by F.M. Leith

Created on: November 19, 2008   Last Updated: December 17, 2008

My brother's famous line is, "Green Chevy trucks live forever." Well, I don't have a green Chevy truck. However, I am convinced that, thanks to my wonderful insurance policy, my green Chevy Impala has lived a lot longer than it might have otherwise.

I'm not very easy on my vehicles. I've been known to get a few scratches here and there. I also tried four-wheeling in my Impala, which is another story. Suffice it to say that I ended up with two wheels in the air and my brother's friend with the tow truck had to come to the rescue.

I took the kids out for ice cream on a hot summer day. All of a sudden I heard a thump. I didn't actually know what was going on. I looked over to my right and saw a red sports car. In 20 years of driving, I had never been in any type of altercation with another vehicle. An officer arrived on the scene quickly. When I expressed my concern about the accident being avoidable on my part, he answered me with, "She backed into the MIDDLE of your car. You couldn't have avoided that". The girl and I both had the same insurance, which I'm guessing made it easier on the insurance company. A few thousand dollars later, I had a new passenger door on my green Impala and it didn't cost me a dime.

Just over a year after I got my new passenger door, we were on a country road on the first day of archery season. I appreciated that my husband would give up his first day of archery for a family activity. We were passing a field and as usual, my husband was counting the deer that he saw in the field. A few seconds later, we were passing some woods and there was a thump. The passenger mirror was hanging down. My husband said, "What was that?" I answered, "A deer?" I didn't see what it was that ran into the side of my car. I was hoping that it wasn't a person. We got out of the car, made a few minor adjustments to make the car drivable and continued on our way. In spite of the fact that there was no dead deer on the side of the road, we determined from the hair stuck in my car that it was, indeed a deer. When the insurance man came to the house to check it out, he remarked how it was amazing that cars are targets for deer. Anyway, you can guess how this story ends. A few thousand dollars later, I had a new passenger door on my Impala, but this time it cost me a $250 deductible.

If I hadn't had good insurance, I would probably never have gotten the door fixed from the sports car incident. This means that the deer incident could have totaled my car and I would be trying to do the grocery shopping for a family of 4 on my bike. Or in my husband's huge pickup truck that requires me to sit on a phone book to drive. Thanks goodness for Erie!

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