The week after the car accident an insurance adjuster for the other ladies insurance came out to my house to assess the damage to my car. He took lots of pictures, and inspected the parts of my car that he had access to (neither of us wanted to open the hood for fear of not being able to close it again). He sent me a report the next day saying that he estimated the damage at $2,500, but that there would probably be adjustments made to that depending on what they found when they took the car apart at the shop. On Friday the 3rd I dropped the car off at the shop, and picked up the rental car that her insurance had arranged for me. I was told it would be about two weeks before my car was done, so I was surprised to get a call from the shop just a week later on Friday the 10th. But I was even more surprised to hear that insurance had been out to take a look at the car...and that they were declaring it a total loss. Apparently the damage was going to cost "well over" $5,000 to repair! They told me that the frame of the car had been damaged pretty badly, and that the cost of fixing it just wasn't worth it considering the value.
We had joked when I first took my car to the shop about them totaling it, and how nice it would be to get a new car, but we weren't really serious. I think we were both kind of in shock when that actually ended up happening! Matthew worked with the insurance guy, and figured out the settlement we would be getting, which is based on an independent companies evaluation of comparable cars for sale in our area. The price they gave us was very close to the highest blue book value we had found, so we were pretty pleased with it.
While we were waiting for our check to get to us in the mail, we started doing a lot of research online. We knew we wanted a minivan, and after checking consumer reports opinions on safety and history, we decided on a Toyota Sienna. We found a couple that we really liked up in Vancouver, so we headed up there this morning to check them out. The first one we saw was one we both really liked, a 2005 Sienna XL with, get this, only 42,000 miles!!! The average is 15,000 miles per year, so this van had about 48,000 less miles on it than it should (being almost 6 years old). We took it for a test drive, and really liked it, but also didn't want to buy the first one that we saw. So we headed off to the next lot, and looked at another 2005, but this one was a XLE Limited. Pretty much top of the line, it had a moon roof, leather heated seats, duel automatic doors (the first one only had one of the doors as automatic), a DVD player, a backup alert system and all sorts of other goodies. It also had 98,000 miles and multiple dings and scratches on the inside and outside - really big noticeable ones too. Still....the luxury was tempting and we headed out to lunch to talk over our choices.
Since both cars were roughly the same price, it just came down to which was more important to us - insanely low miles, on a previously leased car (which means regular maintenance had been maintained) OR high miles on a totally loaded car that was visually not nearly as nice. Seems like a no brainer huh? We went with the car with the low miles, the first Sienna that we had looked at. All those fancy extra's are nice, but when it comes down to resale value and reliability, heated seats don't hold a candle to low mileage and excellent maintenance records. We are so darn practical. :)
So here she is, our new swagger wagon:
The driver and passenger seats:
The dash, along with 2 of the 14 cup holders in the car. We are so very prepared if we all get extra thirsty:
The kids captains seats:
The third row of 3 seats, it folds in a 70/30 split:
The back area, plenty of storage space and the rear seats fold down flat into this space.
Overall, we all seriously love this car. I have been trying to look at the positive side of things since the accident, and this car is definitely the silver lining in the whole situation. We are so happy with it, and can't wait to take it camping and on super fabulous road trips this summer!
We had joked when I first took my car to the shop about them totaling it, and how nice it would be to get a new car, but we weren't really serious. I think we were both kind of in shock when that actually ended up happening! Matthew worked with the insurance guy, and figured out the settlement we would be getting, which is based on an independent companies evaluation of comparable cars for sale in our area. The price they gave us was very close to the highest blue book value we had found, so we were pretty pleased with it.
While we were waiting for our check to get to us in the mail, we started doing a lot of research online. We knew we wanted a minivan, and after checking consumer reports opinions on safety and history, we decided on a Toyota Sienna. We found a couple that we really liked up in Vancouver, so we headed up there this morning to check them out. The first one we saw was one we both really liked, a 2005 Sienna XL with, get this, only 42,000 miles!!! The average is 15,000 miles per year, so this van had about 48,000 less miles on it than it should (being almost 6 years old). We took it for a test drive, and really liked it, but also didn't want to buy the first one that we saw. So we headed off to the next lot, and looked at another 2005, but this one was a XLE Limited. Pretty much top of the line, it had a moon roof, leather heated seats, duel automatic doors (the first one only had one of the doors as automatic), a DVD player, a backup alert system and all sorts of other goodies. It also had 98,000 miles and multiple dings and scratches on the inside and outside - really big noticeable ones too. Still....the luxury was tempting and we headed out to lunch to talk over our choices.
Since both cars were roughly the same price, it just came down to which was more important to us - insanely low miles, on a previously leased car (which means regular maintenance had been maintained) OR high miles on a totally loaded car that was visually not nearly as nice. Seems like a no brainer huh? We went with the car with the low miles, the first Sienna that we had looked at. All those fancy extra's are nice, but when it comes down to resale value and reliability, heated seats don't hold a candle to low mileage and excellent maintenance records. We are so darn practical. :)
So here she is, our new swagger wagon:
The driver and passenger seats:
The dash, along with 2 of the 14 cup holders in the car. We are so very prepared if we all get extra thirsty:
The kids captains seats:
The third row of 3 seats, it folds in a 70/30 split:
The back area, plenty of storage space and the rear seats fold down flat into this space.
Overall, we all seriously love this car. I have been trying to look at the positive side of things since the accident, and this car is definitely the silver lining in the whole situation. We are so happy with it, and can't wait to take it camping and on super fabulous road trips this summer!