(no subject)
well, 2008 went out with a bang . . . or should i say crash?
Sunday night, on the 28th of December i had just dropped Amber off at her friends house, then pulled out onto 10 mile to head back home.
i hit two full lines of ice. as soon as i made the turn, my car just kept turning . . started spinning . . and didnt stop until i hit, head on, a telephone pole :(
no one was hurt. no one was even with me. but there weren't many cars on the road at the moment so there were also no other cars involved. lucky me.
no one stopped, neither. so i backed up and pulled into the driveway that was right next to the telephone pole. looked over the damage . . cried . . then drove home and called the insurance company.
these pictures really do not tell the whole damaging story . . you really have to see it in person, or just in the light of day to appreciate how much damage there was.
which the insurance company saw. and decided to call it a Total. :(
my poor Tracker . . . damn, it makes me soooo soooooooo sad to lose this car.
was a FANTASTIC car. never had a problem with this car. never had it in for service other than a belt or two. really, it's been perfect.
January 2nd, i was finally able to meet with the insurance company to trade my title for a settlement check. i did some research before hand, just to have some negotiating tools at hand when it came time to talk numbers, but i really didn't need them. (tho i'm thinking that the fact that i told them i would be doing some research before we met worked in my favor ;) )
i ended up with a check for $5,728.90. and that was after they deducted my deductible. worked for me! (especially since considering that KBB value for a car in dealer ready, excellent condition is $6,000)
my dad came and picked me up Friday to go car shopping. first stop was the ford deal he goes to. but they had nothing in the price range i was looking. at least not in another Mini SUV type vehicle like my Tracker.
at that point, i thought i should just go home, search online, make some phone calls and get ready to spend the day Saturday car lot hopping. But we decided to stop off at Motor City Auto Auction first . . just for yucks.
they had a few i was interested in. a 2000 Tracker with 130,000 miles on it. slightly different than mine in that it had no power windows or locks, cassette player instead of CD player, no top luggage rails, but other wise the same. $4800 but the back hatch lock was busted so you couldn't open it. i passed.
next was as Kia Sportage. 2001, green 4 wheel drive. very very clean, 120,000 miles, not a spot of rust, already set up for towing. $4900 but it needed new tires and none of the windows worked. we ended up at $4600 with new tires and the windows fixed. only thing kept me from that was the deposit. they jacked it up from $300 to $1000 because i wanted those things taken care of.
but when i told him that i wanted to think it over still, and do some more looking, and that i might be back, dumbass when all cocky on me all of the sudden . . "that's right, you 'will' be back" . . to which i answered . . "well not 'now' i won't!"
and i didnt. i wouldnt have gone back there if the deal was perfect!
back at home i called on a few Trackers i found online. one was already sold, and the other was in the process of just as i called. :(
so saturday, i had myself all geared up to hit every lot we could until i found something acceptable. Dad showed up around 11 and asks . . "How do you feel about pick-up trucks?"
he saw one on the way over and we decided to go check it out. was parked half a block away as soon as we pulled out of my park.
pretty much in perfect condition on the outisde. not a single dent. not even a ding. no rust. very clean inside and out. $2700, so we called the number on the sign and he headed out to meet us. while we waited, three other people pulled up, stopped and called!
so he get's there and tells us 'the story'. his father in law had a stroke and couldn't drive any longer so his sons were selling his cars. just wanted rid of them.
this one is a '93 Ford Ranger XLT, manual transmission with 41,000 miles. (he did say it had a new motor and trans so those are just the miles on the new engine. they actually had the original manual in the glove box and inside is a complete record of every maintenance done since it was new.) well we took it for a text drive and when we got back, i offered $2000. ;)
he looked at me like i was crazy! but hell, i wasnt going to start out high, so i may be crazy, but i'm not stupid. he countered with $2600 and i offered $2200.he came back wtih $2500 so i offered $2400. deal was done at $2450.
it was 12:15 and i realized that my bank had just closed but he said "If you can get the money now, i'll take $2400. so off we went to the bank with him following. well of course, my bank was closed and you cant just take $2400 out from the ATM . .
he says to us "If you can find someway to get the money, i'll take $2350 to get this done today" . . deal! so off we went to Dad's bank (they are open some long hours, i tell ya! and yes, i wrote a check to my Dad for the money) i traded that for the title and bought the truck.
so while it wasnt exactly what i went out to get . . i'm pretty happy with it!
Sunday night, on the 28th of December i had just dropped Amber off at her friends house, then pulled out onto 10 mile to head back home.
i hit two full lines of ice. as soon as i made the turn, my car just kept turning . . started spinning . . and didnt stop until i hit, head on, a telephone pole :(
no one was hurt. no one was even with me. but there weren't many cars on the road at the moment so there were also no other cars involved. lucky me.
no one stopped, neither. so i backed up and pulled into the driveway that was right next to the telephone pole. looked over the damage . . cried . . then drove home and called the insurance company.
these pictures really do not tell the whole damaging story . . you really have to see it in person, or just in the light of day to appreciate how much damage there was.
which the insurance company saw. and decided to call it a Total. :(
my poor Tracker . . . damn, it makes me soooo soooooooo sad to lose this car.
was a FANTASTIC car. never had a problem with this car. never had it in for service other than a belt or two. really, it's been perfect.
January 2nd, i was finally able to meet with the insurance company to trade my title for a settlement check. i did some research before hand, just to have some negotiating tools at hand when it came time to talk numbers, but i really didn't need them. (tho i'm thinking that the fact that i told them i would be doing some research before we met worked in my favor ;) )
i ended up with a check for $5,728.90. and that was after they deducted my deductible. worked for me! (especially since considering that KBB value for a car in dealer ready, excellent condition is $6,000)
my dad came and picked me up Friday to go car shopping. first stop was the ford deal he goes to. but they had nothing in the price range i was looking. at least not in another Mini SUV type vehicle like my Tracker.
at that point, i thought i should just go home, search online, make some phone calls and get ready to spend the day Saturday car lot hopping. But we decided to stop off at Motor City Auto Auction first . . just for yucks.
they had a few i was interested in. a 2000 Tracker with 130,000 miles on it. slightly different than mine in that it had no power windows or locks, cassette player instead of CD player, no top luggage rails, but other wise the same. $4800 but the back hatch lock was busted so you couldn't open it. i passed.
next was as Kia Sportage. 2001, green 4 wheel drive. very very clean, 120,000 miles, not a spot of rust, already set up for towing. $4900 but it needed new tires and none of the windows worked. we ended up at $4600 with new tires and the windows fixed. only thing kept me from that was the deposit. they jacked it up from $300 to $1000 because i wanted those things taken care of.
but when i told him that i wanted to think it over still, and do some more looking, and that i might be back, dumbass when all cocky on me all of the sudden . . "that's right, you 'will' be back" . . to which i answered . . "well not 'now' i won't!"
and i didnt. i wouldnt have gone back there if the deal was perfect!
back at home i called on a few Trackers i found online. one was already sold, and the other was in the process of just as i called. :(
so saturday, i had myself all geared up to hit every lot we could until i found something acceptable. Dad showed up around 11 and asks . . "How do you feel about pick-up trucks?"
he saw one on the way over and we decided to go check it out. was parked half a block away as soon as we pulled out of my park.
pretty much in perfect condition on the outisde. not a single dent. not even a ding. no rust. very clean inside and out. $2700, so we called the number on the sign and he headed out to meet us. while we waited, three other people pulled up, stopped and called!
so he get's there and tells us 'the story'. his father in law had a stroke and couldn't drive any longer so his sons were selling his cars. just wanted rid of them.
this one is a '93 Ford Ranger XLT, manual transmission with 41,000 miles. (he did say it had a new motor and trans so those are just the miles on the new engine. they actually had the original manual in the glove box and inside is a complete record of every maintenance done since it was new.) well we took it for a text drive and when we got back, i offered $2000. ;)
he looked at me like i was crazy! but hell, i wasnt going to start out high, so i may be crazy, but i'm not stupid. he countered with $2600 and i offered $2200.he came back wtih $2500 so i offered $2400. deal was done at $2450.
it was 12:15 and i realized that my bank had just closed but he said "If you can get the money now, i'll take $2400. so off we went to the bank with him following. well of course, my bank was closed and you cant just take $2400 out from the ATM . .
he says to us "If you can find someway to get the money, i'll take $2350 to get this done today" . . deal! so off we went to Dad's bank (they are open some long hours, i tell ya! and yes, i wrote a check to my Dad for the money) i traded that for the title and bought the truck.
so while it wasnt exactly what i went out to get . . i'm pretty happy with it!