I’ve sorta told this story before. Back last fall I bought a low mileage very new used car. But it couldn’t be delivered for a couple weeks so I was still driving my old one. Which I intended to sell back to the dealership for a pre-arranged price once I had my new one. Call it a “delayed trade-in.”
It’s Friday afternoon. My new car should be delivered to my house on Monday. I’m on the freeway in thick but fast afternoon traffic when 70mph suddenly turns into stopped. I stop before whacking the guy in front of me, but it was close. The guy behind me plows into my previously pristine trade-in.
That was the bad news. Now the good news.
- Nobody was hurt.
- Nobody was angry.
- His car was a dealer loaner he was driving while his almost new car was in the shop for some teething issue, so his own newish car was undamaged.
- The dealer’s loaner was a total loss, but not his problem to fix.
- My old car was promptly totaled by my insurance company for significantly more than I’d have traded it in for on Monday. So no fighting with the other insurance company(ies) about who’s paying for my wrecked car.
- Best of all, my new car wasn’t even there and so was undamaged. Had the same thing happened on Monday afternoon to my brand new car I’d have been crying.
- My new car was delivered timely on Monday so I only needed 2 ubers all weekend to make up for the loss of the old one on Friday.
I’ve been in a few crashes over 50 years on the road, but this one is by far the best experience I’ve ever had. Most profitable too. 