDA standards for composition and purity. Grading adds costs, and for all practical purposes imported butter cannot be sold in Wisconsin as USDA will not grade butter produced outside the US and the cost of Wisconsin grading for small quantities plus separate labeling is prohibitive. I'll bet there are a thousand of these laws on the books from sea to shining sea.

[zionzr2]

Wisconsin is a State I know for a fact that has a min markup law on gasoline and they are not allowed to offfer discount coupons of any type for gas. Like if you spend $xx on stuff at our store we will take y-cents off per gallon from our gas station.

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by zionzr2 »Wisconsin is a State I know for a fact that has a min markup law on gasoline and they are not allowed to offfer discount coupons of any type for gas. Like if you spend $xx on stuff at our store we will take y-cents off per gallon from our gas station.I know Carrs Safe way food store and Fred Meyers do that... spend XX amount in the store and get .10 off a gal of gas on your next fuel up.

[VivaVibe]

An extended warranty on a Vibe is likely a waste of money. It is very reliable and trouble free. Why not put the money it would cost you in a high yield savings account. Over time it would increase and it is all yours when it turns out you don't need it for repairs.

[jake75]

Yeh - even $1,155 for what is basically an extra 2 years and 24,000 miles with a $200 deductible seems very high. If I thought I needed this coverage I would look at http://www.warrantydirect.com and get perhaps something even longer. Fortunately for me even if the engine blew up I could have it fixed and still not miss a meal.

[moongdss]

In maryland, they tack on such high taxes to each pack of cigarettes (above and beyond the normal sales tax) to "help" the poor shlubs who are addicted to quit. I call it fleecing the blue collar workers, but hey, potato = potahto right?We also have the price fix on gas to 'prevent large corporate gas stations from undercutting the mom and pop owned stations that cannot sell at a loss or lower profit margin" Uh, hello? Do they price-fix to keep Walmart from putting Ma and Pa under? NO Only fleecing us on things we can't do without

[dianebrat]

Quote, originally posted by VivaVibe »An extended warranty on a Vibe is likely a waste of money. It is very reliable and trouble free. Why not put the money it would cost you in a high yield savings account. Over time it would increase and it is all yours when it turns out you don't need it for repairs.In theory, yes, but for those of us with dreadful car luck, and an aversion to risk, I always make sure that I have a warranty that lasts at least a year longer then my payments..This is most definitely a YMMV item for folks Diane

[jake75]

Not sure what YMMV means but it is an individual decision as to what risks to insure against. I had a zero deductible extended warranty on a 1986 VW Golf that cost me about $500 at the time. Paid for itself several times over. Can't remember the duration - might have been 6 years 72,000 miles. On the other hand I had bought a 7 year/70,000 mi extended warranty on a 1987 Plymouth Grand Voyager - cost about $750 - only repairs ever needed were cruise control and motor mount. Unfortunately for some reason the motor mount was not a covered item. My brotherjust bought an Avalon XLS - it has so much stuff on it that the extended warranty (about $1,000) seems to be a good idea.

[jimincalif]

Like Jake says, this is insurance. Generally not a good idea to insure risks if you can afford the occasional hit, as insurance cos and extended warranty companies are not in the business to lose money. Statistically you should come out ahead. I remember a client I had maybe 20 years ago who sold auto extended warranties. On a $750 policy, the actual loss reserve was about $150. OTOH, it is a great idea to insure when you cannot afford to take a hit. With a car like the Vibe, the odds are good you'll come out ahead not buying the warranty. But then there was Colonel Panic's dearly departed Vibe, Sir Knocksalot, the exception to prove the rule.Personally I try to buy good quality cars, maintain them properly and never buy extended warranties, but I am fortunate that I could afford a major repair if necessary. YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

[tnpartsguy]

Mav, feel free to jump on this with me, but I'd NEVER EVER buy any other extended warranty. If you can't get GMPP, don't bother. I work at a dealership, and many of the aftermarket 'warranties' want to send us salvage parts, or 3rd party *JUNK* aftermarket to use, and many times they take 3~14 days to get them to us. (BTW you're either walking or paying for your own rental after 3 days with most aftermarket warranties). GMPP insists on genuine parts, even on other makes. (if you buy a Honda, and get GMPP on it, we have to use genuine Honda parts, ect). I wish I could afford GMPP on mine since it IS AWD, and we've had a few with rear diff problems. PS, my wife bought an extended warranty on her Jetta, 9 months later the Company (API, the 2nd largest 3rd party warranty company in the US filed bankrupcy, leaving her with No coverage, and no refund *the selling dealer said they would assume the warranty company's respondsibility, so far we havn't had to test that.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »Mav, feel free to jump on this with me, but I'd NEVER EVER buy any other extended warranty. If you can't get GMPP, don't bother. I work at a dealership, and many of the aftermarket 'warranties' want to send us salvage parts, or 3rd party *JUNK* aftermarket to use, and many times they take 3~14 days to get them to us. (BTW you're either walking or paying for your own rental after 3 days with most aftermarket warranties). GMPP insists on genuine parts, even on other makes. (if you buy a Honda, and get GMPP on it, we have to use genuine Honda parts, ect). I wish I could afford GMPP on mine since it IS AWD, and we've had a few with rear diff problems. Any experice with "Warranty Direct"? They seem to have been around a long time and have a good reputation.

[tnpartsguy]

They are one of the ones that INSISTS on sending their own parts, which may or may not be genuine, and may or may not be the correct part.

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »They (Warranty Direct) are one of the ones that INSISTS on sending their own parts, which may or may not be genuine, and may or may not be the correct part.Very interesting and useful information.

[fiveoh]

I came across something similiar when purchasing the Hondacare Extended Warranty for our 2007 Honda Odyssey. I've never been a big fan of extended warranties, but we purchased one for our 2001 Odyssey (7yrs / 100k miles / $0 deductible) and our transmission died right around 6 yrs & 9 months! When I bought the Hondacare for our 2001 Odyssey, I was able to buy it from an out of state dealer over the internet (I'm in Florida, the dealership was in Kentucky) at a SIGNIFICANT savings. In state dealers were asking UPWARDS of $1600 and I was able to buy it for about $870!Between 2001 and 2007, though, Florida passed a law dealing with the purchase of insurance from out of state vendors. I believe the intention was to protect the elderly (a big chunk of Florida's population) from out of state predatory sales of insurance.The unintended effect was that we could no longer buy these extended warranties (insurance, as some other genvibers correctly identified) from out of state vendors. Now that we are "stuck" with in-state dealers only, there is little incentive for them to negotiate the price to compete with out-of-state dealers. Just last month, to "protect" the good name of Honda/Acura, Honda has banned the sales of their Hondacare warranty online, thereby closing the door on the rest of the states, too. All that to say that I'm all but sure that the Florida law does not prohibit dealers from negotiating on extended warranty prices, but does eliminate the competition from out-of-state/online sales, thereby allowing instate dealers to charge full retail.You can always try to pit in-state dealers against each other. Odds are, one of them will want to make the sale and give you a better price than the other. If GMPP is anything like Hondacare, you DO NOT have to buy the extended warranty from the same dealer from which you purchased your Vibe.Good luck!

[fiveoh]

Maybe a correction to my own previous (and very long) post:Here's a quote from a fellow odyclub.com forum member. KIND OF goes with what I said before, but he may be more 'on the nose' than I was:"...FL requires all service contract providers to file actual rates with the state; dealers may not deviate from those prices."If that's the case, you may be out of luck...but I'm pretty certain the intent of the law is to keep people from being ripped off, and dealers could probably deviate DOWNWARD in price, but not UPWARD....Good luck!

[jake75]

Quote, originally posted by fiveoh »"...FL requires all service contract providers to file actual rates with the state; dealers may not deviate from those prices."If that's the case, you may be out of luck...but I'm pretty certain the intent of the law is to keep people from being ripped off, and dealers could probably deviate DOWNWARD in price, but not UPWARD....Good luck! Good luck will be needed as I am reasonably certain "deviate" means up or down. Nothing like a state sanctioned price fixing scheme.

[ehoff121]

Quote, originally posted by bwflorida »I also called a dealer (Black Pontiac Cadillac in Pennsylvania) who sells GMPPs online, but I haven't heard back from them. I'm guessing they're going to tell me the same thing.I purchased a GMPP from Black Pontiac in PA after speaking directly with Allen Black. He seemed to be pretty straight-up and even offered me advice on negotiating the price of my pre-owned Vibe with a dealer from another state. Their prices on the GMPP are heavily discounted and they occasionally offer an extra $100 off.Go to http://www.gmoutlet.com/gmpp.htm and click on the "Pricing" link. They also don't ask for mileage verification. I would also buy the longest length plan that fits your annual mileage and budget, e.g., I purchased a 4 year/32,000 mile plan since I have a short commute (~15 miles r/t). You can always extend the warranty as long as you have 2 months and 2,000 miles remaining on your contract.Good luck!

[fiveoh]

Florida Statute 634.1216:634.1216 Rate filings.--Each insurer and each motor vehicle service agreement company shall file with the office the rates, rating schedules, or rating manuals used, including all modifications of rates and premiums, to be paid by the service agreement holder. Every filing shall state the proposed effective date thereon. The filing shall be made not less than 30 days before its effective date. What a crappy law. I think a letter writing campaign is in order.

[crazytrain]

Quote, originally posted by VivaVibe »An extended warranty on a Vibe is likely a waste of money. It is very reliable and trouble free. Why not put the money it would cost you in a high yield savings account. Over time it would increase and it is all yours when it turns out you don't need it for repairs.Quote, originally posted by dianebrat »In theory, yes, but for those of us with dreadful car luck, and an aversion to risk, I always make sure that I have a warranty that lasts at least a year longer then my payments..This is most definitely a YMMV item for folks Diane I can see both points. I purchased my '06 Vibe with a 5yr/100,000 mile warranty due to the amount of driving I do, also due to repair issues I've had in the past where the extended warranty would have worked in my favor.Unfortunately, today I needed to act upon the extended warranty. A part called a Throttle Body shorted and requires replacement. $750 for the part alone. 2yrs & 41,000 miles, so I'm past the original warranty on this repair.I look at extended warranties as prepaying for repairs, hoping I never need to act upon, but happy knowing it's there should I need it, like today.