My good fortune

[Blazin]

Figured I would share the events of the last couple weeks.
OK well back about um four and a half years ago I bought a 1991 Toyota Camry with 125,000 miles on it, give or take a few thousand miles. I paid $400 for it. Since then I have put a battery, timming belt, one new set of tires. Then a set of almost new used snows on rims from a $100 parts car, that I sold with my bald tires on it for $350. Also another set of nice used summer tires on rims from one of my three free parts cars. Swapped the gas tank in from one of the parts cars. Had the winshield replaced once do to a rock from a 4 wheeler tire. Few other misc. repairs, and general maintenance.
Well I lent it to my girlfriends son and his girl friend when there cars motor blew up. They had it for a week or so. three Fridays ago she took it to pick up her daughter from school. A 17 year old girl texting while driving mommy's Tahoe drove into the back of it. Shoved it into the Suburban in front of it. Still drivable so I say bring it over to my house in the morning. I will check it out. I see it, its totaled. I ratchet strap the trunk lid down and tell him keep driving it. Sunday they leave work get up the road a little bit. 59 year old woman crosses the yellow line and lightly side swipes the whole drivers side! She keeps going until she has a flat a mile or so away. Cops find her, she tells them she didn't hit anyone. Kinda hard to lie about it when a piece on my tail light and rear quarter molding are mangled into her front fender. They arrest her for DWI. So now I have to deal with two insurance companies. They both send out adjusters. First one says they will total it no problem. Second one I explain the damage the drunk did, tell him it will allready be being claimed as a total by the other company. He gives me $500 for the damage. Next day the first insurance company calls. They give me $1,055 plus $200 because I didn't take a rental car! Plus I get to keep the car.
( Thinking 100 lap enduro race next summer at Canan Speedway! )
So $1,755 for a car I paid $400 for, not to mention the $250 profit on the parts car, put next to nothing into it, and put about 50,000 miles on it!
Needless to say I am a happy camper!!!
Still going to miss that car, it was a great car.

[zieg85]

Great story, kinda like my collection of 83-86's.  Rounded up all the parts for both my remaining to make them the way I want them and paid for all the parts and the initial investment of the 86.  Still have a few items left to sell/swap, working out a deal on a 16K original 4.1 complete engine/trans that sat in the corner of a body shop since 1987.  Thanks for sharing...

[Lt.Del]

Shoot, I'd be out of work for about 4 months after the first accident because there is this pain in my neck...so, loss of work for 4 mons-that'd be over $20,000 plus double that for pain and suffering= $40,000.  Now, let's talk punitive because of "texting while driving"....let's tack on another $50k from a civil suit against the parents for not raising their daughter correctly.   Plus doctor bills and atty fees, yeah, we're talking another $35k.  $125k for that accident...Now, what's at the Chevy dealership new for 2010? 

Oh, BTW, these things rarely make it to court because the insur. companies know their client did wrong. They are usually settled out of court to avoid further costs of the corporate attorneys. 

So, what is this lesson worth to the little Missy who has more friends than brains and must text every 2 minutes?  Priceless.  Anything less and she wouldn't learn anything, except maybe, like oh my God, like these brakes like don't like stop this like vehicle.  Now like, what will I drive to like get my hair done like tomorrow?

[Irish_Alley]

how this fits soooo well

[Blazin]

Oh you better belive I would have at least get checked out at the hospital if I were driving!
Years back my ex's daughter hit some an elderly couple head on taking a left turn at a fork type intersection.
(1) My ex when we got there tried telling the cop it must have been the other peoples fault. I explained to her in front of the cop that all the antifreeze and debris was in the oncoming to her daughetr's lane. That meant she was on the wrong side of the road. Then the cop backed me up too. She got pissed off at me because I agreed with him.
(2) We get going home with her daughter in the back seat. We didn't even get 1/4 mile away and she is asking " How am I going to get to school on monday? "
I blew a gasket! She didn't give a crap about the other people that were on their way to the ER to get checked out etc.

[Lt.Del]

I blew a gasket!

lol
I'd say to her....
"There are these big yellow vehicles with lots of windows and red flashing lights called, ummm, school buses"

Growing up if i had done that, i wouldn't worry about tranport to school, I'd worry about whether I could still breathe to go to school after dear old dad got through with me.

What's wrong with kids nowadays?  Are they not punished anymore for screwing up? 

[Blazin]

That was my first answer when she asked that. " ITS CALLED A SCHOOL BUS " Her mothers answer " oh don't worry we will find you another car ". Why the heck not, you gave her that one free and clear. What the heck give her another one!

[Irish_Alley]

i had to ride the bus my whole high school years till my buddy fixed up his 71 chevelle goodbye Twinkie

[msmithinator]

I have a cartoon on my desk that comes from the "Madge" series:

It says " The only instant messaging I do involves one finger!" LOL!

Glad it worked out that way for ya!

[frogman68]

Glad it worked out

I was thinking your wedding or a baby was coming soon 

[Jim Rockford]

What's wrong with kids nowadays?  Are they not punished anymore for screwing up?  

I wonder that everytime I see some stupid kid nowadays...  I got behind a bus the other week, stopped to let 1 kid off at the driveway, then closed up turned off the lights, drove forward 10 feet to the next driveway and let another kid off. I almost fell out of my car, and of course, nowadays mommy is sitting at the top of a 20 foot long driveway, running the car, with A/C so little jonny doesn't have to get his heart rate up. God forbid the kid walk 10 feet,  no wonder kids are so dang fat today.