Anyone Use Progressive Snapshot?

"Jcarr" (jcarr) 01/11/2017 at 11:08 • Filed to: None

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Shopping around for insurance and I wondered about this. Anybody using it? I’m a bit wary because I know it tracks things like throttle input and while I’m not lead-footed, I do occasionally accelerate briskly if defensive driving dictates.

What do you folks think?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:12

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It sucks. I had them in my Impreza and Mazda and the little fuckers just constantly beeped-mostly from hard braking because of idiots on the road. I also feel that with the Impreza it kinda messed up the cars performance. I can’t quite quantify what or why but the car didn’t run as well with that beeping little plastic gizmo under the dash.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:14

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it sucks. sister and her husband tried it and unless you drive like a grandmother who cant see then it constantly is going off and really doesnt save you any money

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:15

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I’m curious as well. I doubt I would get anything out if it since you have to beat the hell out of a Miata to keep up with traffic, lol

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:16

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It’s god-awful. I drove my sister-in-law’s Prius C with one and it beeped non-stop. As if the Prius wasn’t slow enough! Also, the combination of regen braking and however they calibrated the sensors made for a nightmare combination.

TysMagic > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:17

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I had the statefarm equal in my land rover for a bit (it did not make any noises or anything for whatever that’s worth), but it was a second car and not driven much. I was kind of indifferent to it, just wanted the discount. I did share my Ford/Lincoln Sync “Vehicle History” report with insurance for the discount as well. Not sure exactly what it shared to be honest, but I’m not doing anything to the point of I’d be in trouble if insurance knew about this.

second edit: after reading other comments, the equal from statefarm was for a discount and didn’t cause any regular annoyances when driving. Totally different beast if it’s pestering you while driving. Forget that!

Nibbles > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:17

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It would yell at me for using more than 3/4 throttle to get to highway speeds in the old Focus. When your 0-60 is in the double digits, being nice to the pedal isn’t necessarily a good idea.

It would yell at me for “braking too heavily” when I had it in the Ram. Well I’d rather come to a complete stop than plow into someone, so fuck you and fuck your dongle

Needmoargarage > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:18

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I’ve heard bad things for normal use. But...I’ve also read about hacking them and it seems pretty simple. (You didn’t hear it from me.)

For me, progressive rates haven’t even been remotely competitive so I haven’t bothered trying.

dashbobthebuilder > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:25

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Its not worth it. My wife drives like a grandma most of the time, and we got it for her brand new car since I had a bad driving record (tickets, whoops), and was driving our rates up sky high (think no one would insure us for a brand new car besides progressive). They give you a decent little 5-10% bump after 30 days, but then at the end of the six month term basically nothing changes if you have any hard brakes, which is ridiculous because hard braking is almost always due to other drivers being idiots. Oh well. My advice - don’t do it.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:32

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I have considered it several times.

While they SAY your rates don’t go up if you score a zero, I don’t believe that. Insurance companies are assholes. I think that probably means “won’t go up *during your 1-year period for collecting data*”. I’m also inclined to think that if anything did happen they’d try and twist the data into a claim denial.

The initial discount is very tempting. But the device is basically an accelerometer, I did the math on what it reads as excessive and #1, just the very nature of my normal commute would cause multiple “excessives”, and #2, that would mean I’d pretty much never actually get to enjoy my vehicle. IIRC between 0.30 and 0.35g in any direction is classed as excessive. Most of the companies will tell you they are measuring acceleration and braking, one mentioned cornering as well... and what one does they all will do.

https://blog.joemanna.com/progressive-snapshot-review/

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:34

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I have the one from Liberty Mutual. It’s crazy stalker style. No beeps or response from it but even I ripped burn outs every where it would still give me 5% off my insurance just for playing the game.

I was hanging out around a 17% discount for a while (Liberty Mutual gave me a website to log into to see my hard breaking, hard acceleration, mileage and night time driving - which are the 4 things they claim it tracks, it started at 30% and dropped from there). I’m down to about 12% now because I stopped driving completely like a grandma, or I should say completely like a NORMAL Milan owner. My wife is down to 7% hahaha but she has a heavy foot on both pedals and we knew it wouldn’t be a huge discount for her.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:34

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I’ve never used one of these from any company, but I couldn’t fathom that they’d actually use it for good instead of evil. Plus, they have no clue what’s happening on the road - I hard brake a lot because I drive among absolute idiots; no amount of defensive driving short of slowing to a near-stop anytime another car is within 100 yards of you can keep you from slamming on your brakes when some fool jumps out right in front of you, slams on their brakes unexpectedly, swerves across 4 lanes of traffic without looking, etc. These were all just during this morning’s commute.

I’m sure it just confirms what people intuitively know: Driving conservatively in rural areas is really safe compared to driving in a city regardless of how you drive.

Rico > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:34

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Defensive driving like you mentioned will just appear as abrupt acceleration to them. Something like this would be horrible for me since I’m always ducking and dodging cars and pedestrians all the time.

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:38

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My sister has something similar in her 2.5 Rabbit. He car is not underpowered, but not a rocket ship. Is she applys 1/2 throttle is start going off. You turn and feel a slight cornering force it goes off. It wants you to drive like a grandmother. My insurance company tried selling me one, I told them no thanks. They tried to tell me the benefits of it, I told them slash my rate in 1/2 and I consider it. They hung up after that.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/11/2017 at 11:51

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Snapshot threw CELs on a couple Lincolns when I worked at the Lincoln dealer

Scott > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 11:52

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Nope, never had one, never will. If my lack of any accidents is not enough for them to give me a discount, I’m not letting an electronic nanny sit in the car, nagging me and taking notes for other peoples use.

PotbellyJoe and 42 others > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 12:11

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Progressive took away their mileage tiers for risk when they introduced snapshot.

I take the train to work and when they did this one of my cars did not move for 4 months, but it went up in risk category because it no longer could have the “low mileage” qualification without snapshot. So I got snapshot . It killed my battery in around 2-3 weeks and because I never drove with it, Progressive claimed they could not “Tell what kind of driver I was” so despite my other car being in the lowest category of risk (a true feat in Central Jersey 0-55-0 highways with stoplights) this one had a dead battery and didn’t qualify.

Once the battery was dead and the device could no longer send reports (that it wasn’t being driven) Progressive threatened to bill me $50 for the inactive device, despite it still being plugged into the car.

Also, on my Pontiac, I have had a nagging ODBII code for my PCM ever since we tried it. I can clear it, but it comes back eventually and the car itself has no other symptoms that is associated with the code (I am very familiar with what this issue should look like in the 2.4L Toyota I-4, picture stuttering cylinders and a sound like gremlins are puking)

Caveat Emptor.

We switched to a different insurance company, saved a ton and didn’t have to worry that stopping for a red light on a highway would increase the cost of our insurance.

TrickJos > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 12:13

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I used one in my Camaro and it made a significant difference on my premium. I just tried to not be overly aggressive with my driving while it was in there. My wife couldn’t stand it in her Beetle. She ripped it out and threw it in the back seat because she couldn’t stand the beeping.

Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 12:27

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It’d be fun to take that on a track day.

LOREM IPSUM > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 12:30

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Nope. No chance I’d ever willingly install one of those in my vehicle.

handyjoe > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/11/2017 at 12:31

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This. It’s not the acceleration, it’s the decreases in speed.

Michael > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 13:26

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Used it on my 4Runner and accord years ago, it would only beep under moderate to hard braking. I don’t think it recorded acceleration at that point. When I saw a situation where it would beep, just reach under the dash and unplug it before it beeps. Mine says I got an 11% discount on the 4R, and 9% on the accord (fiancee drives the accord).

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 13:45

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I’m surprised we haven’t heard any complaints about it causing dead batteries. OBD ports are always powered, even when the car is off. That means snapshot is on and maybe transmitting while the car is sitting.

Frank Grimes > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 15:52

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it seems like the fact this thing exists means they dont know how to price insurance and its all a bunch of crap.

Jcarr > Frank Grimes 01/11/2017 at 15:54

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Yeah, that or they are trying to find a way to squeeze higher premiums out of people who don’t get into accidents.

Tazio, Count Fouroff > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 15:58

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Resist

It’s a step to all insurers monitoring drivers 24-7...the tech definitely exists...Kryptonite for those of us who hoon and then every now and then like to drive, too

Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > Jcarr 01/11/2017 at 21:15

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I have the one from E-Surance and mine hasn’t beeped at me yet. Mind you it’s on a stock DX Civic, so maybe I can’t break the performance barrier lol. I got it because I don’t put a lot of mileage on the car and it’s base is $26 a month + mileage of course. I don’t remember the rate off the top of my head, but the highest payment I made was $48 and change so far. Most months it’s in the mid 30's.