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Title: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Jan 31st, 2007, 3:46pm So today I was on the way to a psychiatry appt of all things when I had the misfortunate of smashing in the front end of my 1994 Mercury Sable. Some of you may remmeber my amusing car stories from the past, like when I put antifreeze in the winshield washer compartment for instance, or when I drove home from the theatre with no brakes whatsoever and my brakes ended up catching on fire. Or when I cried my way out of a major speeding ticket. Well today's latest car incident is definitely up there with one of the worst. (Believe me, I'm actually laughing when I list all the little 'incidents' I've had...because if I didn't laugh, then I'd cry...and I'm sick of crying for the moment!) I hadn't gotten too far in my journey on the way to Philadelphia. I was at this really bad intersection, where I merge on with a busier road at the left, but traffic can still come across through as well. The car in front of me had stopped and started to go, and as he started to go, I looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming on the road we were merging into. Oh but he had already stopped again, and by the time I turned back forward, it was too late....smash. Nobody was hurt, and that's fortunate thing #1. Fortunate thing #2 is that his car sustained absolutely no damage whatsoever. It looked about as old as dirt, and you know those old cars....they don't make them that way anymore...tough as anything. So, once we cleared up the fact that his car was fine, he left. I, in the meantime, was left to pick up the pieces of my shattered front end as multiple people stopped and asked if I needed help. No...I did not...in fact, I really would rather if people would not look at me, since this is embarrassing enough as it is!!! My hood is actually all curled up now. If you are familiar with the Mercury Sable, then you know it has headlights all the way across the front....well about 2/3 of those are gone now and the bumper is totally bashed up. I thought that perhaps radiator fluid was leaking from beneath the car, although when I moved it out of the middle of the road, I didn't see it leak any further than it did at first. I couldn't get the hood open if I tried - so I opted not to try - and that means that I'm really not sure how much damage is under the hood. Thank goodness I had renewed my AAA... I called them, and they sent out a tow truck. My dad wanted the car towed out to Downingtown to this place we always use, and I was in Bala Cynwyd when this happened. (I bet Helen and the Brits know how to pronounce that, while most Americans won't! It's a Welsh named town... Kinwood...) So the tow truck guy dropped me off at a Wawa (convenient store) back in Narberth and I walked the block and a half back to my apartment. He towed my car the rest of the way out to D-town, where the autobody shop is expecting it. I told him to make sure they know that half the pieces are in the trunk - I think there's still a perfectly good lightbulb in that pile of rubbish! Oh dear... My dad really does not want to go through the insurance, so that's a bummer as I'm currently having a LOT of financial problems myself, and I didn't exactly plan to bash up the front end of my car... I called about renting a car, but even with a reduced rate, it's still kinda expensive. I can take the train into Philly tomorrow and Friday, but I will definitely need some sort of vehicle over the weekend. I'm waiting to rent the car once I find out how long and how expensive the repairs to my ghettomobile will be. Man...this sucks. Story of my life!! I'm just ultimately very glad that nobody was hurt. I have thought several times in the past that the intersection is a very bad one, and I should have avoided it. I was in a car accident in high school that was very similar to this when merging on a highway. I know it's completely my fault, but it still just totally sucks. Here's to hoping the radiator isn't damaged or else the car is probably totaled, since I only paid $3000 for it to begin with! Oy... |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Kevin_M on Jan 31st, 2007, 4:00pm Glad you're not injured Lizzie. Maybe pry-barring enough space for a radiator, duck-taping some headlights in, and banging down the hood to tie down, it'll still be drivable and ever moreso livin' up to being... on 01/31/07 at 15:46:06, Lizzie2 wrote:
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Jan 31st, 2007, 4:02pm Thanks Kev... In the past, the car has been keyed, has been hit in a parking garage in Philly at least once, if not twice, and 2 of the hubcaps have been stolen. You need a junk car to drive in the city every day. Between the potholes and the badass people who don't care if they hit your car in a parking garage and feel like keying it for no good reason....it's definitely ghetto. Oh and one day when I had it parked on the street in Narberth, somebody smashed the driver's sideview mirror, too! I swear.... Poor car...... |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by taraann on Jan 31st, 2007, 5:18pm Oh Man Liz, that does suck so bad, but I gotta agree with Kevin , thank Gawd u are ok...... a simple fender bender can be life or death. Sounds too simple but just thank your lucky stars you are ok .... My mom died in a freak one car accident........no alcohol or human error , just a freak accident at age 45. And something I ALWAYS remind myself........ Everything happens for a reason! ... or what else is the point right?! Back to the origional point after my rant (I've been way to "deep" lately! can ya tell?!) I'm glad u are ok and everything will work out the way it's supposed to! |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Mattrf on Jan 31st, 2007, 5:54pm Your dad has it right to keep the insurance out of it, we have a 95 firebird in good shape, some guy runs a stop sign and t-bones my daughter in it, hit right behind the drivers door. Not really bad, big dent but drivable and safe no broken glass or anything, we let the insurance take care of it and they totaled the car because the body shop said it would be like $2,200 to repair it. They gave like 3k for the total and we got the car back for like $800 with salvage title now and had it fixed for $1,200 looks just like new but has a salvage title so would be very difficult to sell but my daughter doesn’t care and I just put a motor in it about three years ago so it is a solid car. The insurance companies prefer to total older cars then fix them these days, we at least made a little out of the deal and our daughter still has her car and it got fixed. You could do what we did and you might actually make a few bucks but I think a sable is probably not worth much to begin with but you could look at KBB.com and see. Matt |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Charlie on Jan 31st, 2007, 7:11pm http://www.netsync.net/users/charlies/gifs/driver.gif Yikes. Glad you're okay but sorry that your car isn't. Geeze they have funny names for areas in your neck of the woods. ::) Charlie |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Jan 31st, 2007, 7:36pm on 01/31/07 at 19:11:15, Charlie wrote:
Blame those Welsh people... ;) One of the things I thought was so cool when I was in England was that when Helen and I went to York, I saw a Friends Meeting House, and we have Friends Meeting Houses in the area that date back to very early colonial times. The picture I took of the FMH in York looked like it could have come off a street in Philadelphia. (Now singing the Bruce Springsteen song "Streets of Philadelphia") In this area - Lower Merion County (also featured in the movie "Philadelphia" starring Tom Hanks, in the scene where he goes out and visits his parents) is full of Welsh names and influences. We have street names (like Llewyn or something like that) that are exactly the same as those in Wales. It's kinda funny because this is the only area of the country I've ever been in where it is an exact mirror of names over there - usually you see some sort of blend or things have changed over time. This area, the towns are Narberth, Merion, Wynnewood, Ardmore, Berwyn, Bryn Mawr (Brin Mar), and so on. We have an apartment complex nearby called the Tedwyn, and there's another local one that shares the name of something I've read here several times. Basically this entire area is right off the map of Wales. (Oh and the Prince of Wales just visited here this past weekend - not that I'm a big fan of his or anything, but it was the first visit by a Prince of Wales to Philadelphia in 147 years!) I'm proud of where I live. :) But getting back to the accident - thanks for all the messages. One of the things that transpired yesterday was that I spent money given to me for my birthday and Christmas to buy a new couch. The money was given to me for that very purpose, and even though I have other heaping bills and loans to pay, I still set that money aside to buy the new couch because it was a gift. I sort of feel like bills and debt will always be there, but if I've saved especially for something (like my trip to England...or received money for something like this new couch), then I should set that aside and now count it into my budget for paying other things back. If I said I had to pay off all debt before I could ever do anything I wanted, then I would never do anything I wanted before I died. Because my medical costs are extremely prohibitive, and the cost of living in this area that I love so much is very expensive. But a little bit ago on the phone, my mom suggested that I cancel the order for the new couch because the autobody shop may very well decide that the car is totaled. I'm torn up over this and I've told her no, at least for now. I waited for well over a year to purchase that couch and saved every penny given to me as a gift to put towards it. I'm really excited to finally have my first piece of real furniture, aside from my bed and my piano. I know this is poor timing, but it looks like I'm probably going to have to take out loans anyway - even if I returned the couch, I would probably still have to take out loans for car issues and my other debt. So now I feel torn. I'm sure it probably sounds very juvenile and immature to say that I want to keep the couch and to keep it, in spite of the accident. But I very rarely do or buy things for myself and the couch (and the trip to England) were both really special things that I finally got to do. What's more is that if I return it, I really don't think it will help the cost of the car issues significantly enough so that I still won't have to take out loans and all that. Being an adult is tough. :-/ |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Jan 31st, 2007, 9:27pm Just talked to my dad. He said that *so far*, the guy at the autobody shop doesn't think it'll be too bad - he thinks the hood can be banged back down (Kevin, you weren't that far off - because you should have seen how bad it looked...i should have taken a pic with my cell phone! The hood was really smashed...), and that they can try to find junkyard parts for the light bar. The question is going to be whether or not the radiator has been damaged. If not, it may not end up being too bad (my best friend had someone bash into her taurus with a trailor hitch and it stopped just short of the radiator, and the car was fixed with junkyard parts for $25!), but if so, then it'll be worse. So I'm going to just wait and see until tomorrow. I told my mom that there is no way to go back and change what's been done, so I could worry nonstop, but it won't do any good. So we'll see what tomorrow brings! Fingers crossed! (Not that it can change the damage done!) Hugz and PF wishes, Carrie :) |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by sandie99 on Feb 1st, 2007, 5:28am Carrie, I'm so glad to hear that you didn't get hurt! [smiley=hug.gif] I hope that you'll be soon driving again. Lots of car-easily-fixed- vibes are coming! Hugs, Sanna |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Feb 1st, 2007, 2:44pm Thanks Sanna! I'm still waiting to hear the update for today as far as what the damage is under the hood, if any. No matter how much of a frustration and pain this is, it would still be so much worse if anybody had been injured or even if the other person's car had had damage. So I'm still very lucky. I don't think I'm going to take that shortcut again, and I will always remember that when checking over my shoulder when merging, stop if somebody is in front of me - you just never know what somebody might do!! I took the train into Philly today, and I have to work tomorrow, so I'll have to take a really early train since it's supposed to be snowing. I don't mind except for having to get up earlier - I'm glad I have the ability to take the train! Hugz and PF wishes, Carrie :) |
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Title: Re: Bashed up my car... Post by Lizzie2 on Feb 1st, 2007, 5:21pm OK ok - last and final update! Nothing was injured under the hood. The mechanic thinks that the car leaked radiator fluid because of the impact. My mom is taking a picture of it right now because she's seeing it for the first time. I was on the phone with her when she saw it, and all she said at first was, "Ooooh....what's that piece sticking up in the middle? How did that happen?" LOL I have no idea... And I was so shaken up by it when it happened that I didn't even think to take a picture of the car for my records. So I should have that pic tonight so I can sort of recall what it looked like. All I know is I picked up a LOT of pieces out of the road! So this means they'll bang down the hood and replace anything else with junkyard parts as best as possible. Shouldn't be so bad because my car is really common. BUT - it'll probably still be pricey just because of labor and everything else. At least nothing under the hood was damaged because that would have surely totaled the car.... I'm a lucky girl - it could have been a LOT worse... Thanks for all the support! |
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