My car is named Tom after my former boss, who as mentioned above, died on the very day I bought my car. A nice memoriam in my own way, or a stupid curse on my car.
Tom was great for a few weeks. Not really what I had in mind for my first car, but still, very nice. It didn't even take three weeks for the first "accident". While parked outside my sister's apartment, someone decided to ram their car into my driver-side door. Caused over $1000 of damage. Luckily, the girl left a note and paid for the repairs out of her pocket. All was well for a while.
Little things started messing up on my car as well. The handle to the hatch-back door broke. The windshield fluid dispenser lost pressure. Fan belts started cracking.
Then summer of 2008, I was rear-ended in rush hour traffic by a driver towing cars to Mexico. Naturally, being from Mexico, he didn't have insurance. Naturally, my car had scratches and a light ripped out, his truck had absolutely NOTHING wrong with it. The cops came and wrote him a ticket, but told me I was outta luck and shouldn't expect anything from him. So my dad bought a new light and installed it himself, and I left the scratches all over my bumper.
Then my hatch handle broke, again. Luckily we were still under warranty, so we could get that fixed without paying. Then there was debris in the road on I-35 one day and I ran over an 18-wheeler tire-tread at about 50 MPH. Messed up something in my wheel. I continued to drive on it that way, but it got to be ridiculously loud anytime I drove my car.
Then my car got towed while at a friend's apartment for a late movie. When I finally get out to the tow yard around 1AM, my debit card is rejected because someone had stolen the number earlier in the day. Two days after that I get a ticket for going 5 MPH over on the highway. That was also Nov. 1, 2008, which if you know me and my passion for Longhorn football, was possibly the worst day of the year.
I resolved the debit card stuff, took defensive driving, and got the ticket erased. I had my car back, but there were still scratches on the bumper from the rear-ending and a messed up front wheel from running over the tire-tread. Then my car was hit just a bit in the school parking lots one day. A hand-sized ding in the driver's side door. At this point I didn't even care.
And then, of all things, a bicyclist runs into my parked car. If only I could be making this up. They left a note, but no contact information, the irresponsible pathetic little bastard. It said,
PLEASE Forgive me
I wreked on my BIKe
When The Bike lane Ended
ABruptly.
Out oF work can't AFFord
TO MAKe Recompense.
(Capitalization, spelling, and punctuation are author's own.)
Yes, I kept the note. I like to read it when I'm feeling whiny. Anyways, this cyclist put a body-sized dent in my rear passenger door, left scratches down the back half of the car, pulled framing off of the window, and busted out a side window. My dad, being awesome, took my car to the shop and got the window replaced and we finally got the wheel problem from earlier fixed. Another $800 or so into fixing my car.
And then the gas tank cover on my car broke. That same day, my hatch handle broke, yet again.
And then... God, I'm saying that a lot.
A couple weeks ago, my car failed inspection because I needed two new tires. Of course there are only about two models of cars in the world that need my type of tires, so they're rare. After the third tire store and about $450, I had two new tires, and my car passed inspection.
To top it all off, last week I got a letter in the mail that they want me to be a State's witness in a case against a one Mr. Caballero-Galan, aka the Mexican driver who rear-ended me a year-and-a-half ago. Apparently he's hired a lawyer to contest the tickets he received for the wreck and not having insurance. I guess he thinks I won't show and he'll win the case and not have to pay. Guess again, a-hole.
So now, I'm going to court over my car. I've had this car for only 4 years, I'm still making payments on it. I don't feel like I should be getting this much trouble from it! It's a small car! Not that big of a target! How do people keep hitting it?! I honestly would not be surprised if I walked out from work one day and half of my car was missing. It's sad that I almost wish for that scenario because I feel like it would be a fresh start. I intend to finish the payments on my car and drive this one into the ground. I only hope that Tom can at least hold out until he's paid-in-full.
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