I Just Sold My Kia Soul To the Kia Dealer, Because My Little State Farm Beacon Buddy, Tracks Everything That I Do In My New Kia Sorento

Should have shopped insurance *before* committing to a vehicle. If your budget is so tight that you need this device to be able to afford the car and insurance - you need to be buying a much less expensive vehicle in the first place.

I have put the State Farm Beacon in my car for several years now it was offered from my State Farm agent, not my dealer and yes I get a discount on my car insurance. It tracks specific driving maneuvers and you can see each trip tracking in the app. Well worth the discount. PS I am not a perfect driver

All insurance companies have something similar, the problem is after the program ends, your insurance starts going back up immediately.

Driving 25 in a 35 zone is just as dangerous as going 45 there. Plus going slower causes a traffic jam as well. These insurance gimmicks cause more problems than they solve.

I have a '22 Kia Sportage. Originally, I was with Progressive, paying around $95 per month. Out of no where, premium went to $174 per month. When I called, they said they had to raise premiums to compensate the increase in stolen kia's, even no longer sell insurance to new customers. Thank God for Geico, got the same insurance as Progressive, at the original $95 per month. They do monitor driving habits, but you only save $5. Still, well worth it. Progressive sucks!

Her problem isn't the expensive car or insurance. Her problem is her choices, all of them combined, led her here. She doesn't need a new car, no one does. She makes bad decisions.

Come on seriously??? Most insurance companies have those discounts/ devices . If you're not smart enough to realize what it's for , then maybe you shouldn't be driving a vehicle at all . How you going to blame KIA when it's your own fault !!

I tried one of those drive monitors with Allstate insurance company a few years back to try to lower my insurance rate. I figured since I'm a very conservative driver, don't go out at night I would have nothing to lose and would get a cheaper insurance rate...well I connected to my car and the darn thing would start beeping at a few times with every ride when I was stopping, the device was saying I was braking too hard when in fact I was braking normally. You had a small time window where could send the unit back to Allstate and it wouldn't count, so I sent that device back before that device would had caused my insurance rates to go up.

Ms harris did have a choice. She could have purchased a cheaper vehicle. Also based on the $500/month insurance quote ms harris has a bad driving record. Again, her fault, not anyone else. Im tired of people complaining about unfainess when their choices put them in their situation. Its so tiresome.

Yep, she's living beyond her means. That's strictly on her. More TikTok nonsense.

This is about State Farm, not Kia. It seems pretty obvious, even to someone without decades in automotive journalism.

It works but have found it will track an infraction of braking, turning or acceleration any time you have to high of good driving. It has also tracked travel on other routes then you traveled and at times 12 hours after the time you actually made the trip. Documented all with dash cam and vehicle on board information.

There is no way that the State Farm tracker saved her more than a couple of dollars. I have two of them with 100% driving records. I’ll save about $2.50 on each car over the next 6 months.

Rumor has it, she lost her job because she could never get there on time driving so slow and now the new car is repossessed! Maybe just buy a decent used car that you can afford!

These buddy and snapshot's are nothing but Big Brother IMO and nothing but an invasion of privacy. People need to tell Insurance companies you are not rulers of the world.

This is nothing but Big Brother! I think its about time to show corporations you are not people and this is what people can do. I had brand X the woman that rear ended me had brand X too and all it did was confuse the situation worse. I am seriously thinking about suing the insurance company with her their should be class actions agains this type of invasion of privacy for how do they know who was driving your car like brand x is on your phone I found out I was was being dinged fot riding with my friends that drover hot cars like maniacs when I confronted them and asked the to remove these errors they refused.

I used the State Farm becon program myself, until it no longer saved me the larger amount you get at the beginning. At the time I was still working as a bus operator. We have endless safe driving training, as we drive for a living.

It ranks you among others using the program, and I ranked pretty good overall. The thing that will drive you crazy is the dinds for acceleration and hard braking. You will get dinged for acceleration when you have to get up to freeway speed entering the freeway. You also get dinged for hard braking as people tend to cut in front of you ( mainly for obeying the posted speed limit ).

Another annoying thing out of many peoples control is the late night driving ding you get for having a late ( pm ) shift at work. You know not many people have 9 to 5 work hours....

The one thing in your actual control is if you speed or not. 100% on you if you are dinged for speeding. That metric I fully agree wwith. All the other metrics are harder to compensate for as aggressive drivers force you into hard braking. It's also bad when you get flagged for the acceleration needed to merge safely onto the freeway.

After your first six months doing this program, your discount drops quite bit. I think this program would work better if it was not punishing PM shift workers, but they are correct that after 11PM bad drivers ( impaired and fatigued) are on the road at those hours, hence them dinging you for that fact. It still sucks for those who have to work late-night hours....

That is my overall opinion on the State Farm becon and app.

We had changed to Safeco Insurance by being told that if we implemented their app that we could save money if they could track our driving for 90 days without any infractions. After the 90 days we tried to claim our discount but we were told that Insurance rates had gone up and were already getting the discount. BAIT and SWITCH very unscrupulous. Hate Insurance's.

I pay $240/month for full coverage on a 2023 Mach E AND a 2018 Explorer platinum.

What they are not telling you is that your rates can go up if The insurance company doesnt like your driving habits.

I purchased a Tesla model Y in 2023. My insurance through Tesla was $115/month. USAA was $210/month so I went with the Tesla insurance.

The Tesla insurance climbed every month until it got to $225/month. No accidents, just data from the car being sent realtime to Tesla.

I do drive aggressively with rapid acceleration and cornering. Switched back to USAA and the current rate is $130/month without having a spy in the car.

How bad is her driving record? My wife n I have a ‘23 legacy and ‘21 bmw 228. We pay $450/month. I’m not paying $500/month for anything with a sticker price under $100k. Ridiculous

"I didn't really have a choice."

What a retarded take.

Just don't buy a new car that requires this period. There's plenty of options in life, you should have controlled your emotional desire to own that vehicle and never gave up your freedom just to own a damn Kia definitely a low IQ decision. Next time talk to some one that has your best interest in mind not a dealer especially not State farm they are a total rip off.

This state farm beacon is the only way I can afford full coverage insurance on my car. It's an older car but it's really nice and not sure I could afford to replace it with the same condition of a different car!

I would call it Kevin. Kevin Beacon.

This is what capitalism does. Sell your soul for cheaper prices while the already wealthy run and control your life.

Who do you think the information is going to? A capitalist to sell off for more money to feed their rapacious greed.