A Very Sad Day for Rocky

14 Feb
2012

Posted in: Reality
By Lisa    2 Comments

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Today was a tough day for Rocky. We’ve pushed him almost 12,000 miles since September, and today we gave him nothing but a bruised bumper and a bruised ego for Valentine’s Day.

I was cruising down the highway in Santa Barbara, coming around a sharp curve, when a car merged close in front of me, then kept going over onto the shoulder. I was preparing for some evasive maneuver, in case the guy were to make any sudden, crazy movements or veer off-road, when I saw that he had swerved so dramatically to avoid some kind of road hazard. I didn’t even have time to see exactly what it was, or make any evasive maneuvers, all I saw was that it was something metal, and then…whack…right on the bumper. The thing must have glanced off across the highway, because it luckily didn’t flip up and smash our windshield or go underneath the car. It did bust up the bumper a bit — it hit so hard it knocked the corner of the bumper off, tore off the wheel well cover, the plastic undershield, and the plastic grill thing. Didn’t seem to do anything other than superficial damage, and since this part of the car is basically a big puzzle, we unsnapped and resnapped the components until they looked right. We were definitely a little freaked out, but no engine lights have come on, there are no new noises, no visible leaks…all seemed fine.

This should have been an omen, as we were on the way to the dealership where we were going to have our sliding door issues addressed right before our 12,000-mile warranty expires. This is when Rocky got the blow to his self-confidence. He learned that, before becoming the number one asset in this little family, his previous family had somehow abused him. I’m sure he blocked this from his memory, because he never mentioned it to us. All the little pieces of evidence suddenly lined up…Rocky had probably been in an accident. It must have been a single car accident, something that damaged the driver’s side of the car and was fixed without the dealership’s involvement, because it didn’t turn up on the CARFAX report or the detailed Toyota history our friendly service rep printed for us. But the evidence is now clear, and that means that Rocky probably shouldn’t have been a Toyota certified vehicle … even though we paid extra for his certification. So it’s technically quasi-certified for us. The problem is that they won’t cover anything that could have been damaged in this accident, so our door repair is probably out of the question (at least, on Toyota’s dime). OK, so this is bad, but not terrible. He runs fine and we only have minor concerns. The biggest bummer is that we had been hoping to sell Rocky when this is all over to fund our next projects, and now our sole physical asset has suddenly depreciated like it was a condo in Florida. Or Chicago.

But don’t worry. We will avenge Rocky’s honor.

Rocky, in happier times (see that smile?).