The Return of the Sentra
After six weeks of renting a crappy Ford Focus with an automatic transmission and Tennessee plates, I picked up my Sentra from the auto-body place yesterday. They did an excellent job; you would never know that this car had been in an accident. Their attention to detail was exceptional, as they even buffed out a bunch of scratches in the paint that were no where near the accident. As the cliche goes, it’s the little things that count: I gassed up for the first time today and was surprised to see that the gas cap was attached to the frame of the car by the little plastic line. This had broken on me a few weeks after I purchased the car and I just never cared enough to bother fixing the thing. The fact that they took the time to reattach the gas cap speaks volumes to me, especially since there was no reason for them to be working in that area.
The car runs great and I’ve put about 120 miles on the car since I picked it up with no problems (except tha they forgot to refill the washer fluid: no big deal, as I tend to have spare washer fluid kicking around). The car handles fine and I’ve been able to push it hard on the highway with no issues, although I’m planning on keeping closer to the speed limit these days.
So, for anyone in the Massachusetts area looking for a good auto body place, I highly recommend Schneider Brothers Auto Body. They were professional, friendly and (it’s my impression) honest. Most importantly, they did great work for me and for the friends of mine who recommended them to me in the first place. I’m going to let the car “burn in” for a couple of weeks and, if there are no problems, I’m going to write them a thank you letter. Sure, they got paid to do the job but in a business that is often quite shady, they were a pleasure to work with and that should be appreciated.
Once the weather is a bit better, I’ll take some pictures of the car for the gallery so there will be some before and after shots. Sure, it’s a crappy little economy car, but it’s my almost-paid-off crappy little economy car.
On a side note: if you don’t have rental car coverage on your insurance, GET IT! I dropped $1100+ by renting a car for 6 weeks. This averages out to $26.81 a day, which isn’t a bad rental rate but it adds up QUICK! So when I finally pay off the car in a few more months, I’ll be able to take that money and…pay off the debt I’ve incurred from maintenance and repair of the car. *sigh*
