A Good Deal Gets Even Better

If you have listened to the radio show for any length of time you know that Jim and I are big promoters of BG Products, and that all of the shops we endorse on the show are also BG service centers. One of the things that we really liked about the BG Maintenance Program was the Protection Plan that would allow us to offer you extra warranty coverage on your vehicle. The Protection Plan offered warranty coverage up to 150,000 miles for cars up to 7 model years old.

Sounds like a great plan, and it was, but now it is even better!

BG has extended the warranty to UNLIMITED MILEAGE, FOR THE LIFETIME OF THE CAR!
This means that you are now covered regardless of the mileage or age of the car as long as you continue to follow the common sense BG maintenance program. The warranty is also transferable with the sale of the car.

The entry qualifications have been relaxed too. Now any passenger car and light truck can qualify for the plan if it has less than 75,000 miles on it regardless of the vehicle age. We service many cars that have 50 or 60K on them and may be 10 or more years old. These cars will now be eligible for coverage under the new protection plan.

When you join the Protection Plan and your car has less than 36,000 miles on the odometer your coverage will be for $4000 toward the repair of the engine, power steering, cooling system, differential, and hydraulic brake system. It will also cover up to $2000 on the transmission. If you join the Plan after 36,000 but before 75,000 miles the coverage is half as much. The only requirement is that you service these components according to the protection plan with periodic fluid flushes using the BG products designed to protect those systems.

Now for another indication of the quality of BG, the plan is retroactive all the way back to July 2004. That means that if you joined the plan in the past your coverage is automatically increased to the new level. That is proof of the faith BG has in its product and of the remarkable results they have seen when motorists follow a good maintenance program.  Not many companies will increase the value of a product already sold to happy customers.

A recent guest on the show, David Eschbach of Jasper Engines reported that he uses the BG Product in all of his personal cars. Jasper builds what I consider to be the best aftermarket replacement engines in the industry. They also build engines and transmissions for NASCAR. The fact that the person who knows about engines recognizes that BG protection will improve the life and performance of his engine speaks well for BG.

For more information about BG Products you can call us at Freedom Auto or any of the Car Counselor shops. You can also learn more online at www.bgfindashop.com

Why Rotate Your Tires?

Even if a car is perfectly aligned you will still have uneven tire wear due to "scuffing" on turns. It will be more pronounced on the front tires but happens on the rears too and doesn't happen evenly on all tires. Rotating the tires give us longer tire life by distributing this wear over all the tires in turn.

Most cars are much heavier in the front than the rear so the front tires operate under more stress from both the weight and the resulting braking load. Rotating distributes this load across all tires too.

Finally what I consider the most important reason to rotate tire is that it gives you a chance to look at the brakes and suspension. If we just waited until the tires wore out it could be 50,000 miles between times we looked at our brakes. That can lead to some expensive and dangerous problems.

Does your car have Cataracts?

Most late model cars use a composite headlamp that houses a high output bulb in plastic lens housing. Over time the lens starts to glaze over with a film of dirt cooked onto it by the heat of the lamps and ground into it by wind. Think of this coating as Cataracts on the lens of your car’s eyes.

This film greatly reduces the amount of light that the bulb can project down the road. In many cases it is diminished to the point of being dangerous. In the past there were a few cleaner kits for these lamps, but none that we found adequate. The only successful way that we were able to restore the lighting to a safe level was to replace the lens assembly. This can be an expensive proposition, costing from about $100 for the least expensive lamps, to several hundred for many of them.

The good news is that BG Products has now released a cleaning kit that actually works! It works so well that BG warranties the results for 2 years.

For about ½ the price of 1 replacement lamp on even the inexpensive models you can have the existing lamps restored and again have enough light to see where you are going at night.
For more information call Jim or Cathy at the shop. 281-499-4797.

How much is your car worth?

It depends on who you are asking just what the value of that used car in your driveway might be.
The insurance company will pay the average retail value according to the usual car pricing websites such as Kelly Blue Book or NADA Guides. So if your car is totaled or stolen you can go online and llok up the value and be pretty close to what they will offer you.

As a trade in you can figure that value less 25 to 50%. Unless it is a clean very late model car the dealer will sell it at the dealer auction and it will end up on a second or third tier used car lot. The dealer will have to take whatever the auction brings for the car and that is usually about 30% under the retail price.

All of this is fine, but what is that car really worth to you? If you have a 8 to 10 year old car that is pretty dependable transportation for you or the kids what would it cost you to replace it? When you have had a car a few years and take pretty good care of it you know all of the quirks and shortcomings of it. How much would you have to spend to get one that you could trust as much?

A newer car usually means higher insurance premiums, and if it is financed it also means full coverage insurance. It means you either reduce your savings to buy it, or commit to a payment for several years. Unless it is a new car or new enough to have a warranty you also face taking care of any breakdowns or maintenance that the previous owner may have neglected.

Of course if the car you have now is a rolling piece of junk (POJ in shop vernacular) you have no choice. If, however, all it needs is a little TLC you may want to consider this first.

Most cars will last 15 years and 200,000 miles with a little care. If you could keep that 10 year old car another 2 to 5 years and save or invest what you would have spend on a replacement vehicle that amount of money is what the current car is worth to you.