Goodbye Vibe!

Within the next couple of days we will be signing over the title on our much-loved but very smashed up white Vibe. It was a really good, reliable car for us and we had hoped to keep it for years to come (even though it would have become our "back-up" car since a van will get used on a daily basis with 3 kids). But the cost of repairs on the damage are more than the Vibe is worth (so according to the insurance companies it was a "total loss"). So this morning I cleaned out all our personal belongings from it (gosh! a lot of stuff has piled up. and it was not exactly clean inside!) and handed the keys over to the dealer. They will be releasing it to the insurance company that we accepted the "settlement offer" from. I was able to get settlement offers from both our & the other drivers insurance companies and choose the best offer. So we will be getting a healthy check from insurance (plus the other drivers insurance is covering our rental car costs). And a mini-van will be joining our family very, very soon.

This is not the scenario we would have chosen. But (in spite of all the time-consuming phone calls to multiple insurance companies) it worked out really well. We were not hurt in the crash. We were surrounded by good Samaritans after the crash. The other driver did not dispute the fact that it was his fault. We are getting more money for the car through insurance (post-crash) then we would have been able to sell or trade it for (pre-crash). The rental is being paid for. We did not have to pay any sort of deductible. And we have our eye on a gently used van being sold here in Seattle. More details to come on that within the next few days.