My garage burned almost completely, taking my 2005 Vibe, with only about 52K miles on it. I also lost my 1988 Toyota Celica, with only about 66K miles on it. Both cars were in near mint condition. I bought both cars new, and paid cash for both of them. The bright red Toyota was never, ever driven in the snow, or even rain, if at all possible.
The Vibe was a white base model, with literally every option available on it except stability control, which I have read was extremely rare to non-existent, and a CD changer. It did have XM satellite radio. The Vibe was my first car with an auto transmission. I had both alloy and steel wheels for both cars. The Vibe steel wheels had very aggressive all season radials for winter driving. The Toyota alloys had high performance Pirelli tires on them.
In 1984 my brother and I tore down the decrepit old garage behind my house, and we built a 24' by 24' 2 1/2 car garage. I had two Dodge Colts at the time. One was a 1984 Colt Turbo, with the 8 speed transmission. I raced that car extensively, running it on 100 octane aviation fuel, with added octane boosters. I increased the turbo boost, and advanced the timing. It was quite fast, dyno'd at about 120 HP, and weighing a little under 1600 lbs. Surprisingly. this was completely legal under the club racing rules at the time. I didn't always win, but enough to make it really fun. All my trophies were in the garage, of course, along with a lifetime's accumulation of tools and automotive equipment, parts, and supplies. I had a LOT of things stored in the garage. I listed more than $50,000 worth of contents. My insurance company is extremely unhappy about this. To say the least. I have yet to collect on the contents.
I got the usual insurance chump change for my two very low mileage, near mint condition cars. Because insurance companies are little better than organized crime. I think Geico’s motto is ‘why should we have to pay any money OUT? It cuts into profits!’
To give you an idea of how crooked Geico is, 4 days after I used my car insurance to get a rental car, somebody at Geico called me up and demanded I return the rental car the next day, even though I have 30 days of rental coverage. They simply LIED to me, to try to save some money on the rental car.
I had the policy right in front of me, but the LYING crotch fruit of unwed mis matched species parents tried to convince me I only had 5 days of rental coverage. Several people told me the same LIE. I was reading my policy to them, but they stuck to their LIE. Got Geico insurance?
Now you know what kind of insurance company they are. Change insurance. Now.
The structure of my garage was only insured for $23K. Getting the debris of the old garage hauled away, and a 20 foot by 20 foot garage built cost $46,200. 20 by 20 ft. is only 400 sq ft. I HAD 576 sq. ft. Almost 50% larger. And I had to buy another car. So far, I'm out of pocket over $38,000. I'm not happy about this, to say the least.
The whole time I owned my Vibe, I made just ONE repair. I had to replace the light bulbs in the stereo. Cost $22. That was IT. I did all the maintenance myself, except tires and one or two alignments.
The same with my Toyota Celica. ONE repair. The spring on the seat belt retractor on the driver’s side broke. After about 30 years. The part cost about $200. Took about an hour to replace. When I went to the Toyota dealership to pick up the part, the entire parts, service, and sales dept. came out to look at my car. There must have been 25 people looking at my Celica. I had just waxed it, and Armor All’d the interior. Half the people were children, or not even born, when the car was built.
When I bought the Vibe, I bought the two thick telephone book sized factory manuals for it, for $186 in 2005. They have some wear; they were in the car for a long time, but are in good condition. For some reason, they were in the house at the time of the fire. I also have 4 unused factory keyless remotes. The instructions to program them are in the manual. The remotes work on any 2003 – 2007 Vibe, Matrix, and Corolla. You can program up to 4 remotes for one car. I know they work because I test programmed them for my car.
If you want the manuals and remotes, make me a reasonable offer. Shipping will be a bit expensive, as the books are thick and heavy. My E-mail is g.gandalf(at)lycos(dot)com