Why, oh why, could we not put the new car in the fucking garage from the outset? Why, oh why, is there so much shit in there that forces me to park my car out in the driveway? (They complain about all the shit I accumulate in my bedroom, yet they throw their shit in the garage -- hypocrisy much?) I was able to park my old car in there for years, and it was older than my new car. That would have prevented my new car from getting hit with that goddamn hailstorm we had last month and I wouldn't have to go through this bullshit with the car now.
I am still fine with it. I was blissfully unaware of the damage until My Fucking Father decided he wanted to point it out to me. So then I have to get the damage appraised by insurance, which cut me a check -- minus, of course, the $500 deductible.
So now I just shop around and get a good price, right? No, it's not so simple, at least with hail damage, at least with this hail damage. All the shops I went to say that there is no negotiation; I am supposed to give them the check the insurance company cut along with the price of the deductible; if it costs more, the insurance company is going to give the repair shop more money; if it's less, the insurance company cuts me a check.
I didn't like that. Well, I actually turned to my parents, and they didn't like that, so I went to two other places. One of them was a phone number for a flier that was sent through the mail, kind of like the days when I filed a claim after I got into a car accident and all these personal injury lawyers sent me mail. I met them and they said that their price was basically the same as all the other estimates, and they would also talk to the insurance company in case their price for removing all the dents from my car would be different. The other is this place I went to after the hood bent on my old car. They said they would do it for $1,500, which would save me several hundred bucks. But instead of this Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) all the other guys said they would do, these guys would strip the paint off the whole car, fix all the dents, then repaint it.
When I told my folks this over dinner, my brother and sister-in-law dropped by so my parents (well, actually just Mother) could play with my niece. Father was OK with that, but Mother didn't think those guys did a good job with the old car. Then both my brother-in-law and sister said that getting the paint stripped off my car (a brand new one, by the way) would be a huge mistake; the new coat would not be the same. To be honest, I was only OK with their job before. Moreover, the finish on the hood and the left side of the car, both of which they worked on, seems to be different from the rest of the car. It looks like a matte finish when the rest of it looks like a glossy. Also, and I guess more important, the hood doesn't close cleanly -- as in, if you look really close on the left side, the closed hood has an open crack.
Sunday night Father "suggested" I just get PDR from the auto body shop affiliated with the dealership I got the car from. I think he was convinced by brother and sister-in-law that the job needs to be done right. Actually, so was I. But honestly, I was ready to just keep the damn money the insurance company gave me. Really, if My Fucking Father hadn't pointed out all the dents that annoyed him, I wouldn't have even noticed. I'm going on vacation soon, and I'm still unemployed, so I could use the fucking money. But I did notice, and it is kind of bugging me too, and so upon "advice" from him, I made a call and a visit Monday, and it's going to be brought in next Monday.
By the way, I wanted to wait until the severe summer weather season was over, just in case this otherwise benign summer had one last hailstorm in it. But there was another wrinkle: My parents are shutting off the insurance on the old car as of this week. That insurance was bundled in with the insurance for the house, and they are pissed (or at least My Fucking Father is) because the hailstorm that damaged my car didn't do enough damage to the house, even though My Fucking Father saw contractors rebuild the roofs of all the houses surrounding ours. He blames the insurance company, and for revenge he decided to pull all of the policies, which includes the old car.
So now I can't wait, or at least not really. Since they're taking two to three days, it's possible it won't be ready for me by the time I get back ... which sucks, because this experiment really needs me that Thursday, and I already am in the doghouse with them for missing the first half of next week for a vacation. I don't really know what I'm going to do if the car's not ready by then.
See, now you know why it would have been better to just take the money and run? And like I've said before, that's the problem with new cars: New cars get old.
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