It Figures

 

Above is our brand new car, less than four weeks old, still smelling like that new car smell. 

Sigh.

Back from our vacation, a few days later we took my brother-in-law and his family to the airport for their trip home over seas. We got back home in good time and decided to go ahead and return the rental van a day early. So I set off in the rental van and my wife soon followed in the new car to pick me up at the rental place 80 miles away. 

The drop off went smoothly and my wife being tired, asked me to drive her car home so she could take a nap. Feeling fine, I obliged and set off towards home. Less than 30 minutes later, at 1:30 on a hot sunny afternoon, a deer ran out in front of me from seemingly nowhere. I had a split second to swerve violently and attempt to brake. The swerve helped somewhat to make it a glancing blow on the hindquarters of the deer but my foot never had time to hit the brake before impact. 

They say here in Iowa it isn't if you will hit a deer but when you will hit one. It happens to everyone eventually. It took 35 years of driving for me to hit my first one. I just wish it hadn't been in a brand new car though. What surprised me the most was that it was in the middle of the day when deer are all bedded down. They are typically active in the dusk of evening until dawn of morning. This one, small enough to probably be a yearling born last year, hadn't figured out proper procedures yet evidently.

After slowing down (my foot finally hit the brake a second too late) and regaining my composure and informing my now awake wife what had just taken place, I continued on without stopping. It had been a glancing blow and well away from the radiator and there was really nothing I could do in the middle of nowhere anyway but to keep driving.

As I continued towards home, I kept hoping that there was just some fur stuck in the corner of the bumper but about 20 minutes later, I got an error popping up on the screen informing me that the parking assist feature had malfunctioned and to take care when parking. Not having driven this vehicle much at all, I'm not sure what that actually is. I'm guessing it is a front facing camera or sensor to help in tight parking spots. But I knew at that point, that damage had been sustained. 

When I got home and got out to look at it, my heart sank. It looked pretty bad. But after inspecting it further, I realized that all that was broken was the plastic bumper and the parts that hold it in place. I was able to push it back into place somewhat so it wasn't hanging away from the body and so to the casual observer, might not notice any damage anymore. However, I know all those pieces and the labor to fix them will be quite steep.

I took it into a body shop the next day and got an estimate for the repair and had them proceed with ordering all the necessary parts. Most of the bill will be labor taking parts from the 3/4th of the old bumper assembly that are still fine and putting them on a new bumper assembly. It is more than my deductible so I could make a claim on my car insurance but my agent guaranteed me that my rates would probably go up pretty significantly and the way things work, would probably never return to my current rates. So right now I'm leaning towards just paying it with cash and calling it a learning experience, not that I really learned anything from all this. 

As the saying goes, it was just a matter of time. I just wish I had been driving one of our older vehicles.