another totalled car

no, not the prius... though i would rather have to pay a deductible and let that be the end of it.

our 89 camry le v6 that DH conveniently just finished putting $1200 in parts and about 50 hours labor into just got creamed overnight by a hit and run driver, likely drunkenly on his way home from the bar that's down the street from us. it only had liability insurance on it. the front end is ok and it's still mechanically sound, but the rear end is [pfft]

and i haven't even gotten to the funny part yet! we've been in the red for over a year and literally, last night before we went to bed, i sent off the very last payment that got us out of the hole. except for one lingering hospital bill that we probably won't have to pay anyway. well, and a couple grand in additional student loans, but those don't count. i am just so pissed off that i can't have ONE DAY!

i just don't understand why sh!t continually happens to us. :angry:

i'm off to craigslist now to see if anyone's selling a cheap 88-91 camry v6 with a blown engine or trans.

edit: here's a picture.

 

oh we're going to troll the bar parking lot for the next few weeks alright. if we can catch the guy, awesome, we're going to sue him. the frame looks to be pretty screwed and as you can see, the whole quarter panel is just mushed. the rear door won't open, we're talking major repairs. i say it's totalled not because there is any insurance involved but because it's immediately apparent the car is a total loss. repair cost > than value for sure. we're going to salvage what parts we can, try to find a good body from the same model and drop in the perfectly running engine and trans with 140k on them.

it's not drivable, the panel is rubbing on the rear wheel. if he can get the mudflap off, it might create enough clearance to drive it to the shop for a free estimate. who knows. but the car no longer has structural integrity so he wouldn't want to drive in traffic should another accident happen.

grr :angry:

 

no need for donations but many thanks i figure if we can make it through 5 figures of medical expenses and that whole mess without going bankrupt, we can find a dead-body camry too. it's the time lost that irritates us both. he's so busy as it is.

we've got a couple leads on dead camrys so far, one that's a perfect match but that may or may not work out. we'll hear more on monday.

we did file a police report right away, and pointed out the bar down the street. they told us if we found a lead to call them with the license plate number, but i don't expect anything. we've got full collision and comp on the prius, and just couldn't justify it for an 18 year old car. and here i was thinking, don't park the car we owe money on, on the street. hindsight's 20/20.



[edit... yikes! i got all these connection errors last night, i didn't even know the post was going through! edited to remove excess repeat posts.]

 

i was thinking this over, and it turns out had it been insured for collision we wouldn't have been in a much better situation anyway. kbb value for it is about $1500 in fair condition, but you know they don't care much about running condition on older cars. this is far less than we've paid for it and put into it, and far less than what we could have sold it for on friday. now to pay an extra ~$600 a year to get a payout of $1500 and have to start all over from scratch- or buy the car back from the insurance company- probably would end up costing us more in the end.

nevermind that finding a v6 in such good condition in one of these cars is pretty rare. this one was a real find, hence the reason we snatched it up and sold the other camry.

DH opened the trunk this morning and it no longer closes. we expected that. :lol: and no, we are not going to even try to open the rear door.

he did find like 6 body clips at the curb, so their bumper must be barely hanging on.

also, the upstairs neighbors heard the whole thing happen at 2:30 am- bar close. but the police didn't seem to care when i called to add this information to their report. we're on our own to find the culprit. i just want them to get theirs, even if we don't get any compensation. hit and run is illegal. the guy needs a big ticket and a mark on his driving record or something to at least match the inconvenience we're going through thanks to him.