An Update

One week ago yesterday was the car accident. When my Camry was on the tow truck the police officer guessed that it might not be worth fixing since the damage could cost as much as the car is worth (my Camry is a 2001). As depressing as that was, by the next morning I had already considered my car to be a total loss. When I went to the tow yard later that day to get my garage door remote, the owner thought that my car could be fixed for $2,000 and since the Kelly Blue Book stated the value at around $4,500, I begin to have hope that I might get my car back. Sometime over the weekend I came to the conclusion that I would get my car back and the total-loss verdict from the police officer was incorrect.

I talked with the insurance company yesterday and was told that my car was a total loss. At first I thought my hearing was going and then I thought she was confused - my car simply couldn’t be a total loss… but it was. The damages to my car were $5,100 and they offered $6,600 to me. That seemed to be a fair price so I accepted it. I sent the title overnight to the insurance company - they would cut me a check the day they received my title and then send the check to me 2-day FedEx. I was in a rush to get the title to them because their policy states I have 5 days from the day they make me an offer until I have to return the rental car, which would be this coming Monday. If I sent the title overnight I would have a check no later than Monday, vs. getting a check next Thursday or Friday if I sent the title regular mail.

So that gave us 5 days to figure out what to do. Jadon’s birthday is tomorrow, my baby shower for Nathan is Saturday morning and later that night we are having another birthday party with a few play date friends in the neighborhood– so Friday and Saturday were off the car shopping list, leaving us last night, Thursday and Sunday. We decided to move up from a sedan to a minivan since the two car seats in the back of the Camry were pretty tight, not to mention we were running out of room toting around all the things little kids need. Jacques and I had to weigh our options: $6,600 is not a lot of money to by a minivan outright, especially if we didn’t want a minivan on the verge of becoming a fixer-upper, but on the other hand we didn’t want a large car payment, which a new minivan would be. So we planned on meeting somewhere in the middle but letting God take control and guide us. God knows what is going to happen to us before it happens and I am a firm believer that he works things out for us ahead of time. I had no idea I was going to be in an accident but God did; I had no clue what we were going to do if the car was a total loss but He did. Jacques and I prayed about the situation on our own and together before we looked for a car.

Several men at church work at various car dealerships in the area. I would never ask them to sacrifice on their commission, especially with the automobile industry being as slow as it is right now, but I was hoping they would try to get us the best deal they could. One man owns a used car lot but his cars are typically geared for those with bad credit so the cars aren’t as new or as good. Another man works at the Honda dealership and their used vans were more than we were willing to pay. The other man works at the Nissan dealership so we went to see him last night. Jacques and I agreed that we didn’t want a car payment for much more than $250 and we didn’t want a loan longer than 4 years. In the end we decided on a ’05 Nissan Quest. It has 50,000 miles (I didn’t want more than 50,000 even though Nissan is a pretty good manufacturer) as well as some upgraded features like automatic doors, a DVD player and a few other things. Jacques and I had peace about it and the car felt ‘right’. I was happy to find out our credit was good enough to qualify for their best interest rate so with our down payment our monthly payment comes to $260 for the next 4 years (the letter from the insurance company was as good as a check to them so they let us take the car home and I’ll bring them the check as soon as I get it).

God was so good to us – he kept us safe in the accident and provided a minivan! We were able to get more of a down payment from the accident than we would have if we traded the car in. Our monthly payments are very reasonable and we got a nice minivan with lots of extras. I feel sorry for the man that hit us. His car was a ’98 and was probably written off as a total loss too. He probably wasn’t offered as much as I was given the fact that his car was older and he also had to pay out his deductible.

I went to the body shop today and gave my permission to release the car. I didn’t even get to see the Camry and as silly as it may sound, I would have liked to have seen my car one more time. I am now dealing with the medical portion of the insurance company to pay for my doctor visit – we have been trading messages so I hope to speak with her tomorrow. For now I have no idea if my insurance will go up at all until it comes time to renew the policy. I will also be returning the rental car tomorrow or Saturday so it looks like I’ll be able to tie up all these loose ends of the whole ordeal soon.