The Friday before I had to go back to work, we went to a get-together at a friend's house. Around 2 in the morning we decided to be silly and find somewhere to go bowling. As we were driving around, someone ran a red light hitting my poor Toyota Matrix on the passenger side. It knocked us clear across all the lanes of oncoming traffic. The car wound up on the sidewalk about 6 inches away from a light pole. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic at the time so no other cars were damaged.
Thankfully both my friend and I walked away from the accident with nothing but extremely frazzled nerves and lots and lots and lots of bruises!
My poor car that was ALMOST paid off was totalled. With the insurance payoff, I was able to get a great deal on the 2009 version of the same car. I looked and looked and looked and couldn't find anything in my price range that I liked better than the Matrix.