The driver of the ford was on his phone.
I drive a 2001 Subaru Outback Sport and she's been a very nice car to me.
What drives me nuts is that the Blue Book value of the car is around $4,800 which is reasonable for a car of this age.
The problem, and what I find offensive, is the cost of repairs and how insurance companies handle these claims. If the cost of repairs exceeds 70% of the book value of the vehicle they are allowed to "total" it. Based on my prior experiences I'm expecting the cost of repairs to exceed $3400. So this means that even though I have a perfectly good vehicle, the cost of repairing it means it will get totaled and sold for parts.
So I have to wonder one of two things:
1) are vehicles devalued too quickly with respect to their lifespan?
2) are cost of repairs (labor) to high?
Now before you get all grumpy on me, understand that I accept that there are some parts that just are not worth repairing (i.e., compex items such as circuit boards). But repairing the body work on a car is something that primarily requires time not parts or extremely high precision equipment.
I also understand that the parts will be stripped and resold generating additional value and therefore there is a positive economic benefit.
I just get grumpy at the proposition that because someone was not paying attention I may be expected to give up the car that I've taken care of over the years even though I was expecting to keep her for another 5 or more years.
It seems that an individual's correct economic behavior is to either buy nothing but used cars or do the minimum amount of maintenance possible on their cars and drive them into the ground quickly rather than planning on keeping them in good shape. This latter approach seems to be an environmental mistake. and the first approach requires me to have faith that the original owner(s) took reasonable care of their vehicles. *sigh*
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