The Car is Totaled

[JamieCatheryn]

Well crap. DH got in a wreck and the car is totaled: major body damage on the front and something as yet undiagnosed preventing it from even starting, the damage is more than the car's worth. He was on the way to buy transmission fluid at the time, seems a little ironic, doing car maintenance. At least he hadn't just bought some that'd be a waste. We owe almost 4k on it, the insurance will basically pay that off minus $500 deductible. And they're paying for a rental car for now.

We were talking about buying a minivan next year after saving up for it, right now we have nothing to put towards a vehicle at all. Our emergency fund was only $400 so far, working on debt and just had to replace a leaking roof. DH needs to drive to work public transit here isn't an option. What the heck do we do?

[jjawm]

A very similar thing happened to us about 3 weeks ago - dh's car blew a gasket, and wasn't worth fixing. We did sell it to a junkyard for about $270, though.

Are you down to one car, or no cars? If it's one car, and you keep it at home, you could drive your dh to and from work. Not ideal, but that was one option we considered. Or you are just stuck at home all day. If you have friends, you could have them drive you places. Again, not ideal. You could also buy a junker, just to get by until you can save up for a better car.

What about carpooling?

Anyway, good luck. Our situation has turned our great, and we're learning to live with just one car. It takes adjustment, but it's worth it to not have a car payment.

[JamieCatheryn]

No it was our only car but thanks.

[Satori]

Wish I had suggestions Don't suppose work is close enough to bike ride? I used to ride 12 miles each way to and from when I was younger before I got a car. (I rode my bike every where until I was like 23 and got a car for an out of town job) I loved it and had killer legs as a result

[sanguine_speed]

Well, if I were in an identical situation, i would accept the cost of borrowing for a reliable car and consider it the cost of being financially unprepared, and a now-necessary vehicle for hubby to earn an income. It's not ideal, but if you have no money and no car, but need a car for income, what else can you do?

[StormySar]

Could you borrow a car from someone who knows you? Be prepared to pay car payments (if they have one) and full insurance for the time you're borrowing, and I don't know if they'd expect you to pay anything to actually borrow the car (we never did) but maybe that's an option.

Back when we had 2 cars I was staying home and dh drove to work, a friend fell in bad need of a car so we let them borrow one of our cars for a while. We didn't have a car payment on it, but they were covering full auto insurance for the time they borrowed the car. And be sure you have enough saved up for a deductible just in case.

Not ideal, but maybe another option.

[Eman'smom]

Originally Posted by sanguine_speed

Well, if I were in an identical situation, i would accept the cost of borrowing for a reliable car and consider it the cost of being financially unprepared, and a now-necessary vehicle for hubby to earn an income. It's not ideal, but if you have no money and no car, but need a car for income, what else can you do?

I agree while no debt is ideal and a car payment is never great, right now it seems like it would be a neccessary evil. Find a quality vechile at a good price and just go for it. If there is no other way for him to get to work I'm not seeing another option.

[sanguine_speed]

Borrowing is an option, but be careful because at least here, if your friend is in an accident in your car, the fault follows the insurance policy until the driver has insurance elsewhere (i.e. SOMEONE has to be penalized).
So, if I lent my car to my friend who had no car, then she was in an accident with my car, my insurance policy would record that with the vehicle and my premiums would increase at least until that driver had her own vehicle insurance policy (which wouldn't happen until that person had a car or was insured again on someone else's car). This could get messy.

[Dar]

Well, you were making monthly payments on the car, right? So you should be able to put that same amount of money towards payments on another car... so is it a down payment that concerns you? Or finding another car? Or securing financing?

[JamieCatheryn]

I guess my problem was that we had committed not to go into new debt and now we have to. We're looking into buying a car from the auction, something with almost as many miles on it as our old car, so we end up owing the same or less as we did before. DH can't walk or bike, he's already gone 8am to 9pm each day for work and school, biking would add 4 hours more.

[velochic]

I feel your pain. We were in an accident in January that "totaled" our vehicle. A sideswipe that was cosmetic damage. They wanted to total the vehicle. It's a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, didn't owe anything on it, has under 100K miles. It's in great mechanical shape and we have taken really good care of it. I just negotiated with the insurance and repair shop to get the parts and labor UNDER the totaled cost so that I could keep the van. First they found some used parts, then upon further evaluation, they decided they could do more REPAIR and less REPLACE, which brought the repair in under the totaled amount. I got to keep my van!

Have you tried talking to your insurance company to see how you might be able to get the repairs done within the limits? They just use blanket formulas, but you might be able to find someone that can figure out a cheaper way to do it so that you can keep the vehicle. Good luck!