80,000 mile check in

[cowboy1948]

I just passed the 3000 mile mark today.

[Stormyone]

I have 37k on mine, got it May of 2010... I plan on putting 300k on this car... at least... I have enjoyed every mile driven, thus to me its not a waste.....

[CUPRA]

I'm knocking on the door of 9800 miles in 13 months. I've got a ways to go to catch up!

[squat]

Congrats on the miles

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Bigd2000

Not trying to start an argument just calling it like I see it. How much money is your Camaro making you while it sets in the garage? Factor in a 40k car sitting in the garage while you drive and maintain another vechicle is not to economical.

Normally none. Consider my scenario though, albeit I understand its somewhat unique. Early 2010 I owned a what was once 575k house. Needless to say my house was under water but I could make the payments, so I did. Then something happened I didn't foresee, I woman running a stop sign and hitting me with her Mustang while I was on an afternoon run.

The result of that accident was a complete compound fracture. The driver's insurance company was trying to give me the run around on medical payments so I knew I would have to pay for the medical costs up front. So I had a decision to make; make the payments on my house and let the arm go to hell; let the house now worth 231k go to hell and fix the arm. That's a hell of a choice, lose your house or lose your arm? Considering in Arizona creditors can't come after you for your mortgage but they can for the medical bills. Given that I like my arm a lot more than an upside down mortgage I decided to pay the medical bills instead.

Now here is where the Camaro comes in. In 2010 I had a Mustang GT with 91,000 miles. I needed a new car anyways and at the time I was driving 8 miles to work. That coupled with the fact that installment loans are the second best credit you can have I decided to put 20k down and get my Camaro. I got legal consultation before I made my decisions and understood the credit, legal and tax implications of all scenarios before hand. Ultimately I let the house go, although after it was gone I did get reimbursed for medical from the Mustang driver's insurance. So basically I killed three birds with one stone; that house is gone, my arm (albeit with lots of metal) works again and I have my dream car. The longer than Camaro loan stays (along with my other credit items) open and current the more it not only props my credit but repairs it as well. That's how a useless Camaro is a good financial decision.

[mcdoogle6969]

Damn, makes me feel like I don't drive mine a lot. I got her on 5/21/09 and she is just over 10,600 miles.

[One Mean Chevy]

WOW!!!!!!!!

Is it a Stick?

[mcdoogle6969]

Originally Posted by TOMS1SS

Normally none. Consider my scenario though, albeit I understand its somewhat unique. Early 2010 I owned a what was once 575k house. Needless to say my house was under water but I could make the payments, so I did. Then something happened I didn't foresee, I woman running a stop sign and hitting me with her Mustang while I was on an afternoon run.

The result of that accident was a complete compound fracture. The driver's insurance company was trying to give me the run around on medical payments so I knew I would have to pay for the medical costs up front. So I had a decision to make; make the payments on my house and let the arm go to hell; let the house now worth 231k go to hell and fix the arm. That's a hell of a choice, lose your house or lose your arm? Considering in Arizona creditors can't come after you for your mortgage but they can for the medical bills. Given that I like my arm a lot more than an upside down mortgage I decided to pay the medical bills instead.

Now here is where the Camaro comes in. In 2010 I had a Mustang GT with 91,000 miles. I needed a new car anyways and at the time I was driving 8 miles to work. That coupled with the fact that installment loans are the second best credit you can have I decided to put 20k down and get my Camaro. I got legal consultation before I made my decisions and understood the credit, legal and tax implications of all scenarios before hand. Ultimately I let the house go, although after it was gone I did get reimbursed for medical from the Mustang driver's insurance. So basically I killed three birds with one stone; that house is gone, my arm (albeit with lots of metal) works again and I have my dream car. The longer than Camaro loan stays (along with my other credit items) open and current the more it not only props my credit but repairs it as well. That's how a useless Camaro is a good financial decision.

Sorry to hear about your situation, hopefully your arm keeps gets better!

Curious though, since it was obviously her fault for hitting you, couldn't you have had the chance to sue her and have all the medical bills paid by her/her insurance company?

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by mcdoogle6969

Sorry to hear about your situation, hopefully your arm keeps gets better!

Curious though, since it was obviously her fault for hitting you, couldn't you have had the chance to sue her and have all the medical bills paid by her/her insurance company?

A large part of what I do for a living is negotiate workman's comp and general loss claims. The holdup was that her insurance company wanted a total dollar figure on medical costs before anything got paid out, that's not unusual. Mind you my medical payments were somewhat reduced but I still had to pay my dedectible and things like reasonable and customary charges. Ultimately, I ended up with her policy maximum (which payed the bills, plus some) and would have netted far less with lawyers fees tied into a lawsuit. Believe me the patience paid off but it was nerve racking.

[squat]

Originally Posted by TOMS1SS

A large part of what I do for a living is negotiate workman's comp and general loss claims. The holdup was that her insurance company wanted a total dollar figure on medical costs before anything got paid out, that's not unusual. Mind you my medical payments were somewhat reduced but I still had to pay my dedectible and things like reasonable and customary charges. Ultimately, I ended up with her policy maximum (which payed the bills, plus some) and would have netted far less with lawyers fees tied into a lawsuit. Believe me the patience paid off but it was nerve racking.

Glad it all worked out in the end

[TRC-SS]

Originally Posted by PieNsky

Damn, I hope I don't vex myself. Only a tail light went out so far.

Damn......Guess you love driving your car.


PS.....can you please either post some pictures or send me a pm of your car with Revolutions hood on it, Thats the hood im thinking of getting and i was trying to find an inferno orange car with no stripes with that hood. Thanks Man

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Comrando

You deal with insurance companies yet you have no insurance?

No wonder no one trusts insurance companies.

Yes in fact I did have insurance. You still have to pay your dedectibles, out of pocket and what your insurance company deems are "customary and reasonable charges. None of that stuff is cheap especially when the company you're working for at the time considers a low dedectible $3,000 dollars and low out of pocket $4,800. In total the bill without insurance would have been over 50k, I paid maybe about 12k with all three of those variables factored in. Like I said, in the end I was more than happy with the total outcome.

I didn't even mention that in the ER they had to sandpaper all the road tar out my face, not to mention they tried setting my arm with pain killers (concussion). Fun part was the three months of rehab I did on that left arm after I got a 6 inch plate with 9 screws. I got 98%-99% of the original range and 100% of the strength back in my left arm as of now, with only minor pain on exercises that involve pulling.

Originally Posted by squat

Glad it all worked out in the end

Me too, the only reason I had that Mustang GT was due to the fact I got it off an even trade on my truck. I tried to make the logical choice with that house and passed up an 06 GTO for it. I guess things happen for a reason.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Comrando

You paid $12K when someone else was responsible? And lost your house?
That sucks. Were you able to keep your job?
No wonder no one trusts insurance companies.

I just paid up front, like I said its standard procedure for an insurance company to get a final tab on medical costs before offering a settlement. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit like any other. All anyone ever hears about in the news is the extreme cases where settlements are in the millions. Settlements like that almost never happen, hence why its news.

The great irony is that I wanted that house gone, losing 340k in value over 4 years does that. Mind you re-negotiation didn't work because I was current on my payments and a short sale offer fell through. CNBC used the term "strategic foreclosure" for what I ended up doing.

As for the company that I worked for. Let's just say they made it pretty clear they didn't think someone with use of one arm couldn't keep the position. As such I only took one week leave for my surgery when the plate was installed and I worked through my rehab. No way in hell was I losing my job that I had for 5 years because of a broken arm. Thankfully opening the car loan on my Camaro allowed me to keep a reasonable credit score that allowed me to move on to the next level of my career about a year down the line.

To give you guys an idea what I'm talking about with the injury (yes the bread did start falling out) here are some semi-gruesome photos from various points after I got run over:

[Red Jewel RS]

Interesting story Tom. Thanks for sharing.