Its one of my favourite movies, but today it was me…
I haven’t had a car accident for a long time, but today I made up for that. I was behind a bloke who looked like he was going to drive thru an amber light and then changed his mind. I was going to follow him and didn’t give myself enough space to brake.
Bang…
When the back end of a small car gets wacked by a Patrol it gets ugly. My bull bar was pushed under and there was some minor damage to the lights, but not so you’d notice. His looked like it had been in a demolition derby… He was about 80 and not very impressed.
What pisses me off about these situations is that you aren’t supposed to admit liability. So how can you apologize for screwing up?… I decided to forgo insurance company formalities and just said ‘sorry… very sorry’. What else can you say?.. ‘I saw you there and lined you up because I thought it would be fun?…’
I was driving the Patrol because my other car was in for repairs. Yesterday it began to do some weird stuff and I knew it wasn’t good. Understatement. The head is well and truly cactus so we’re talking $3k to get that sorted. Bit of a shitty day in terms of the bottom line really…
I always wonder do you spend $3K on a $5K car, or do you call it quits and get a new beast?…
My preference has been to run the gauntlet of cheaper cars and accept that along the way there will be repairs, but occasionally I like the thought of a new car with a 5 yr warranty… I bought an auto trader on the way home, but I think the very ‘unsexy’ fix it up will be the decision. Just to pay the transfer and insurance would cost me $2K on a decent car, so the numbers don’t really add up.
So – no one has died. No one will die (because of this) and life is still very very good. It helps to keep stuff in perspective when the $ factor grabs you by the short and curlies.
Ouch! Evokes memories I’d rather forget.
As one who is also shelling out $3.5k tomorrow for head & cooling system repairs, I remain a believer in the ultimate economy of pre-owned cars. Taking depreciation and insurance premiums for new cars into account, I’ve always been way ahead when dumping an old car (often at the wreckers) and adopting a new one.