1999 Saab 

In memory of my 1999 Saab

That dratted hailstorm on July 11 ruined so many vehicles; my Saab was one of them. The damage from the hail was more to repair than for the insurance company to total and offer me a settlement. Turns out NH has a stupid salvage law on the books that says if a person buys their car back with a salvage title on it, they have to have EVERYTHING repaired that is listed on the insurance estimate before they can put the car back on the road. So....if you have a loan on the car, and the amount of money you have to buy the car back with exceeds the amount they offer as a total loss, you are screwed! I have a loan of $6200 left; they want me to pay them $2400 to buy the car back and are only totaling it for $8100. After all that, I would STILL have to repair everything to drive the car again.....they estimated the repairs to be over $6500. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. I loved my car, probably too much. Now, replacing it, I will make every effort not to love another car too much. Obviously there's no guarantee that the curse of hail won't rain down on us again and we'll have to go through all of this nuisance again. I loved my Saab. I waited so long to have one. I chose her carefully from about 50 Saabs that I researched and investigated. I only had her for a year and four months before the hail came along. She was such a pleasure to look at and to drive around in. She kept my butt warm in the winter and cool in the summer. She had such great pick up and traction control and kept me safely on the road even while I was lead-footing it. I felt SO safe inside her and confident that we operated as well together as any human/machine combination could. I have to let them take her away now because she is dented all over with lights broken. I still love her even though she has lost her beauty but it's time to say goodbye. I will miss her greatly and think of her fondly. I found a new Saab with almost as many bells and whistles as my old Saab. It is a year newer and cost me less money so in the long run, I guess I am better off. It's an automatic instead of a 5 speed so I compromised there. It doesn't have a 6 CD changer, just a plain old CD player, another compromise. But it has power everything like the old one, a sun/moon roof and leather seats with the woodgrain dashboard and almost as much pick up as the old one, and it's dark blue with tan leather interior...so no more complaining, just get on with life. I'll get the new car soon and recycle all the 95 Carfax reports I used for research before buying. Oh I think I need a new printer cartridge too!