Among other things, I got the second appraisal/estimate today. The other guy’s insurance seems to think it can be fixed. Of course, other guy’s insurance company spent maybe fifteen minutes looking at the car. The good news is that he cut me a check on the spot, which, according to my insurance company, means that they’ve accepted responsibility, though I’m not quite ready to cash it just yet.

After he left, I spoke to a bunch of people: the claims department at my insurance company, my actual agent, the estimator who came by on Saturday, and my mechanic down the street, looking for advice. I got a lot of advice. All of it indicated that yeah, the car’s probably totaled, and that at best, the repairs are going to be “not quite there”, involving spot-welding the rear-end of a junk car onto the back of mine. The can do amazing things with welds and paint these days, but it won’t be as safe as before – steel just doesn’t work that way. the rest of the advice, though, was mixed. Some told me to just process the claim through my collision insurance, and have my insurance company hound the other other company for the money, because, logically, if my insurance company thinks the car is salvage, they’re going to consider that when they decide how much they’ll insure me (or if they’ll insure it at all). The words “salvage title” really scare me. Others told me to bide my time with the other guy, because it’s clear to any reasonable person that the car is not fixable to a reasonable standard, and as the other guy valued my car at almost $1000 more than my guy, I’ll get more money in the end…it’ll just take longer. My agent tells me that neither option will raise my rates *more* (love that qualifier) than the other.

So, I got a third opinion. I called the body shop down the road (recommended to me by the estimator from my insurance company, and not one of the recommended by the other guy’s insurance company), and asked them to give it, and the other guy’s repair estimate a once-over, to see if it’s realistic. So, I limped the car a mile down the hill, and had them do that. Their opinion seems to match my guy’s – there’s a lot missing from the estimate, and that it’s not really worth fixing. They promptly came up with a supplement to the initial estimate that almost doubles it. The other guy’s insurance is gonna look over their stuff at some point this week, and in the meantime, I’m in a rental on the other guy’s dime. The resolution’s gonna take a while, but things look like they’ll eventually trend my way.

The rental’s nice, if kind of boring: a 2013 Chevy Cruze. GM finally managed to turn the Cavalier into a Honda Accord. It’s got a nice fit and finish, though the inside is a little too complicated. A car doesn’t need that many buttons. The XM radio is kinda neat, though – a channel with nothing but 80s hair metal DJ’d by an old Sunset Strip A&R guy is interesting. Still, I don’t think I’d buy one any time soon.

So, Yeah. That’s how I spent my first official furlough day of the summer; well, that, and getting word that I didn’t get selected for a job nearby that I was really kind of hoping I’d at least get an interview for. My plans for creative endeavors didn’t pan out this week, but perhaps I found some interesting grist for that mill down the road.