the rav is due to go !

Well guys, I have a confession.

Last April I traded my 4.3 in for a Yaris Cross Excel iAWD.  I really liked the car and was getting used to my first automatic and how to get the best fuel consumption from it.

In the middle of November I was side swiped by a BMW on my way to visit an elderly friend in hospital.

An interesting experience!

The side airbags went off and the car was spun through 180 degrees. When everything came to a standstill and I'd checked that all my limbs etc were still attached at the right points,  I looked around inside the cabin and was delighted to see no apparent damage.  At this point a voice came out of the speaker near the internal light and said "This is Toyota assistance, do you have a problem, do you need fire, police or ambulance?" As I was on my own, this was incredibly reassuring.  I started to tell Miss Toyota where I was.  She said that she knew exactly where I was and did I need the emergency services?  I opted for police who arrived in a few minutes.

The policeman called an ambulance since I was shaking quite violently.  Not sure exactly which planet I was on at this time, but I said to the policeman "hang on a minute, I need to get the car moved".  "Don't worry, I'll sort that out was the reply" He was as good as his word, which was a further reassurance.

I'll skip the A&E session ( nothing wrong after an X-ray ) 

Next day ( Sunday ) I rang LV Insurance and was again treated in a really kind way by the lady I spoke to.  Her bottom line was "You walked away and it was only a metal box, we'll sort it"

After the Insurance Engineer had inspected the damage he rang me and told me that the estimate for repair was £19,600 and that he regarded as a conservative estimate. As this was more than 50% of the car's value and it was only 7 months old with 4000 on the clock, they would supply me with a new one!  He valued the car at £28,600 which I thought was very fair.

It turned out that they could not find a replacement, so I opted for a cash settlement.

I found out that a new version of the Yaris was due in the second quarter of 2024 but the AWD version would not be available until June at the earliest.

After a fair amount of thought, I've ordered a Lexus LBX Takumi E4 AWD with a predicted delivery of April 2024.

The dealers haven't even seen one yet but expect to have one in their showroom in February.  At that point, I would be able to test it and confirm my order or get my deposit returned.

So, a pretty exciting six weeks!!!!!!

I'f I could have obtained a replacement Yaris in the same spec as mine and in a reasonable timeframe,  I would have taken it without a second thought, but a six month wait at my age seemed like a bit of a gamble, hence the LBX which is almost identical to the Cross but with a slightly more sophisticated engine.