The insurance adjuster confirmed

[pegkerr]

That the car is indeed totaled.

It's not a surprise.

We'll get a check in settlement. It confirms we got a good deal on the car when we bought it.

Now we need to get another car. Unfortunately, Rob's step-brother-in-law who helped us buy our last few cars is no longer in the used car business. We'll give him a call this week anyway--perhaps he can recommend another car dealer to try.

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

So - insurance is paying for the car to be replaced? I hope I'm reading that right - that must ease some of the financial worries a little bit, too.

I don't know if it's within your budget, but good new cars generally make good used cars: Honda, Toyota, Subaru. We got a used Subaru eight years ago (two years old with 60K on it at the time) and it's never had so much as a hiccup, aside from normal maintenance.

[sraun]

You might check out the used fleet car dealers - IIRC, there's an Avis and a National dealer a mile or so north of 694. Reasonable deals on cars with 40-60k miles, you can get the repair history, they've been well-maintained.

[naomikritzer]

I would highly recommend Keewaydin Auto over on 34th Ave, down near the Nokomis Library. It's run by a couple (Paul buys and fixes the cars, Gloria sells them) and they are incredibly nice, genuinely warm, and impeccably honest people. It is a small lot so you roll the dice on whether they'll have what you need if you're in a hurry, but they're absolutely worth a shot. They play no stupid manipulative "let me just go talk to my manager" games, and when you test drive a car, they photocopy your license and hand you the keys. I bought my first car from them in 1995, and we have gone back to them for every car purchase except the minivan (and that one only because we wanted to buy new, because there were specific features we wanted that are extremely hard to find used). My sister has also bought a car there.

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Ex-rentals are generally a good idea too, for the same reasons as the ex-fleet cars.

I second the other writer about which brands to go for.