so i just moved into a new area downtown like, 2 weeks ago. pretty psyched to be finally downtown and not have to trek anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours in the morning to get to work. now, i'm about a 35 minute walk/12 minute bike ride in. though i'm downtown, i'm still going to keep my car. 2 reasons: a) it's awesome. 02 2 door diesel is a rarity. it's nice to drive from here to the moon and back on weekends on a single tank. b) i still do a lot of driving on the weekends so i don't want to feel confined to downtown or have to rely on a rental or anything like that.
anyway, where i live now, there is only street parking. it's its own little community so there isn't a high volume of cars going through there. it just sucks to not have an assigned spot. so basically what happens is if i drove somewhere and am back late, i might have to park further away from my place than normal. which is fine because i can usually move it where i want it in the morning. so yesterday i saw "my" spot open so i went to get my car (like 200 metres away) and move it.i hopped in my car and drove it down towards my place and outta nowhere this Mitsubishi hatchback drives out of this underground parking lot making a left. he was doing one of those look-for-traffic-while-still-moving deals. i guess he didn't expect anyone to be there.
cue - collision.
i didn't really have much time to react so i basically plowed into his drivers side door and front wheel. my air bags went off and all that jazz. when the smoke from the airbags finally cleared, i rolled down my window to ask if the dude was ok and he was already screaming. "UNBELIEVABLE!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SPEEDING? UN-BELIEVABLE!!!!!" it's amazing how much more irate people get when they are at fault. he was pretty livid so i basically just got out and sat on the curb. i was a little terrified to look at my car because the first thing i thought was SHIAT!! good-bye 2 door diesel!!! FAK!!!!! i looked up from the curb and i could see my car "in" his car. pretty good dent. his car, not so good. crumpled like someone stepped on a soda can. it was like his car was made of that hard foam stuff that people arrange plants in. i got up to look at mine and surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. engine was still intact so that was a huge relief! front bumper totally did its job. ambulance came, tow trucks, police. i didn't even talk to the other driver at all because he was too heated and insane. i calmly went about my business - gave the officer the story, called my insurance company etc. the damage didn't look TOO bad but it should all be covered since i wasn't at fault and he was in the process of making a left which in almost all cases leaves that driver responsible.
yesterday i called the body shop to make sure they were going to take pictures and stuff and if they could send those my way. i didn't have anything on me to take pictures but i wanted to have them for future reference. so i got that stuff today along with the quote going to my insurance co. and the bill was a smooth $8,000. a bunch of the cost was because of the airbags. if you need those replaced ever, it's a big deal. almost a third of that price was for the airbags alone.
so the great news is everything is repairable. i'll be getting my awesome car back in a bit better shape it was going in and my trips to the moon will commence in a couple weeks.
notes:
volkswagens - structurally AWESOME! mini tanks.
Mitsubishi's - tin cans
airbag residue - burns
airbag replacement - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
i.d. - make sure all your pieces of i.d. are up to date with your current address because cops COULD charge you 150 bucks (in toronto) for each piece that isn't updated.
insurance - key!
