While backing out of the parking lot of a new restaurant near my house last Monday, I scraped against a stop sign and damaged the side of the car I was driving.  Had this been my car, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.  However, this was not my car.  It was my Dad’s car.  He was sitting shotgun (and had asked me to drive) and immediately got out to take a look.  It was only minor cosmetic damage, but the sidings had been scraped off and there were a couple of dents.  Nothing too serious, but it did need to be repaired.

The next morning I went to the dealership, hoping it would cost less than $500.  Unfortunately, I was apparently living in a dream world, because their initial estimate was $2700!  I knew I had to pay for this out of pocket because reporting it to the insurance agency would raise my Dad’s rates for years to come.  Stunned, I stared at the piece of paper, not wanting to believe my eyes.  I went over all of the ways that I could have avoided this tragic fate – if there hadn’t been an accident on the freeway I would have been on time for that movie and I wouldn’t have even gone out to dinner last night…if I had said no when my Dad asked me to drive…and so on and so forth.  However, these things are pointless to think about, and what I really should have been thinking about is how to prevent this from happening in the future.  The first thing I plan to do is convince my Dad to buy a Reverse Parking Sensor before I drive his car again.

This device would have saved me $2,700 dollars.  A Distance Detection System would have turned on automatically when I put my Dad’s car into reverse.  Once it detected the stop sign I was backing into it would have beeped, causing me to stop the car and look more carefully at the objects behind me.  I would have seen the stop sign at that point, and backed out more carefully.  What really bugs me is how little these things cost (a rear parking sensor can be purchased for as little as $40!).  Compare that price with the outrageously high cost of minor body work, and it really is a no-brainer to get one of these installed in your car.