Verdict on Month 3

“He who has a why can endure any how.” --Friedrich Nietzsche

Thoughts on my endeavor with cars:

Will I stick with it?

There’s not much to stick with, honestly. If I ever get a flat tire, I will change it myself. I am woman, hear me roar.

Also of note, I have developed an excellent tactic to employ with the mechanic guys that change my oil and try to sell me $20,000 worth of car parts every time I darken their door. Ask questions. It sounds simple, but it works. Become one of those annoying people who constantly asks, “Why?” Eventually, one of two things will happen. They will run out of sales techniques and give up. Or they explain a legitimate reason why you need to have something done.

I employed this strategy last week when I got my oil changed. Not only did I learn what a gasket was, I learned why there should only be one in the engine of my car and my car (inexplicably) had two. After the reasoning was explained to me, I understood the situation. I also think the car guys were impressed that I was legitimately trying to understand what was happening with my car. They turned out to be super helpful and instead of selling me overpriced doodads, they explained everything to me and gave me a $50 discount (most likely because I utilized my womanly wiles). Success? I think so.

Am I glad I tried this?

Yes. While, it did not go as I originally planned, I still learned a lot. Instead of my eyes glazing over with confusion and not even attempting to understand, I now feel like I have a general knowledge of my automobile. This knowledge (small as it may be) is quite empowering because I do not need to rely on other people completely. I have a greater awareness for what’s going on under the hood and have developed new catch phrases like “If it leaks, it’s broken.” Obviously a fabulous end result.

Would I recommend trying it?

Definitely. And I recommend that you do a better job at it than I did. Then share your knowledge with me.

I’m not sure that I can declare this month a success… but I did learn a lot of great information that I can actually apply to my life. I lived to tell about it, despite SUV man’s best efforts.

I wish I didn’t have to title these.

I realize that this Experi-month has turned into 2 months. I’m sure you’re wondering why this is the case. Is it because I’m a slacker? No. Is it because I decided I didn’t like cars? No. Here are the main reasons:

1.      I got busy. I am the proud new owner of a permanent full-time job and a social life.

2.      I didn’t have a car for the majority of the month. Thank you, Mister SUV.

3.      I feel like I mastered the basics. After a certain point, you need to be a professional in order to feel safe with the end product. For example, I am not inclined to learn how to fix my brakes. Too important.

4.      I got uber excited/distracted when I decided what the next Experi-month will be. Stay tuned.

By the way, I still have no name for my new car. Thanks for nothing. Is it wrong that I kind of want to name her after a TV character from the Gilmore Girls? Lorelai seems like a solid name to me. And I'm not hearing any other suggestions...

Meet little no name

Meet my new car J Isn’t she pretty?! She is the little sister of Ruby (my previous car). She is only 1 year younger… in case you were wondering.

Now, I need your help. What should I name this little beauty? I’m completely stumped. I’ve had her for over a week now and I got nothin. I thought that getting to know her would help me come up with a great name… but the attempt was futile. Suggestions please! If it helps, she is a 2006 Hyundai Sonata. I have definitely determined that she is a she… so no masculine names please. Other than that, I’ll take any suggestions!

insurance like woe

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” -- Henry David Thoreau

Insurance companies work on their own time-table. This is something that I have discovered time and time again throughout this car debacle. For example, it took these fools a week following the accident to deem my car “totaled.” I’m not sure why it took them so long to determine this seemingly obvious fact when 3 attractive firefighters, 1 friendly policeman, and 1 concerned (yet, annoyed) father were all able to tell me this within hours.

It took the insurance company yet another week to determine the value of my demolished automobile. At which point I was informed that I was only allowed to have my rental car for 3 more days. Maybe in insurance land they are fully capable of taking off from work in the middle of the day to go buy a car. But in my world, I don’t get paid when I don’t work. Thus, I work whenever I can. Thus, I did not want to take off work to go buy a car. Thus, I needed at least one weekend. Thus, I had to call the insurance people and present my case for needing a mode of transportation to go out and buy said new car... on a weekend.

When I presented these seemingly reasonable facts to the insurance lady, she seemed unfazed. But surely, she didn’t want me to "call her supervisor." The mere mention of her supervisor was enough for her to switch from speaking to me like a cretin to the Dalai Lama. Needless to say, I got to keep the rental car for an extra week.

I have yet to deal with the MedPay side of the insurance, which is covering my medical expenses (i.e. visits to the chiropractor). I’m sure I will be afforded this immense pleasure at some point. Now I know all I have to do is mention the supervisor to be treated like a human being. Splendid.

The Tale of the Unattainable Rental Car

"Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance." -- Author Unknown

I apologize for my brief hiatus from blog-world. Working with insurance companies, car dealers and chiropractors has proven to be a full-time job (in addition to that other full-time job that I have). For the past two weeks, this has been a day in the life of Stephanie:

Drive my rental car to work.

Work until my lunch break.

Return phone calls from insurance company people named Melvin and Dodd.

Go back to work until 5pm.

Drive my rental car to the chiropractor.

Get aligned and cracked.

Drive my rental car home.

Eat dinner.

Talk to my dad about insurance people and learn how to haggle with them.

Go to sleep.

Repeat.

The main things worth writing about are what happen in the time between dinner and sleep. Here is one of several anecdotes, for your reading pleasure.

The day after I was almost flattened by an SUV, I realized that I had no car and would probably need one in order to successively drive places. Seems like a simple idea, yet I had overlooked it. My dad wisely noted that the other guy’s insurance should be expected to pay for a rental car. In an ideal world, that would also seem like a simple idea.

We quickly learned that due to my lack of being alive for 25 years, I could only rent from Enterprise (where you only need to be 21… 4 years makes a big difference? Slash do they know that it was the 70 year old man that was the incapable driver and not the 22 year old? Ageists.). So naturally, we called them… only to discover that every car in the city was currently in use. Really? I did not know that was even possible! How can a reasonably sized city like Charlotte be completely void of rental cars? Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. But my dad was even less happy than that because he had the pleasure of driving me to work on Monday morning prior to the crack of dawn. I made some smart comment about how he should wear a chauffeur hat, which did not amuse him. But not much does amuse him at 7:30am.

I was finally able to get a rental car four whole days after the incident. Good thing 37 friendly lawyers sent me some light reading material about how they would love to help me sue the other guy. So I didn’t get bored.

For most people, the Tale of the Unattainable Rental Car would have ended here. But not for me. First of all, I was given the ugliest car in the world. It was some modern looking version of a station wagon with excessive amounts of blind-spots and immediately branded Loser across my forehead. Also, it reeked of smoke. Most people could handle this if it was their only option. But my body revolts in the presence of smoke and what can only be called its “after remnants.” So it was giving me headaches and not helping my neck and back to heal appropriately.

My father, being the loving and protective parent that he is, politely phoned Enterprise to tell them about the entire saga. And when I say politely, I mean that I’m pretty sure he threatened to shoot up the place. The very next day, I got a call from Enterprise telling me that they had a 2010 Hyundai Sonata (the exact type of car that the SUV man totaled) waiting for me. As I pulled up in the smoky monstrosity, they were polishing the Sonata and smiling widely. They also noted that they had gone out and smelled it themselves to make sure it was to my liking.

Moral of the story: it pays to complain, especially to the Regional Vice President of Enterprise. Go big or go home.