My kid totaled his car last night....

[cphilip]

Finaly back and spent all day on this problem and still need to talk to insurance again. Went over and cleaned out the car. Forgot to take my Camera! So I gotta go back over and get some pictures later but its creamed. pretty much the whole front end is caved in in a V shape. I do not know how the windshield stayed intact, Can hardly get the drives door open 1/2 way. Left axle is dangling and broken lose. Motor is sitting slightly crooked. Radiator is cut in two and folded like a pretzel. Bumper and main front cross members too. Leaking Every fluid in there that there is. left front tire driven back into the door jam and tire cut.

Finaly got done with the insurance people and over to clean it out around 1 PM. And then went on over to my usual car dealer who deals Nissan and Ford. And went about the look for a replacement. After very little looking and driving a couple prospects I found a nice deal on one. A Nissan Sentra GLE 2001 with 8,069 miles on it loaded for $11,500 out the door! I mean loaded too. Power Windows, Locks, cruise remote entry, Spoiler, CD, Air...everything realy. It was a lease return demo and has the remaining 6/60K warranty and the tires look brand new. Absolutely mint still smells new. these things list for 16K new. So I bought it.

Well as to at fault even of someone makes you swerve you are supposed to be able to keep your vehicle under control at all times. If you do not then you were driving too fast of conditions. There was no ice and he obviously just over reacted. And the other driver did not stop so there is no contributory at fault driver to even attach to. And even then of you do not collide it would be your word against theirs and you were the one to lose control so...No arguing. He was at fault for failing to keep HIS vehicle under control. And he knows it which is the most important thing realy is that he accepts responsibility and knows he overreacted and takes the blame. He is unhurt so lets assume he will have learned a valuble lesson. He has always been a carefull driver so I assume this woke him up as to the fact that you cannot be careless for even a second behind the wheel. A lot of kids it would not. But with him I think it will.

Anyway I am out a bunch O money and my insurance will most likely go up for three years. How much we shall just have to wait and see. He was 300 or so every year so far. I expect that to at least double. Maybe a bit more than. And not his car payment is for another year longer and 110 a month more. So it all adds up doesn't it?

Another thing was in all the confusion I forgot to ship out some stuff today to some people that I need to now go and PM and apologise too...

[irbodden]

Luckily he is ok, you're a nice guy to get him a $12,000 car after totaling his first. Insurance is gonna cover it?

My parents won't even let me put a car on their insurance plan (if I pay for my share of the insurance and the car), with good reason though

I am not known as the 'safest' guy when it comes to high speed motor toys. Whatever they can do to stop me from getting an old Porsche I guess..

[Mango]

Wow Phil that is so generous of you!!! What a dad to go out and get him a great practically new car the next day!

[rhetor22]

well if he had been flying down the road or something, doing something stupid, i would say take the car away and tell him to go buy his own damn car.

But obviously he was driving safely, he simply wasn't experienced enough to know what to do.

Cphil, I know there are many drivers out there that have been driving for many years and still SUCK AT DRIVING. Don't worry about your son. There's a learning curve. You know that, i know you know that, i'm just... reassuring you? I dunno.

Regardless, you have a good son. I think that of my peers, 80% HAUL BUM goin down the road, including me (not in the corners at all though, i drive a truck and i know it) then 15% drive slow cause they have no clue what they are doing, the other 5% go the speed limit. Your son is a good kid!

[giblit]

haha im sorry but i know exactly how you must feel but i wrecked my car 2 times both times had to pay for it out of my own pocket and i clean tolets for a living so money isnt to good for me. the best way to deal with it is to just laugh about it thats how i got over it both times.

[cphilip]

Well he is a good kid. And he does have a year and a half experience and always drives the speed limit. He was when this happened. He just screwed up is all. If he didn't admit it and it wasn't obvious to me he took something away from it he would be walking.

I always look for long term value and buy a junker that needs fixing all the time is not ussualy the way I think. However for a kid that was reckless I might. In this case he is heavily active in Football and ROTC and has a lot of things he needs to do. So he needs to drive to them. And I am not going to let him use mine. So I figure in the long run its a good investment to have a safe reliable car that would even last him through College. So I am gonna choke it up and bear it this time and this car just happened to present itself. It lists in Kelly Blue book for 12,560 with that mileage. In fact normal mileage should have been 30K but this one was 8,069 when we pulled off the lot. And its so mint its a good buy. This place I have bought like five vehicles from and they know me the minute I walk in. These are the same guys who took care of all my expenses when I broke down in Florida. They do not even dicker with me. They just pull out the bottom line price and even remember my address and stuff for the paper work. This thing was in the Nissan lot next door and they went over and took it off the special sale lot where it was listed for 13500 and knocked off 2 grand without even me asking. Sure they Still probably made 500 bucks but I was pleased with the car. Its mint. About as new as you can get. I have no idea where a 2001 has beed to only have 8K on it!

But anyway now the hard part is paying for all this. No Insurance will not cover this. By the time I pay off the wrecked one and the deductable and settle I will see 1,500 to 2,000 cash to use towords this one. The rest of the 10K dollars I will be payin on for three years... 300 a month....

The Altima he wrecked was a 96. Also loaded but was at 108,000 miles. Running strong and woulda been fine for another 100K. I owed 3400 on it and it is valued at 6500 now. He has had it two years. I had just put new tires on it and had it all reworked for Christmas. Spent 800 on it then to put it in top shape. All that may help me get a little more out of it at settlement.

Insurance? well it will indeed go up for three years most likely. Not as much as it could have if he had gotten ticketed for more. The ticket he got was a 2 point. the lowest they could give him. It would have been worse had it been 4 points. Much worse. But I expect this will cost me like 2 grand over three years plus the loss of the value of the car that I had into it. All told its a 4 grand loss in the long term. Not counting the new car but that is realy not a loss its an asset so...

Ahhh well...Not a good day at all....expensive day....

[PolishSausage]

Glad to hear your son in fine Phil...

[rdb123]

Glad to hear he's ok.

Seems like your son is a responsible driver. Near my school, there's a toll road that half the student body travels on in the morning and you see them pulling 95 in a 65 zone; just plain crazy.

I do admit that I go maybe 75-80, but I'd say that I'm slightly more skillfull than the others (even the seniors... I'm a junior) because my commute to school is 40 miles. So, 80 miles total each day just for school related travel. Then another 10-20 going somewhere else so that's easily 85-100 miles per day for me which is mainly toll roads. Boy I sure do eat up mileage quick!

Anyway, I'm really sorry that this happened to your son and I'm hoping for the best for you.

-Ron

[Army]

Phil, if I am going to be driven any distance by a fairly new driver, especially a teenager, the butterflies are rioting in my stomach. However, when your son picked Sarah and I up at the airport, his driving was safe, speed limit fast, and used all proper courtesies. My worry was MUCH less than it would have been! He's a good kid, and this is a shame it had to happen.

Thank God he is OK, and thank God and GM for airbags

[Havoc_online]

Originally posted by shartley

My thoughts exactly.

It's good he has a trusting, understanding father.

[personman]

Wow
I'm glad he is ok Phil!

[cphilip]

Yes Army, you saw it first hand. He does indeed drive safely. We parents have spies everywhere who see them on the road and they would let me know if he wasn't. You kids may not know it but you cannot get away from the "Parent network". It exists. We notice and report to each other what we see. So he could not get away with it if he did. I do not think even he knows that. But they do see him and tell me. And in fact they tell me they saw him and never once report anything but good comments on his driving. And I run across him driving when he doesn't know it. He has always been observed driving the speed limit and using signals at all times. And proper distance and drives patiently too wich is rare in a teenager. But still any moment of inatentivness can bite you in the behind. No matter what another driver is doing you still have to be prepared to react with calmness. And in this case he did not it apears. And he knows it. Unfortuanatly for him he didn't get away with the mistake. Many of us do and the results are not so dramatic and costly if we are lucky. He just wasn't. He got burned. But in this case it coulda been worse. It could have injured someone else too or he coulda been seriously hurt. I am thankfull for that.

As for the other driver he started to stop but then went on. This is a very rural area and no one was around as it was about midnight. No one saw it as they were the only ones on the road. But even still if he had of stopped or something it would not have excussed Caleb from his overcorrection which caused him to lose control. He still would have been more at fault than the other driver. Had they collided then that would have been different. But had he avoided the other car and lost control it still might have not gone his way more than 50:50.

If I didn't think he was sufficently scared and sobered by the incident he would not be driving thats for sure. But each kid is different and he just tends to be this way. I hope!


So now its only down to the money.

[Timmee]

I'm glad to hear that he's ok, Phil. I had an accident relatively early in my driving career (black ice + telephone pole = bad things), and I'm just glad that, in addition to nobody getting seriously hurt, that I learned from it.

BTW, what was the vehicle? I thought you said that it was an Altima, but then Army said: thank God and GM for airbags

[cphilip]

Yes it was a 96 Nissan Altima. Heck of a nice car realy. All the things you need and a 2.4L engine that rocks for a four door rocket. Sporty looking too and loaded with amenities.

However this new Sentra is every bit as nice now a days. It was not back then. Smaller engine (1.8L 122 HP & option for a 2.0 144 HP in the SE) but the car was totaly updated in 01 and it has everything and a little more than the Altima did back in 96 and looks a helluva lot nicer too. Excellent car for the money. I seen brand new GLE ones on sale for 13K loaded with options too. Great gas mileage and handle like a sports car.


Airbags? I think he was crediting GM for the development of them. Thats what he ment. I am sold on them. I don't care if they punch my face or not. Better than that steering wheel or windsield doing it. He had a fat lip and a bloody nose that was swollen for a day but now looks almost normal.

[Clare]

I can see what a hassle it will all be but everything else seems unimportant if your son managed to walk away from it, glad to hear that he's okay.