Cars

A coupla weeks ago, this lady rear-ends me.  Well, not this lady.  Some lady.  I actually have no idea who she is, a fact which will come back to haunt me later in the story.  Because, you see, I let her go without taking her number, because I didn't really see any damage to my car.

Let's all hope that this lady "pays forward" my act of stupidit-  kindness.

Took the car to the shop today, to get an estimate on the itty bitty dent you could hardly even see.

As long as I was there, I thought I'd get an estimate on the old scratch.  OK, scratches.  Several months ago, there was an unfortunate incident with a post in the parking garage.  Good thing I have dent-resistant doors -- but they do scratch something wicked.  Anyway, I thought I'd get both things taken care of at once.

Estimator Guy asked who my insurer was.  I told him I was taking care of this myself.  He asked why.  I said that I had a $1000 deductible and I didn't expect the repairs to be much more than that.  He, at first, agreed.

But, he had to take a closer look.  And, y'know, he promised me an estimate for how much it would cost to fix it right.  I asked if he would also give me an estimate to "do a half-assed job."  He laughed, and declined.

He went into his little room and punched everything in the computer.  Came back with a total estimate of ...

are you ready?

$3600.

Split pretty much evenly between the dent and the scratches.  I think he may have been, er, how to put this delicately... padding slightly.  I mean, the scratches are on the side rear door.  He put in the estimate labor for removing and re-installing the side mirror.  (Which would be, y'know, on the front door.)  Because, to do it right, he'd have to repaint the front door too.  To make sure the color matches perfectly.  And, of course, he'd have to take off the mirror to do that.  Riiiiight.

He then suggested that Isubmit a claim to my insurance.  He encouragingly pointed out that I'd only have to pay the deductible and my insurance would eat the rest.  I declined.  "Why don't you want to submit it?" he pried.  "Have you made a lot of claims?"  (This question guaranteed he lost my business -- even if he hadn't lost it with the estimate.)

My car is five-and-a-half years old.  Its Blue Book value is about $5000.  This moron expects me to put $3500 into a fixing cosmetic damage to a perfectly drivable $5000 car.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.