Spent the afternoon with Toyota going through different cars and options. Ended up reserving a Yaris Hybrid.
The car I was looking at had been sold by another salesperson two hours ago, but their credit check had failed, so they were running a check against another company. If that passes, they get first dibs on the car.
So I looked at another Yaris Hybrid. Slightly older, but less mileage, and £500 more -- BUT, it looked like it had been treated MUCH better than the other car. It had leather seats meaning it's likely to get extra hot in sunny weather.
Got my first cheque in the post from Aviva the insurance company the other driver is part of. Now waiting for the second cheque from the Salvage agents.
Also got a refund from DVLA for the remainder of my road tax since the car is now written off.
My car was picked up and the salvage agent drove off into the distance in the pouring rain....
He drove out with fuel leaking from my car as he drove the card hard up against the van's ramp and it made lots of scraping sounds as he was trying to force the broken bits of my car up the ramp too. The ramp was wet, so also lead to my car's wheels spinning.
He tried to avoid signing the V5C, saying the office would sort it but I insisted he sign (I can do the SORN online, but would rather have something in writing in case).
I did the SORN online (https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle if you're curious) and got the confirmation from the DVLA that I'm no longer the owner of the vehicle, but will get a letter in the post. I still have the Section 9 from the V5C but will not need to send it apparently.
The pouring rain continued throughout the whole day and after I finished work, so no after-work walk as I normally do and have been doing every day after work.
I did do my FitBit workout though. 29 minutes today.
V5C completed and my car was supposed to be picked up today, got called saying the driver had called in sick and has been rescheduled for tomorrow.
Bizarrely, my insurance company emailed saying that my car had already been collected, which it obviously hadn't. But that's probably just because it's automated.
Went for my walk and did the long loop. Co-op had no queue, my local fruit n veg did, but not as big as it normally does. Tesco Express petrol station had a small queue, Sainsbury's had a relatively big queue, but also not as big as it normally does. Tesco Express Supermarket, had a reasonably sized queue and Aldi surprisingly had no queues.
So far, out of all the car brands I've queried about new vehicles, only Toyota have replied and been engaging with my queries. I guess my next vehicle will be a Toyota.
Another walk in nice weather. Did the longer walk today. Queues outside the local fruit n veg. No queue outside Co-Op (though there was on the way back). Small queue outside Tesco Express petrol station, big queues outside Sainsbury's no queue outside Tesco Express supermarket, and small queues outside the butchers and the fruit n veg stores nearby to there.
Did my shopping this morning. Missed my usual 5:30am queue up and ended at the Tesco at 6:15am and there were no queues. No idea why, there's normally queues until past 6:30am at least.
And the shelves were pretty well stocked up. So perhaps the panic buyers have finally bankrupted themselves.
This will be the final weekend with my car since it will be being picked up Monday for recycling. So I made sure everything was emptied out of the car today. Out of curiosity, I turned on the ignition (but not the engine) and the electrics all came on and the radio was fine and still had its memory of my stations, and there were no warning alarms. Whether the car is driveable or not, we'll find out when the salvage agent comes on Monday.
So, it was finally confirmed. My car is written off after being assessed by the insurance engineers. Interestingly, they were also on lockdown so had to make the assessment using the photos I had taken from the accident.
They have valued my car at £3000. Which isn't too bad I guess. It's better than nothing.
The car next to me that was also involved was also written off, to the value of £2200. So that's £5200 being claimed against the insurance of the other driver. The two cars other cars affected in the accident will probably claim the cost of their repairs, which I'm not sure how much that will be. Probably in the 1-2K region, so that's at least £6200 in total.
Then there's the driver's own car's damage. Assuming it's not written off, the damage is probably another K at least. So £7200 of cost on the driver's own insurance.
That drink he had is proving to be rather expensive.....
My car is going to be towed to disposal on Monday, with the other written off car to be towed tomorrow (Friday)
I've already started making enquiries to different dealerships in my area looking for hybrids with a size about the same as my Fabia, or possibly the size of an Octavia. Contacted Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda.
So far, only Toyota have come back and they've suggested the Corolla. But I'll have to wait until they open up again so I can take a look at it closer.
4.70km walk (though my FitBit lost GPS for a while so the tracking was all over the place). No FitBit workout after the walk.
Insurance came back this morning and confirmed my car is a writeoff. The assessors called in the afternoon and valued my car at just over £3000. Considering it's an 09 plate, that isn't too bad, I think. Will discuss with family before giving the go ahead. The car next to mine is also written off, with value of £2200. Meaning a total of £5200 will be claimed from the third-party insurance, and that's not including the damage from the other two cars, and the driver's own car.
Got the hire car a few hours after approving the documents. Got a Vauxhall Corsa. Feels weird in a new car with different handling, but I guess it's only temporary.
Called the hire car company and they confirmed it would be no cost to me, even though the docs are worded really weirdly. Apparently, they are required to display the costs, even though they are going to be recovered from the third party.
3k walk today, which took me about 30 mins, then I decided to take up FitBit's offer to a 3 month trial of Premium, which included access to FitBit Coach (which I used previously). Picked up where I left off and resumed my "Get Lean" program. Today's workout was also 30 mins long and definitely made me sweat. God, I'm so out of shape... :-(
In other news, I finally got called by my insurance company and have so far spent two hours on the phone with different companies -- the insurance company, the accident claims management company partnering the insurance company and the assessors who are responsible to checking whether the car is repairable.
My dad's car, which was also damaged has been declared a writeoff, even though it suffered less visible damage than my car. Mine hasn't been declared written off yet, although I've sent all the videos and photos I have to the assessors. We shall see whether or not I need to get a new car....
I’ve been finding the same driver driving at 10-20mph on 30-40mph roads on the way into work in the morning, and it is driving me (and a lot of other drivers) nuts. Sure, I can overtake him (and I do, just like lots of other people), but he just doesn’t seem to get the hint. Dangerous overtaking? No, there’s pretty much no-one on the road at 6am in the morning where I am.
People tell me I should use public transport to save on money, so I decided to check cost differences.
To use buses only, would take me 2 hours on a good day, and on a bad day, possibly 3 hours to get from one end to the other. A single bus fare would cost me £2.40 (2 buses), costing £24 a week.
To use underground only, would take me 1.5 hours to 2 hours on an average day. I have to travel from Zone 5 to Zone 1. I travel during the peak so that costs me £4.60 each way, total of £9.20 per day, or £46 per week.
If I wanted the flexibility of using both, a monthly season ticket between Zones 1 and 5 costs me £205.10 or £51.28 per week.
Buses, so far are the cheapest option, but they are the slowest (at 2-3 hours) and are most prone to have disruptive commuters (school kids, drunks, smokers)
But what about if I use a car? In a car it takes me 30-45 minutes to get to work in the morning, and about the same to get home. If I hit a peak of traffic, it maybe, at worse, 1.5 hours. Compare that to a 1.5 hours BEST case on the underground and 3 hours WORST case on the buses.
Here’s my breakdown of costs:
Diesel: Approx £16 pw – I fill up every 3 or so weeks, and on everage, it is about £16 per week of fuel
Road Tax: £0.39 pw (£20 per year)
MOT: £1.05 pw (£54.85 py)
Service (Full): £6.05 pw (£314.36 py) – including work done. If no work actually needs to be done, then this is much lower.
Tyres (4): £4.58 pw (£238 py) – assuming I have to change all tyres at least once a year. Not likely as I don’t do too much mileage, and I have only had to change the tyres once since buying the car.
Insurance: £8.65 pw (£450 py)
Total Cost Per Week: £36.72
So, even with the worst case scenario (lots of work to do on the service and yearly replacing of the tyres), my weekly running cost is STILL less than a season ticket on the Public Transport (and I also get to and from work a HELL of a lot faster).
Been a while since I last posted anything related to bad driving, but here’s one. A Mercedes grew impatient waiting in line (don’t they always?), cut out of line, jumped several cars, cut in, then turned left. Video below
Honda has recalled 1.8m cars around the world after a scare over an airbag in another manufacturer's vehicle but made by its supplier Takata.
The Japanese company said the recall covered five models made between 2001 and 2003: the Accord, Civic, CR-V, Jazz and Stream. In Europe 154,000 cars are affected and 45,000 of those are in the UK.
