Accident *sigh*....

Minor update..

Rental Cars...

Enterprise Rent-a-Car has exhibited superior buffoonery, and took two days to get me into a car. The quite successfully stalled me all day Tuesday ("we don't have any cars on the lot right now to fill your reservation, but we're expecting returns soon, call back in an hour") right past close of business. They then tried to do the exact same thing on Wednesday. However - they magically coughed up two cars as soon as said I was going to go call Hertz.

It's a Mazda 3, and I hate it, it's not a Prius. The seat's all wrong, the mirrors are all wrong, the gearshifts all wrong, I have to keep fishing the key out of my pocket, and it's *loud*. Folks have complained about the Prius seats giving them back aches in 10 minutes, which isn't a something I've experienced. But the seats in the Mazda, ouch....

The upside, is it simply makes me even happier with my Prius. I doubt I'll ever be able to me happy with anything else.

Insurance/Repairs...

It took them (Allstate) two days to get out and look at the car, and they estimated external damages at $1350, with no signs of internal damage. If the shop finds any internal damage, they have clearance to just fix it and amend the statement. However Allstate forgot to call me and tell me this, so I was left wondering until I called them this afternoon. ("Oops, didn't we call you on Wednesday?" they say)

Based on all the problems others have had, I'm feeling quite happy that I had the car towed to a Dealership recommended body shop, and not an insurance recommended body shop. The folks I have dealt with seem absolutely determined to make my car new again. There was only minor damage to the right headlight assembly, and I was afraid they'd try to sneak it by - but nope, right out of the gate they want to replace it with a new one. Same goes with everything else I was concerned with so far.

Of course I won't really know until I get it back in my hands, which might be sometime late next week. There's little I can do to examine the inside myself, but I plan on going over the outside with a close eye to make sure I'm happy with all the work, especially then seams.

Edit: There's now some indication that there may well be damage to the suspension in one form or another, won't know until Monday. If so, and if it's anything other than minor, there's a good chance I won't get it back for 2-3 weeks... *sigh*...

-Ken

 

minor updates..

No news on if there's any suspension/axel/transmission, as they worked on the body exclusively today. Apparently the impact pushed a little deeper than originally thought, fatally damaging the resonator, and possibly damaging part of the AC system. (My diagram shows the AC compressor in that corner, but no indication of where/what the resonator is).

Net result, repair cost is up +$550, and a round of delays with insurance to get the additional parts and labor approved. Chances of getting it back this week are fairly slim.

On a side note, what the hell kind of realistic city mileage does a (possibly abused) Mazda-3 get? I'm not going anywhere, and I swear the fuel gauge is visibly falling mile by mile, normal 5mile city driving. The price of gas is going whump me hard when I have to fill it up...

-Ken