FA+
Shop
Hit Restart to Continue...
10 years ago
So the Accident/Car Fiasco is mostly over minus a few loose ends like making sure my GAP insurance goes through and getting a refund from my old dealer for a check for the remainder of my extended warranty I purchased from them. I have no idea how much it will be but my hope is that it will be enough to pay for the Tow package + install for my new vehicle.
The Insurance company totaled my car. The repair estimate was over 75% of what it was worth. The engine block and transmission compartment got punctured, and it had severe front end structural damage. It got hit just hard enough just in the right spot....
The Bank officially has the payoff amount from my insurance company. The title of the Vehicle has been transfered to the Insurance so they can salvage it. Its gone to a salvage yard somewhere to rot or be stripped apart for parts.
I had a lot of adventures in the year and 2 months I had my Ford Edge. I put on 35,000 miles which is the most miles I've ever driven in a year not counting when I worked as a Courier driver and had a company car. This includes the year I worked as a traveling portrait photographer for a few months. it was an Anomoly and I'll still be a high mileage customer but I don't have the freedoms of being between contract work multiple times in one year and having the time off to go on nearly as many Day trips to burn off stress.
While the Insurance company took forever to get my car towed to the right place, to their credit the rest of the process; which I was told could take up to 10 days happened very quickly and was resolved in three once they had my vehicle. It took another two days worth of car shopping once I had signed over my title to them and gave them permission to salvage my wrecked car. And this was me hurrying it along since I didn't want to be a burden on my parents longer then I had to. My car is also a huge part of who I am as a person - without my own escape vehicle there was just something missing... it wasn't a fun experience and I'm very glad its over.
I could have settled for a used car; but I've lived my life since my second vehicle stating that a car payment was a fact of life as much as paying rent was. I'm not a greasemonkey nor do I have time to wait for an older vehicle to sit in the shop on a semi-regular basis for repairs.
I was pressed for time at any rate, and was at the Mercy of the Dealer to take whatever they had currently in stock and accept the best price I could haggle for in a single night rather then waiting for the next big sales event to happen. I wound up getting an okay price on something I really liked, but the financing I got to be able to take the vehicle off the lot that night for the payment in the range I could afford was shit. I got the short end of the stick on that but at the very least a car loan is something that can be re-financed in the future once I'm in a better mindset to deal with it...
All my savings was spent on the down payment for my new vehicle. I'll have to pay for the towing package out of pocket when I can so I can use my boat again, until then it sits in the garage. Money will be a little tight for awhile; means no new camera gear, no paying off my Credit Cards (other then the minimum payments on both) until I get caught back up which will be a few months out. In the short term this also means I cannot attend Megaplex down in Florida this year either.
Even with the car replaced, as of current I have no way to trailer my boat. Its a temporary setback, but a setback none the less. It just sits and rots during Prime Summer boating season which means one less outlet I have available to relax and burn off stress when its needed. This, like the ability to pay off my Credit Cards as I was planning on doing is thankfully only a very temporary setback.
That all said... I'm feeling Good and am ready to move on with life. Because I can be VERY thankful for a few things:
Job Stability: This Crash happened just days after my employer gave me an offer to go to FT perm employment with a considerable Raise. Once that hits (though it could be a month or more before it happens) I'll be able to recover financially a lot faster.
I was un-injured: Technically I did not have Health Insurance active at the time of the crash. I was making too much money to get on any Federal or State programs at the time. I now have basic health insurance from my stop gap contracting firm active as of 7/1 due to a waiting period of 30 days past hire; and better health insurance options once my transition to Full Time with the parent company is done and I'm no longer a sub-contractor.
No one got seriously injured in the other vehicle, and the other party involved in the crash didn't try to sue me. By all accountable records and the Police report the actual crash should have been a 50/50 fault situation.
My insurance decided to make it 80/20 instead of 50/50 giving me the majority of the fault. I'm not fighting it because even if it got advocated to 50/50 my insurance rate would be the same, it would still be on my record and since there was no speed sensors or traffic light camera to prove that the other driver slowed down then accelerated hard and hit me before the crash instead of braking it would be a hard one to fight unless I absolutely had to IE a Lawsuit over punititve damages. I am 100% okay with it being on my record as is and not having to fight it in court all things considered. No more money comes out of my pocket and my wages won't be garnished should I loose and be stuck with a Lawyer/Settlement bill worth more then my cost of living.
If this would have happened after I was let go from Fairview IE just a month and a half earlier:
I would have been stuck without a vehicle. Or I would have had to burn my savings on the cheapest used car I could find and just pray it didn't blow up in my face. Otherwise I would have had to beg borrow and steal from my parents until I got employed again because I would have been uneligible for a car loan.
It would have been a lot harder to pay the deductible. It would have taken a lot longer to recover from this.
In the end, it all worked out. I'm back to where I was. I have a newer vehicle that is a slight upgrade from what I had before so there has been some Light and Joy at the end of a dark tunnel. I'm ready to start new Adventures with my new roadside companion.
I've uploaded a pic and the details of the new car in my scraps for those interested in taking a peek. It's another road-trip special but the added length adds more interior room for both the passengers and cargo space. I'm winding up with more not less in the end so I am good with how it all worked out :)
The Insurance company totaled my car. The repair estimate was over 75% of what it was worth. The engine block and transmission compartment got punctured, and it had severe front end structural damage. It got hit just hard enough just in the right spot....
The Bank officially has the payoff amount from my insurance company. The title of the Vehicle has been transfered to the Insurance so they can salvage it. Its gone to a salvage yard somewhere to rot or be stripped apart for parts.
I had a lot of adventures in the year and 2 months I had my Ford Edge. I put on 35,000 miles which is the most miles I've ever driven in a year not counting when I worked as a Courier driver and had a company car. This includes the year I worked as a traveling portrait photographer for a few months. it was an Anomoly and I'll still be a high mileage customer but I don't have the freedoms of being between contract work multiple times in one year and having the time off to go on nearly as many Day trips to burn off stress.
While the Insurance company took forever to get my car towed to the right place, to their credit the rest of the process; which I was told could take up to 10 days happened very quickly and was resolved in three once they had my vehicle. It took another two days worth of car shopping once I had signed over my title to them and gave them permission to salvage my wrecked car. And this was me hurrying it along since I didn't want to be a burden on my parents longer then I had to. My car is also a huge part of who I am as a person - without my own escape vehicle there was just something missing... it wasn't a fun experience and I'm very glad its over.
I could have settled for a used car; but I've lived my life since my second vehicle stating that a car payment was a fact of life as much as paying rent was. I'm not a greasemonkey nor do I have time to wait for an older vehicle to sit in the shop on a semi-regular basis for repairs.
I was pressed for time at any rate, and was at the Mercy of the Dealer to take whatever they had currently in stock and accept the best price I could haggle for in a single night rather then waiting for the next big sales event to happen. I wound up getting an okay price on something I really liked, but the financing I got to be able to take the vehicle off the lot that night for the payment in the range I could afford was shit. I got the short end of the stick on that but at the very least a car loan is something that can be re-financed in the future once I'm in a better mindset to deal with it...
All my savings was spent on the down payment for my new vehicle. I'll have to pay for the towing package out of pocket when I can so I can use my boat again, until then it sits in the garage. Money will be a little tight for awhile; means no new camera gear, no paying off my Credit Cards (other then the minimum payments on both) until I get caught back up which will be a few months out. In the short term this also means I cannot attend Megaplex down in Florida this year either.
Even with the car replaced, as of current I have no way to trailer my boat. Its a temporary setback, but a setback none the less. It just sits and rots during Prime Summer boating season which means one less outlet I have available to relax and burn off stress when its needed. This, like the ability to pay off my Credit Cards as I was planning on doing is thankfully only a very temporary setback.
That all said... I'm feeling Good and am ready to move on with life. Because I can be VERY thankful for a few things:
Job Stability: This Crash happened just days after my employer gave me an offer to go to FT perm employment with a considerable Raise. Once that hits (though it could be a month or more before it happens) I'll be able to recover financially a lot faster.
I was un-injured: Technically I did not have Health Insurance active at the time of the crash. I was making too much money to get on any Federal or State programs at the time. I now have basic health insurance from my stop gap contracting firm active as of 7/1 due to a waiting period of 30 days past hire; and better health insurance options once my transition to Full Time with the parent company is done and I'm no longer a sub-contractor.
No one got seriously injured in the other vehicle, and the other party involved in the crash didn't try to sue me. By all accountable records and the Police report the actual crash should have been a 50/50 fault situation.
My insurance decided to make it 80/20 instead of 50/50 giving me the majority of the fault. I'm not fighting it because even if it got advocated to 50/50 my insurance rate would be the same, it would still be on my record and since there was no speed sensors or traffic light camera to prove that the other driver slowed down then accelerated hard and hit me before the crash instead of braking it would be a hard one to fight unless I absolutely had to IE a Lawsuit over punititve damages. I am 100% okay with it being on my record as is and not having to fight it in court all things considered. No more money comes out of my pocket and my wages won't be garnished should I loose and be stuck with a Lawyer/Settlement bill worth more then my cost of living.
If this would have happened after I was let go from Fairview IE just a month and a half earlier:
I would have been stuck without a vehicle. Or I would have had to burn my savings on the cheapest used car I could find and just pray it didn't blow up in my face. Otherwise I would have had to beg borrow and steal from my parents until I got employed again because I would have been uneligible for a car loan.
It would have been a lot harder to pay the deductible. It would have taken a lot longer to recover from this.
In the end, it all worked out. I'm back to where I was. I have a newer vehicle that is a slight upgrade from what I had before so there has been some Light and Joy at the end of a dark tunnel. I'm ready to start new Adventures with my new roadside companion.
I've uploaded a pic and the details of the new car in my scraps for those interested in taking a peek. It's another road-trip special but the added length adds more interior room for both the passengers and cargo space. I'm winding up with more not less in the end so I am good with how it all worked out :)
