Those of you wondering who I am, I am the new associate editor at The Suburbanite. I am not new to the paper however, as those of you who follow Coventry sports should already know me well.

What do I coach? During the fall and spring I am the assistant coach for cross country and track and field at Walsh Jesuit High School.

For the paper though, I figured I would give some advice besides just how to run.
Like how to drive for instance. Or how not to in this case.

In March, I was driving home from my girlfriend’s house during an ice storm. The road I was on lacked street lights and was basically rolling hills. After reaching the top of a hill, I was heading down and noticed something in the road.

An entire tree fell across the road.

Brakes do not work so well during ice storms, and cars do not hold up so well when driving through the middle of a tree. Shocker I know.

On the bright side, I was uninjured. On the not-so-bright side, my car was totaled. So lesson number one, don’t crash into big trees.

Lesson number two, car insurance and the people you deal with stink. My dad had the car fully covered, and we the car was back from the repair shop five days before. All the repairs had cost somewhere near $4000, which is a lot for a 1995 Saturn that is not worth near that much.

I sent them all the receipts and after two weeks, which was just long enough so we renewed the insurance because it was that time of year, they gave us $600 for all those repairs. We got another $2000 for the car, but getting around 15% of your repair costs that took place less than a week before the accident was a bit depressing.

Their response when I asked them why so little? Most of the repairs were considered normal maintenance. Thanks for pouring a little more salt in my wounds. Needless to say they did not receive good feedback and we are switching insurance companies as I write this.

This brings me to my final bit of advice. If possible, do not buy a used car or try to maintain an old common car. My dad and I burned about $14,000 on two older cars inside three years. In other words, we could have spent the money on a new car.
Now we’ll pay another $11,000 for the new car we bought to replace the Saturn. It’s a good thing I was promoted.

The silver lining to all this? My other car, the 1993 Ford Mustang GT with the custom engine, is still safely stored in the garage. Had I wrecked that, I might still be in bed crying. 

To reach Andrew, email
andrew.adam@cantonrep.com