It was an plain Thursday morning in June when I got a call at work from Tom that he had been in an accident. On the PA Turnpike. That caused a five care 'pile up'.
How I didn't pass out when I heard that, I'll never know.
I couldn't figure out what was going on because he was on the phone on the side of the PA Turnpike. I couldn't even be sure that he was going to be able to get a ride home from the side of the road. So I went flying out the door.
As I got closer to home, the story started to come together. There was heavy traffic on the road, and it was stop and go. And this particular time, Tom went when he should have stopped. He slammed the breaks so hard and yanked the wheel so hard, he had pushed the Corolla down and under the Murano in front of him. That pushed the Murano into the car in front of her and so on for three more cars.
No one was hurt. It wasn't so much a pile up as a domino chain. And the truck driver who towed the car gave him a ride home because it happened to be Bob's Trucking and Towing about a mile from the house.
But I lost my Blue Baby. It didn't looks so bad from the front when I saw it.
Really, I had hope she could be saved when I first saw her. But then, I got closer:
By the time I got to this point, I really doubted that this wasn't going to be a total. There was a spring missing. I still can't figure out where the hell the spring went-- Tom was convinced that it was on the side of the road because he tripped over one. I was so, so sad. This was my baby. This was my first new car that I bought and paid for and took care of to the best of my ability. She only had 156,000 miles on her, and we all know the Toyotas, if they are cared for, will give you double that easy. Hell, the car I traded in for her was at 215,000.
But now, no more Corolla. And no car for Tom to use.
We tried being a 1-car family for about 3 weeks while all of this went on. This was NO happening. Tom had doctors appointments and I was teaching after work and not getting home until 10:30 or later 2 or 3 nights a week. I didn't want him feeling trapped, and I didn't want him to be beholden to my schedule or me to is.
The hunt was on!
Well, ok. The Craig's List/CarMax/AutoTrader hunt was on.
We actually wound up test driving three different cars:
A Camry Solara, bright silver, which was really really pretty, but the Carfax was... lacking somehow. And I hated the brakes. The mileage was high for a 2002, and I really didn't like the brakes. The salesman seemed unwilling to drop down for the brakes I knew would have to be looked at and probably fixed.
A Mazda 620, gold. It was OK. It didn't grab me. Everything was OK with it, mechanically, carfax-wise and visually. But again, I had issues with the brakes and I just wasn't feeling it.
A Camry, silver. Winner!!
This little gem was something we totally lucked into. Totally. 2000, in near pristine condition in and out. Carfax, from before it was driven off the lot. Brakes were within acceptable range. Low mileage for an 11 year old car. We were nervous that people were going to buy it before we could get there. So I actually called the dealership and made an appointment. We were a little early and they were just pulling it out of their car wash because the mechanic had just cleared it and finished it up that afternoon.
And the salesman said he had already had a half dozen calls about it. He told us that a month before they had a gentleman fly up from TEXAS to buy a Camry in basically the same condition as this one sight unseen. We took it for a drive, and Tom loved it. I loved it.
That was the second large check I've ever written-- but I'm glad we could because now we don't have another car payment for a perfectly awesome car. There's nothing small about the Silver Bullet here, though. She's a big big car, but she's a good good car. We lucked out.
