The first week my husband invited the ladies, who always park on the street and walk up our moderately steep driveway, to park in the driveway.
The following week, three of us were chatting in my living room, waiting for the fourth to arrive, when we heard a horrendous clunk. The house shook. I thought maybe the cat had knocked something off the rafters and went to look.
Instead, our fourth member had arrived, coming up the driveway too fast and rammed into my garage door, hitting the back of my car, and sending it bashing into the refrigerator we keep out there. We couldn’t open the refrigerator doors, we couldn’t open the garage door, and we couldn’t get the car out.
My friend filed a claim with her insurance. Two and a half weeks later we got someone to come replace the garage door so we could get the car out.
During that time, we searched for a new refrigerator, to no avail. None of the stores had any in stock, and we would have to wait at least a month for a delivery. We bought one, but August is almost over, and we’re still waiting for a delivery – delayed by COVIC-19 disruption of shipping.
When the garage door was operable we got the car out, made an appointment for an estimate, and took it in to the repair place. On the same day, I picked up the rental car the insurance had promised. Then it turned out the appointment was only to take pictures of our car for an estimate. So we went home – with the rental car.
I made the mistake [or not] of calling the insurance company, and when the agent found out we had the rental car but had not left my damaged car to be fixed, he started acting like I was trying to embezzle millions from the insurance company. I offered to take the rental back and pay for whatever the cost was for 24 hours. He kept telling me I couldn’t have the rental car if the other wasn’t being worked on. We ended up in a yelling match…I’m afraid I did most of the yelling.
My Bad!
I took the car back and it cost me $30 – Wow! But somehow my intent was to take them for millions. Who knew?
The estimate came back at a reasonable prince, the appointment made to bring it in. We did, and got the rental car back. Luciano and I had been talking about buying a new car so I had all the safety doo-dahs on the newer car. Peripheral vision is not a strong point for most older people. When I had the opportunity to drive a Rav4 2020 as a rental, I jumped on it – well, let’s say I selected that model. I can’t do much jumping these days.
The long and short of it is that the insurance company totaled the car – I’m not sure why they didn’t find the extent of the damage when they did the estimate, but what do I know? I took the rental back, and we were without a car.
With my son Aurelio doing the foot work, I purchased a 1-year-old 2020 Rav4 with only 14,000 miles on it. [Thanks to Hertz selling off their vehicles]. We got a new garage door, which was covered by the insurance, and a new refrigerator, which was covered in part.
P.S. What I don't love is having a car payment again.