Well… not so much a Phoenix… more along the lines of a Saturn ION 3 Quad Coupe.

I finally got in touch with someone at Farmer’s Insurance who is helping me out, and giving me his honest thoughts. He told me that I’d be foolish to repair the car. With a repair estimate of $5,200, and a total retail value anywhere from the repair estimate to $7,000, I’d be wise to take the money and run. I even called my Dad last night to get his advice on it, and given that both he and the adjuster are of the same mind, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take the settlement check and sell the car to a salvage yard (I hear one is already bidding $1,300 for it – wouldn’t that be nice?). All that money, and possibly some of my own, will go to a down payment on the new car.

Working with Farmer’s through this whole thing has been… interesting. I’ve talked with a different person almost every day… when I’ve been able to get a hold of anyone at all. I wasn’t ever clear on who is in charge of what, who is handling what, and I’ve gotten different stories from many of them. It’s been three weeks since the accident (as of this afternoon), and I’ve heard from friends and others that this is a long time. I don’t know. Maybe it’s average. It’s certainly been frustrating.

I’m sure part of it is the holidays. Being around the 4th of July, schedules were a little crazy. I can forgive them that, and now that I’m seeing a glimmer (not a light, mind you, just a glimmer) further down this tunnel, I’m inclined to forgive them more. Maybe it’s because it’s almost all over, and I can finally move on (in much nicer wheels, no less), or maybe it’s b/c there’s a silver lining…

Aside from the upgrade in the ride department, I came to realize that I was being grossly overcharged for my insurance, by possibly as much as 2X as much as I should be. After talking with my agent (if "talking" be the word), he was able to cut my semi-yearly payment almost in half… of course, with this accident, it’ll likely go right back up again, but at least it won’t go up on top of an already exaggerated rate.

For now, I’ve faxed my feature list over to Jeff at Saturn of Olathe, and hope to hear good things back from him soon. I’ve missed the cut-off date for ordering a car to spec, but they’re still getting them in, so I’ll probably get what I’m looking for, or damn near it.

Heh. I just heard. They have damn near it, but not quite. I’m going over at 11:00am for a test drive and to check out what they have.

Why new, instead of used? Call it my personal preference…. I just feel better about it.