Two days before Thanksgiving 2003, my little emerald-green 1999 Mazda Protegé was rear-ended. I was on the way up Hiawassee Road in Orlando, which is a 4-lane (2 lanes each way). I was going north in the left-hand lane, and a school bus was in the right-hand lane. As I approached the bus, the driver put the flashers on and the little red "STOP" sign came out, so I thought it might be a good idea to stop. The driver of the pickup truck behind me did not think it was a good idea to stop, and slammed right into the back of my little car. *sniff,sniff*
I am okay, fortunately. Thank goodness, my car was drivable right after the wreck, because it is my only car!!! The truck that hit me had to be towed, but he and his wife had another vehicle. It took a whole month of phone calls and paperwork with the other driver's insurance (Nationwide) just to get the car into a Nationwide-approved shop for an estimate. It took them 2 weeks to order the parts they needed and schedule an appointment for the work, a week of waiting for the appointment date to arrive, and another week to perform the repairs. I finally got the car back 2 months after the wreck happened. The final bill came to a whopping $2752.46! Thank goodness Nationwide (the other person's insurance) paid for it instead of me.
After driving it for a couple of days, however, I realized that everything is still not right with it. Without even crawling under the car, you can squat down and see bare metal underneath, where they failed to repaint the undercarriage/chassis/frame (or whatever it is called). The garage Nationwide contracted to do the repair work repainted the undercarriage at my request.
However, they would not do any other repairs. The lock on the rear door behind the driver does not work, the trunk latch inside the car does not work (using the key is the only way to get into the trunk now), and the interior panels on both rear doors are out of alignment. The car squeaks like an old heap whenever you go over a speed bump, and it is only 4 years old! There are also mysterious squeaks, groans, and peculiar "wiggles" in the handling of the car that were not there before.
I can't believe they won't fix these other things. THANKS a lot, Nationwide. 
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