Kris and I both went to the doctor today. Actually the office we went to had both a chiropractor and a medical doctor, with an office specifically designed to work with the victims of car accidents. We both need to go back again for follow-up visits, but the general verdict is that we suffered some minor injuries from the impact but nothing serious. Kris' main complaint is her ankle, which the doctor basically said had a major charlie horse. The muscles should relax just fine, and nothing beyond over the counter pain relievers are necessary. For me they did some x-rays and I will see the results on Monday. My left arm has some weakness to it, and also has very weak reflexes as compared to the right arm. I still feel some tightness and soreness in my back and neck, but it has definitely lessened since yesterday.
While we were at the doctor's office I got a call from the insurance company telling me they had made the decision to write off the Matrix as a total loss. They valued it about two thousand dollars higher than I expected, which was a very pleasant surprise. Since Kris had taken the day off from work and I had the flexibility to do the same, we decided to get some lunch and then go car shopping.
First we looked at the Honda Fit, which we both really liked. Kris' main concern was that the cargo area did not appear to be as durable as the Matrix was, with fabric surfaces instead of plastic. I liked the iPod integration for the stereo, but was a little concerned that the way the stock stereo was designed into the dashboard it would be virtually impossible to ever replace with an after market unit (it did not use a standard double-DIN design). Still, for the price it seemed like a solid choice. We wanted to at least look at the new model of the Matrix by comparison, though, so we went across the street to the Toyota dealership.
There, we were pleasantly surprised to find out the salesman who sold us Kris' Matrix four years ago still worked there. He even remembered us (with enough random details to prove he wasn't just doing some kind of salesman jedi mind trick). We took a look at the 2009 Matrix, and really we didn't like it. There were some cool new features, but there were also changes that we didn't like. It was two thousand more than the Fit, and we had pretty much decided to go back over to Honda. Then Ryan, our salesman, showed us the Scion xD. Wow. Beautiful car, much more durable than the Fit and a thousand dollars less. It also had full iPod integration, with a stereo system in a standard double-DIN configuration. We took it for a test drive, and that pretty much wrapped it up.
We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the dealership, but by evening Kris drove away in her brand new dark blue Scion xD. The way the numbers work out, we are actually going to come out a little bit ahead in terms of our monthly budget, so that's nice. Mostly I am happy to see Kris back in a car that she will love. With a stereo that has geeky programmable stuff that I can play with (I already downloaded the custom design studio software and created a Shmoo wallpaper for her display).
So to sum it all up: Matrix a total loss, Kris and I only mildly and temporarily damaged, cool new car in the family. It's not something I would have wished for (honestly I can go for the rest of my life without ever getting rear ended again, thank you very much), but given the kind of disaster that could have happened I am very grateful for how things have turned out.
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