My Car: Could This Be The End??
As I was driving home from work on Friday night, I was rear-ended by an elderly gentleman. Pretty badly, as you can see from the photo. We were all okay, although today I had a bit of a stiff neck. No trauma though.
After I cut part of my bumper off and hammered away at the metal that was digging into my back tire, I drove my car up to Woodstock so my dad could fix it at the body shop he works at. He looked at the damages and is pretty sure it's going to be declared 'totalled' which, for those of you who don't know, if the damage estimate exceeds the amount the car is worth, they will pretty much buy your car at cost.
If the car is declared 'totalled', I will have money to buy another car... but I'm actually considering going car-less and just giving the rest of my money to my parents.
Over half my friends who live in Chicago, including one of my roommates, do not have a car. There are numerous reasons to go car-less, mostly positive. The biggest negative is that it would, of course, limit how easily I can get places. I couldn't visit people up in Milwaukee on weeknights like I've been planning on. It would make my 45 minute commute to work twice as long.
But it's also enormously beneficial. I would have a reason to fix my bike up, which has been damaged most of the summer. I would have to (gasp) walk or bike places. I'd save so much money not having car payments, car insurance and GAS to pay for.
In the 13 years I have been able to drive, I have never gone without a car. It would be an ENORMOUS challenge, but maybe something like this needed to happen for me to change my lifestyle.
Can I do it? Will I have to? We'll see what the auto body and the insurance company have to say about it.