About 6 weeks ago, Peter Chiu, Myril Shaw and I were coming back from San Francisco to our office in Burlingame from a meeting.  If you know the area, we were coming down the hill heading south on 101 right next to Candlestick Park.

There was a little light mist (imagine that), but it didn’t affect road conditions at all.  I was probably 500 yards behind a DirecTV truck, we were both cruising at about 60 MPH.  All of a sudden the DirecTV truck slams on its brakes… luckily I don’t believe in tailgating and had plenty of time to stop.  As I hit the brakes, I take a quick look in my rearview mirror and I remember thinking and saying outloud to the other two guys in the car “look out” and BAM! we were slammed into.  All I could see behind me was a plume of smoke as the Honda Civic driver behind me hit his brakes and I could barely make out another car right behind him.

As I was hit, the car behind me was hit and I then proceeded to slam into the poor DirecTV truck driver in front of me.  Airbags deployed, lots of “smoke” in the cabin and I immediately ask Myril and Peter if they are ok.  They both responded yes.

As it turns out, the “smoke” in the cabin was just the remnants of the chemicals that make air bags deploy… but at the time I didn’t think about that so instead of waiting around to see if my car was on fire, we all immediately got out of the car and got to the shoulder where we could asess the situation.

What a four car pile-up looks like on HWY 101

As you can see in the image… a Taxi cab slammed into the car behind me (I was in the white Honda Civic).  The plume of smoke I saw was the taxi driver’s attempt at not hitting the blue honda in front of him.  He was unsuccessful.  No one in my car, the taxi, or the DirecTV truck were seriously hurt in the accident.  Thank God.

The driver in the blue honda did not get so lucky.  His face was cut up pretty bad and he was taken away by an ambulance.  I don’t know for sure, but I think I heard from the police on scene that the driver of the blue honda civic was NOT wearing his seat belt.  It’s amazing to me that people still don’t understand that when you are in a moving vehicle, it’s not an option to wear a seatbelt.  I just don’t get people who don’t put their seatbelt on.  I mean it’s not like it takes very long… anyway, that’s a topic for another post.

My Civic has gone to the big racetrack in the sky.

My car was towed away and later found to be a complete loss.  I need to buy a new car.  Luckily for me, I’m the CEO of a car buying marketplace.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to go through the car buying experience again, this time, however, I’m going to eat my own dog food.  And I’m going to let everyone come along for the ride to help me figure out what car to buy and then later let people see how CarWoo! works by making my deal public for everyone to see.

Should be fun… let’s get it started.   I have three kids and the only requirement my wife has is the back seat has to have three seat belts.  My only requirement is the car needs to be affordable (under $35k) and it has to have some power.

Now what should I buy?……

Ok – here’s the deal. Between today (May 10) and next Tuesday (May 17), go to our Facebook page and suggest a new car for Tommy. Explain why you think your choice would be the best choice for him. If Tommy ends up choosing the car you suggested, we’ll treat you and your favorite office mates to a celebratory pizza lunch! (Up to 25 folks, and must be in the U.S.)