Given your injuries, the truck owner owes you much more than the value of a 10 year old car. In addition to that, they owe you for your medical bills, time lost from work, time spent shopping for a replacement car, plus pain and suffering. When they make you an offer, take it to a personal injury lawyer for review. If the offer is reasonable, pay the lawyer for one office consultation and take it. If the offer is ridiculous, you may have to sign up with the lawyer, but that is a last resort. Just knowing that you will have any offer checked out by an experienced lawyer will discourage low ball offers.
When shopping for the car and a loan, check out several sources for each, not just one or two. The idea is to get them competing with each other. Don’t be afraid to say, point blank, that their competitor’s offer is X and they need to beat that if they want your business. If they don’t like that approach, walk out and don’t come back! You don’t need that attitude especially as there are others who will treat you right. If you own a house, consider a home equity loan to pay for the car. The interest rate will be lower and the interest is tax deductible.
Do your research to come up with a list of suitable car models. Consumer Reports is a good source. I also like to read road tests in car magazines such as Road & Track and Car & Driver. The public library probably subscribes to all three and keeps back issues. CR will tell about the practical aspects. The car mags will tell you what the car is like to drive. Then, of course, go for test drives.
If you are looking at used cars and find one you like, it is critical to have it inspected, at your own expense, by a competent, independent mechanic. Perhaps the one who fixed your old car would qualify. Unless you are an expert, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between a good, solid car and one that looks pretty but is fit only for the junk yard. If a dealer won’t agree to an independent inspection, walk away! It is a normal, reasonable request that any respectable dealer will honor.
I live in one of the 12 “no fault insurance” states. No fault laws prevent you from suing for damages “unless serious injury or death resulted from the accident”. A concussion is not considered a serious injury. So, no pain & suffering law suit is possible. The truck owner will be responsible for the value of my 10 year old car, my medical bills and will compensate me for time away from work - but that’s it. The fact that I suddenly have a car payment is just too bad for me. He gets to smash into me, and I get an unexpected car payment. Gotta love it.
I’ve found www.edmunds.com to be very helpful. This whole thread has been so very helpful! I’ve learned a ton. The video posted also mentions competitive bidding, and doing this over the phone sounds perfect for me since its hard to be out for very long.
Owning a house? Are you kidding…I barely own lightbulbs. I actually got some for my birthday from my ex husband.
I’m not familiar with no-fault insurance. Are you eligible for pain and suffering damages? If so, your insurance company can get some extra dough for you. I don’t think that enough to pay for your new Accent would be out of the question.
Well, the current scoop (because I know you’re all fascinated) is that the Hyundai dealer is giving me Edmunds TMV price and $1000 rebate. I suck at negotiating, so that’s good for me. Thank you guys and thank you to Edmunds! The mark up on a Accent is really small…so there isn’t much wiggle room. They did find me a better loan deal with a bank than I had with the credit union. Now I need to figure out if I want the extended warranty? It’s $1724 for a “comprehensive” warranty, beyond the powertrain warranty. It seems to cover everything except brake pads/shoes. It also includes rentals and roadside assistance. I will likely keep the car 10 years…if it lasts that long. But, I’d probably have to adhere to some strict maintenance schedule, which I would likely not do. So, perhaps I should bag it.
Skip the extended warranty. Don’t new Hyundais already have a ten year warranty? Besides, Hyundai makes cars that are nearly as reliable as Hondas and Toyotas and are no more expensive to repair. (Not that anything is cheap to repair.) At least half of the price of an extended warranty goes into the dealer’s pocket. That doesn’t leave much to cover repairs. If you can afford it, put the price of the extended warranty into a savings account and use it for repairs that would have been covered. Most likely, it will turn into a nest egg that you can use for a down payment on the Hyundai’s replacement or some other good purpose.
By the way, it’s important that you follow the service schedule in your owner’s manual. Neglect is a real car killer. However, don’t let the dealer talk you into extra things, not in the service schedule. They make big money for him but do nothing for you and your car.
Ok, and thank you for the advice. I’m so glad I started this thread. As far as following maintenance schedules…well…I sorta never have. I do take care of oil changes, and timing belts…but that’s about it. When a car of mine makes a funny noise, I take it to my mechanic. But that’s it. My last car was a civic. She was 10 yrs old, 130,000 miles and going strong (until she was slaughtered by a Mack truck). I’m probably guilty of cruelty to automobiles. I’ll try to be nicer to this new car.
Car maintenance schedules are based on multiples of some basic distance or time. Often, the distance is 7,500 miles and the time is 6 months. Just take the car in and tell them to do what the service schedule specifies for that distance or time.
The only exception to this is the oil change interval. If most of your driving is stop and go city driving for short distances, 7,500 miles is probably too long between oil changes. Just cut that in half and you will be fine. Most people fall into this category. If you are one of the minority whose driving is mostly highway and your trips tend to last at least 20 or 30 minutes, your oil will last 7,500 miles without problems.
Funny noises are a good reason to take a car to a mechanic for diagnosis. Any time a car sounds, feels or looks different, something has changed and it’s rarely for the better. One day, my wife noticed large fluctuations in our Subaru’s temperature gauge. It turned out that the head gasket was beginning to fail. (This is a common problem for late 90s Subarus.) Catching it early meant that we avoided damage to the head or block.
Since your Civic was still in good shape after 10 years and 130k miles, you must have been looking after it well. There are people who change the oil once a year, if they remember, and ignore strange noises until the car breaks down on the road.
Wow, I thought my accident was scary! As a Hyundai Accent owner (she’s sitting in body shop lot, waiting for the final word from the insurance company), I would recommend one. Not the biggest, flashiest or most powerful of cars around but pretty reliable. Good gas mileage, too.
“Believe it or not you can be compensated for recent repairs, to some extent, if you have receipts. You can reasonably “argue” that the car was in excellent condition or above average, more valuable, etc.”
Can you talk a little more about this. Within the last 10 months I’ve put almost $2500 into it and now it looks like they are gonna call my car a total loss. I definitely have all of my receipts.
Good common sense advice! My wife is medically trained and she takes the same approach to “nursing” her car. If a red light comes on, or the car misbehaves, she will immesdiately get off the road, stop the car and call me or the AAA.
Once her oil light came on, and after I reached her out of town, and checked the oil level, it was still full. The car made no unusual noises, so we carefully drove it to our mechanic, who found the oil light wiring had shorted out. Better a false alarm than a ruined engine!
A recent study on car repairs revealed the astonishing fact that 50% of all car repairs were either avoidable through good maintenance or not necessary, because the repair shop was either incompetent at diagonosing or outright dishonest.
A Consumer Reports survey of long term car owners also showed these high mileage car owners spent only about $500 a year on average on repairs. They probably avoided the wasted 50% mentioned above.
