As we spent hours today on the car issue, I started keeping a mental list of how car accidents are inconvenient.
- Bodily and emotional injury
- Time and anxiety of dealing with police, police reports, and insurance companies
- Inconvenience of dealing with lack of vehicle and rental car companies
- Car shopping
- Car buying
- Registering the new vehicle
I haven't been to the DMV yet, but each of the others has taken - literally - hours.
For example, the insurance company was only responsible for 5 days of rental car use after handing over the check for the totalled Passatt. Today was the last day for the rental car, and today we bought the new car. Great timing! But. The rental car place was near Paul's work, not near our home. And we couldn't get there before closing time, because we were busy buying the new car. So we had to drive nearly 20 miles round trip to drop off the rental car after dinner. Except. There was no after-hours drop-box, the keys have to be returned before 9:00 am, and both Paul and I have 8:00 am appointments elsewhere. So we drove to another Enterprise location. Again, no drop box. We quickly realized that the company has changed their policy and removed the boxes. Still, we drove to yet a third location, this one near Paul's am off-site meeting, so that we could leave the car tonight and he can drop off keys in the morning.
Total time spent? Nearly 2 hours on driving around alone. We won't get into the gas that cost. Oh, cost.
Cost is another huge inconvenience of having a car accident. Cost of gas for car shopping (and rental car returning), of car buying and tax-paying and registering, of meals eaten out while car shopping and buying, of new extended warantees and service plans, of interest rates and finance charges.
All when we were quite happy with our other car. That Passatt was still all shiny sliver and black inside. The leather looked just like it did when it was new. Ah, well.
We like the New New Car an awful lot, and the mileage is suburb - better than expected. (Also, unlike the VW, it doesn't drink premium.) Plus it's got some extra fancy features like the 6-cylinder engine, the wood-grain detailing, and the navigational system.
This is the third car Paul (as the unfortunate driver each time, though we do share driving time) has totaled in the last 8 years (though only one was his fault, and that one involved ice). Here's hoping for a prolonged hiatus from this sort of inconvenience.
5 comments:
The hybrid is available only for the top-of-the-line Accord, right? (Suh-weet!) Does that come with heated seats for winter? My next car (after the 2000 Passat) will likely be a Prius, but I don't think it comes with a heated seats option. I think the Passat can make it through this winter...
Orange, yep!
We LOVED the heated seats in our Passat and were hoping to keep that option. "Fortunately" for us, the Prius is impossible to come by quickly just now - and we were in rather a hurry - so we went with what was available.
Ah, luxury.
Inconvenience indeed. My car is only just now two years old (and still not paid for) yet I've been hit four times. My front end was just replaced in March when a woman ran a stop light and just two weeks ago, another woman made a left turn right in front of me completely re-damaging it.
In addition to the complaints you've listed, what really unnerves me is that the guilty party might be responsible for repairing my vehicle but I get nothing for the loss of value when I go to sell it or trade it in.
Yes, loss of value is HUGE and it drives me nuts that insurance does not compensate for that when adjusting claims. Buh.
Yes! That's the ONE reason I was happy that the Passat was totaled. We couldn't have sold it or traded it in for nearly as much after an accident like that.
When you break it down, there's a lot that insurance doesn't cover.
(Jessica, you're as unlucky as Paul! That's terrible!)
Post a Comment