Crash & BurnA few have asked me about the status of Viggo. His prognosis is good, but like any good healthcare system in this nation, there is a certain amount of therapy needed and a price to be paid for his recovery.
I was already in DC before Rick (my hunky Volvo repair guy) called me with an update. It's never good when he starts a conversation with 'are you sitting down?' ...and I told him as much.
We are thinking I hit a pothole or some other object in the road that might have seemed insignificant at the time. But, what that event did was break the oil pan, which in turn let all said oil out onto the ground, either while I was parked and didn't know it, or as I drove........or both.
Then I went on a highway ride at 60-70 mph.....and at least one cam busted (I don't even know what one is - we didn't have auto shoppe in high school!) and the last thing was the engine seizing.
What does that all mean? It means a new engine......on a 3.75 year old car. One that has a Turbo engine. Do the words 'ca-ching' mean anything to you all? Naturally, none of this is covered by my warranty.
This conversation happened a day before I saw those glass frames I mentioned yesterday. The reason I didn't blink (ha!) about that price of those was because I had already become numb to the price of a new engine. Or a used one, as the case may be.
New Engine: $10,000 (or so)
Used Engine: $5,322 (exact)
Being a Turbo did nothing to help the price of this little extracurricular event.
Thrown off guard a bit (duh!), he asked which I wanted. Doing a very very quick think job, I said the 'used'. I mean, I don't have $10,000 left on the car to pay off. I certainly wasn't going to spend that much on the car, where I could never get any money out of it if and when I sell it. Though at this point, I'll probably drive it into the ground. I might have to.
So, in the big scheme of things, what is $1,375 for eyeglass frames?
Only after I hung up did I think, 'hey, wait!!! I have insurance!'.
This is how daft I am about that shit: I had no idea if insurance would cover anything like this. I've never used my car insurance since becoming a licensed driver. Yes yes........do the math in your head, or get out TI-4500.
Seriously, someone else hit me once, and I collected from him, but I've never ever filed a claim. I have never had to. All I have ever done is pay my annual bills.
I called my agent, who oddly knew who I was - which I found strange since it is really the son of my true agent. The father retired and Chris took over the business.....he lives in Columbus and we've never met, and as I've said, I've never filed a claim. Hell, my payments don't even go to him, but to a central agency. But good for him. Good for me. In my head, I figured if they paid it and even if they doubled my premium, it's still less than half of the engine. That was my justification.
Chris talked with me. He talked with the adjuster. And in less than an hour after contacting him, they said they would pay for the engine. The used one, since that is the one I had already given approval on the day before (and ironically, the used still has about 11,000 miles less on it than my
Now I can afford those glasses!!!
Song by: the Bangles
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