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Update on Chris' car.
Mar. 17th, 2011 11:39 amFirstly, I'm getting only sporadic LJ notifications, so apologies if I've seemed to not be keeping up. I've been relying on the notifications to keep me up to date and they're not working reliably because LJ are a bunch of asshats, apparently.
As I was leaving the house on Monday to take Jonah to a birthday party, I get a text from Chris saying they've totaled his car, but no one from the insurance company had bothered to call and talk to him about it. Let me back up...
So, the accident was three weeks ago today. It was quite obviously the fault of the kid that pulled out of his driveway and slammed into Chris as he passed by. That kid has Safeco insurance. Safeco insurance are the SUCKIEST BUNCH OF SUCKS WHO EVER SUCKED! It took them two weeks to assume liability. Took four days for someone to tell Chris to just go get a rental car and once they assume liability, they'd pick up the tab (and I think that was the advice of our insurance). They routinely do not return phone calls. They argued that there were scratches from a previous accident and therefore they wouldn't pay the full amount for the bumper. Fine. They would only pay 70% of a new tire because they prorated for wear. Wtf? But fine. Keep in mind that during all these storms we've had, water has been leaking in through the damage.
They finally sent a check for the damages last week and Chris assumed the body shop would begin work on his car as of Friday. Monday, he gets a call from the mechanic asking if he had everything he needed out of his car because the tow truck was on its way to haul it to the scrap yard. WTF?! Several unreturned calls and a day later, he gets this voicemail left by a woman who emphasizes that his car is NOT totaled and gives him the date they issued payment for the damages and how much. WTF FOREVER!
After much persistence on Chris' part, he finally got a hold of someone and as it turns out, yes, the car is totaled and they're going to pay us the difference between what they've already paid for the damages and what the car is worth.
But now we have to buy a new car. We weren't ready to buy a new car. Chris has wanted a truck for over a year and we've been putting back some money to buy one, but we were banking on the Toyota lasting longer to give us time to save and not have to finance. It's not like we can't afford a car payment and with what we can put down on it and such, we can finance for as little as 3 years and still probably pay it off early. But we haven't had car payments, or any debt for that matter (apart from a mortgage), for about three years. I'm just really not enthusiastic about this. We could get a crappy car for what they'll give us for the Toyota, but damn it, we really do need a truck. We do way too many home improvement projects and I'm sick of paying delivery fees! Again, it's not like we can't afford it (though it's likely we won't be able to build our deck right now, since we'll probably have to put that money down on the truck), I just don't like having a car payment. :/
Turns out a dealership in Atlanta has the truck Chris wants. So heads up ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
oropher_777! We might be coming down for a whirlwind day trip this weekend. Want to grab some lunch or dinner or something? Apparently he's found something he wants in Goodlettsville and we'll probably be getting it tomorrow instead of going to Atlanta this weekend.
The good news is, once we have a truck, we can finally go pick up the garden shed we got an awesome deal on last weekend. And no more shoving 8ft lumber in the Subaru. No more buying mulch 10 bags at a time. I'll just keep enumerating the benefits to having a truck until I'm complacent about the car payment.
As I was leaving the house on Monday to take Jonah to a birthday party, I get a text from Chris saying they've totaled his car, but no one from the insurance company had bothered to call and talk to him about it. Let me back up...
So, the accident was three weeks ago today. It was quite obviously the fault of the kid that pulled out of his driveway and slammed into Chris as he passed by. That kid has Safeco insurance. Safeco insurance are the SUCKIEST BUNCH OF SUCKS WHO EVER SUCKED! It took them two weeks to assume liability. Took four days for someone to tell Chris to just go get a rental car and once they assume liability, they'd pick up the tab (and I think that was the advice of our insurance). They routinely do not return phone calls. They argued that there were scratches from a previous accident and therefore they wouldn't pay the full amount for the bumper. Fine. They would only pay 70% of a new tire because they prorated for wear. Wtf? But fine. Keep in mind that during all these storms we've had, water has been leaking in through the damage.
They finally sent a check for the damages last week and Chris assumed the body shop would begin work on his car as of Friday. Monday, he gets a call from the mechanic asking if he had everything he needed out of his car because the tow truck was on its way to haul it to the scrap yard. WTF?! Several unreturned calls and a day later, he gets this voicemail left by a woman who emphasizes that his car is NOT totaled and gives him the date they issued payment for the damages and how much. WTF FOREVER!
After much persistence on Chris' part, he finally got a hold of someone and as it turns out, yes, the car is totaled and they're going to pay us the difference between what they've already paid for the damages and what the car is worth.
But now we have to buy a new car. We weren't ready to buy a new car. Chris has wanted a truck for over a year and we've been putting back some money to buy one, but we were banking on the Toyota lasting longer to give us time to save and not have to finance. It's not like we can't afford a car payment and with what we can put down on it and such, we can finance for as little as 3 years and still probably pay it off early. But we haven't had car payments, or any debt for that matter (apart from a mortgage), for about three years. I'm just really not enthusiastic about this. We could get a crappy car for what they'll give us for the Toyota, but damn it, we really do need a truck. We do way too many home improvement projects and I'm sick of paying delivery fees! Again, it's not like we can't afford it (though it's likely we won't be able to build our deck right now, since we'll probably have to put that money down on the truck), I just don't like having a car payment. :/
oropher_777! We might be coming down for a whirlwind day trip this weekend. Want to grab some lunch or dinner or something?The good news is, once we have a truck, we can finally go pick up the garden shed we got an awesome deal on last weekend. And no more shoving 8ft lumber in the Subaru. No more buying mulch 10 bags at a time. I'll just keep enumerating the benefits to having a truck until I'm complacent about the car payment.
