My Car’s 1st Accident

It’s been an interesting week already and it’s only Tuesday evening.  My car was involved in it’s first accident (hopefully the only accident) and I was not the one driving!  Here’s the crazy story…

While we were traveling this weekend for a wedding (L.J.’s youngest sister Katie…pictures to come shortly), my tire pressure light came on.  So on Monday afternoon after I had taken Emily to her jump rope team practice I was trying to pass some time close by so I wouldn’t have to travel very far to come back and get her.  I realized that the Dodge dealership was only a couple of miles away and I still had a few thousand miles left on the warranty so I decide to head over there and ask them to check out my tires.  I knew they only needed a little air and I figured that since it was close to closing time, they could get me in pretty quickly and I’d be on my way.  Not so lucky…

Almost 45 minutes later two service men come into the lobby, sit down and start talking to me.  I said out loud, “This can’t be good”  and one of the men said, “No, this is not good.”  My heart sinks immediately because my 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan has been a nightmare since the beginning.  We have already had to replace major things like the rack & pinion (sp?) and the alternator, not to mention several other cosmetic issues.  Luckily everything has been covered under the warranty so far but I am starting to get really nervous about what we’re going to do once the warranty runs out.  We don’t have the money for major repairs and thanks to this lovely economy, the car value is no where near what we still owe on it.  We even qualified for 0% financing and we’re upside down.  Any way….

The service man proceeds to tell me that the technician took the car out for a test drive on the back lot and unfortunately as he was driving west with the setting sun, he could not see a light poll right in front of him and HE CRASHED MY CAR RIGHT INTO IT!!!!  I was in shock!  They crashed my car!  I only wanted a little air in the tires and they crashed my car!

They immediately offer me a rental free of charge for as long as it takes to get repaired and of course cover the cost of all of the damages.  At this point I probably should have asked if the driver was alright and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t.  I was just so shocked and worried about getting back to Emily in time.  They shuttled me over to a rental car location and got me another van.

This morning I went back to get the things out of my car that I will need and got to take these pictures.  It was so sad looking at my car.  Even though they say they will fix everything I’m now worried about the long term effects of this crash.  Cars are just not the same after accidents.

  

One bright side is that we’re headed back to Heber next weekend for Thanksgiving and will probably get to take the rental with us.  I really doubt they’ll have this repaired in time.  Less miles on my car is always good.  L.J. & I were talking this evening and now feel like we need to insist on an extended warranty as compensation for this mess.  I have no doubt there will be more problems in our future with this vehicle!