smartphone requirement?

Yes, I already ordered the TracFone smartphone. But there are no features on my current flip phone. Voice calls or texts via the number pad is all it can do. Doesn't even have a camera. It was quite a few years after I got my 2004 before TracFone even figured out that people with "cheap" phone needs might want to use their phone in their car via Bluetooth connection. FINALLY they started offering phones with Bluetooth

So @Salamander_King I guess I'll have as much to learn with this new phone as I do with the new car. Step 2 apparently (step 1 being to get my address book copied over via Bluetooth and register it with the car) will be to figure out how to turn on and off "use cell tower for Data" and "use WIFI for Data".

One benefit of the smartphone is I will be able to use Liberty Mutual's "Right Track" to reduce my car insurance premium. When I did it for the 2009 1.5 years ago they had a dongle that plugged into the OBD port under the steering wheel. Now it can only be done with a smartphone and their App. Ahh technology, gotta love it (or not). I was able to decrease my premium by 13%. It would have been more but during that 90 day period I was driving 425 miles round trip to MA every week. More miles on the road means more chances to have an accident, higher premiums. 425 miles is now closer to my normal monthly mileage than my weekly. But I'm going to wait on doing the Right Track until after the 1,200 mile 4 day round trip next month to get DD1 from college

 

Yes. They track your driving habits - time of day, miles, speed of acceleration, speed of deceleration for 90 days. Late night driving (IIRC 11 PM to 5 AM) is a "ding". The algorithms seem a bit weak. Slowing down faster than IIRC 7 MPH per second will trigger a "ding" on your record. Like they think you slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the person you were tailgating or something. But we live on a road that connects to a 50 MPH road, can't always mosey slowly down to 15 MPH or so to turn on to our road when there are people on your tail. And when entering the road there is a left curve to your right, sometimes you turn left onto the clear road and soon there is someone coming up behind at 50 (or higher), can't mosey up to 50 MPH in that case. I don't recall what the acceleration rate was that caused a ding. DD2 got only 8% reduction on her insurance, she tends to slow down too quickly for their liking.

With the dongle you mailed it back after the 90 days and they calculated the discount based on the data. I recall we could look at a website and see the data on demand so the dongle must be sending data via cell towers. It can't cause your premium to increase, only decrease. And it is good for as long as you own the car. I ASSUME with the current version, you delete the app from your phone when the period is over. Don't know how they get the data, I didn't look into it real closely since I didn't have a smartphone. Since the dongle sent the data, your smartphone likely does as well. Will have to check into that. If it is using up my minimal data bank that might be a bad thing.

 

I actually am already saving money, my premium went down slightly with the new car. I can only ASSUME it is because of all the safety features on the Prime since its value is about $25K more than the totalled car as a KBB private sale (if it weren't totalled of course ). I don't know if they included the 13% discount based on my driving habits with the new car, perhaps they did. Figure if I drove that way in the old car I would continue to in the new car.

And I'm ALWAYS well behaved when I drive, I want the best MPG (and now miles/kWh as well) I can get, sort of OCD about it. The only 'poor' behavior as far as theri metrics are concerned would be the long once a week trips the last time.

 

Neither my wife nor I have EVER caused an auto insurance claim. She's been driving for 42 years, I have been for 48. She's been seriously, but just shy of totalled, rear ended twice in the last 29 years, I've be totalled twice in the last 6.5 years and minorly rear ended twice in prior years.

Yep, kids!

Neither of my daughters particularly wanted to get their license early. In fact they were 21 and 23 when they finally did (2.5 years ago). Neither had an accident in either my wife's Prius nor mine.

DD2 bought herself a 2006 Prius Sept '17. Her insurance but my name is on it as an additional driver since it costs less that way. She managed to go off the road in snow twice last winter (yes she has snow tires), the first one damaged the front bumper and bent the radiator support but it was still drivable. Before it was fixed last April, she ran off the road the second time. Needed a tow truck to get her back on the road but no extra damage. Cost her $800 to get it repaired.

This winter she managed to not hit the back of a pickup by going to the side of the road and was able to get back on. SLOW traffic in the small town. Ever the quick learner, she managed to tap the bumper of the same truck a short while later though apparently the driver didn't even notice. A week or so later in less than good conditions, she couldn't quite hold her lane turning off a bridge and hit the rear quarter of an oncoming vehicle. Car would have been totalled at $3,800 but somehow we hadn't put collision on her policy so ZIP. She decided to pay the $4,400 to repair it.

DD1 was given my in-laws' 2010 Prius January last year when they bought an '18. She was rear ended and nearly totalled last summer. She was the SECOND to last vehicle in a line of vehicles stopped at a red light. Guy in a truck slammed into the back of the truck behind DD which then slammed into the back of her car.

Fortunately until last month none of us were hurt in these accidents until I was hit last month. And, fortunately it is just whiplash.