R.I.P. Saturn - HELLO Honda!

Many of you have already heard this story through Facebook or from seeing me day to day, but I just have to blog about it for memory sake! Last Monday, the first day of Spring Break, Adam was in an accident on his way into work. When I went to bed the night before, I certainly did not envision the day I was going to have. Adam called me a little after 7AM to tell me that he'd been in the accident.
 




A car cut off the van in front of Adam, which caused the van to slam on its breaks. Luckily Adam was able to stop in time, but the car behind him wasn't so fortunate. He slammed into Adam (and by the looks of it attempted to swerve or miss him) and sent the Saturn under the van in front of him.



Luckily Adam was okay and unharmed. He was stopped when the car hit him going 55mph (the accident was on I-95), but luckily the car just clipped him and it wasn't straight on. I got emotional when I saw the car for the first time when Autumn and I went to pick Adam up at the repair center. No, I wasn't emotional because of how serious it was or how Adam could have been seriously injured... but my parents gave me that car! All the Mattingley children have been given cars when we got married and that was the one I inherited. My parents drove it out to me in Utah a few months before our wedding. It'd been a great little car.

Once we heard how much we would be receiving for the car (much more than we'd hoped - about a thousand more...) it was time to shop! I don't buy new (nor could we afford it) and I wanted to avoid buying from an individual or one of those side of the road dealers. Given our small budget, I tried a few big dealerships and settled on a car at a small rinky dinky lot in Warrenton, VA. However, the night before we were set to go looking I thought I would give the dealerships around here a try, just in case. I was so glad I did!



I found a 2000 Honda Civic with only 117k miles on it for an exceptionally good price (our favorite mechanic said between Honda, Toyota and Saturn, a Honda was the way to go as far as repairs and life of the car). I called to make sure it was still there and my Dad and I went over to test drive it while Adam was at work (driving the rental car provided by the other drivers insurance company). When we got there however, apparently it was being serviced with new brakes and tires. Sad day! I am not very patient when it comes to an idea I want to execute. I was not prepared to wait! I gave the dealer my information, pushed a little bit (this was a Tuesday, they were trying to tell my Dad and I new brakes and tires wouldn't be done until Friday) and hoped for the best.


Thursday (huzzah!) my agent called to tell me that the car was ready! Once again, my Dad and I drove to the dealership and finally got to see the car in person. What a beauty! For a 2000, the body was in excellent, like new condition. SHINY. We gave it a drive and I was sold. My Dad ran his new machine and checked the car for any codes or emission problems and it came back clear. My dad even said "This car is too nice for Adam."


We sat down and talked numbers. I ended up paying the sticker price, which was fine by me. They had just put in almost $1k worth of work into it and it was such a steal to begin with. However, since they wouldn't come down on the price my Dad helped haggle for a standard used car warranty (90 days) as they were going to sell it as is. We signed the dotted line and after a quick celebratory lunch with my Dad while the car was detailed, I drove away with our brand new (to us!) Honda Civic.

2 comments

  1. Congrats! We bought a very similar one (on '01), same color a year and a half ago and we love it! Sorry about your old car though. Glad Adam was okay.

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  2. Congrats on your 'new' car! Looks like it will be a fun ride for ya.

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