Who Ever Said Smashing Your Car Would Be a Bad Experience?

For some reason I always believed smashing up my vehicle would be a painful experience… financially, physically, emotionally, you name it.  But that wasn’t the case when I finally smashed my very own vehicle December 26th.  I’m amazed at how auspicious the whole railings of events actually were.

A little something about my former car to get the story started.  I had a 2001 Hyundai accent which I leased right off the lot.  I needed a car at the time so using naive logic I assumed since leases were so popular they must really have the consumer’s best interest in mind… so not the case! Maybe if you’re a business owner, but not if you’re struggling to make ends meet.  I could barely afford the thing for the first couple years.  Anyway, somewhere over the course of the lease I ran over a big rock (don’t even ask) that did a little body damage, nothing major, just a war wound that would end up costing a couple thousand if I wanted it fixed.  So obviously if I wanted to give my car back to the dealership at the end of the lease term I would have to get the damage fixed… so I did the math, and it was definitely not in my favor… of course neither was buying the car outright at the end of the lease, either… or was it? ;)

I spent just over $30,000 for that accent when it was all said and done, and it was only a $14,500 car.  My attitude was something like “whatever, I’m an experiential learner and I definitely learned something from that experience”.  I figured I’d potentially be driving that car for years to come not wanting to get myself wrapped in the same type of financial mess over another liability.  I was accepting of my situation, but there were a couple things about the vehicle that had me a little bummed.  First of all, I didn’t want to be driving a Hyundai because of some things I’ve read about the corporation, second it wasn’t as fuel efficient as I would have liked and third it didn’t have A/C.  Now I’ve never had A/C in a vehicle over the whole course of my life.  My parents never had a vehicle with it and neither have I, which is fine, but with these killer hot summers coupled with the work I do, honestly, I felt a little envious towards the feature.

Then it all happened.  This past Boxing Day I had to pick up my youngest brother who was staying at my mothers so we could head to a neighboring city where we would join the Christmas festivities of my father’s side of the family.  After picking up my brother we headed down one of the busier streets in the city on our way out.  I was behind schedule and found myself rushing a bit to make up for lost time, and as a result I distinctly remember thinking to slow down, which I did, but I still imagine I was going a little over the speed limit (this is honesty speaking, not a guilty conscience).  All of a sudden as we were coming up to a green light a car jumped right out in front of us and stopped.  All I could really do was just slam on the breaks and slide into it.  My first reaction was “Fuck!… what the Fuck!” I then looked at my brother and asked if he was alright, he was clearly stunned and said “I think so… :|”.  Then through the windshield I looked over at the other driver who seemed to be conscious and without pain, though he too looked to be in a state of shock.  Then I started paying attention to all this, what seemed to be smoke and the high revving of the motor and quickly said to my brother “Get out; the car’s on fire!!”…lol.  So, right upon saying this I jump out of the car as quickly as possible and start brushing my pants off looking for flamage, when all of a sudden this guy pops out of nowhere and starts giving me hell.  He stood stationary on the street saying “Don’t just stand there, go see if the other guy‘s alright!” …I was like “what!!…” we definitely exchanged a couple words for a second, but we got our stuff together fairly quick… it’s a good thing too because I was ready drop the little bastard… lol (joke).  The other driver was fine which I already acknowledge while I was in the car.  Turns out it wasn’t smoke either; since my air bag was activated it spewed out a whole bunch of this anti moisture stuff that it gets packed with… basically dust.

Now just listen to how smooth this whole accident gets from here.  Turns out the man who was initially giving me an ear full for not helping the other driver was an actual tow truck driver, and the accident happened right in front of his house.  He was actually outside working on his truck and witnessed the whole thing.  So there was both my tow truck and witness all in one.  Then another lady came walking up saying she could be my witness as well, because she seen the whole thing, too. I was like perfect, and took down here name and number.  Now for the other driver… talk about an ideal person to get into an accident with… right away he’s like “yeah, that was my fault.” he was very friendly and cooperative.  After we exchanged insurance information he grabbed his cell to call the police, but as he put the phone to his ear a patty wagon came strolling along.  Once the officer arrived on the scene he pretty much just asked if there were any injuries, which there were none too serious, so he just directed us to go to the reporting station.  I was at the reporting station fifteen minutes after the accident happened.  Now, that has to be a world record!

Once at the reporting center I seemed to get continuous help, almost as if I my hand was being held through the whole process… it was really neat.  It was honestly like the whole accident was sitting there waiting for me… I was trippin’ the whole time.  I did however feel bad for the other guy, but he did have the option of stopping at the red light… I don’t know if he was even charged, anyway.  On the way things turned out, I hope not.

Even after the day of the accident, when it came to deal with the insurance company, the rental place, the body shop and ultimately buying a new car… it was all really smooth and friendly… I loved the whole experience!

The second time I talk to the claims department they informed me that my car was a write off, and they would need additional information so they could give me a price.  I really thought that was where I was going to end up getting screwed in all this, but to my surprise they offered me $1,300 more than my sticking price.  So when they offered me 7,800 and change, I was like… “Ok” :).  You have to think, the car was $14,500 new so to get a check for $7,800 six years after the fact, that’s pretty damn good… especially since it had body damage from that rock I mentioned earlier.

Finding and buying a new car was a lot easier than I suspected as well.  I waited to the last minute of course… this is how it happened.  I checked out some vehicles on the internet that were in my price range and met my criteria.  I really didn’t want to go over the price I received for the Accent, because I just finished getting out of debt last year and figured I’d put enough $$ towards the damn thing.  I also wanted A/C, low kilometers, a Japanese model (because they run forever), and a fairly new vehicle with only one previous owner… oh yeah, and I wanted it to be more fuel efficient.  So, really the best vehicle to match my criteria was a Toyota Eco, but I was open to other models.  However I did end up finding an Eco on the internet that was close to my place and price range, so I went to check it out.  I couldn’t believe how solid and roomy those little Eco’s are, but the kilometers on this particular one were a little high and, well it just didn’t have A/C.  Luckily while I was talking to the guy about this car he told me their shop had purchased it from the Toyota dealership down the street, so right there I get it in my head to check out the dealership myself.  There's no point paying extra money for a middle man when a middle man isn't needed.

I headed straight to the dealership and arrived a couple minutes before closing.  I pretty much just walked in and a girl asked if I needed help.  I said yeah, I’m looking for such and such, and sure enough they had what I was looking for… but there was a little variance in our prices.  She asked me if I could come back the next day to see if we could work something out.  I agreed.  Now I still can’t figure out if she’s actually a good con artist or not, because she seemed to be working for me rather than the against.  We were able to settle on a price that was two thousand more than my target, but two thousand less than their asking price… sounds like a fair compromise.  It wasn’t sitting very long and it is in excellent shape.  Other than the price I easily hit the mark when it came to the rest of my criteria.  The extra cost by no means was coming close to putting me back in debt so what the hell, eh!

You know, for the length of this post I’ve only touched on what’s actually transpired as a result of this incident.  It’s just been a great experience through and through, and the grapevines that have taken life as a result is definitely well and thriving in a positive direction…

Warning – I do not advise anyone to smash up their vehicle in search of auspicious events, even though it might sound tempting. :)