When we first arrived in Portland, one of my missions was to get my car fixed. It was banged up on both sides after all those years of squeezing into tight spots in dimly lit parking garages.  Before we left town, I filed a claim with State Farm and arranged for the Venice Toyota Dealership to do the bodywork once we completed the long drive. We were without it for two weeks as they made the repairs, but our garage was full of packed boxes so there wasn’t room for it anyways. As in downtown Portland, we simply made due with one vehicle, and just last week I picked it up looking shiny and new.

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that they did not do both sides as requested, but they promptly agreed to paint the driver door-strip that was the primary damage on that side of the Solara. I was anxiously awaiting a call back to have that replaced and finish-off the refurbished look. Instead, I will be taking it back in again. Last night, as we were coming come from a great Date Night at Cassariano restaurant, we got side-swiped by a Ford F-150. His protruding wheel hub dug into my driver’s door and caused considerable damage. It reminded me of a James Bond movie where with the push of a button he could extend his spinning knock-offs like a buzz saw into the neighboring vehicle. In our case, this driver’s car was unharmed with the exception of having to remove some red paint. I spent the rest of the evening with a claims adjuster working out the details for another repair. 

The other driver was exceptionally cooperative but I’m always leery of these situations. It was clearly his fault for abruptly moving into my lane, but you just never know how these things will turn out. I will call the dealership on Monday to arrange for a repair appointment, but it will be weeks before I can get in and probably two more weeks of operating with just one car. Fortunately, it was not the same side that was just repaired, but still a major inconvenience. Plus, my car looks like crap again, when it looked so nice for a short week. It sucks to have a fender bender.