Yet another reason to practice sound personal finance, and to save an emergency fund:
When I went out to start my car this morning, the ignition switch would not move. It was frozen. No amount of pounding, jiggling, or fussing could get it to work. I called a locksmith. “Yeah, this is a common problem with the Ford Focus,” he said when he arrived. “I must fix ten of these a week.” He spent twenty minutes replacing the ignition switch, gave me instructions, charged me $250, and went on his merry way.
$250!?! Now, that’s a racket.
My car woes cost me $250 plus $50 for a lost on-time bonus (which employees at my company earn by being on time every day for a pay period). If this were the old J.D., living paycheck-to-paycheck, this would have been devastating. Fortunately, the new J.D. is able to cope with these sorts of crises.
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I thought you were a part-owner or a manager of the company, so how are you eligible for the on-time bonus anyway? Just curious, not critical. Sorry about the ignition switch.
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That sucks. Car’s can be the biggest money pits. I wish the U.S. had better public tranportation.
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“$250!?! Now, that’s a racket.”
It’s always amusing how people who have no knowledge of a business can suddenly decide when something is too much. Maybe the part cost him $200, maybe he had to take an expensive training class to learn how to do the work, who knows.
Would you feel better if it took 3 guys the whole day and you couldn’t go to work at all? Would that somehow make the same $250 more “worth it”?
If he is charging $250, you have to believe that is close to the market rate. Economics will tell you it is unlikely you would find someone to do the same job for $50.
Anyway, you are right about money management. The whole point is to not let minor situations like this become a major financial burdens.
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Seems that’s a popular problem with the Focus:
http://consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_focus_ignition.html
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Peter, you’re right that this is likely market rate. I’m just venting. Believe me, I know what it’s like to be in a business where people have an unrealistic expectation of actual costs. Any time somebody calls me wanting only one box, they just about faint when I quote a price of $50, yet that’s our cost in material and labor to do just one box. We don’t make anything on that.
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I think the most surprising thing to me in this post is the fact that any company pays a bonus to their employees for being on time. Being on time every day is an inherent part of being an employee. If my employees are consistently late, they’re fired. Why is normal/expected behavior rewarded?
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Just a warning: this happened FIVE (5) times on my old Focus. I do not know a single Focus owner that this has not happened to at least once. It may be wise to prepare for another $300 hit.
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Wow, an on-time bonus? I never heard of that before, but I wish my school did such a thing.
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See if they will give you double-or-nothing if you’re early everyday.
And we wonder why US companies can’t compete – we reward mediocrity.
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The $50 on-time bonus seems to be shocking many readers. I can understand the bewilderment. But believe me: we have an excellent crew and a profitable business. The on-time bonus works for us. To answer some of your questions:
Being on time every day is an inherent part of being an employee. If my employees are consistently late, they’re fired. Why is normal/expected behavior rewarded?
This is a great question. Positive reinforcement is more effective at modifying behavior than negative reinforcement. For a long time, our company used negative consequences in response to employee tardiness. It didn’t work. We had to fire or punish employees. That’s a pain in the ass. Hiring new employees is one of the worst parts about owning a small busines.
Since moving to the on-time bonus nearly a decade ago, tardiness problems (and abscences) have become a non-issue. Sure, people are tardy now and then, but nobody is chronically late. And if somebody does develop a problem, when they come asking for a raise, we can point out that they would earn an extra $100/month simply by showing up to work on time every day. That’s sixty-cents an hour — not enough to get rich on, but still a significant amount.
Does the company really give owners a $50 on-time bonus too?
It does. We’re a small business, and we pride ourselves in treating everyone equitably. As owners, we don’t make much more than our top employees. We hold ourselves to the same standards, too, including on-time expectations. (We do give ourselves perks in other areas — for example, I get more vacation time than regular employees.) It’s just as important — if not more so — for the owners to be to work at expected times, so the bonus applies.
This system might not work for larger businesses. But it works for us.
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My company has flex-time, so I can arrive at work anywhere between 6am and 9:30am, as long as I put in my 8-hours, I’m good to go.
I find this is a great system because if I need to leave early one-day for an appointment, I simply make up the time another day. No fuss, no muss, no hassle.
Has your company considered this option JD? Maybe this type of system doesn’t work as well in a small company where all your employees need to be present due to a higher level of teamwork?
NG
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This same thing happened to me with my 2003 Ford Focus. You’d think there would be a recall on it. Maybe there is…
Anyway, I ended up taking the lock apart and removing the tumblers following some instructions I found on the ‘net. So it’s not really a lock anymore, but it should never have a problem turning again, and it was free.
I realize not everyone is a mechanic, but this ended up being pretty easy. I even took photos. Oh, and if you are worried that anyone could start your car, it won’t work with out the key and its transponder.
Keep it in mind for next time. I’ve heard of this happening more than once to the same ignition.
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same thing happened to me on a 2k focus zts about 4 months ago. my solution was to, with the key in the ignition, whack the key a few times with a screwdriver. never had the problem since!
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I had to whack the key a couple times with a hammer (like I was nailing it into the ignition) to get it to turn so I could take out the ignition.
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The last place I worked had an on time bonus too. I see the point about “why reward someone for normal/expected behavior?”, but the fact is, this tactic works. Alot of people are late in life, and this gives incentive to be on time to those are chronically late. If the business needs to open a certain time there is more insurance that everyone will be on time. I myself was a chronically late person my whole life, until I worked a job with this incentive. I was never late. Something new for me. Now I have moved on to other jobs, and I am no longer a chronically late person. It “cured” me. In theory a reward shouldn’t be neccessary for people to do the right thing, but in reality, people are late, and some of them are good workers when they get there. This bonus insures that people will get there on time.
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The ignition switch on my ford focus has gone out on me twice in four years. The first time I was stranded while on a trip. The second time was just before Christmas. It always happens soon after the workmanship warranty expires. I paid $300 with tax both times I had to have it fixed. That’s $600 for a problem that I keep hearing is super common with these cars. Burns me up every time I hear of it happening to someone else! Recall this part already!!!
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..i know its way too late, but this happened to my husband and i on his 2003 focus.. the locksmith came, showed us how to tap it with the screwdriver, and said he could replace the lock, but tapping it should take care of it for awhile.
so that’s what we’ve been doing, we also switched to using the ‘back up’ key instead of the 5 year old key and haven’t had the problem since..
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I heard that this is a HUGE problem for Ford Focuses. Since I have one I’m going to try to be proactive and find out how to fix this for when the time comes… I’ll let you know how it goes.
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I believe it was Aristotle that spoke about not giving praise for what completing what is expected. Funny how something thats over 2000 years old can seem so relevant today!
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