Last Thursday I was in an accident and due to the high mileage of my 2001 Cavalier they decided to give me the value of the car rather then fix it.
I later found out that it was a doctor who was talking on his cell phone made an illegal U turn in the middle of the road across my path. I saw him pulling across my lane but thought he was going to merge and accelerate. Despite blowing my horn he kept pulling in front of me which caused me to hit him. He admitted fault and so far his insurance company has been pleasant to deal with. I haven't heard anything from them yet regarding my personal injury.
Thankfully I am ok, mostly. I suffer from some pack and neck pain as a result of the accident. I'm scared to death this is going to show up later in my life. I guess there's not much I can do about that. My state only has a 3 year period for suing someone for damages.
The car doesn't look that bad but there was a lot of internal damage. It bled radiator fluid at the scene of the accident.
I tried so hard to
keep my car up to maximize it's life and gas mileage. At 178K miles the car ran great before the accident and I was still getting about 33 MPG. I think I was more pissed off now I had to total my car then anything.
But for everything there is a reason. What little insurance money I did get and a little out of savings we are going to purchase a brand new 2008 Chevy Cobalt (replacement model for the Cavalier). It is a 5 speed manual, with ABS. It also has Chevy's XFE or eXtra Fuel Efficiency package included on it. That means they adjusted the gear ratio, increased 5th gear and use low rolling resistance tires. The EPA estimate is 36 MPG so I am hoping to get it well over 40 with hypermiling. Of course being a new car i won't be doing any mods until the warranty runs out. Hopefully we'll pick up the car on Monday.