BetterMost Community Blogs > Skipping Stones Across the Pond of Life
Phil Skips Stones Across the Pond of Life
Phillip Dampier:
So it begins again. Got a call from the collision shop. It turns out it would cost $14,000 to repair the car (engine replacement, H frame replacement, undercarriage bent), which means it's only a matter of time before I get the caller ID: TOTAL LOSS UNIT from State Farm, just like last time. So this means I have to get back into the market.
My early goal will probably be to secure a 2008 Malibu (GM's car that works for me best) but I may look around again. I have to pay off the $6600 still owing on the 2005 from whatever settlement I get. It's always a perpetual car payment. People keep aiming for me.
I'm going through the week in a haze from all of this. This is the absolute wrong time of the year for me to have to worry about this stuff!
louisev:
yikes!!! i haven't ever had a car payment! I buy my cars old and fix them up. I don't know how you stand it!
Phillip Dampier:
This morning John and I cleared out the contents of our soon-to-be-junked 2005 Malibu. We got some pictures of the damage from the accident. The hood was intact after the accident but they tore it off at the car dealership during the evaluation process of deciding whether to fix it or junk it. They are junking it.
Clearly the driver's side didn't bear the worst of it and my headlamps are actually still there. But the entire frame was bent and you can also see the driver's side panel is dented in slightly.
Now the passenger side is very bad. Remarkably, the engine compartment bore all of the major destruction. The tires are fine. The windshield has a small hole in it and is cracked on the passenger side as well. From what I do not know - perhaps the passenger side airbag exploding.
Check out that windshield hole closer up, and the massive amount of twisted metal up in the front. The passenger side door and everything behind the engine compartment was untouched in the accident.
Phillip Dampier:
Inside the passenger compartment, some mystery tissues, a rubber band and some leaves, but the star of the show is the airbags that blew. They are a heavy canvas like material, and the dealership sort of stuffed them back into the compartments. The passenger side one is much larger than the the driver side, which seemed mostly designed to keep your chest off the steering wheel. My right knee had the most pain after the accident, and for the first time, I can now see why. Check out the lower dash between the steering wheel and the radio, and you'll see a piece of the dash broken and hanging down. When the accident happened, my knees were thrown forward into the dash, and the right one was worse. The steering wheel airbag also threw my right hand down and to the right, and the gear shifter was no doubt what stopped by hand and caused me the pain there during the last week. Also notice that the passenger compartment is basically undamaged.
A serious close-up of the engine compartment.
Head-on... apply directly to the airbag.
Phillip Dampier:
You can see the windshield damage much better in this one.
A look inside from the driver's side.
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