Re: Goodbye, Jetta

[CJI <inver1@pacbell.net>]

Thomas,
Glad to hear no one got seriously hurt, save for your beloved GLX. Keep us
posted about the doings with your insurance company. I'm sure it will be
interesting.

Good Luck,

Chris
60mile production

"Thomas J. Boyer" wrote:

> 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/