I got a call from the insurance company last Wednesday. My blue Geo is officially totaled (the dent on the front drivers side – didn’t take much), and the other driver has accepted liability. Which means a $1513.18 payout for me! Nice. Not bad for a $300 purchase. Even after the $600 worth of maintenance and fees and emissions things, I’ve come out ahead! Plus, I’ve learned to drive a stick shift.
I even have the option of keeping the car, in which case the insurance company deducts the estimated resale value of the car. Which is $172.43. I wonder if they factor in the $20 of gas that I just put in it.
The car still runs as well as it ever did – I’ve been driving it all over Seattle. The problem is that to get a salvage title, I have to get it checked out, and while the body damage from the accident is not an issue, there could be an issue with:
- the broken turn signal
- the battery leak that forces me to disconnect the battery whenever I park
- the fact that I have to bang the dashboard to turn off the headlights
- the wrecked CV joint
- the fact the brake pads are at 1%
- the fact that the weight of the car is what’s holding the right front wheel on and if I crest a hill too fast it might fall off
So that’s that. Ten weeks after buying it, I am giving up possession of a perfectly serviceable (if somewhat dangerous) running car for the princely sum of one hundred seventy-two dollars and forty-three cents.
Even better, it took me less than twelve hours to find a replacement on Craigslist. I wondered how I would ever find a car with more personality than my last one, but the mural painted all over my new Corolla helps. It cost five times as much as my old car, but it’s nice to be able to run errands without fearing for my life. Things have worked out very well.
