r.i.p. golden chariot, hello zombie car
Last week I dropped my partially-squished car off at the body shop recommended by my insurance company, and was told by the bleached-blonde guy who surveyed the damage that repairs would take a week. "I'll call you when it's time to pick it up," he said as I left. Excellent.
I was a little surprised, then, to get a phone message yesterday, not nearly a week later, from "Bryce, in the Total Loss Department at State Farm." Excuse me? The "Total Loss" Department? Sounds like something Click and Clack the Tap-it brothers might say at the start of one of their weekly episodes of Car Talk on NPR: "Today we're broadcasting from the Total Loss Department of yadda-yadda-yadda..."
Gee. The Total Loss Department. I wonder what Bryce wants to tell me??
For christ's sake, don't bend over backwards breaking the news to me that my car is totalled. Just give it to me straight, I can take it.
So I called them back and learned that, as SK warned early-on, the damage was far more costly to repair than the actual value of the little gold car, regardless of how much *I* love it as a sweet, gold extension of myself. It will now remain a sweet, gold extension of myself with only two working doors instead of four. So what? It still drives just fine. The insurance lady rattled off the values and the deductions and the ultimate pay-out figures. I had two choices, I could surrender the car for one payout, or keep the car for $300 less of a payout. Since the car still drives, I'm obviously keeping it and now I'm greedilly salivating over the thought of a surprise payout speeding my way. Yippee for surprise payouts.
Anyway, the salvage value of my car is now $307. So, basically, I'm essentially driving around about three hundred bucks. That's all. Hearing that the car is "totalled" and knowing that it's worth less than a good digital camera leaves me feeling a bit like my car is the living dead. It still drives, it still looks alive, but it's not till you see the disfiguring gash running down the passenger side and notice the sort of lifeless look in the headlights that you realize it's not just any car, it's a *zombie* car.
The lesson, here, is to keep good insurance on your car. Thank god I never dropped my comprehensive insurance, even though it cost a little more every month. I always said, "I have to keep the comprehensive in case something happens and my car gets totalled." And guess what, that day came. I would be totally out of luck without my insurance. I'd still be driving my zombie car, but I wouldn't have any payout to salivate over. So I'm patting myself on the back for being smart and keeping good insurance, one of few adult accomplishments I can celebrate in my life thus far. Yay for me.
I was a little surprised, then, to get a phone message yesterday, not nearly a week later, from "Bryce, in the Total Loss Department at State Farm." Excuse me? The "Total Loss" Department? Sounds like something Click and Clack the Tap-it brothers might say at the start of one of their weekly episodes of Car Talk on NPR: "Today we're broadcasting from the Total Loss Department of yadda-yadda-yadda..."
Gee. The Total Loss Department. I wonder what Bryce wants to tell me??
For christ's sake, don't bend over backwards breaking the news to me that my car is totalled. Just give it to me straight, I can take it.
So I called them back and learned that, as SK warned early-on, the damage was far more costly to repair than the actual value of the little gold car, regardless of how much *I* love it as a sweet, gold extension of myself. It will now remain a sweet, gold extension of myself with only two working doors instead of four. So what? It still drives just fine. The insurance lady rattled off the values and the deductions and the ultimate pay-out figures. I had two choices, I could surrender the car for one payout, or keep the car for $300 less of a payout. Since the car still drives, I'm obviously keeping it and now I'm greedilly salivating over the thought of a surprise payout speeding my way. Yippee for surprise payouts.
Anyway, the salvage value of my car is now $307. So, basically, I'm essentially driving around about three hundred bucks. That's all. Hearing that the car is "totalled" and knowing that it's worth less than a good digital camera leaves me feeling a bit like my car is the living dead. It still drives, it still looks alive, but it's not till you see the disfiguring gash running down the passenger side and notice the sort of lifeless look in the headlights that you realize it's not just any car, it's a *zombie* car.
The lesson, here, is to keep good insurance on your car. Thank god I never dropped my comprehensive insurance, even though it cost a little more every month. I always said, "I have to keep the comprehensive in case something happens and my car gets totalled." And guess what, that day came. I would be totally out of luck without my insurance. I'd still be driving my zombie car, but I wouldn't have any payout to salivate over. So I'm patting myself on the back for being smart and keeping good insurance, one of few adult accomplishments I can celebrate in my life thus far. Yay for me.
posted by reasonably prudent poet at 9:47 AM
1 Comments:
Well at least your car was totalled *for a reason*! My car runs fine, but was totalled thanks to hail damage. A few dents on the hood and suddenly it's worthless.
Actually, now that I think about it, every car I've had has been totalled, for totally minor damage (or at least damage that *looked* minor and fixable). I must have bad car karma or somthing. But as long as it's got four wheels, that's all that matters to me.
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