Advice/Venting: My car was destroyed by hail
So we had baseball-sized hail suddenly come through my city a few days ago, and everyone at my work got to watch our cars get destroyed from the front windows. I opened a claim immediately after the hail stopped and could go take pictures, but still haven't heard anything other than that an agent was assigned.
City-wide, body shops are already talking about having a year-long backlog and having to triage repairs that don't affect immediate drivability. I've heard people talk about them being totaled already. Rental cars are hard to come by, because they not only have huge demand but had damage as well. The county is petitioning FEMA, because houses were damaged as well.
I'm just in a depressive waiting state, where I don't know how things will start to play out yet, with my undrivable car sitting at the office with trash bags taped over it while I work from home. And my old backup car (almost 20 years old), which was slated for one of the stepdaughters to receive once she gets her license, also had extensive damage making it unsafe to drive. My fiancée's car survived, being on the other side of town at the time, but she has a very busy schedule to the next few weeks.
I had the realization that every car I've ever bought myself was just destroyed, and I get fairly attached.
The Civic Sport Touring (2017), I still owe about $4000 on and expected to pay off this year. It's thoroughly dented across the whole body, with a completely shattered (to the point it's opaque) windshield, broken mirror assemblies, 2/3 cameras are probably broken, a tail light is broken down to the LED board, and the moonroof assembly appears to be bent and sagging slightly, probably from the roof and side parts being bashed so heavily. Not sure how much water got in during the ensuing torrential downpour.
Realistically, it being to totaled seems likely, given the cost of many of the parts. Which means I'm going to be stuck buying new, because used ones are a relative rarity (I jumped to buy mine when it showed up in stock) and there's barely a price difference these days.
I'm curious if anyone else here has had experiences with that sort of thing or knows what to expect.
Start looking for used cars yesterday, I guess, would be my advice. Might manage to beat the onslaught of people waiting for their insurance to pay out, so if you can front the cash, absolutely do it.
RIP your baby, too, I know Id feel the same.
Yeah, I've started looking a bit and exploring options. Realistically, I can't really get a comparable vehicle without an insurance payout right now, unless I want to be stuck with high monthly payments even after that comes in.
But, more optimistically, that model of car is usually unobtainium on the used market and goes for far too close to the price of new ones. And the dealer has several of those coming in. So I'll at least have the opportunity to go for one of those, assuming the payout less the remaining loan amount is a good starting down payment. I'm very glad I was aggressively overpaying on that. (It was a four year loan and I came close to knocking it out in a two year span.)
At least my company is understanding about office attendance and I can work from home without their usual percentage-in-office requirement as long as I keep management in th loop.
Hm. Interesting.
I think my bank (TD, which doesn't even have physical branches where I moved) is known for having fairly poor rate offers for auto loans (~7% with excellent credit), and I've gotten 3.9-4.9% from Honda.
Refinancing is an intriguing idea though, but not something I've done before.
Not sure if you have any around, but I bank through a local credit union and they had better rates than the dealership when I bought my car ~5 years ago.
Not sure how relevant that is given how much has changed over the past 5 years, but maybe worth shopping around for better rates.
Yeah, I'll keep an out for that. That's actually how I bought my first car: it was old and cheap enough banks wouldn't do a small loan, so I opened an account at a credit union (not in this state) and got a small loan, which helped me get started building credit.
This was my general thinking too, BUT the last three cars we bought, the dealer beat our bank rate. I think having a number from the bank is good to drive the price of the loan down, though.
Ah cool at least youve got a plan lol
Ive got this 2000 honda and I started working from home during covid so I really just never had any need for a newer car, I only drive this car once or twice a week. If something happens to this car my plan is to rely on my husbands for a bit while I look for a 2018ish honda fit with a manual trans bc I read up on it and a honda fit is an almost 1:1 replacement for my honda, which is really hard to find, as no one sells manual trans cars in the us any more. My honda is just a commuter car with a 1.6L engine and the honda fit is an almost exact match for that, just the body style is different, my honda is a coupe.
I highly recommend the Fit. My 20-year-old car is one, and it feels like something between a rally car and a golf cart. It's fun and absurdly practical: when I moved in and out of my dorm twice a year in college, I dropped the seats and carried just about everything in one trip.
My fiancée's previous car was also a 2017 Fit, and it was also a great car, up until it successfully protected its passengers from an Eclipse that ran a red light at 60+ mph.
I know! But they stopped making them in the US in 2018 and so the longer my car keeps on goin the more I may have to look for another option. I don’t have a spot in my drive way for another commuter car.
That's why the OP's situation makes me so sad... I love Civics and it hurts to know theirs is borked, but also I have a '19 Si (6-spd) and it's AWESOME and I have no idea how I'm going to cope without manual transmission when I need another.
Also I'm super pissed that you can easily get a hybrid manual in Europe but not here. Might have to start saving up for one of those because importing with all the changes is super $$$. :(
I got one last long trip out of it, at least. Drove 12 hours to Colorado and proposed at the top of Pike's Peak in mid April. We took the train up rather than driving, though.
SIs and Type Rs are still on the new market in the US, and manual only, but I suspect they're also not super common used in most places.
I'm probably looking at the Hybrid Sport Touring. Different vibe than the turbo, but should be very familiar. I wish they'd keep the more aggressive Gen 10 styling though.
I think its cause in the US commuter cars are meant to be good for sitting in traffic and a manual in traffic is not very fun.
I work from home though, so no traffic for me. I drive twice a week and a manual suits my needs just fine. I’m sure theres millions of people just like me by now with a use for a manual trans commuter car but it seems they gave up just before covid and haven’t revisited.
Maybe the cars are, but the amount of people I see on their phones or just flat out not paying attention to traffic makes me need to point out the problem is actually the people, not the cars. No matter how smart your car is, you should be paying attention to the traffic and your surroundings, despite how boring that may be.
Well like the people are the problem with everything though lol we could have a perfect functioning government if it wasn’t made up of us pesky illogical people
Update: At last, I got the insurance process worked out, and purchased a new Civic Sport Touring. (With the optional spoiler, because you can't have a Civic without one.)
https://i.postimg.cc/Qt4H215L/IMG-6602.jpg
This is my first time having a brand new car, rather than one with tens of thousands of miles on the odometer already. So that's an interesting experience. Also, the hybrid drive's instantaneous torque is crazy compared to the previous power train.
Blue is fire. Cars should always be a color :)
In racing games where I can paint my cars, I always end up with a garage full of cars of different shades of blue :)
I own a grey car :(
Next time! :)
I really want an older MX5. I love the MX 5. Or maybe a Miata (I know). But mostly an MX5. Need to save my pennies.
They're out there! I have a Merlot Mica NA8 and a turbo'd British Racing Green NB.
I love them very much and will never part with them.
My brother commented that most of the colors available are basically gray. You have white, black, light gray, dark gray, shiny gray...and blue and red. (Weirdly, the sedan gets a dark blue instead of the Boost Blue the hatchback has.)
I had black before and, well, it's a lot of work to keep looking nice. I'm hoping the Boost Blue (which is historically exclusive to the Type R) will be a little more forgiving with cleanliness/clearcoat visibility. And I like how it fits with the black accents.
It will be way easier to keep clean! And off your other comment, physical buttons for controls rock, have you also got a physical volume dial for the new Bose system?
Yep. Physical dial (center push for power), and the steering wheel still has a switch for it too. The home and back buttons on the infotainment screen are also physical now.
The instrument cluster now has two virtual gauge spaces too, instead of digital-only speedometer with the tach around it. So the steering wheel has two clickable jog wheels to select what additional information appears on the inside of each, which is faster and more fluid than the previous system. (English mode still fails to display Japanese characters for your music lol.)
The thing that replaces the tachometer is quite cool, and wasn't well communicated by reviewers online: it's a 0-100% "power" meter, that shows roughly the combined output of the system with a couple of useful reasons.
Sometimes you may be, like I noticed today, silently setting yourself up for serious wheel spin on a rainy street, but not have auditory vroom as feedback. So if you start driving from a full stop, and see that meter shoot up without going anywhere...lay off the pedal lol.
The zero mark is set a ways up the dial, and nobody on YouTube ever commented on why. The meter can go backwards! When you're braking, or click the paddles to ramp up the regen, it gives you a visual indicator that you're charging the battery instead of drawing from it.
Wow, I really love the color! I'm hoping this is a happy ending for you after the pain of losing the original!
I have a 2017 Civic hatch with 160k miles on it and I've been tempted to trade it in for one of the new hybrids. Let me know how you like it overall once you settle in with it!
Yeah. It's pretty great after a day of use. It's unfortunate it was necessary, but this so far seems like an equally great car and I'm excited about it. Different in some ways, but they're all good ways. And I guess even though I'm starting over loan-wise, it's also brand new, so it should be good for a very long time.
The instant torque is nuts. No lag, just go. It feels a lot like an electric car in that aspect, but without the weight. Same responsive Civic handling. It doesn't lose any fun...it's just quiet doing it. And the infotainment system is snappy and nice too. (The Bose sound system has much better bass too.)
It's very similar to the 2017 in how it feels on the inside, but it resolves some trouble points: more steering wheel telescope length (so a major comfort improvement for tall people), less intrusive A pillars, sunglass holder, all climate controls are physical.
Beautiful spec, basically a mini Civic Type R!
Haha, yep. I wasn't sure if I would be as enamored with the design as my Gen 10 until I finally saw it in person with the spoiler on it. Definitely works.
Darn, I have no experience like what you have just gone through. Back in the late 90s I had a basement flood. I had a sump pump but the amount of water due to the weather system was overwhelmed by the volume of water. Point being that everything in the basement needed to be replaced, boiler, water heater, washer, dryer. The fun part of it all, I even lost an older car that was also flooded, I had it parked outside and can you imagine that the water was so high that the car got flooded. Anyway, I had FEMA etc., that supposively was to provide"relief" or "help". Almost 30 years and I am still waiting. It cost me an arm and leg as you can imagine but prompted me to help myself. Meaning prepare for the worst case scenario and take steps to lessen the impact. Since then I have had floods etc., but the impact for me on the personal side is less. So my advice is simple; education is expensive (ask anyone who is paying for it now!) but learn the lesson and prepare, prepare, prepare... This one is going to hurt, no doubt. I feel your pain. All I can say is that tomorrow is another day, and take steps for the tomorrow's tomorrow.
Assessment came back: total loss, and they're going to pay out 80% of the $20K I paid for it, essentially. Though since I still owe $4K, that eats into it a bit. (I'll have to dig up a few thousand to supplement it for the monthly payment range I want on a new car...fortunately I have some stocks vesting soon.)
They still have to contact the bank and arrange the papers, but that'll probably move faster now.
I've already made contact with someone from sales at the local Honda dealership about a new Sport Touring coming in at the end of the month, and I'm going to ask about a deposit to reserve it when they're open again next week.
I called the agent this afternoon and got an automated message that the mailbox was full. Then left a message through the insurance site, and got a message back later. Apparently she's in office tomorrow and I can expect a call back about getting an inspection going. So, progress.
Any luck yet? I’m curious if you’ve found a way to deal with this.
Agent contacted me today to get started on the claim. Assessment is scheduled for tomorrow, and they'll call to narrow down a time. It might be up to a week after the inspection for results though.
Assessment was done, will hear back in a few days (up to a week, probably less). Off the record, he suggested starting looking for a new car due to the extent of the damage.
He documented every single dent, and whether they're candidates for paintless dent repair or likely to need a full replacement (especially since they can cause the paint to crack).
Not yet. Going to reach out again this afternoon if I don't get a call.
Edit: Didn't realize the agent is in another timezone and waited too long. Will try tomorrow. Also just heard from a coworker that their assessment is scheduled out in the middle of the month.
If you are willing to travel to another city, you might be able to get a better deal, not be stuck waiting for another car, and find something closer to what you are looking for. I know during Covid it was very common for folks to do that.
Are you also in NE Ohio? I only ask because we relaticely recently got golf-ball sized hail and it totalled a bunch of cars in the neighboring suburb. I don't have any direct suggestions as I'm not very experienced with car ownership myself, but if you do happen to be in the same area as me I can ask around with my local friends if they have any advice. Feel free to DM me about it if you wanna be private about your location to the rest of Tildes.
I sent a DM. Not the same place, but now I'm curious if it was the same storm at different times.
Damn I'm sorry to hear that, that really sucks.
Our town had a similar event when I was a teen. Not as severe, most cars were still safe to drive in. But body damage was substantial throughout the entire city, including dealership cars. We had full coverage and my car got written off as totaled since the body repairs were more than half what it was worth. But it still worked so I had a dented to hell beater until I moved cities after college.