The cars have had a busy week...

It has been an eventful week... for our cars.

It started off with Adam being nice and taking an old Sony TV to the recycling centre.  He and a friend loaded it up in my car, then headed off to take it to its final reward. As he was ready to leave, I mentioned that I was worried it might fall over during the drive (all 150 lb of solid state old fashioned TV technology). He said it would be fine and that he would 'take the corners easy'. Famous last words.

On arriving home, I put the car back together and found this surprise inside.

6" wide damaged area inside the hatchback of the Scion

The TV had indeed fallen over and smashed the plastic-like interior trim on the inside of the back hatch. Adam claims it was upright when they arrived at the recycling depot. Since he was doing me a favour, I kept my cool.

After a bit of reflection, and considering that he said he was going to take the corners gently, I now know exactly what happened:

He didn't.

TWICE!!!!

After shaking my head at the fog of youth, I went on with the rest of the week. Little did I know, that Wendy's car would be the next target, on Friday.

Adam was on his way home from school (I think he convinced us he needed the car to set up some AV equipment at school in the morning). It was raining a bit, and most of the cars coming away from the high school area were, quite frankly, coming from the high school area. Starting to get that sense of what is going to happen? Sure enough, another student he sort of knew did not sort of stop and sort of smashed into the back of Wendy's prized Toyota Echo. Long story, short... the other car probably took more of a hit, but neither car came away the winner. Wendy's bumper got pushed down a little (doesn't seem too bad - below) but didn't crack like the inside of the Scion.

Bumper off its clips

The licence plate got a bit squished, and the bumper near it was scraped on both sides. Wendy is not amused.

Licence plate and surrounding area damage

Bumper to the left of the plate has a scratch

The worst of the damage seems to be the muffler area. This decorative chrome tail pipe is pointing more downwards than before (looking a little sad, perhaps?) and the muffler sounds, well, "broken". 

Sad looking tail pipe

Adam took the car to a repair shop today and they took a quick look at it.  Other than the cosmetic stuff with the bumper (probably not worth repairing), the muffler itself is cracked and needs replacing. The cost? Just the muffler will be around $400!

Adam will be paying for every cent of this repair from his own money. Wendy and I are hoping he was stunned enough by the event to have more respect for the lack of skills in those around him. This is a good example that even tiny little mistakes can cost big bucks. This is also a good lesson in what to do when a collision happens. He didn't have a clue! I guess they don't teach that set of skills at driver's ed. We are now making a list of things to teach Parker up front, when he starts taking his turn putting the cars in peril in a little over 856 days. Yes, I am counting every one of the days in the next 2 years, 4 months, and 3 days!

Gotta be prepared, you know.