SnapShot Discounts: Lessons Learned

My snapshot time is over. After exposure of about 3 months,  progressive has captured a snapshot of my driving habit.

One of the things that I have become aware of is about the hard brakes.
By definition, hard brakes mean  a decrease in speed  of 7 mph per second or greater.    
It is slightly mediocre, but it makes you love your brake pads and makes you stall your car to the next stop light/sign.

I think snapshot is good if you use your car for commuting purposes.
I am definitely going to shop around before I renew it. But currently progressive seems a good deal to me.

Diesel into Gasoline engine car

Yes, it sounds utterly silly. Let me convince you that many people have done it. So, do not feel that you are the silliest one. Cheer up!!

Here is my little story:
I  had about 1.5 Gallon of gas in the tank and wanted to add some gas. Pulled into a gas station. Without realizing anything else, just pulled (what turns out to be) diesel dispenser and attempted to push in to the gas tank. It did not fit. Felt weird. Even weirder, I dispensed the diesel anyway (by brute force, by target practice) into the tank hole. Since I did not plan to make it full tank (Lucky!), I just ended up adding two Gallons of diesel into my tank.
Once I was done with it, I took the receipt (until that moment I did not realize that I had put diesel in there!) to find that I was charged slightly higher. I compared the price to the display board: I then realized what I had done!!!
2 Gallon of diesel into my gas tank!!!

The first thing came into my mind was to add more gasoline to diffuse it. Then, I added about 6.5 Gallons of high octane gasoline. Googled into the problem and called friends for advise.

Since I had about 1.5 Gallons of gas already into the tank, I thought it would be OK to drive to home a mile away.
The next day, I went into a garage to ask if I destroyed my car engine. They said that since it is only 2 gallon out of 10 (say), it might not do any harm. However, they did say that I need to keep doing full tank until next few tanks to diffuse it out. They even said that they put a gallon just to "clean" it.

Update: I just ended up changing the oil filter (about 25 dollar).  The diesel went through OK.

Search shows wide variety of results. Some saying just to pull up, tow the car and get everything double cleansed: probably true for full tank case as the burning mechanism for diesel and petrol engines are entirely different.
However, There is not a definite answers to what to do when you put diesel into a gas car.

1. Admit it, this is silly!
2. Do not panik!
3. If diesel into gas is low ratio, it might be OK. It will just give you less mileage. The reverse cases are also seen and that is regarded dangerous. 
4. Good Luck!

Written in Summar 2011.

Well, my car has got dimple!

This incident happened in March 2011


Well, we bumped into another suv at traffic light.

The other side did not have much of the damage, but my front sidelight is gone! No one was hurt in that process.

I have a dimple now!
Smile!!

Questions to Ask while looking for used car

There are few questions to be asked before proceeding:

• How many cylinders? Mind that more cylinder means more gas drained.
• Mileage? Toyota/Honda are good even after 150K but others?
• Anything that needs to be changed, repaired? (usually they say no)
• Automatic/ Manual transmission? Changing gears
• Power window?
• AC/heat?
• Any rust or damage?
• Title clean/ in hand?
• Ask for CARFAX report (thanks to Amit)
• Take it to a mechanics before final deal (thanks to Amit)

Feel free to add your suggestions...

Engine Light On/Off: Confused

My Engine light is playing with me.
However, recently I have noticed a pattern.
When I make the gas tank full, it turned on and when the gas level dropped to about the last quarter, it turned off.
I could not believe it.
So, I did an experiment.

Letting the gas level fall around last quarters turns engine light OFF!

Added 2 gallons of gas, which then triggered the lights on!

The engine light went off when the gas level goes down.

I let the gas level drop below the last quarter level... the engine light turned OFF
Then I filled only 2 gallons of gas. This made the engine  light turn ON
After few days, the gas level dropped off...
The engine light turned OFF

Note: this post was written in July 23, 2011 

Progressive's Snapshot Discount

One of my friend suggested that I should enroll into Progressive's snapshot.
Snapshot program is easy to enroll. Just log into progressive website and then enroll.
One would benefit if s/he is driving less than 30 miles. That is perfect for my car. Because I use it only for commute fron home to school.

Actually, after one month of driving, I got about seventy five dollar in discount. Not bad!

However, I was expecting that it was only one month's data. Nope: they need the data for six month. The device sits there and records+ reports the driving habits.

This is for you if you:

• Drive the vehicle for commute, less than 30 miles per day.
• Do not drive during the "high risk time": between 12 AM-4AM.
• (Not an aggressive driver)
• Are not in a lot of STOP sign area.

Do not:

• Hard brakes: This one is slightly ridiculous at times. I get surprised when I see hard brake records when I did not do it. Defining hard brake is not easy if you are travelling in local road. Any acceleration/deceleration of 7mph or higher is taken as hard brake. Avoiding hard brakes is the best deal. Drive slowly !
• No mid-night driving. The time between 12AM and 4 AM is not good as of their snapshot policy.

There is not much stuff about progressive's snapshot. So, I am putting something for curious people. I hope this is helpful.

Written in May 2011

Reading for Driving test (written) and internet resources

Going behind the motor-enabled wheel is very different experience. I wanted to have that experience. Just out of curiosity. I have been accompanying drivers for long time. However, driving by myself has not been the need yet. Always being driven by somebody else is not possible every time. So, I decided to look into this world.
My first friend in this matter was Google. I googled with driving key words... to my surprise, there were only advertisements and this and that not to the point driving resources. Yes, I found one from California Department of Motor Vehicle. The Drivers license practice tests are really helpful.
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/interactive/tdrive/clc2written.htm


The rules of driving are very different than the rules of walking.

When you are walking, you are not operating auto mechanical machines and you kind of know the strokes of left and right.
Learning rules of the road is fun.
I am reading for the exam for the driving training license. First I found the full manual style pdf (http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/broch/MV21.pdf)
It is very detailed and very thoroughly written. I think one needs to read the whole book once before jumping into the test sessions.


http://nysdmv.com/dmanual/default.html






Written in Aug 2010

Parallel Parking and Three Point Turns

The two important lessons required in most states for the driver's licence test are parallel parking and three point turns. Although there are few quick tips that can be offered on how to do these, one point to keep in mind is practice will make you perfect. Take it slow, take it easy! Parallel parking: Three point turn: Other videos of interest: Pretest video: Backing up: Changing Lanes: