Category: Driving

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. My 2020 Honda Civic survived Hurricanes Helene and Milton (both Tropical Storms here in my local area of inland South Central Florida), but it did not survive the Monday after.

A couple of miles from my home – while headed to my favorite car wash (how ironic) and then movie theatre (to see “White Bird”) – I was sideswiped by a heavy lawn and tree care utility truck while stopped in a long line at a red light. The point-of-impact was the rear-right corner / edge of my car, and the entire right-side (including tires) was smashed with pieces of it laying along a frequently congested portion of Sebring Parkway (approaching U.S. 27). Police arrived. Fire and Rescue arrived. A few were placed on stretchers and transported with injuries to a local hospital. Traffic was shut down in both directions for about 90 minutes during the aftermath.

I didn’t see it coming, but when I was hit – my car didn’t move one inch. Neither did I. The truck that hit me then hit the next vehicle up, and that ultimately caused 3 other vehicles to be hit. It was a 6-vehicle collision involving about 10 people.

Most of the vehicles were towed away as undrivable, and mine was almost immediately identified as visibly totaled (just by looking at the photos alone). Confirmation occurred several days later at the insurance company’s salvage yard by an adjuster.

The next day – Tuesday October 15TH – I picked-up my rental vehicle – a 2022 Buick Encore GX – a subcompact SUV. My insurance company reserved it in my name and paid for it. I drove it around for 8 days. Needless to say – I am not a fan of driving around in an SUV – no matter how subcompact it is.

So – it’s the end of an era. My almost 10-year association with the Honda Civic has come to an end. I leased a brand-new 2015, and then I leased a brand-new 2018. In August 2020 (coming out of COVID) – I bought a brand-new 2020. It was intended to be my retirement car – a car that I would finance and make monthly payments for – and then have it paid off shortly after retirement. I would keep it forever after that, or as long as it would keep on running. (I was thinking 15 or 20 years or more.)

It lasted exactly 4 years and 2 months – 50 months (to the day) – 1,523 days. The final odometer reading was 37,910. That’s an average of just shy of 25 miles per day. I drove to and from North Texas twice in that car – in November 2021 and April 2024 (my well-documented 18-day retirement road-trip). Over the course of almost 10 years and 3 Honda Civics – I drove a total of just over 94,000 miles. That’s well below the U.S. national driving average of about 14,000 miles per year.

Incidentally – on the final morning of driving that Buick Encore rental – I reached a milestone. I drove my 10,000TH mile of 2024. I’ll surpass 11,000 miles next month. I did that last year too. It’ll be the first time since 2016 and 2017 that I’ll drive 11,000+ miles in back-to-back years.

On the 8TH day of driving around in that Buick Encore – I got my insurance money – and I bought a new car. I’ll write about it – next – #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.

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