Goodbye to a Not-So-Old Friend
As the stone gray stormclouds roll in off the Gulf of Mexico, and the ominous growl of thunder begins to build in the distance, I find it a somewhat dismally fitting occasion to announce that my wife’s 2003 Pontiac Vibe shall never again roam these streets. The accident it suffered on Friday night, while cosmetically not as catastrophic as all that, has crippled the vehicle at its most structurally vulnerable point, ruining the frame rails and tearing up the underbody. The insurance company’s “preferred body shop” reached an estimate that was approximately 78% of the total vehicle value before deciding to abandon efforts and speak to the claims adjuster about a writeoff.
To be honest, this is the outcome I wanted. When I first pulled up that night and saw the damage, I felt like my head would explode. I’ve never seen one of my own cars that badly damaged before, and it looked terrible. But even then I never imagined it being totalled. Over the course of the next few days I began with the hope that the car would be fixed, but as the details and repair charges mounted, I came to the sad realization that despite the body shop’s undoubtedly professional efforts to return it to like-new condition, the car would never drive, feel, or hold together the same as it once did.
Our original plan was to buy the Vibe when the lease expires in July 2005. However, I soon realized that that would never happen—not only would the car start creaking, groaning and falling apart sooner than it should, but it would also be near-impossible to sell on the private market for any kind of money. All someone would have to do is run a CarFax report, and I’d never hear from them again.
So, after a lot of thought and deliberation, my wife and I both agreed yesterday evening that we would prefer it if the car were totaled. It won’t be the same car, it probably won’t be as safe, and there’s no longer any hope of us keeping it—so having to drive it until the end of the lease is just delaying the inevitable (and delaying my chances of getting a Mustang one day, as well).
This morning at eight, I called the body shop when they opened and spoke to Kevin, who was writing up the estimate. Originally I was planning to go down to the shop in person, but something told me that wasn’t necessary. I had a strange feeling that the car was already so close to a writeoff, my being there to speak to the mechanic in person wouldn’t make the extra difference. After all, it’s ultimately not Kevin’s decision whether to total the car, although obviously his estimates and recommendations are held in high regard by our insurance company because they have worked together on claims for some time.
Kevin had already insinuated yesterday that if this were his car, he’d want it totaled. So when I called him this morning, he finished my sentence for me. We chatted about it for a bit and he admitted that while it’s obviously not his final call to make, knowing where I stand on the issue helps him as he is preparing the writeup. Additionally, the examination of the car hadn’t been completed at that time, and he still had to tear down the rear suspension and get a look at the underside of the car this morning. He said he’d call me with his final report.
It didn’t take long. It was about 9:00 this morning when I got word from Kevin that the car looked like a candidate for a total. Our insurer writes off vehicles when damages approach 80% of the vehicle’s retail value. 80% in our case is $12,000. By 9 a.m., estimated damages had eclipsed $11,000. Kevin said he would make his recommendation to the insurance company that they total it, and it sounded like a done deal. Especially because he also mentioned that the insurance company could make a good deal of money on this car at salvage, which could influence their decision to go for it if the estimate was close enough to the redline. So now I just have to wait for the claims adjuster to call me to get the final word. “Once you hear from them, of course you’ll have to come by here at some point to pick up your personal effects,” Kevin added. Sob…yeah, I know this is what I want…but what a downer.
It looks like our lease will be paid off without any major problems. Given that the insurance company’s policy is to write a check for the retail value of the car, which is around $15,000 give or take (minus the deductible of course), and we owe a total of about $13,700 on the lease, we should be okay. Our GMAC SmartLease includes gap insurance as well, should we need it. The end result is that we should not end up owing any money on the lease when all is said and done.
The next order of business, then, will be to look at replacement cars. My wife and I have decided up from that we’re done with leasing, and we’ll do whatever it takes to get into a decent car on a 36-month loan. We’re looking at Mazdas. Since I discovered I can apply my Ford Z-plan discount toward the Mazda S-plan, which equates to a small percentage under invoice price with no questions asked, I thought it would be a good move to check out the Mazda3 and Mazda6. I really like the 6, a lot, but it’s all going to come down to the cost of it in the end. We may need to settle for the 3 (which is not really “settling,” since the 3 is a really nice car too). I won’t put any more time and effort into that until we get the ball rolling on the Vibe writeoff and it looks like that’s going to be made official. I’d say it’s about 90% official now, but you never know.
This whole mess has been a little scary, and last night I kinda stressed out about it to the point where I just about lost it completely, but I am in recovery now. In situations like this I tend to think in circles and dig way too deep into the ramifications of things. It’s not like people never wreck their cars (in fact, I wonder how we’ve managed to avoid it for this long, given how bad the roads are down here and how idiotic the drivers). Stuff happens, people pay for their mistakes and then they move on. It’s not the end of existence. And if we’re lucky, we could come out of this with a new car that we really like, which can defray the agony of losing an old one.
Gotta get back to work now, although I’m obviously pretty distracted. More updates later.
Categorized as Cars