OUR LITTLE CAR HAS BEEN MENDED

Yesterday our dear little car came back from the car hospital.  It had been unkindly rear-ended by an elderly man who I doubt should still be driving.  We were stationery at a GIVE WAY sign and waiting to give way to 3 cars on our right (as you do in Australia) when BANG!  Pushed our poor little car forward a few feet and of course she stalled.

I had an appointment in 10 minutes time so I wasted no time at all in getting out and asking the driver of the other car what he on earth he thought he was going.  He said he didn't see any cars coming and thought the way was clear.  You can see why I feel he should perhaps not be holding a driving licence any more.

It took me several precious minutes to finally demand that he give me his name and address with him all the time said 'there is no damage' when there WAS visible damage.  Turned out (his son-in-law told me) this man had a huge excess on his comprehensive car insurance so no wonder he was reluctant to give me any of his details. This did not surprise me as he said he'd had a couple of other 'bumps' when I pointed out damage to the front of his vehicle.

The long and the short of it was we lodged our claim, found out all details of the other vehicle and the driver, got a quote from a very reliable repairer near our home, took the car to the GIO assessment centre who accepted the quote we'd received and advised the work could go ahead.  The other driver lodged his claim so we will have no costs whatsoever to pay which is a big relief to us of course.

It seems the rear bumper (or what they call a bumper these days) had been pushed into the body of the car so the whole rear (what I call the skirt) had to be replaced and the total cost was around $AUS2,000.00.  You don't need to have much damage done these days for the cost of repairs to be high.

We were without a car for nearly 4 days and one doesn't realise how isolated one feels being car-less.  We have no friends we can call on (most are deceased and others live about 40+km away) and there is only one neighbour we could call on in a pinch in an emergency.  We did a big shop last weekend so had plenty of food (made sure there was enough for Precious too of course) and fortunately no mishaps occurred necessitating transport.

MOH was picked up yesterday afternoon to collect our car and while there they did a minor job on the front of the car at no cost; that's how great this particular repair place is.  When he got back home MOH called me out to look at the car and although it is now over 8 years old it had the look of an almost new car.  They had not only repaired it well but had cleaned the car inside and out.  I can't praise them enough.

This is almost certainly the last car we will ever own so we have to look after her very well.  It is a comfortable little car and one I can get in and out of very easily and you sit high enough to have a wonderful all round view which is also important when driving these days.

Fortunately neither of us were the worse for wear following this minor crash for which we are thankful, so all's well that ends well and we have our little friend once again sitting in the carport.