Old Faithful

Funtastic car update! Unofficially Officially, it's totaled. Let's just say it was towed to a salvage yard & not a body shop.

Of course, I won't know for sure until today. I'm getting a wee bit testy with Geico. The accident occurred on Saturday 17 November. I wasn't able to pick up a rental car until Monday - no biggie, as I didn't even get out of my jammies that day, let alone go outside. There was a bit of foolishness about the place it was towed, because the police wrote down one towing company name on the report; it turned out that it was actually towed by a totally different company. Which took a good two hours of my Monday morning to figure out. Thanks, Portland police!

Once I knew where it was, I called the place & released the car to Geico. Silly girl that I am, I kinda figured they might tow it to the body shop (at this point I had not heard any different) on that same day. Crazy, right? On Tuesday I received a voicemail from the liability claims adjuster, which made it sound as though my car hadn't been towed. I called her back; she didn't answer; I left a message saying where it had been towed & that I had released it on Monday, & that my assumption had been that they would tow it on that very same day.

On Wednesday, my damage claims adjuster called. He said that the towing company said that I hadn't released the car. On Wednesday. A solid forty eight hours after I'd released the car. Four days after the crash. I called the towing company, & they confirmed that no, the crack hasn't irreparably damaged my brain cells, because they showed that I released the car on Monday.

I called him back & left a message. I did need to speak with him, because I hadn't left the key with the vehicle, & he needed that to check the odometer. I left two messages for him on Wednesday, neither of which were returned. I actually ended up calling the towing company around 4 p.m. to make sure the car had been towed. It had. I called the body shop to make sure it had gotten there. It hadn't.

(Thanksgiving pause. I am thankful that I am not one of Geico's butthead adjusters.)

On Friday morning, I called the adjuster again, around 11 a.m. He actually answered! And told me that my car had been towed to a salvage yard, not a body shop. Naturally, he hadn't actually looked at the car; based on the description he thinks it's gonna be a total loss. My favorite part? The salvage lot was closed & wasn't going to open until today. Monday. Nine days after the accident. So today is hopefully the day I will finally find out if my car is gone. (I gave the key to him on Friday.)

Of course, if Geico had actually towed the car last Monday, when they said they were going to, I would probably have known by Wednesday whether the car was a total loss or not. And I would probably have managed to get myself a new (used) car by now, because I already know what I want.

But here's my question: am I crazy, or does it seem really stupid that a collison in which I certainly was going no more than five, ten max, miles per hour (I was turning left, after all) has completely totaled my car to the point where its repair would cost more than the car is worth? I mean, it's a 2003 Toyota Corolla - it's not the pimpest ride on the block, but it ain't no '85 Mazda. Are cars made out of peanut brittle nowadays? It seems to support my suspicion that Mr. Mazda was most likely speeding at the time of impact.