Monday morning when I walked to my car, I discovered that it had been side-swiped over night. The drivers-side mirror was hanging limply from an electrical cord, and the car looked very dejected and sad.
I called Geico and filed a claim, they set me up with an appointment for this morning at a body shop and guaranteed a rental car.

I arrived at Pat's hi-tech auto body at 8:02am. Which was pretty impressive since it is 5 blocks north and 5 miles west of me and I didn't get out of my house until 7:40.

I was met my Ulysses "Chris" from Geico. He did a quick appraisal, said "Friday, probably" and had me sign some forms. then I met with someone from the auto body place and showed them the car. Then I sat and waited for 30 minutes. Then I met with the auto shop man again and he gave me a list of "pre-existing damage" to sign off on. i.e. all the things that are wrong with my car that they aren't going to fix. The list is long: scratches on both rear side doors. A small dent on the passenger side door. Dents and scratches along the bumper. A missing piece of glass, about the size of a quarter, in my right tail light, more scratches...and so on. Made me feel like a bad mother.

then I met with Maureen from Enterprise. She had me sign a bunch of forms and showed me to my interim vehicle. A back two-door 2005 Chevy Cavalier.

i drove out of the garage and then paused so I could adjust the seats. This took about 10 minutes as the controls are not conveniently located. Ditto the side mirrors.

Drove on. Noticed a few things about the car that make it Not. For. Me.

First, the front windshield is angled very steeply. Perhaps because I am not very tall and like to sit close to the steering wheel (others criticize me for this all the time, but it is how I am comfortable) the steepness of the glass creates a distortion. So it feels a little like there is a blurry spot in the middle of my vision.
Next, the car is much less sensitive to braking and much more so to accelerating than my car. My little prius needs me only to think about braking before it gently slows, this one needs me to stomp. Created some interesting moments on the highway.
Third, the steering well is, I think, supposed to be ergonomic. But as many of you may know, I have perhaps the smallest hands seen on an adult woman of average (read average American) stature. So the wheel is wider exactly where I want to put my hands. Too wide. Not too wide for me to hold at all, but too wide for me to hold without tension in my hands. Not fun. See above comment on highway driving.
Fourth, I have no idea what the heck the different light setting mean. No idea if I left the lights on.
Finally, there is this weird feature, apparently new and exciting. When you turn the car off, the radio doesn't turn off. This took me a while to figure out. Actually, I had to read the manual. I was so confused.

Chalk it up to more reasons why owning a car is a just a huge pain.
- posted by Heidi @ 9:55 AM