Under my insurance, the dent in the side of the Subaru was going to cost me a $500 deductible. Not bad considering that they were replacing a door, but certainly a significant amount of money. The PT Cruiser rental was cheap. The insurance paid for a basic model of car, and I paid a couple of dollars a day more to get the Cruiser.
Then, somehow, in the mix of cars parked under the trees beside the Brown Round House where the cousin's reunion was taking place, the Cruiser sustained a dent. A nice round indentation on its plastic bumper. I didn't know plastic could do that!
Although I would argue with the insurance company about it, that dent would eventually cost me a $250 deductible.
When I picked up the Subaru, it was shiny and polished, no doubt in an attempt to make the car match its new part. I felt a small pride of ownership, but also felt the pain of being back using a stick shift.
After the deer incident, the check engine light had come on. Surprisingly, for a car with 135,000 miles on it, it was the first time this had happened. I asked the door repair people to look at it, and they said that the code indicated trouble in my catalytic converter.
I took the car to my trested mechanics at Brentwood Foreign Auto for an estimate. They said it would be $2100 because the car has a "California" catalytic converter.
