K’den, here’s the latest. I emailed my car estimate to Don, the towing company guy; he asked me to go see the guy he uses, which I agreed to do. I know I didn’t have to, but I thought that it’d be a good idea, because if his guy was low, I could agree to meet him in the middle, i.e., Womack’s.

So his guy took ‘way less time in looking things over; we went into his office and in less than five minutes, he had the estimate for me. I’m tempted to make you folks guess again, but I’ll be nice. Ready?

Two hundred forty-one dollars. $241. Which is ridiculous.

Why so low?  Because he was just going to bend my fender back in place and get a new part for the lower fender, which he could see is broken. The part costs $131.00, so you can see how little time he was planning to spend fixing it. When I asked him about the Clear Coat finish on my van, he said he’d match it. The two other guys, at my dealer and Womack’s, said that in order to match the paint, the new paint would have to be feathered in. And this guy’s way probably wouldn’t match the paint very well.

I talked to both guys from the other estimates, and they both told me that trying to hammer the fender back in would damage it, and that just tinting the paint to match would not match.

So I called Don..and explained that I wasn’t satisfied with what he was going to do.  I don’t like confrontation, but was prepared to go toe to toe with him. But mahalo ke Akua, he said my car should be restored to like-new condition, and asked me to send him the second estimate I’d gotten from Womack’s and I told him I’d be willing to meet him halfway on this, taking my car there instead of the dealer. He said that would be fine and was grateful. He was also willing to pay for a rental car “unless you got a Porsche”, which I assured him I wouldn’t do.

Nolemana and I talked about it; I’d found out that to rent a car we’d have to put down a deposit of $250.00, which, even though we’d get it back, we’re not willing to do. So when I emailed the estimate to Don, I also told Don we’d forgo the rental car and reschedule ourselves to save him that expense (we’d talked about that, too), which I think is fair considering that he’s really willing to step up to the plate on this.

Womack’s only accepts cashier’s checks (totally understandable), and I could sign one over to them.

Two days later, Don’s cashier’s check was in my PO Box, and I called Womack’s and made the appointment to get my car fixed. They’ll need it for three days, maybe four. My appointment is in two weeks.

So I’m satisfied; I trust Womack’s to do a good job and to do it right. Don was very grateful that we’re saving him the expense of a rental car, my car will look like new again, so it’s a win-win all around. Well, maybe not for the tow truck guy…adunno what happened with him.