You'd Think a Shiny New Red Car would be Hard to Miss
My poor new car has not been very lucky. It's a sweet (and expensive) ride, it looks great, I love it to death, and I hope to have it for a long time, but I think it's cursed. Within a month of first buying it, a gravel truck trundled by and scratched the front and almost put a hole in my radiator with some loose bouncing stones, as well as cracking my brand new windshield, which had to be replaced. Then, as mentioned several posts below, a deer jumped out in front of it on Christmas Eve. This was arguably not entirely outside of my control, but I think I did the best I could given the circumstances. So, yeah, it's had a run of bad luck. That brings us to Wednesday night.
Wednesday was a very long day. I had a hair appointment at 5:30 with my hairdresser, Zelda, but I wanted to leave at the end of the work day, so I went early, intending to play my Nintendo DS while I waited in her basement. Her driveway was fairly full, and I didn't want to block anyone in, so I parked across the street from her house as I normally do and went inside. Just for the record, I was perfectly straight, flush with the side of the road, on the proper side of the road, facing in the proper direction, and equidistant between two driveways on that side. It was a textbook example of how to park on a street.
After I had been there a while, playing Advance Wars DS for roughly ten minutes, someone came downstairs asking to be let out of the driveway. The lady getting her hair cut at the time said that it was probably her ride home, and that there should be someone in the car who would move it for him. A minute or so later, Zelda's son, Josh, ran downstairs and said that he just saw someone run into a car hard and heard a loud bang. He asked if any of us had driven here in a red car parked across the street. I said in an exasperated voice for the second time in as many weeks "My new car!" and ran outside to take a look. As I approached, things didn't look that bad. On closer inspection, it was a different story.
The back end of my car had been hit hard enough that it was now at a 30 degree angle to the side of the street, with my rear pushed against the snow bank. The paneling on the left side of my car towards the read had been dented back enough that I could put my hand inside the car's body. The reason things didn't look that bad at first glance was because the plastic paneling and bumper jammed in against the rest of the car hard and then bounced back into place. Unfortunately, the metal it jammed against doesn't bounce well. It still doesn't look all that bad outside. The paint is scraped in several places, and the metal is bent, but I suspect the damage inside may be much worse once they get it open. It'll likely cost quite a bit to fix, but Ted (president of Wood Motors) has assured me that it'll look like new when they're done with it.
Apparently it's customary to call the police when something like this happens, but noone I knew was sure what to do, so I didn't. I was mad (although, incidentally, I had to hide it since the lady getting her hair cut was dating the driver), but I wasn't comfortable doing something like that. They both pissed me off, though. They weren't quit flippant, but they were close, and I got nothing close to an apology from either one of them. The consensus among myself, Zelda, and Josh is that the driver wasn't quite right in the head. Whether or not that means he was drunk, high, crazy, or just senile, I don't know, but he seemed as if he barely knew where he was.
In any case, he was entirely at fault, so the repairs will be paid for by his insurance. My insurance company has assured me that this will have no bearing on my rates in the future, but I suspect they're full of shit, since it'll be on record that I had an accident, even though I wasn't even in the fucking car. He had rented the car from Budget (incidentally, dad checked the phone book, and he didn't give his own phone number to them, but some other person's), so I think they'll provide me a temporary replacement when I take my car in to be fixed. I'm not sure when that will be yet, though. I just hope I can keep it out of the body shop for a while this time. *sigh*
Wednesday was a very long day. I had a hair appointment at 5:30 with my hairdresser, Zelda, but I wanted to leave at the end of the work day, so I went early, intending to play my Nintendo DS while I waited in her basement. Her driveway was fairly full, and I didn't want to block anyone in, so I parked across the street from her house as I normally do and went inside. Just for the record, I was perfectly straight, flush with the side of the road, on the proper side of the road, facing in the proper direction, and equidistant between two driveways on that side. It was a textbook example of how to park on a street.
After I had been there a while, playing Advance Wars DS for roughly ten minutes, someone came downstairs asking to be let out of the driveway. The lady getting her hair cut at the time said that it was probably her ride home, and that there should be someone in the car who would move it for him. A minute or so later, Zelda's son, Josh, ran downstairs and said that he just saw someone run into a car hard and heard a loud bang. He asked if any of us had driven here in a red car parked across the street. I said in an exasperated voice for the second time in as many weeks "My new car!" and ran outside to take a look. As I approached, things didn't look that bad. On closer inspection, it was a different story.
The back end of my car had been hit hard enough that it was now at a 30 degree angle to the side of the street, with my rear pushed against the snow bank. The paneling on the left side of my car towards the read had been dented back enough that I could put my hand inside the car's body. The reason things didn't look that bad at first glance was because the plastic paneling and bumper jammed in against the rest of the car hard and then bounced back into place. Unfortunately, the metal it jammed against doesn't bounce well. It still doesn't look all that bad outside. The paint is scraped in several places, and the metal is bent, but I suspect the damage inside may be much worse once they get it open. It'll likely cost quite a bit to fix, but Ted (president of Wood Motors) has assured me that it'll look like new when they're done with it.
Apparently it's customary to call the police when something like this happens, but noone I knew was sure what to do, so I didn't. I was mad (although, incidentally, I had to hide it since the lady getting her hair cut was dating the driver), but I wasn't comfortable doing something like that. They both pissed me off, though. They weren't quit flippant, but they were close, and I got nothing close to an apology from either one of them. The consensus among myself, Zelda, and Josh is that the driver wasn't quite right in the head. Whether or not that means he was drunk, high, crazy, or just senile, I don't know, but he seemed as if he barely knew where he was.
In any case, he was entirely at fault, so the repairs will be paid for by his insurance. My insurance company has assured me that this will have no bearing on my rates in the future, but I suspect they're full of shit, since it'll be on record that I had an accident, even though I wasn't even in the fucking car. He had rented the car from Budget (incidentally, dad checked the phone book, and he didn't give his own phone number to them, but some other person's), so I think they'll provide me a temporary replacement when I take my car in to be fixed. I'm not sure when that will be yet, though. I just hope I can keep it out of the body shop for a while this time. *sigh*
posted by Jordan at 3:28 PM
4 Comments:
Oh my god.. I am so sorry to hear about all the problems you have had with your new car, I you yours and its luck changes in the near future.
I remember when I was taking driver's ed they said that red cars have higher insurance rates and im wondering if this is why. I know its a stretch but maybe subconciously people (and animals) like to hit it... I dont know.
Well, I for one consider your grief is worth roughly the same as the next bump up in insurance premiums.
Red cars have higher rates because they look more like sports cars, which generally have a higher chance of being stolen.
At least that's what I remember hearing.
I'd almost see about trading that car in, and get the Mustang you wanted to begin with.. end the "curse".
So the guy who was driving the rent-a-car gave the wrong number to budget? Did you get the plate number of their car? I'd be afraid that he'd be hard to track down to get him to pay for the damages.
I would have called the cops to get him checked out for something illegal in his system at the time of the accident. I'm not sure if the cops are supposed to come to accidents where noone was injured or not. I remember hearing your supposed to get a cop to confirm everything before moving the vehicles.
>I'd almost see about trading that
>car in, and get the Mustang you
>wanted to begin with...
I don't like the new Mustangs. That's why I didn't get one.
>Did you get the plate number of
>their car?
*nods* I got the plate number, make, colour, etc. We've already heard from Budget that he conceded that it was entirely his fault.
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