O/T - Update on my hail pummeled car.
Last Sat dad and I stopped by the paintless dent repair shop to check in on our vehicles. Dad's new hood had been delivered and was in the paint shop getting painted. My bumper had still not been delivered. So, I bought plane tickets to get home to my bride so we could head out this Saturday for TG with my ILs in SpermLand.
Dad dropped me off at the airport for a 1:45 flight on Tuesday. My flight had just been called for boarding and my phone rang.... my bumper was in the paint shop and was commited for delivery to me on Wed. I had checked bags so I boarded and headed home to my bride.
Today, Thursday, the dent shop sent me a text that my car would be delivered tomorrow (Friday). Not even the Wed delivery they had told me on Tuesday. So, even if I had stayed I could not have picked up my car and made it to NV to collect my bread and then head to TG with my ILs.
My dad will pick up his and my vehicle tomorrow mid afternoon.
So, at least it will be safe in mom and dad's garage and not in the dent shop staging lot with the risk of getting hit or bcked into the guy wire of a telephone pole... like it was when they backed it out of the shop when they had finished the hail repairs. It took a month to get a replacement bumper and for them to finish repairing the damage they caused.
Ughhhhh
Though frustrating, they did a great job on the hundreds of hail dents and detail work. A double edged sword experience with my insurance and the dent shop. Some good stuff, some infuriating stuff.
I will fly back to mom and dad's to get it sometime the week after TG.
- Rags's blog
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Comments
Cars
Are the scum of the earth. You need them. You lose a fortune on them. And you keep on buying them. You as everybody
'IF only I know how much money I lost on cars. Last car I payed $50,000 and twenty years latter I received $5,000. So $45,000 on that car,
With the exception of collector cars, they certainly are not an
investment.
Though I am a car guy. I like to drive performance cars but I am also fundamentally cheap. So, I buy nice but modestly priced cars. Usually a year or two old with very low miles and a year+ of remaining OEM warranty. I am a deal guy so I do not get to select color or trim levels. I select a couple of models I am interested in with specific things, like manual transmission, and then shop for deals.
The car that just was cured of Hail Small Pox was a year old when I bought it (16K miles), a certified pre-owned car that I bought from an OEM dealership. I have had it for 4.5 years, have put nearly 50K miles on it it and it is still worth about $6K less than I paid for it. It is worth about 2X what the repairs cost so the insurance company could not total it and just pay me the value. If they had, I would have bought it back for about 20% of the book value and used the rest of the settlement to get the dents repaired and driven it for another 4-5yrs. Now that it is fixed, it is still the plan to drive it for another 5-ish years.
I find that if research is done up front, a model or two selected, then as long as it takes to find the right deal is invested, nice cars can be had and enjoyed for 10-ish years without losing ones proverbial shorts.
In my adult life I have owned 9 cars. Two were new when I bought them. One of the new ones is the best deal I have ever found. It was on the lot for 400+ days. DW and I went to the dealership to buy a different car. I had just accepted a transfer to a home office position and was losing my field assignement vehicle and had to buy something. We had seen the sports car during an earlier shopping trip but it was far more than we were interested in spending. As we walked into the show room DW saw them drop the price on the sports car on the showroom floor by $6K. We pivoted, bought the show room bright red sports car. We got it for 60% of sticker using the MFG program I was eligiable for through my employer and the new price reduction. I owned it and drove it for 1.5yrs, sold it on the way to the airport when I was going to take up my international assignment. I sold it for more than I paid for it. Not much more, but more. It cost me only gas, insurance, and maintenance.
That is the only car I have ever purchased that turned out to be an investment.
Hail damage
I had hail damage on my car about 20 years ago. The insurance company cut me a check and I funded my IRA that year. Lol.
If they had totaled it, I would have done the same.
Taken the money, bought the car back for salvage value, and had it repaired myself. I would have likely cleared a few $thousand after the buyback and repairs.
But, it still had enough value that it was cheaper for insurance to pay for repairs than to total it. It is only 5yrs old.