The New Car Experience

The car finally came from Knoxville.  I was able to pick it up on Wednesday.  CC took a pic of it when I got it home.  It is a really nice car that was in a good price range for me now.  The Son will be getting his license in March and my car insurance will go from $700 to almost $3k with him on it. (That is with upping the deductibles from $100/$500 to $500/$1000).  This car is in excellent shape.  It is a 2008 with only 30k on it.  I was soooo excited!  It has all of the bells and whistles I wanted minus navigation but I have a Magellan so that is really a non issue.  This car should do me well for a few years until I can get the son off of the payroll.  THEN I will be able to get a new one.  

Thursday I was able to take the car to work.  It is really a pleasure driving an automatic for a change.  I left a bit early to run over to the bank (just the next block) to sign the loan paperwork.  It didn't take any time at all and I was on my way.

I was on my way out of the parking garage and in the queue to the exit.  There was a pick up truck in the lane whose driver was busy talking with the garage attendant in the booth.  I had a Blazer in front of me behind the truck.  I wasn't in a big hurry and was quite a distance behind.  Apparently, he was in a big hurry and threw his vehicle in reverse and backed up RIGHT INTO MY CAR!  Now mind you, I saw him doing this and laid on the horn (it works!) so this prevented him from doing a lot of damage but there are several scratches on the front bumper (right around where the dog's head is in the picture).  He moved to drive off and I had jumped out of the car and channeled my inner sailor and my cheerleader lungs and "got his attention".  He kept complaining he was in a hurry, there wasn't anything wrong with my car, if I file a claim he will fight it, yada yada.  I told him I had only had it 24 hours, he has hit the car and it will be looked at.  I got his insurance information and his drivers license number and gave him mine and he left.  He DID NOT bother to give me a phone number. The guy was a total ass to me the entire time.  There were several witnesses in the garage (attendant, security etc.). My insurance agent was flabbergasted when I relayed the story and immediately filed a claim with his insurance company.

The man called me this morning at the office.  The information I provided to him was written on the back of my business card.  He began the conversation by telling me "I thought you were going to get it looked at, you contacted my insurance company."  I told him since I had no phone number and since he appeared to start to drive off yesterday, I had no confidence he would contact me and therefore my insurance agent called his agency.  He was pretty crappy today as well, trying to chide me for calling, stating of course he would call me, in essence, trying to intimidate me.  He was disappointed at the end of the call.  This fellow works at the same company I do. Thank goodness we do not work in areas that ever cross paths.  He was such a jerk I don't know if I would be able to contain myself if I had to be around him.  He is a programmer so that explains his lack of social skills to some extent. The adjuster was to have called me today and didn't.  Figures he would have lame insurance.

I don't know why I was so surprised.  Nothing is ever mine until there is something wrong with it.  The last car got a bicycle handle down a quarter panel, the car before that received a shopping cart in the front.  Each of these incidents happened within the first month of ownership.  I guess now this car is truly mine..