Thank Goodnes for Car Insurance

As most of you already know, I was involved in a car accident a week ago. As I was leaving my apartment someone back out of their parking spot in front of me. I didn't see them and I ran into them. They were driving a 1996 GMC Sierra 1500. I was driving my 2002 Toyota Camry. I was only going 10mph, or maybe 15mph. The impact was just above my bumper so it didn't absorb anything. This is what my car looked like.

It was declared a total loss because the headlight, bumper, both fenders, the hood, and the grill all needed to be replaced. Both doors needed to be painted. The radiator was severly damamged. There was also damamge to the belt and the brakes. And of course, there was hardly any damamge to their vehicle. This is what it looked like.

The good news is that we got more money than what we owed on the Camry. So my loan was paid in full and we were able to get enough to put a small down payment on a new vehicle. Let me tell you, going from two vehicles down to one vehicle is very very inconvenient. Brianne had to take me to work a couple of times so that she could have the car.

So over the weekend we went car shopping. We checked out several cars online before going anywhere. We went to a dealership in Portland to look at a Camry. When we got there we found out it had been wrecked in a test drive and would be in the body shop for a couple more weeks. So we test drove a 2010 Toyota Camry SE. It was really nice. However, we weren't prepared to buy it at that time because we were originally looking at the LE model. I didn't know much about the SE and I didn't know if I would get a good deal.

The next day we went to the Toyota dealership in Salem. Brianne was friends in high school with the car salesman. We found the same 2010 Toyota Camry SE. It was the same color, had the same options, and it had 2,000 miles less. They were asking about $1,000 more for it. But because we knew about the one in Portland we got them to drop the price. This is our new car. The SE model is sportier than the LE model. It comes with alloy wheels, and fog lights. The driver's seat also has adjustable lumbar support. This car is definitely a big upgrade from the 2002 Camry we were driving. We really enjoy it.