A week ago today he was driving onto the airfield at Peterson AFB to meet a flight of soldiers coming back from Iraq. He had to go through the security checkpoint to get to the airfield, so he stopped at the gate, they checked his ID and he drove on through.....
A few seconds later one of the soldiers decided Micah had made it through (without looking to see if he actually had) and she pushed a button that deployed the security barrier. It flew out of the ground and took off the front of the car. Thankfully Micah and his NCO riding with him are okay.
The car on the other hand....not so okay. When I got to the scene it was in sad shape. There were so many fluids pouring out of it, it appeared to be bleeding to death on the pavement. The soldier who caused the accident was also in bad shape. She was inconsolable. Micah went to the guard shack where she was hiding and told her it was okay, we weren't mad at her, accidents happen. It pretty much ruined our weekend though.
Our car was taken to Denver where USAA could assess the damage and determine if it was worth fixing. A nice lady called yesterday to tell us it was non-reparable. I felt like saying...."Um, duh.". (Mature and eloquent, I know.)
USAA set up a rental for us through Enterprise. We were given our choice of their inventory which consisted of two cars. A sweet dodge that was completely covered by our insurance, or a slightly bigger station wagon looking thing that was considered an upgrade and we would have to pay $1.32 a day for. Since neither one were very appealing, we obviously went the free route.
Unfortunately, the rental had a leaky tire. Micah had to put air in it twice a day just to drive it around. He contacted Enterprise, told them about it, and asked them if they could fix it or give us a different car. They responded that he was welcome to take it to any shop and have it repaired and they would reimburse us. They told him there were no other cars available anywhere in Colorado Springs. Micah was not happy. He asked them why he needed to take time away from work to go fix their car, does he work for Enterprise???
So more calls were made to USAA. Micah complained about the customer service he was receiving and asked if there were any other agencies. Nope. Just Enterprise. USAA said they would take care of it. By the end of the day Enterprise called to say (begrudgingly) that they could switch out the car with a truck they had. Micah was excited since a truck is one of his fantasies. When he got there, lo and behold, there were 5 cars available even though just an hour before they'd had none. Then they decided he wouldn't get the truck after all....and so he left the lot in another sweet dodge.
So aside from all the rental drama, we are waiting for USAA to tell us what are car was worth. In the meantime, we are trying to figure out what to do next. Do we take this as an opportunity to get a family size car with 7 or 8 seats? (Sadly, Micah has been wanting a minivan for a few months now, something which I blame Jon Hilton for). Or do we get another gas efficient car? The money we get for the Acura won't be enough to buy the same car. Do we go in debt to replace it or to buy a bigger car?? We don't want to. So whatever we buy we'll have to pay cash for.
Geo Metro here we come.
Okay, that's a little dramatic. But if we did get a Geo Metro it would have to be turquoise.....it's their classiest color.
Anyway, the whole situation is a big pain. We planned on driving that car for many years, and weren't ready to say good-bye. I know it's just a thing, but it was the last tangible evidence of our carefree, pre-baby, dual-income existence. It was more car than we ever needed but we got used to the navigational system, XM radio, heated seats.....and now we are completely spoiled.
Neither one of us wants to go car shopping, it'll only depress us. In fact, I'm hoping to avoid dealerships altogether because I swear they put something in the air and we'll end up buying something out of our price-range. So far I'm just looking for anything that's for sale by owner.
So farewell Acura TL, we had some good times, but I'm glad I lost you instead of my husband.
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