Can I Get It for $250? - Car Accident & Aftermath

I'm not a hugely religious person, nor am I mystical or spiritual, but I believe that the world works in mysterious ways... even if I don't know why.

On a beautiful spring morning in May, I headed off to work. I work less than 2 miles from my office, so it's usually a stress-free, pretty drive. I mean, just look at these beautiful side streets!

My view as I drive to work is pretty nice

This road (NE 1st Street) is the last street before I get to my office. It's lined with medians full of plants and palm trees.

And on Wednesday, it was the sight of a not-that-serious car crash.  Mine.

As I was headed South on 1st Street, there was a Honda in the Northbound lane who wanted to U-Turn into the Southbound lane.

Unfortunately, she was not paying any sort of attention.  I was going maybe 30 (the speed limit is 25, and I'd just turned onto the road), and I don't believe she stopped at all to pull the U, and she was accelerating into the turn. I was unable to move out of the way (due to on-street parking in the area), and she just plowed right in to me!  I truly couldn't believe it...

She is the red arrow; I'm the blue arrow

I was able to pull over, out of the intersection a little, while she turned onto the side street to get her car out of the way of traffic.

Seriously? That's all the damage she got?

She hit me hard enough to jam up my door, so I had to crawl over the armrest and come out on the passenger side of the car. There had been a crowd at a government office across the street, one of whom had seen the accident, so she was able to call the police for me, while I wrestled myself out, and the lady who hit me walked over to me.

I was fine, didn't have a scratch on me, but I couldn't say the same about my car...

Awwwwww, I'm sorry, little car!

The initial impact was right there on the fender, and then it dragged because I was still driving. That explains why I couldn't get my door open!

The girl who hit me couldn't have been more than 20 (I highly doubt she was old enough to even drink), and she was in tears. She kept apologizing profusely and would then wander away, talking on her cell phone. I stayed with the witness and had her write down a short statement, in case I needed it, while we waited for the police to show up. I also called AAA to request a tow truck.

During this time, the girl's mother (who she'd called) arrived. A few minutes after that, her dad showed up. Her dad, it turned out, was an officer with the local Sheriff's office. Whoo, boy... He was pissed. He pulled her to the side and grumbled "walk with me..." and I could hear him yelling at her, and she kept wailing "I'm sorry, daddy!" This went on for about 10 minutes. I almost felt sorry for her (I had an overbearing dad growing up), but then I'd see my car again, and think that perhaps she needed to be yelled at. At one point, he came over to talk to me to introduce himself and position himself as The Person I Should Talk To. According to him, he owned the car, he paid the insurance, so if I needed to speak to anyone regarding the accident, I should deal with him. I just kind of mumbled something and walked away. I called my boss to let him know that I would not be in that morning, that I was in a car accident and I had to deal with it.

You know what sucked, though?  This accident was .4 miles from my parking spot. I could have WALKED it in 5 minutes! But even worse than that? The girl? She was on her way to her first day of interning... at the law offices next door to the building we crashed in front of!!! LOL! 

Seriously... .4 MILES!!!

Soon, the police department Field Service Technician (kind of Police-Lite) showed up. I've never been in an accident, so I didn't know what to expect other than what they tell you. I kept waiting for The Sharing of Insurance Information, but the FST actually did that. He talked to her first, got her version of the story, got her insurance and contact info, then came over and spoke to me. Once he got all of our info, he printed two copies and gave one to each of us, and voila! The Sharing of Insurance Information was complete.

While this was happening, Gainesville Towing showed up to take my baby. The tow truck operator asked where I lived and offered to drop me off at home when he realized I lived on the way to his yard.

So, I grabbed my bag out of my car, locked it up, then hiked myself up into the big tow truck and headed home. At this point, it was probably around 10am. I'd not even entertained the idea of calling the Hubby, because I didn't want him to worry, so he had no idea why I was home at 10am on a Wednesday morning.

He opened the door for me, asked where the car was and what was going on. I said nothing. I came in. Shut the door. Threw my backpack on the couch. Then held him and cried. All my adrenaline was gone, and I was a blubbering mess. Yeah, I know the accident wasn't a bad one. But it could have been. Chances are, I only need a new fender and door. It's not a big deal. But I felt horrible.

He and I sat on the couch and I told him what happened while I calmed down. I sent my insurance card to the tow truck driver. After a little while, I gathered myself up and started a claim with my insurance company. I don't have the special "rental car coverage" on my car insurance, but Geico gave me a special code to use that would save me some bucks. I called around to different Enterprises to get a rental car, and no one had any available (which was amazingly stupid) for the Geico rate. However, I work for the government, and we have an Enterprise code that we can use for personal business, so I was able to rent a car utilizing that code. I just rented a cheapie compact car for $25 a day (and cheaper than the Geico code!) I was assured by Geico that The Girl's insurance would reimburse me for that cost. When I went to pick up the car, I was given a free upgrade to a Mazda CX-5 SUV... swanky! And the best part? Even though my original reservation was for a week, I was told that if I needed to extend that reservation, I could keep the vehicle as long as I needed it!

Me spazzing about all the cool features of the Mazda... HEATED SEATS, BITCHES!!!

The rest of the day was filled with random bullshit. I had to speak to the Progressive people. I had to have my car moved from the tow driver's lot to Gatorland Collision & Repair so they could fix it (and so I could go clean it out). It was a shitty day, but I had high hopes that the problems were all cosmetic.

They weren't.

A few days after I got the original estimate of repair ($7,500 worth of body work; only $500 paid by me), I got a phone call from the Adjuster. When they took off the fender, they discovered that the front frame had been damaged, and basically, once the frame is shot, it's better to total the car and get a new one. 

Once it's bent, it will never be as strong

So, I visited the collision center one more time to clean out ALL the stuff from my car and say my goodbyes. It's such a dorky thing, but I bought this car brand new in 2012. It was the first brand-new car I'd ever had. I paid it off in 4 years. My daughter learned to drive in that car. I drove this car to Disney to run my very first half-marathon (and every race since). I never named my car, but if I did, it probably would have been Brad.

I signed Brad away, and got $7,500 in return. Now, it's time to buy another car. Should I get another Sentra? Brad was good to me.... but even after buying Brad, I had always really wanted an Altima. I always felt like I'd "made it" once I had a brand-new, full size sedan (or minivan, or whatever). Compact cars (Sentra, Fit, Fiesta) still say "paying for college by delivering pizza." But a shiny, new 4-door sedan really said "Grown Up."

So with that in mind, I began haunting the Gainesville Nissan sales page over the next few weeks. I didn't want a car payment higher than what I had with the Sentra ($315), but I wanted all the bells and whistles. I would have settled for a 2017 or 2016, only if it had heated seats. I was dead set on those heated seats.

I looked. I played with numbers. I looked some more. I test drove cars. I looked some more. I took hubby. We looked some more.

Finally, after a few weeks (yeah, this accident-to-new-car-process took over a month!), we had pretty much decided on what we wanted. We test drove a 2018 Sentra. It felt comfortable and familiar, like cuddling with an ex. We test drove a Rogue - mostly to get the "Would an SUV be better?" itch out of my system. I couldn't fathom spending over $30,000 for a car. I wasn't super impressed. I test drove a 2016 Altima. We test drove a 2018 SV Altima (the top of the line model) and... you guessed it... I fell in love. It had heated seats. It had zero-gravity seats. It had power everything. It had the cool NissanConnect touch screen. It had dual-climate control. It was glorious.

It was too expensive.

Repeatedly, over multiple trips to the dealership, I'd joked with my salesmen (Elijah & Blake) that I wanted my car payment to be under $250. When I told Blake I wanted the SV, he took my financial info and offered me a payment of $379.

Ouch.

I was really disheartened. I thought we were in a financial situation - especially with seven grand to put down - that we could get the Cadillac of Altimas.  Not yet, it seemed.

Blake asked how dedicated I was to the heated seats. I said I could live without them, and so we test drove an SR. One step down, sportier, but still fancy. But no heated seats.

Truly? I didn't miss the dual climate. I did miss the heated seats, but my ass has been cold for 40 years. It can be cold for another 40.

We went back and finagled finances again. Could we get it under $250?

Nope, but we got it down to $279.  I would have gladly settled for $300 a month. I was jazzed. But what did I do? I angled for more. The car didn't have tinted windows, and that was probably the one thing I regretted not having with the Sentra (it IS Florida, after all!) So, I told Blake I'd accept the $279 only if they tinted my windows for free. Dark. Like rap video dark. He said they could do that; I only had to bring the car back in a few days, after the Tint Man was scheduled. 

We signed on the dotted line, and are now the proud owners of a 2018 Nissan Altima SR.

It had 15 (yeah, 1-5) miles on it when we drove it off the lot a few hours later. They even installed the floor mats, the trunk mat, and set up my Bluetooth for my phone!

She's so pretty (but she ain't Deep Blue Pearl pretty)

I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Going into this, shopping for cars by myself (without A Man to Help Me), was great. Elijah never treated me like A Little Woman, but he did very quickly learn that I was smart and knowledgeable about cars and about buying them. I got a great deal. I got free tinted windows. And I have a great dealership who always has my back (no, I don't work for them). This car runs like a dream. It's comfortable (power seats, ooooh!). I feel like A Grown Up.

Maybe the car accident in May was the Universe telling me it was time to upgrade? I still don't know.

Now... to get a heated seat pad! Off to Amazon...