When life gives you lemons...

So previously on July 23rd, I had written about being in an auto accident on my way home from work. This event actually totalled my blue 2005 Chevy Equinox LT, so said my insurance company. O.K., I can live with that. I'm not so emotionally invested nor attached to my vehicles like some people that I cannot get over the loss quickly. I mean, it's just a car! So on Saturday morning, I went out to breakfast with my son and then headed over to the body shop and gave the blue beast a final once over to make sure all personal belongings were removed and retrieve my GPS mount from the dashboard. I brought my dad's old pocketknife to pry it off. After, it felt kinda weird because I did not have to sign anything to release it. All it took was my verbal O.K. acknowledging that the insurance company was going to pick it up.

The bigger issue here is now I have no transportation other than the rental and I really, really dislike the rental. It's a Chevy Cobalt, it sucks gas worse than the Equinox I'm used to and since it could be considered a small or even possibly a compact sedan, it feels like I'm sitting in a hole in order to drive it. Yuck. It makes me nervous driving the Cobalt on the freeway with all the big trucks I eventually get stuck driving around after having been rear ended by a large Ford work van. So what to do about a new ride?

Well, since I was still paying payments to GMAC, I carried comprehensive and collision insurance, which is good for me in this situation. I still owed about 7k and with the settlement, that gives me around 8k to put down on a new vehicle. I'm glad this portion of the process is over because it was worrying me that I really didn't know what money I was going to get as a settlement. I was able to talk to the total loss agent on Friday, and we went over the numbers then. I was happy with the settlement amount and was told the papers for me to sign are in the mail. Now lets get to the car shopping!

GMBuyPower.com has never failed to provide me all the details I needed to have choices and make an informed decision about buying a new car. I was able to locate a used 2007 LS model that appealed to me in Huntington Beach. I emailed the dealer and they called me back to discuss some of the features for the car I was interested in. I was able to ascertain from the Carfax report online it was a previous rental and the mileage. But you never really know the features nor the condition until you checkout the vehicle yourself. I went to the dealer on Saturday after I cleaned out the blue beast.

So to make a long story short, my hunches were correct. The vehicle was immaculate, and everything else was in order. They had lowered the price recently, and I thought it was fair for an almost 2 year old model, so about an hour later, I was the proud owner of the actual car below. Nice, ehy?

Yes, it's not the blue, I know, but it's 2 years newer and about 20k less in mileage, and drives just as nice as my old one, so was very happy to locate this as quickly as I did.

Upgrades to my previous ride include: leather interior, heated front seats, OnStar, integrated XM Radio, speed compensated speed volume, mp3 cd player, audio on the steering wheel, cruise control on the steering wheel, remote start, wood grain console, an improved driver information center, electronically monitored tire pressure, 17 inch chrome wheels, flip down arm rest with cup holders in the back seat and an aux plug for my IPOD! woohoo!