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Sunday around noon, I was coming home from church when a drunk driver rear-ended a Jeep behind me, propelling it into the back of my Impala. It tore off the rear bumper and mashed in the trunk lid and trunk tub. After I pulled over, I found my license plate under the front wheel of the pickup truck that had caused the accident. Thankfully, no one was hurt, not even the drunk. Amazingly, my car was the only one involved that left the scene under its own power. There was no damage to the suspension and it drove and handled just as it had before the accident, albeit with a few more rattles. Nonetheless, it's teetering on the bubble of being totaled. My insurance company is calling in a third-party appraiser to make the final call. With that in mind, I started looking at used cars on Edmunds.com last night, just to see what was available in my area and at what price points. I started out looking at Malibus and Impalas and was disappointed to find that everything with an affordable price had a ton of miles on it and lower mileage cars were priced considerably higher than I was comfortable paying. I was about to close up my laptop and call it a night when I decided to look at Buicks, in particular the Buick LaCrosse. Imagine my surprise when the first listing was for a 2013 model that Edmunds identified as a "Great Deal" at $2,300 below market. It was the only "Great Deal" I looked at all night. The car looked pristine as the CarFAX report and while eating breakfast this morning, I gave the dealer (an independent in a small town about an hour north of me) a call and decided it warranted a visit, even though I didn't have the final word from my insurance company. Seeing, as they say, was believing and although I didn't intend to do it, I ended up buying the car. It was a bird in the hand that I didn't want to let go of. If the Impala is totaled, which my gut tells me it is, I'm a step of the game, having already replaced it. If not, the insurance company can pay to get it fixed and I'll sell it. Either way, it's a win for me, moving up two model years and back 30,000 miles from the Impala. The ironic thing is my mother has a 2013 LaCrosse also. Hers only has 6,800 miles on it.

Welcome back! Be sure to get some pictures of the car!

Good Deal. See everyone there! My scenario keeps changing all the time. My 79 Hurst Olds is now (probably permanently) residing at our house in South Carolina. Come April the plans are to replace the Timing Chain and I'll throw in a rebuilt water pump (not done in China but rather a used one done RIGHT). If this works out well my wife & I may fly to SC and then drive the 79 H/O to the Nationals, it's only 6 hours away. If I'm not good with how the job turns out I go back to taking the 1996 CS from Connecticut and back, as I'm not afraid to drive this car any distance, its 3.1 has proven itself to be worthy of any long trip I can put in front of it. I've already gotten a first place with this car so I may just go show only with it. I would get marked down for the driver improvements I've made to it but they are must haves since I use this car for to work travel 9 months of the year. By the way, it was pointed out to me that the leather seats I got off that 4 door junker do not have the fold forward feature. To my utter horror that is correct. Is there any way to rig these seats so they will fold forward? If not I may only install the drivers seat, it's a safety issue, If anyone is in the back and need to get out of the car in a hurry I cant have both seats not being able to fold forward for a quick exit.