Dead Buick

My 1998 Regal finally bit the dust. My daughter hydroplaned and ended up in a ditch about 2 weeks ago. She bent the fender, but the door still opens. Now the brake lights, including the ABS light are lit - and the CEL is on. I think she did enough damage to get rid of the car. We did that last night, and I bought a 2010 Chevy Cobalt LS with only 14,500 miles. It even has bidigital door locks! She’s happy and w paid less than $10,000 for it. I had hoped that the Buick would last a couple more years, but at least she’s safe.

What are bidigital door locks? Locks that have two fingers?

The main thing is that your daughter is safe.
About 2 years ago my daughter was sitting at the light in her Mustang and some woman in a Tahoe banged into the back of her car and knocked her out into the intersection. The only damage was to the rear valance of her car and a slightly stiff neck which has turned out to be a major problem.
The car that hit her was only doing about 15 MPH at the time but it’s opened up a real mess.

My daughter’s neck stiffness turned into headaches a week later and chronic pain which has led to multiple shots in the neck (at 1000 bucks a pop), half a dozen cat scans and MRIs which revealed that she has 2 disc problems in the neck now and the docs do not want to perform surgery at her young age.
At this point she’s had over 50 grand in medical bills without even going through surgery yet and has to go through every day in some degree of pain.

To make matters even worse, the lady who hit her was driving someone else’s Tahoe on which they were only carrying the minimum 25/50/25 policy; meaning medical payout from the insurance company is limited to 50 grand. Anything over that leads to the proverbial blood from a turnip scenario.

and the Cobalt is most likely safer than the Regal was, and the damage to the Regal was probably more than was initially seen.

OK’s daughter’s situation is why I carry un/underinsured motorist insurance. It doesn’t cost much more, even given the higher dollar value of the coverage, and will pay for itself, should something happen.

I Too Carry Uninsured And Under-Insured Coverage On Our “Fleet”. My Major Insurance Company Only Recently Offered The Under-Insured ( Disappointingly, They Were A Little Slow To Offer It. )

JT, That Cobalt purchase sounds like a good move, a good deal, too.

CSA

bi-digital door locks: you grab one side of the button with your thumb and the other side with your forefinger, then pull up!

Kinda like Armstrong power steering, ya know?

It’s got hand crank windows, too. Speaking of fleets, I have one too: 2003 Silhouette, 2005 Accord, 2009 Cobalt, 2010 Cobalt, and 2012 Cruze. Yeah, yeah, my oldest is buying the Cruze, but she still owes us the down payment, and still lives at home. It’s in the fleet.

OK, I hope your daughter can be fixed up. This is a great time to be alive, medically. doctors can do amazing things. And even if they can’t sometimes, others can. This same daughter had a headache for 2 years. Sometimes better than other times, but always a headache for 2 years. We finally took her to a massage therapist and after a few visits, they cycle was broken! Now, she hardly has headaches. I’m sure it was tension, and she just couldn’t relax. I’m not suggesting that massage therapy will work for your daughter, but other alternative therapies might work. Is her own insurance going to pick up when the other one peters out? I hope so.

CSA, it was a good deal - $17,000 2 years ago and less than $10,000 ($21 less!) on Monday. I wondered about the low mileage, given that the other 2010s advertised had 30,000 miles or more. I know it’s hard to believe, but CarFax cured that problem. It had been to the shop 6 times in 2 years. The mileage between each trip was about 19 per day. That gave me confidence that it hadn’t been in a significant accident. And all the body panels were straight when I looked it over. I even called the dealership the previous owner took it to for service and asked about the “battery and charging system service” that showed up 2 or 3 times. He said that it was SOP. And while he meant standard procedure, I know it was really Superior Owner Profit. CarFax can be useful.