Sunday, July 15, 2007

Nasty Karma - goodbye Insight....

Sigh....Eli and I went to NY this weekend to celebrate my mom's 75th birthday, plus Sally's 4th birthday, plus Laurie's birthday...and we had a great time, made even more enjoyable by my more or less accidentally renting a red mustang convertible:


So that was fun, and the water balloons were fun, and Evan did some great cooking, and so on....then on Sunday Eli and powered our way back to LaGuardia and managed to hop standby onto an earlier flite. We arrived at O'Hare an hour earlier than expected, hopped into my Insight and off we went.

And two miles from home, stopped at a red light, an absolute jerk of a driver SLAMMED into the back of the Insight, at maybe 20 or 30 MPH. And now my beloved automobile, with only 58000 miles on it after 7 years, averaging 50 MPG, no longer sold by Honda, looks like this:


We were covered with glass chunks. My back and neck got whipped around; hopefully I won't be stiff as a board tomorrow. Eli, too. But we are OK right now, anyway. I am very bummed out, though. I didn't have collision on the car any longer, so I have filed a claim with Sandra "My brakes didn't work" Luke's insurance company and sure they will pay, but probably not to fix it, just declare it totaled and write me a check. Goodbye Insight.

Very sad day for me....and to get hit by an idiot who actually puts the following on her windshield:


That is, upside down: If you can read this....ROLL ME OVER.

In other words, she advertises the fact that she is a reckless driver. What a loser.

No, I am the loser. Ah well, I just have to tell myself over and over: it's just a car, just a thing.

But it was such a nice thing. The best car I ever owned.

7 comments:

Peter K said...

Steven,
So sorry to hear about the car. Good thing no one's hurt in the accident. Given that Honda no longer sells the Insight, the other option is to look towards the used car market for it.

I hear good things about the Honda Civic Hybrid so maybe that's an option.

Peter K said...

Steven,
So sorry to hear about the car. Good thing no one's hurt in the accident. Given that Honda no longer sells the Insight, the other option is to look towards the used car market for it.

I hear good things about the Honda Civic Hybrid so maybe that's an option.

Jeremy Schneider said...

So how exactly do you "accidentally" rent a red mustang convertible? I'm sure Eli didn't mind at all. :) Also glad to hear nobody got seriously injured in the accident.

Unknown said...

Wow - really glad to hear you and Eli are fine. Sorry to hear about the car. Lots of new hybrids and newer technologies to look at - maybe that's the upside?

Steven Feuerstein said...

"Accidental": I made a reservation for a compact car like a Kia. Nice and cheap and fuel-efficient. Arrived at the Dollar rental counter at midnight. Few cars left. The fellow asked me: "Would you take a red mustang convertible?" I glanced over at my 20-yr old son and the answer was clear: "ABSOLUTELY!"

Unknown said...

Hey Steven,

I understand your plight... Last Soccer season as I drove my kid to his soccer practice a person driving a big lincoln continental was chatting to her passenger not looking that the rest of us were stopped and hit me at about 30 making me knudge the corvette in front of me. She tried to say it was the Bus Drivers fault that was several cars infront of the line that was stopped. How about just admitting you were not paying attention... The worst part was, she was from out of state driving a friends car and in Oregon insurance follow the car; of course it was not insured... So, I ended up out my 500 deductible and stuck with a rent car bill because of some mix up in getting the car fixed... I have wrecked a car once in my life, I was 15 and it was my fault but otherwise I am a very aware driver on the road. Why can't other people realize when you are driving it is
1) Both Hands on the wheel
2) Head and eyes looking forward unless you are checking on your mirrors and that doesnt require heavy head movement...

Oh well. Glad to hear you guys are all right and I hope this provides you an opportunity to get anther fuel efficient car; think BIO Fuel or Hybred.

Unknown said...

Sorry to hear about your accident. Luckily both of you are ok.
Apart from the the more common options, if I may, I will offer two suggestions on possible replacements.
One is the upcomming Smart Fortwo. It is not a hybrid but should be pretty fuel efficient. Since you travel out of the US often I am sure you have seen them and as you may know they are making their US debut soon. www.smartusa.com

The other is the Tesla. An electric sports car. (Hey the Insight is a two seater as well). They are fast and efficient ( 4 sec to 60 and over 100 mpg equivalent) however I don't know if you are in the market for a $100,000 dollar car. www.teslamotors.com/