My 2010 Ford Fusion

 Ford Motor Company has three different employee pricing plans.  Their "A" plan is for active Ford employees and immediate family members.  Their "Z" plan is for Ford retirees and immediate family members.  Their "X" plan is for anyone else a Ford employee or retiree chooses to allow to use his or her discount. 

My mother-in-law is a Ford retiree which allows her to give her son (my husband) the "Z" plan pricing when he purchases a new Ford vehicle.   He can choose from any vehicle owned by Ford Motor Company including Lincoln, Mercury and Mazda.  Jaguar was included in the list before Ford sold that division.

In February of 2010, a new Ford Fusion was purchased for me using her discount.  The new vehicle was located at the Ford dealership in the town in which my mother-in-law resides.  She gives my husband a "pin number", which is just a code for the dealership to use when calculating the price, and he goes to the dealership that happens to have the vehicle he wants.  We told the dealership what product we wanted including make, model and color.  The vehicle was purchased before either my husband or I actually saw the car.  We both knew we would be able to drive this car comfortably because we already had a 2007 Ford Fusion which we obtained using her discount.

Since the vehicle was purchased in late February, my husband and I made arrangements to take a bus trip to see his mother the first weekend in March. We figured we could take the bus to see her, pick up the new car and drive it the rest of the time we were in town. We figured two bus tickets would be less money than driving the 2007 Fusion to see her then each of us driving a vehicle back to Dallas.

While on the bus, I received several phone calls concerning my sister's condition. It was the longest two hours I had ever experienced. When we left Dallas, I was excited about my new car which quickly turned to concern for my sister. My husband's mother was waiting for our bus in my new car. It was a beautiful black car with black interior. The moonroof was nicely placed. The cover of the moonroof could slide open to allow more sunlight without actually opening the glass. I couldn't wait to link my cell phone through the Microsoft Sync system and play with that new gadget.

We told his mother about my sister. I did not immediately drive my new car. I was more concerned with my sister than I was getting used to my new car. I did want to drive my new car but I wanted to see my sister first. I let my husband drive the car first. The first place we went was back to his mother's house to take her home. We, then, immediately left her house and drove to the Hospice facility where my sister lay dying.

We arrived at the Hospice facility about 2:15 in the afternoon on the first Saturday in March. Within 45 minutes of our arrival, my sister's life ceased. In addition to my husband and myself, my younger brother and mother were in the room with my sister when she died.

When the manufacturer's warranty on my husband's 2007 Fusion was set to expire, we repeated the process of acquiring a Ford Fusion for him. He wanted a green car which was not available in the 2011 Fusion model therefore, he chose a 2010 Fusion. He wanted his car and my car to have identical features and options. His car also has a moonroof and Microsoft Sync system.

We had sold his 2007 Fusion to a local used car dealership to make room in the apartment parking lot (not to mention our checking account) for his new car. His 2007 Fusion was sold a couple of weeks before our scheduled trip to visit his mother for her birthday which would also be our chance to pick up his new car. We knew that by selling his old car two weeks in advance would leave us with just my car. He borrowed my car to go back and forth to work in the interim time period.

Two days before our scheduled bus trip, my husband is involved in a car accident. Yes, in my car. My first reaction when he called me to tell me he was in an accident was obviously, "Are you okay?" He reassured me that he was okay. I then asked him to tell me what happened. I thought I could figure out what kind of damage there was to my car after I heard what had happened. He was going back to work after coming home for lunch when an unidentified individual ran a stop sign clipping the left rear of the vehicle just to the right and below the gas tank door. There was damage to the left rear bumper as well. He could not identify the driver nor the license plate of the perpetrator to police for their report. He could identify the color and type of vehicle. It was a white pick-up truck. The white paint on my bumper corroborated his story to the extent of the color of the vehicle that hit him. He had the clear right of way since there was only the stop sign for the driver of the truck. The driver of the truck did not stop after hitting my husband. Since it was, indeed, a hit-and-run accident, we filed an uninsured motorist claim with our insurance company. They worked quickly to approve the claim. The claim was actually approved the same day as the accident.

After the two weeks of my husband using my car and two additional weeks in a collision repair shop (due to someone's irresponsibility and disregard for property damage caused), I was finally able to drive my car again.

© 2010 Tammy L