Tag Archives: Tundra

So that’s the good kind of damage?

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The body shop I’m using comes highly recommended from several sources. Even the internet says they do good work and as we all know, the internet never lies. Now that they’ve had a chance to give the truck the once over, they’ve arrived at the strangely specific repair estimate of $7.968.00. I don’t know, it just feels like that would have been an appropriate time to just round up and announce it would be about eight grand. Lower than eight and I’d have been happily surprised, higher then eight and they covered themselves by making it an “about” statement. But rounding to the nearest dollar just seems like overkill.

I almost enjoyed talking to the guy, but that could have had more to do with the memo I was trying hard not to write than anything interesting he was saying. That was until he threw in that I had “the good kind of damage.” Say what? I’m pretty sure there’s nothing about an $7,968 repair bill for a crunched in front end that I’d consider “good damage.” I’m pretty sure he ment that the damage was largely cosmetic and didn’t foul up the drivetrain or frame, still, not what I think of as good damage. Then again, if I were about to get a $7,500 check from my insurance company, maybe I’d think it was good damage too.

Left turn, Clyde…

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To help give a little insight into how I spent most of the day yesterday, I wanted to provide a public service announcement to all the drivers out there. In most vehicles these days there’s a toggle switch on the steering column that controls the left and right turn signals that alert drivers around you to your intended course of action. For instance, when you’re in the turn lane with you blinker flashing, the rest of us assume that you are actually going to go ahead and turn in the direction indicated by your flashing signal. Well over 99% of the time, that’s exactly what happens. It happens with such regularity that it’s one of those things that the driving public just assumes to be true. They assume it to be true right up until the moment when it’s not true and they find themselves pummeled by a face full of airbag. You see, fellow drivers, when you signal one intention and then do something else, bad things tend to happen to everyone involved.

In case anyone is wondering, I’m fine. The dogs are fine. The Tundra, however, is distinctly not fine. We’ll find out just how not fine it is next week when the insurance adjuster and body shop get a look at it. In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and write that check for the deductible so we can get on with getting Big Red back on the road. Nothing like doing $20,000 of damage to two vehicles because the asshat in the turning lane is perplexed by the concept of a turn signal. Meh. It’s safe for everyone to assume I’ve gone from the thankful not to be hurt stage to the throughly annoyed because my truck is torn up stage of the process.

Despite being throughly annoyed, I do have a few shout outs. Special thanks to the Maryland State Police for a professional and rapid response. Of course it helps that we were less than 500 yards from their parking lot. To my dad, thanks for the loaner car. I’ll do my best not to get fooled by anyone else’s signal while I’m driving your ride. Mom, thanks for not freaking out too badly when I called to give you a heads up. She doesn’t think this is a blog/Facebook-appropriate topic, so don’t give her too much crap about me posting about it ok? Thanks. And finally props to my evil stepmother – thanks for driving over and hauling me and the dogs halfway across the state yesterday.

So that’s the short version of my Saturday. It’s safe to say this is not the relaxing and restful three day weekend I was anticipating.

Finding the right accessories…

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With the new truck tucked safely in the garage, it’s time to think about accessories. That’s probably a hold over from being a Wrangler owner, where everything was an accessory. I’ve got two appointments scheduled Friday. The Line-X bed liner gets sprayed in the morning and the tint shop is doing the windows in the afternoon. That goes a long way towards getting me where I want to be. Next step is finding a hard tonneau cover and step rails, but that’s going to have to wait for a week or two given a pesky trip for work that has cropped up in the middle of my accessorizing. Very inconvenient, that, though it does give me a chance to do a bit more research before making any decisions. I had a flip cover on the old truck which was great, but wasn’t quite as weatherproof as I’d like. Of course the drawback to the full hard cover is that it basically eliminates the ability to haul anything of size. Then again, how likely am I to manhandle a sofa into the back of the truck anyway? Yeah. Not so much.

If anyone out there has recommendations on brands or personal experiences on the hard covers, I’d be more than happy to hear them. Once I get these few things squared away, I should be set… until I catch a wild hare and feel compelled to start playing with the onboard electronics, of course.

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Cover…

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Two Saturdays ago I went to the local truck accessory store and ordered a tonneau cover for the Tundra. It’s one of the flip models that still gives access to the bed without dragging the entire cover off the truck. At $900 installed the price wasn’t awful and the salesman doing the ordering said they could have it there on Tuesday. Not wanting to take a day off to do the installation, I scheduled the appointment for last Saturday, thinking that would allow plenty of flex time in case the parts were delayed in transit. And of course that’s where the plan went off the tracks.

I show up at 9:00 on Saturday for my appointment that should have taken about an hour to finish up. At 9:45 I see the truck back in the parking lot – without the cover. The sales guy comes over with that “yeah, we’ve got a problem” look on his face and tells me that the warehouse only shipped the box of hardware and not the cover itself. Strike 1. I’m annoyed by this point, but he promises that he’ll have them overnight ship it on Monday and they would be able to do the installation on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday rolls by and at noon I call to make sure the second box has actually arrived. No way I’m driving halfway across town for no good reason again. This time, the story was that their truck from Texas had been stuck in the overnight ice storm, but that they were expecting it any minute. At 5:00 I called back and was told that they still hadn’t located the truck, but that they promised they could do the installation today at 1:00. Strike 2. I call back at noon today and ask about the missing truck and now get a story that my second box is actually on a truck in California and it probably won’t be in until next Monday. I’m steaming by this point and at times like this that it’s good telephones haven’t evolved the capability to let callers reach through the phone and bitch slap people on the other end. Explaining in as calm a way as possible that I was leaving on Saturday morning for the holiday and that I would just find a dealer in Maryland and have one waiting on me up there next week, I told them to just cancel the order and recommended hiring someone in their warehouse who knew something, or anything really, about warehouse or inventory management. Strike three and they’re outta there.

At 5:30 this evening, the store manager called back and really, really promised this time that they would have the item on Friday and could install it in the afternoon and that they’d knock $100 of the cover and $50 off the installation. They only thing I’m holding my breath for at this point is strike 4. Here’s a tip, don’t try to cry the blues about how hard it is to manage a warehouse in December to someone whose job description at one time included “Serves as a senior supply manager.” I’ve been doing it for almost six years and to be honest, logistics just ain’t that hard.

New stuff rocks…

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So, between the new pup and the new truck, my free time has been cut back to almost non-existent… Just the way I like it. Winston is doing well and packing on the pounds. We’re back to the vet Monday for his 4th round of puppy shots and hopefully a continued clean bill of health.

I’m tapping away here at the Toyota dealership where they’re somewhere in the back installing my Sirus receiver since they didn’t have one in stock last week. The balance of the weekend will be installing step rails, having the windows tinted on Saturday, and making a run to BestBuy to get my iPod adapter installed. Once I get it to that point, I’ll be ready for a roadtrip… Which is coming up soon… More on that a little later.