Stella's Sad Saga

I've wanted a pony since I was just a little boy...

In 2009 he finally delivered a 2010 Sterling Gray Metallic 5-speed Mustang GT...

(click thumbnails for larger images)

The next Friday I got my "Pooch Pad" and installed it in the back seat of my Mustang. Saturday morning I took Nikki with me to our fellowship breakfast for the first time in the new car.

Parked at Totillandia, told Nikki to guard the car, got out, pushed the lock button on my key fob and started walking to the restaurant.

I wasn't twenty feet away when the car alarm went off. I clicked it off with the fob and continued walking. It went off again. I clicked it off again then watched the car for a minute. As soon as Nikki moved, it triggered the alarm.

I didn't realize there was an interior motion detector for the alarm. (I'd only read the first 400 pages of the owner's manual.)

The Over The Hill Gang joined me as I tried to decide what to do. Orvis, one of the brainiest of the group, asked me a simple question; "If you were a car thief and you spotted the car and looked in to see if it was unlocked and saw a 97-pound German Shepherd stretched out across the back seat, would you look for another car?"

We had a great breakfast of Migas and Huevos con Chorizo, Niki napped in the unlocked car and we all lived happily ever after...

Here's my "Security System" ...

Then it all went bad. I was headed into Weatherford Monday morning, January 4th and was hit by an 18-wheeler on I-20. Nikki and I are shaken and bruised but I fear Stella is a total loss. I'd had her less than a month. She only had 1130 miles on her.

The 18-wheeler clipped my left rear quarter (an almost perfect PIT maneuver) turned me hard left, in front of the tractor, shoved me West on I-20. I spun off the tractor and ended up going backwards in the left-hand lane for a moment before he hit me again and spun me into the guardrail backwards. We bounced off the guardrail, back onto the highway then back into the guardrail headfirst. The entire left side is flattened and torn, the rear bumper is gone, the front bumper is mangled from the second hit on the guardrail and the rear axle was snapped off at the wheel. The left rear wheel and rotor ended up bouncing across the center median.

I thank my Lord and Savior for Nikki and I being here and Ford's build quality for being able to walk away from this "accident".

Here's the aftermath...

Snapped the axle clean off!

Tractor's left front wheel lugnuts left their mark

Point of initial impact Leftovers

Police report says trucker failed to stay in his lane. The insurance company says, "We can fix her good as new."

She's now at Southwest Ford in Hudson Oaks (Weatherford) Texas. We'll see how good a job they do sometime after
2-8-10.

I'll update as soon as I know more.

---

And here she is! Home at last after 89 days of confusion, broken promises and frustration!