Our New Car

For the past while (since the end of April) Jordan and I have been using one car.  In case you don't remember we totaled Jordan's burgundy Mazda.  Just to recap, we were rear-ended on I-15 in Utah the day after BYU graduation. The car that hit us was going about 35 mph and we were at a stop.  If you'd like to read the juicy details feel free to visit our previous blogs: Wreck on I-15 and/or Update on Accident.  Now, 5 months later, we finally bought a new car!

It's a black 2004 Hyundai Elantra.  The outside is sleek and nice...Jordan and I both like the grill style :P

And here's the car from the back: 

I know what you're thinking . . . "That antennae is so BIG!"  However, be rest assured that the antennae looks larger in the picture.  Just stick to the rule of the side mirrors: Images in (picture) may appear (larger) than actual size.  

The inside of this car is roomier than our grey Hyundai Accent.  When you sit in the front seat your feet have all the room in the world!  For someone my height, I can't even tell I'm sitting in a car.  That's when you really know you have it good. 

The back seat is also nice and large...not much to say about it though because I'm not accustomed to sitting in the back (which, of course, is very good). 

And then there's the trunk.  We haven't measured it yet, but I'm thinking if we put the back seat down it may possibly fit Jordan's bicycle without taking off the front tire.  We'll have to put that to the test someday.  

Now that you've seen the new car slideshow...let me tell you a few highlights.  My favorite part about the car is the sunroof!  And not to mention the amazing stereo system.  In Cali those two together make a great ride! The car also has an alarm - something I'm not quite used to.  For example, I accidentally set off the alarm THREE times before even leaving the parking garage today.  Oops!  Overall, the car was a great deal and we look forward to the places we'll go in it.  

Update on Accident

Well, Christina and I went to a Lehi tow-yard to get all of our belongings from our car. That's right, our car was declared totalled. But it's all right. The amount the insurance company is going to give us is higher than we expected. I researched as many 2001 Mazda Protegés as I could, planning on arguing why we should get more. But they're giving us more than we thought they would, and we don't have to argue our case.

Doesn't look too bad at all from that first picture. I'll walk you through the accident.

The car hit us from behind.

Here is where our car hit the barrier after getting hit by the car from behind.

We were actually thinking about selling my car this summer, so this works out really well. We got more from the insurance company than we could have from selling it on our own. It was a good car and I'll miss it. But everything worked out well.

Wreck on I-15

If you were driving Northbound on I-15 around American Fork on Saturday afternoon, sorry for the delay. Ok, I'm not really sorry, because the accident wasn't our fault.

I was driving and Christina was in the passenger seat heading up to Salt Lake to play games with my parents before they headed back to Washington and go to the Salt Lake Temple. We were in the lane to the right of the carpool lane. For some reason they are removing the carpool lanes for a big stretch of the freeway. There were signs and now cones telling people to move over. Well, a big SUV decided they didn't want to merge over until the last second. I remember seeing an SUV crossing the double white lines into our lane as cones were already starting to appear in their lane. Since he was trying to suddenly work his big vehicle into a very small space, people began to slam on their brakes, including me. Unfortunately I must have been a half second too late, because we weren't going to stop in time. I veered into the carpool lane (in that short time period the cones had already pretty much blocked off the lane) and went in between the giant cones to get out of hitting anyone. I had my foot all the way down on the brake. We were coming to a stop. A moment of relief came over us as we had avoided something catastrophic. Then we were suddenly jolted forward. Even though we had our seatbelts on, I was jolted forward and hit my forehead on the window. It hurt, but wasn't that bad at all. Christina's neck and upper back hurt. It seems that a car behind us had tried to do the same thing as us, only they didn't stop as fast. They actually hit us and pushed our car into the barrier (thanks goodness for those, otherwise it could have been a lot worse). So there is damage in the front and back. There was even a third car that hit the car that hit us.

So we were not at fault. Christina's aunt came to pick us up and we went to the hospital here in Provo to get everything checked out. Christina had some X-rays done as she felt more pain. They said we looked okay. Now we just have to go through the hassle of insurance companies. Even though we weren't at fault, we're bound to not end up with as much as we started out with.

We are very glad though that neither of us was hurt really badly. We have so much to be thankful for, including that. It could have been A LOT worse. Unfortunately there were two accidents behind us on the freeway, probably caused front ours.