Off to the Body Shop and Home Again

[MineralMan]

Our cute little black KIA Soul had to go to the body shop last week. Someone (I won't say who out of politeness) managed to put a nice big dent in the right front door by parking right next to a vertical pole at a local Target store. Poor little KIA. So, after a call to our insurance company, off it went to a local auto body shop our agent suggested. First time I've ever had a car in such a place in over 55 years of driving.

Very nice folks there, who explained what needed to be done and how much it would cost. We'll be paying for that little bump for some time through higher insurance premiums, I suppose. Anyhow, after five days, a new door panel was in place and everything matches nicely and the repair is invisible, as it should be. It's like it never even happened, as the commercial says.

As part of the service at this particular shop, they do a basic detailing job on the car, as well. It hasn't looked that shiny and clean inside and out in the five year's we have owned it, frankly. That service wasn't on the detailed invoice, but, boy was there a lot of other stuff on that invoice. I never really thought about how many operations would be involved in making a dented car door look like new again. Wow!

Anyhow, some very skilled people worked on the car and returned it to us as good as new again. My thanks go out to all of them. We're out the deductible and don't know yet how much State Farm will jack up our premium, but we have our little car back. The person (still unidentified) who accidentally hit that pole in the parking lot has sworn off tight parking spaces forever, so the repair will be the last, I hope, before we trade the Soul in next June and get the latest version of that model.

I suppose we contributed to the employment of whatever workers did the work on our vehicle, so that's a good thing, I guess. I'd still rather not have had to do that, though.

Safe driving, everyone!

[monmouth4]

1. My younger son came down from Stuart to West Palm to see me and I noticed he went through the

parking lot across the street but then decided to park on the street. I mentioned it in passing and he said the other cars would be too close and would hit his door. It is a beautiful and newish car and is very careful of it. Sounds like you did get a good return from your expense, I love shiny..LOL.

[MineralMan]

3. Yup. People are careful with their shiny new cars.

Makes sense, really.

My 92-year-old father tells a story, though, about a farmer who lived not far from him. The guy bought a brand new pickup many years ago. The day he brought it home, he drove it down the rows of his citrus orchard, scratching up the paint on both sides of the truck. My father, who was an auto mechanic at the time at the dealership where he bought it, asked him, "How the heck did you scratch your new truck up like that? You just bought it."

The old farmer replied, "Well, I figured I might as well get it over with. It's gonna get scratched up anyhow, since it's a work truck, so why not just get it done right away and forget about it." Sensible, like farmers everywhere seem to be.

[onethatcares]

10. who'da thunk

a pickup truck would be priced at $47,995.00 MSRP?

In 1980 I bought a 1979 pickup for work, crew cab/8 ft bed, nice truck. Second day I had it I backed it into a pine tree and broke the brake light assembly and put a nice dent in the rear quarter panel. Never fixed it except for the taillight lens.

It was than I realised I wasn't allowed to have nice things.

But who the hell needs a Lincoln Mark 14 4 ft crew cabbed pickup truck????

[luvMIdog]

2. so you will feel better about the nameless person *grin*...

For several years I knocked the wing mirrors off our car several times a year backing out of the driveway gate. My ex did move the gate posts when he was really sick of that I also managed once to crash my van into his car really bad when a baby bottle rolled under my foot pedal.

Do you feel better now?

[MineralMan]

4. Well, it's just a car, after all. Nobody got hurt.

It's just a dent, and now it's gone. No sense stressing about it.

[luvMIdog]

5. :) Good attitude

[csziggy]

6. You might be surprised about the premiums

Two days after my father's funeral in 2013 my husband was in Atlanta for DragonCon. He turned left across PeachTree, trying to pull into a fast food place. Unfortunately, he was trying to turn into an exit only drive and someone was in the exit. He was T-boned, his car hesitated then fell over on the side that had not been hit so both sides were crushed up. Neither he or the people in the other car were injured but both were totaled by the insurance companies.

There was no doubt that my husband was at fault but our insurance company (Hartford) paid out generously and they never increased our premiums one cent. I was surprised but apparently Hartford has accident forgiveness on the policies they sell through AARP.

Of course we've had that policy for fifteen years and the only other claim was for a windshield replacement which was fully covered with no deductible.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, we've never had another claim in 25 years of being

customers of that insurance company. Maybe they'll be kind to us. It was only about $2000, after all. However, I doubt it. Oh, well.

[MedusaX]

8. You might consider thanking the undisclosed person for providing the opportunity for you to

have this 1st ever body shop experience...
something, as you pointed out, you had not yet accomplished in over 55 years.

In addition, this undisclosed person is also indirectly responsible for the unbilled (can't really call it free...) professional detailing....
which has restored the shiny 'soul' of your Kia and perhaps, with only a small bit of effort, will reap some future benefit at the time of trade-in.

Failure to recognize and express one's appreciation for the aforementioned opportunities would border on impolite....
and would essentially cancel out all of the energy spent on redaction efforts (made out of politeness) thus far.

FWIW
--On behalf of all undisclosed persons everywhere--

[MineralMan]

9. I think I will do just that.

Great idea!