Goodbye, Jetta

["Thomas J. Boyer" <cyng@lamere.net>]

Greetings.

   Well, I suppose that it, like death and taxes, was inevitible.

   This morning, on my way in to work, my 1995 Jetta GLX - black/black - 
was destroyed. I was headed northbound, in the right-hand lane, on U.S. 
Route 1 in Saco, Maine. At a small intersection - with only a blinking 
yellow present - there was a stopped cement mixer in the lefthand lane, 
waiting to turn left. I was already in the righthand lane, and so 
continued on at 40 mph. Waiting to leave the gas station - directly 
opposite the cement mixer's goal turnoff - was a Chevy pickup truck. As I 
neared the cement truck, a fellow in a silver, new-style Dodge Neon came 
across from the southbound turning lane and into the gas station. He 
hadn't seen me (through the cement mixer), and I hadn't seen him. He 
hadn't slowed down. Neither had I. There was nowhere to go, and no time 
to do it in. I hit his passenger's-side fron quarter panel, eradicating 
his passenger's-side front window (but not the passenger, thank God), and 
spinning him one hundred eighty degrees. I came to a halt just kissing 
the driver's-side front quarter panel of the truck who had been waiting 
to leave.

   As the airbag smoke filled my Jetta (and my lungs), I turned off the 
ignition, put the e-brake on (!), unbuckled my seatbelt, and forced my 
reluctant door open. I got out and looked in the windshield of the Chevy 
pickup truck to see a dazed man in his sixties starting to slide across 
his seat to the passenger's door. I walked around, opened it, and gave 
him a hand out. The two fellows in their mid-thirties got out of the 
Neon. Three police cars came, along with an ambulance and a fire engine. 
But nobody was seriously injured, thank the Lord.

   My front bumper was on the ground. What lay behind it was in small, 
scattered pieces, intermixed with the Neon's passenger's-side window. 
Coolant was steaming on my engine block, and gushing out from my smashed 
radiator. I mentally and unconsciously tallied my various mods as I 
looked the car over, making brief conjectures as to the state of each. 
The engine looked askew, and the intake manifold may have seemed curved a 
little more than it should have been. The hood was in decent shape - 
merely bent. The roof was dimpled. The driver's-side front wheel was 
somewhat askew. The headlights were completely gone, as was the grill.

   I found my VW grill emblem off to one side, lying in the coolant by 
itself. Slightly cracked. I picked it up.

   Of all the cool cars out there, it just had to be a Dodge Neon that 
was my undoing.

   All four involved in the accident walked away from it. The worst that 
I can imagine any of us having is a sprained joint or three and maybe a 
broken bone. I have a large welt on my left forearm, which makes that 
hand and wrist feel very arthritic. But everything works.

   I don't know if it's totalled or not. The adjustor will let me know. I 
suppose that it depends on whether the frame is out of whack ($), if the 
engine is damaged ($$), and how to front axle and transmission is ($). 
Bluebook value on the car - a 1995 Jetta GLX with all the fixing's, and a 
hair under 90K miles on the meter - is somewhere between $10K and $12K. I 
still owe about five grand on the loan. I almost hope that it is indeed 
totalled. It will never drive right again.

   I don't know what sort of shape the Neon is in. The last I saw of it, 
it was facing in entirely the opposite direction, with no 
passenger's-side window. The Chevy pickup truck got maybe $300 worth of 
quarter panel damage. It could have been driven away, except that the 
fender rubs the tire when the wheel is turned the wrong way.

   So, I don't know. There's a little, white, 1992 Cabriolet in good 
shape that I'm looking at. Five grand. That could work. I've wanted one 
in good shape for a while, as a project car. Too bad it had to happen the 
hard way (assuming that that's what happens).

   I'll lurk some more on this list, mainly because I think that you're 
all very cool folks.If my Jetter is repaired, I'll quite likely be 
posting, asking for advice regarding why this mysterious problem has 
arised or that one has occurred, the answers to which will always be, 
"Because it got smashed."

   In the meantime, it's been a cool couple of years with you guys. It's 
a solid little car, and drives like a wet dream. Be nice to yours. And 
wear your fucking seatbelt.

   -T
'95 Jetta GLX (black/black) - Dodge Neon feature added.

... Thomas J. Boyer (cyng@lamere.net)
...    Big dorkface guy.
... Webmaster, The Keep Games and Comics (webmaster@thekeeponline.com)
...    http://www.thekeeponline.com/
... Poobah, Aurealan Realms (cyng@aurealanrealms.org)
...    telnet://aurealanrealms.org:4000 
...    http://www.aurealanrealms.org/