Thanks State Farm!

I was in a car wreck a couple weeks ago, and although it was a rather horrifying experience, this was the extent of the damage to my old tank. Two different agents at my insurance company told me that since there were so many vehicles involved (7), and since I had the least damage of all of them, that the accident-causer's policy probably wouldn't have enough money left over to fix my car too. Drat. I would've been happy just to get $100 to repair the blinker. A couple friends told me to pursue it - if he caused it he should pay - that it wasn't my fault he fudged up seven cars instead of just a couple.

But before I even had a chance to get the police report and call his insurance company, State Farm called me with some incredible news. For a number of reasons, they were going to take care of my car first. Their estimators said the damage was about $1600 (seriously, it didn't look that bad to me!). However, due to the age of the car, it was still "totaled". So I had two options:

1) Take the book value ($2100) and surrender the car to the insurance company.
2) Take the book value minus the salvage value ($1600) and keep the car.

Where do I sign??! If I were advertising it in the paper, I don't think I could get more than $500. It's an 1989 Grand Marquis, relatively low mileage, leather seats, power everything - it was my grandmother's and she hardly ever drove it and it never spent a night out of the garage, until I inherited it 2 years ago. So that added to the value. But it has since had some mechanical probs (including 'losing' 4th gear, doors won't lock, automatic windows won't roll down, etc).

Anyhoo... I'll be picking up my check just after the new year and will be buying a new car! Of course, it won't be new-new, but something manufactured in the current decade will be nice! I'm going to put most of my student loan money on it too. Yeah, I know I still have to pay it back - but I'll tackle that obstacle when my forbearance expires.

Thanks State Farm for the new car! Knock-on-wood, but I think that seven-car pileup is the best Christmas present ever!