December 24, 2004 – Jen's Corner

Warning – there's approximately a bazilliion pictures under the cut. Well, ok, maybe only a dozen, but You Have Been Warned!

Well, last Friday we took the day off of work and went car shopping. We discovered that our main problem was a vehicle that would feel comfortable in the passenger seat and the driver's seat. You would think this would be easy, but it assuredly was not. It's important this time, as it's our only car, and the first one we've bought together – the Tercel and the Camaro came to the relationship as My Car and His Car.

I really liked the Toyota Matrix – it felt so much like my Tercel, except with a ton of space. But, it did feel a lot like my Tercel, which meant that Rob was scrunched a bit in both seats. The Toyota Highlander was great for him in the passenger seat, but even the farthest seat setting on the driver's side had the steering wheel uncomfortably close to his legs. The Rav4 – forget it. We also test drove a Mazda Tribute, which seemed to be a pretty decent fit for us. Finally, however, we settled on the Nissan XTerra.

It's… big. Not nearly as big as the Tahoe we first got stuck with as a rental. It (the Xterra) drives really nice. It does feel like a truck (not surprisingly) but it's certainly a comfy truck. Now we just have to convince the dog that he can get in – either that or find some sort of steps or ramp for him.

Surprisingly, the insurance on this beast is less than we were paying for the Camaro. Color me shocked.

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So, the insurance people coughed up the check, and now Rob will let me post the pics I took of the smooshed cars! We were stopped, waiting for the construction truck to get out of the way. A witness said he saw the other car's back end come completely off the ground when he hit. It must have slewed sideways at that point, because he was more than half blocking the left lane. Good thing there was a turn lane there as well, or we'd have seriously backed up traffic. The cars were not coming apart – it took both the tow truck winch and attempting to drive the camaro to get them unstuck.

In this one I'm standing where the skid marks started. I'm still not exactly sure how he hit us, but it didn't look like it was straight on. I think that if it was straight on, we would have been seriously hurt. Oh yah – they guy was 82.

Skid marks again.

I'm pretty sure wheels aren't supposed to go like that.

Our car didn't look that bad. But apparently some Important Bits were now U-shaped – and they weren't supposed to be.

I've learned something about myself. When Jen is in a wreck, she cusses like a pissed off drunken sailor for a few minutes, then is extremely calm. Huh. Who knew?