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On Colorado’s northeastern plains, where the pencil-straight horizon divides golden fields and blue sky, a farmer named Danny Wood scrambles to plant and harvest proso millet, dryland corn and winter wheat in short, seasonal windows. That is until his high-tech Steiger 370 tractor conks out. The tractor’s manufacturer doesn’t allow Wood to make certain fixes himself, and last spring his fertilizing operations were stalled for three days before the servicer arrived to add a few lines of missing computer code for $950. “That’s where they have us over the barrel; it’s more like we are renting it than buying it,”...

Tractor maker John Deere has agreed to give its US customers the right to fix their own equipment.Previously, farmers were only allowed to use authorised parts and service facilities rather than cheaper independent repair options.Deere and Co. is one of the world's largest makers farming equipment.

It seems to be a growing trend that motorists are shopping around for gas stations which offer ethanol free gas, even if they have to pay a bit more per gallon to get it. Distributors are noticing, and more and more stations are featuring this option. (You can find a list of such stations near you here.) I noticed this myself during a recent trip in New York, and now it’s showing up further south as well. Arthur Wyckoff III has sworn off alcohol — in his gasoline.“I make it a point, before I get real low, to make it...

It looks like there will be a new group of individuals who lose out under the General Motors bankruptcy process. GM has decided not to take responsibility for defects in Chevy Impalas that predated its bankruptcy filing. Consumeraffairs.com reports that GM has asked a court to dismiss claims relating to faulty suspensions in more than 400,000 Chevys produced for model years 2007 and 2008. GM claims that it is not their problem, since they are "New" GM and the cars were built by "Old" GM.When the Obama Administration made a plan for GM's bankruptcy process, taxpayers and GM vehicle...

Friday Feb 5th, Judge Gonzalez of the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, in the Chrysler Bankruptcy case denied a Motion brought on behalf of over 70 of the former Chrysler Dealers to overturn the Rejection Order which stripped them of their franchises in the spring of 2009. Led by Island Jeep’s James Anderer of New York, the dealers Motion would have reversed the decision which stripped 789 dealers, including Timberline Chrysler Dodge of Portland Or., of their franchise contracts during the bankruptcy and sale of Chrysler to Fiat. Anderer's argument rests primarily upon the fact that...

Beware of banned Xbox 360s loosed in ballooning numbers on auction sites and distribution lists featuring online classified ads. In the wake of Microsoft's ban of "a small percentage" or "around 600,000" or "up to one million players" (depending who you read), the Xbox-excommunicated are apparently leaping overboard to offer their 'modified' Xbox 360 systems rife with dozens of games, extra controllers, special revs of custom firmware, all for anywhere from a buck to the price of a new system on up to boutique (perhaps joke) pricing of over a thousand dollars. Last Wednesday, November 4, Microsoft's Larry 'Major Nelson'...

Ohio man faces terrorism charge over phone call Tuesday, July 21, 2009 4:06 PM ASSOCIATED PRESS ST. LOUIS -- A northwest Ohio man has been jailed on a terrorist charge after allegedly threatening in a phone conversation to set fire to a firm selling extended car warranties. Charles Papenfus, 43, called a telemarketing firm in St. Louis in May after receiving a mailing that said a factory warranty had expired on a Ford Taurus driven by his 23-year-old son, his wife, Tracie Papenfus, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The car had been purchased as-is for $3,000 and hadn't had a...

CHICAGO, May 16 (UPI) -- Three U.S. telemarketing firms accused of making misleading "robocalls" about expiring car warranties must stop the practice, a court says. The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that a U.S. District Court in Chicago issued a restraining order demanding that three companies accused of aggressively making automated calls to sell auto warranties across the country cease the pitches, The New York Times reported. "For the first time in months, millions of New Yorkers and people across the country will finally have some relief from these annoying calls with potentially thousands saved from falling into this scam,"...

<p>That's what President Obama is telling American car owners and buyers, making them an offer they can't refuse: If General Motors or Chrysler won't honor their warranties, he will.</p> <p>Playing pitchman for the ailing U.S. auto industry, Obama on Monday offered guarantees on the warranty of every new vehicle sold by the Detroit automakers during their restructuring efforts. Obama said with additional incentives for new car buyers, the industry could sell an additional 100,000 new cars this year.</p>

I am buying a very expensive though small piece of electronics (a HD camcorder that can fit in a purse or pocket). It's got a great price on Amazon, better than anywhere else. I was thinking that because it's so small and I have little kids, I might need some kind of extended warranty, which I usually never get nor need. Can I count on the manufacturer to provide good customer service for this product? Should I buy elsewhere in case something goes wrong or I get a lemon? Any suggestions from the techies?

In a sense, the health insurance provider is like WalMart or Best Buy. When you buy your television (take a job), you get a warranty with it (health insurance option), maybe even an extended warranty for some additional fee. If something goes wrong with the TV during the warranty period, you are given a list of small retailers or service centers to take it to for repair. The manufacturer pays those small retailers and service centers a fee to repair your TV, but at a much lower rate than you would pay if you went direct, without a warranty. At...

extended waranties illustration Illustration by Mick Wiggins Two possible exceptions/ What breaks down and when/ Stingy warranties/ If you must buy an extended warranty /Share your story This holiday season, shoppers are expected to spend a whopping $1.6 billion on extended warranties for laptops, flat-screen TVs, other electronics, and appliances. And almost all of it will be money down the drain. Retailers are pushing hard to get you to buy extended warranties, or service plans, because they're cash cows. Stores keep 50 percent or more of what they charge for warranties. That's more than they can make selling actual products....

General Motors Corp. announced Wednesday that it would improve the warranty on its 2007 model year cars and trucks, hoping to stop car buyers from migrating to Asian automakers. GM extended its warranty to five years or 100,000 miles, substantially enhancing the three-year, 36,000-mile coverage the company had offered on engines, transmissions and other powertrain parts. The plan, unveiled Wednesday by Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, is part of GM's effort to stop being seen as a carmaker that depends on cash incentives and cheap interest rates to sell cars and trucks. The Detroit-based automaker has been losing market share to...

LAGOS (AFP) - A traditional doctor in central Nigeria has been shot dead by a patient who was testing the potency of an anti-bullet charm the herbalist had prepared for him, police told AFP. AFP/File Photo   Ashi Terfa died when patient Umaa Akor fired a gun at his head two weeks ago in south-central Benue state, police spokesman Bode Fakeye said Wednesday. "Akor went for an insurance against bullets and contacted Terfa to prepare it for him," he said. "To confirm its efficacy, the herbalist tied the charm around his neck and insisted that Akor should fire a gun...