Long time comin'

Yes, it has been a long time coming! Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes with me over the last two years has probably at some time or another had to hear me ramble on about saving up to buy a truck someday. Well, as it turned out, the end of May was that time.

If you are like most people you probably dread the thought of dealing with car salesmen. Yes, it is very stressful! I have purchased the last three of my four cars from dealers and can guiltlessly report that so far every single person at every dealership I have spoken with is a LIAR! They lie through their teeth while staring you straight in the eye. Granted, they are sly and come across as the nicest liars you will meet, but they all have one agenda...getting as much money out of your pocket from you as humanly possible while using their Jedi mind tricks to force you into believing you are happy and are getting a good deal. If my personal experience is not representative, then I apologize right now to the 0.01% of honest dealers out there.

As for me, I like to get the best deal on my purchase as possible. That is why I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CarBuyingTips.com. Jeff Ostroff I'm sure makes decent money from advertising on this website since it is so popular and has such a high volume of web traffic, but the information he provides here is real and it is free. I have never met, spoken to, or even emailed the guy, but his website has saved me thousands of dollars on my car purchases, literally! DO NOT BUY A CAR WITHOUT READING THIS WEBSITE...ALL OF IT, unless you like giving away your money, in which case I will be glad to negotiate your car deal for you and split the difference with you on how much you will save.

Anyway, back to what I was saying...please just ignore the season pass sticker to the lake in the windshield, or the "I'd rather be waterskiing" license plate frame, or the fact that it looks really lonely without a ski boat in tow. One thing at a time. My new "Baby Truck" is lookin' pretty good tucked neatly and safely in my garage protected from the elements of the outdoors. Good thing I got 4WD! Someday I'll take it out and drive it, but not this week. I like how it looks in my garage for now. Afterall, I'm going to be driving it for the next 20 years. A few more days won't hurt.

Auto Insurance Rant

OK, so is it industry standard for auto policy rates to hike every year? We switched insurance companies a couple years ago because our last company (Allstate) kept hiking our rates every renewal without cause (no tickets, accidents, or claims of any kind whatsoever). Now our new company (Liberty Mutual) started doing the same thing (still no tickets, accidents, or claims of any kind).

I thought maybe it's time to shop around again and get some new quotes. But then I thought of all the hassle it brings and really didn't want to do that. So I thought, alright, I'll call Liberty Mutual and ask them to lower my rate on my existing policy, you know, give me a new quote. I got the guy on the phone and he says, "Let me verify your information." He starts reviewing my policy to see if everything is correct, says he doesn't see any other discounts available to us, but then he asks how many miles we put on each car, so I told him what I thought we put on the cars. BIG MISTAKE!!! He then says to me that they had the usage on the vehicles lower than what I told him. I ask, isn't that just an estimate anyway? So we went to visit Grandma twice this year instead of once! He says that he has to enter the new usage into the computer, our rate will go up over $100 something dollars (I wasn't really listening at this point to hear the new rate), and that we would be receiving the new policy in the mail within 7 to 10 days. Then he asks if there is anything else he can do for me today? At this point I'm trying not to think bad thoughts! I told him Liberty Mutual SUCKS, I was going to find another insurance company, and, of course, politely said goodbye.

Now I have the hassle of finding a new insurance company to insure my autos before I give anymore money to Liberty Mutual. Had to get that off my chest. Please, someone, tell me if this is just a Liberty Mutual problem or an industry wide problem?