monkeyplus1

A While ago, I was rear-ended in my Subaru Impreza WRX. There was about $1,800 worth of damage that got all fixed up nicely.

This week, I smashed in the front-end, rear-ending someone else.

I was behind a blue BMW SUV, who was also turning onto 99W from SW 68th in Tigard. There’s rarely a green light, so you have to watch the traffic coming down 99W for a break.

I saw a break in the traffic, saw the BMW in front of me start to accelerate, and looked left again as I started to accelerate.

BAM!  The asshole in front of me changed his mind, and had come to a stop.  Of course I’m at fault, being impatient, and not double-checking he had actually continued to move forward.  Fucking old turd. I wanted to hit him, anyway.

Damage estimates came today on my WRX at about $4,600. Nothing mechanical or structural; with the exception of possibly the radiator, it is all cosmetic damage. But, there are no used-parts for such a new car, and WRXs are fairly rare among Subarus, so everything had to be OEM parts.

The retail value of it is around $18,000, and private party value is $14,000, so it’s far from being “totaled”.  I’ll pay the deductible, get it all fixed up.

I’m thinking of selling it. I love the WRX, but having a stick-shift in the city is not a lot of fun, especially in slow traffic.

The other reason is that the WRX does not like to go slow. It is extremely sluggish below 2500 RPM, which is almost always while in a city.

At around 2800 RPM, the turbo-charger spools up, and then it’s a rocket.  Shoved-back-into-your-seat fast.  The first time I drove it hard enough for the turbo to kick in, it shocked the hell out of me.

Addictively fast. That’s another problem. If my wife & kids are not in the car, it makes me a very aggressive driver, and a hell of a speeder. And while the WRX isn’t built for top-speeds, it can take high-speed turns in all weather that a normal car could not do.

I don’t have pictures to show… the coolant line was ruptured, so I had it towed to the body shop.  It’ll be there another week at least.

So… I’m not superstitious, believing my car to be bad luck, but I think I’m over the fast-car obsession.  I’m considering selling it for something more tame.

Now that I don’t have much of a yard to speak of, I’m also considering selling my pickup truck, too.  It helped tremendously with the massive landscaping project last summer, and more recently in getting stuff moved to the new house, but now it’s just sitting at the end of the street, lonely.