Simply Charmed

Well an update on the car situation. Since I was only going to get the rental for a few days I needed to find an alternate mode of transportation fast. My mom decided that she was going to give me her vehicle, a 2001 black Ford Escape, and she would get a new car. I was stoked, we’ve had that car for years and I love it.

So Saturday rolls around and my mom and I have go into town to return the Charger. I drive her car, and she drives the Charger. We get to the rental place, and go to leave and the car starts making this horrendous screech every time Mom tries to turn the wheel. Keep in mind I didn’t have this problem while driving it no more than 10 minutes previous.

Mom thinks its the power steering so we pop the hood and see that the power steering is like dry as a bone. Thankfully there was a NAPA Auto Parts like 500 feet away. We go pick up some fluid, and put it in. Well to keep this part of a long story short it didn’t work, and we are now having to replace the power steering pump, and a line that leads to it.

Thankfully I have a nephew that’s a mechanic, and is doing it for cheap and getting us his employee discount on the parts. It was supposed to be a quick fix and as of today it’s still not finished. We had to order another part today that had to come from the dealership.

The day that Mom’s car broke down we were on our way to go see the insurance adjuster about getting everything wrapped up. So I had to reschedule for yesterday morning. My sister picked me up from work, because at that point I still didn’t have transportation. We went to the adjuster and he was nice enough to put me into another rental (2009 Chevrolet Cobalt) for the next few days while I’m waiting for the Escape to be fixed.

(I swear I’m almost done)

Well I finally meet with the Insurance guy (and boy he was a cutie.) He tells me that they’ve valued my car at 5152 USD. This is based on the NADA, and noticeably lower than the Kelly Blue Book value. They tell me that they are taking their 500 USD deductible out of that, and the balance goes to pay off the car. That leaves me owing about 2,200 still. Fortunately the money that goes to paying the car will be applied for the next several months. I did the math and won’t have to make a payment (which was 320 USD a month) for at least a year. This couldn’t come at a better time and I can use it to correct some financial blunders that have been needing some serious attention for a long time.

The final bright side is I’m quite possibly moving out this weekend into my own place. I won’t elaborate on that, but suffice to say I’m pretty hyped. I’ve got to go talk to the land lord sometime Friday. I’ve been running around like crazy this past week, and I’m still not done. But whew that was a lot. I’m going to leave everyone now to digest all this!

5 Responses to “A Vehicle Update”