I got to the claims office and met my friendly claims representative, Ken.

As we were stepping out to look at my car, he took one quick look through the glass door and asked, “is yours the blue one?”

When I told him yes, he responded with, “yeah, that’s definitely a total loss.”

Looks like just to repair the body work would be over $4,000. That’s not including paint or the busted light or anything. All told, it would be somewhere around six or seven thousand to fix the car. Sadly, the replacement value is right around $3,000.

Ken was astonished by the condition of the car. He said he’d never seen a 10-year-old car in such good shape (few if any body dings, interior in fantastic condition). He also boggled at the mileage (just over 51,000). So hopefully we’ll get full value for the car, which still won’t be enough considering the great shape of the car.

So, total loss paperwork has been submitted. Sometime early next week an offer will be made. Meanwhile, it was such a dream to drive my car again. Scott’s is an automatic, which I don’t enjoy. And it’s a lot lower to the ground, plus the driver-side window doesn’t roll down … and it’s only 3 cylinders. The sweet hum of my manual 4-cyl was so nice, it made me tear up. Hell, just writing about it now, my eyes are a little misty. I’m such a sap.

I’ll have to drop a line to my cop buddy K to check the legality of driving it, especially at night. The right side tail light and brake light work fine, as does the center brake light up in the rear window. So I’m guessing it should be OK, especially since we’re actively working through the insurance system. The car is totally and utterly driveable otherwise; it just has a big smashed-up ass.