On March 9th, 2020, after about 12 days since my fated car collision, I am once again a car owner.

After some research, car gazing, and a quick trial run, I settled on a 2015 Honda Fit. At a time I had considered naming that Honda Civic but never settled on anything in official capacity. However, given my hobbies and the type of car this one is, I had to give it a name of “Ness”. Fit…Ness…get it? 😀

Thanks to the payout from my insurance claim, my new car loan is considerably lower than my first one, and I should have no problem getting it paid off in a 3 year window.

Here’s to hoping I can actually fully pay this one off before I have to get another new vehicle. I want to actually hold a car title for a little bit.

It has been a long week, all things considered. The biggest news related to my collision last week was that my insurance company deemed my Honda Civic a total loss. I was aware it could be the case, but I was also optimistic that it would all be recoverable, though perhaps “ugly”.

I have to believe much of the unexpected costs that contributed to this total loss evaluation is in part due to the computers that come in modern cars. Alas, it is what it is at this point.

They valued out the rest of what remained, applied my deductible, and came up with a figure that they offered to essentially purchase the car from me. I have taken that offer.

Payment parts

The first part of the offer was a payment for the remainder from my original loan. I am and was proud to say I was less than $1800 out of an original $15,000 and this is not how I would have preferred paying off the rest.

The second part of the offer is a total from the remainder of the total calculated, after the loan payment. This total is a hair shy of $8,000. I am holding onto this in the check form until I’m ready for a next move.

What’s next

What feels most obvious to me is beginning car shopping. I know that with whatever I choose, I’ll have a heck of a down payment to present upfront.

I also know that I have family who is willing to lend some finances to help, and I would simply owe them back. I appreciate the gesture, and I haven’t said no, but a fair part of me also doesn’t want to say yes. This would be interest free, bless their hearts, but both of my parents are also recently retired so I’d prefer not taking away from their funds.

That said, I believe my plan is to aim for a vehicle that has a price tag that is not much higher than what I got this Honda for, which is in the $15,000 range. I could see myself considering $16,000 and treat it as me down paying half upfront, and paying over time with a new loan for the rest of it.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I borrowed my brother’s vehicle long enough to visit the location that housed the Honda long enough to pick up the license plates, and all the remaining personal items. Excluding the license plate, these wouldn’t have been much for things of value, but at the same time it was a lot of my old artwork from college, so there is definitely memories stored in them too. Lastly there was CDs and windshield wiper scrapers and general misc like that.

What I’m potentially looking for

I really liked Honda and based on my past research and with everything everyone’s always told me, they make pretty solid cars with not a lot of complaints. So another Honda vehicle is definitely being kept in mind. However I’m exploring my options.

I’m also slowly constructing a list of must haves and love to haves. The must haves are a good amount of leg room because I have decently long legs and am not small. It also must have Bluetooth capabilities as I have done a lot of podcast listening while driving and would much prefer to resume that. A love to have would simply be a rear windshield wiper. I live in South Dakota, we get snow. We shall see as I start browsing in greater earnest going into the weekend.