Son of a...! Car crashed during warranty repair!

[JCH13]

That sucks man. I wonder why the other car blew the light...

Good thing no one was killed or seriously injured, and that you weren't in the car.

If the body is bent, I'd like to think it'd be totaled. Good luck.

 

[Atrail]

Yep the contract states that they will test drive it to confirm functionality. It's not as if they were 6-7 miles away from the dealership. It looks like they took it around the block.

The car already has a CPO warranty so it's good until 100,000 miles, of course. Hopefully I can sit down with the General Manager tomorrow to discuss options and such. then again, I still need to see that accident report.

I had a buddy on a jury for a very similar incident except it was an M5.
If they try to do you wrong don't settle.
Guy ended up getting a much better deal out of court plus attorneys tacked on.

 

[Midwayman]

I'd be pushing for them to replace the car too. I've never had a car that took any sort of reasonable hit and drove the same again afterwards. Even if its perfect you'll always be wondering if that slight pull to the right or whatever is the frame damage.

 

[JCH13]

All else being equal, I would be paranoid about crevice corrosion in possible stress fractures (and stress fractures too) in the body.

 

[iamwiz82]

The dealer's insurance called me today. They have an adjuster coming out tomorrow to look at it. I asked about dimished value and it's not something that they handle, so I will have to strike that conversation with the dealer. I also made them aware of the custom audio system that is in the car. The amp looks to have taken a good sized hit.

 

[amdhunter]

The dealer's insurance called me today. They have an adjuster coming out tomorrow to look at it. I asked about dimished value and it's not something that they handle, so I will have to strike that conversation with the dealer. I also made them aware of the custom audio system that is in the car. The amp looks to have taken a good sized hit.

Did you have an adjuster from your insurance come by as well? Insurance adjusters are supposed to "trust" each others judgements, but I'd be wary of one coming from a dealer. There's just too much chance of a hookup situation there.

Diminished value can be settled through your own insurance, and may not get as much as you would expect. You'll have to give them a call.

You'd have to sue to get the diminished value from the dealership directly, or through their own insurance. It doesn't hurt to ask, but then again, it doesn't hurt to threaten a little bit either.

 

[iamwiz82]

Did you have an adjuster from your insurance come by as well? Insurance adjusters are supposed to "trust" each others judgements, but I'd be wary of one coming from a dealer. There's just too much chance of a hookup situation there.

Diminished value can be settled through your own insurance, and may not get as much as you would expect. You'll have to give them a call.

You'd have to sue to get the diminished value from the dealership directly, or through their own insurance. It doesn't hurt to ask, but then again, it doesn't hurt to threaten a little bit either.

I'm going to be civil to the dealer until I feel I am not being treated well, thus far I have not had any issues, other than my car being smashed 😛.

I am going to have my insurance come and look at it as well.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I don't think that car is totaled or close to it. It actually looks similar to (albeit worse than) what happened to my E90 in December 2011:

Mine was about $6,200 to repair. It was hit while parked on the street. I believe they replaced the quarter panel, bumper and trunk floor, and obviously the tail light.

Unfortunately I learned that although it is possible in Minnesota to buy insurance for diminished value, I didn't have it and thus will take a resale hit when I sell the car. Hopefully you are not in the same boat but I suspect you may be.

The actual repair process they use now is interesting - they bond on a new quarter panel using some expensive high-strength glue, then grind off the bolts and plastic nuts used to secure the panel. See http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=240215

I don't really think anything about repairing your car will necessarily compromise the car's integrity (though it will certainly affect resale). If memory serves, one of the big car mags (I think it was C&D or R&T) had a catastrophic accident with a long-term 3 series tester. It cost something like $25-30K to repair. They said the car was not perceptibly different after the repair, and its instrument-measured performance was identical or better. EDIT - this is it: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/1999-bmw-328i-long-term-road-test

 

[Imported]

Hope they total it. That car will never be the same..

 

[aphex]

That happened to me with my VW years ago when i went in for a service repair -
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=955208

Haven't gone back to that dealer since.

 

[marincounty]

One diesel down, so many to go........Sorry.

 

[Raduque]

Maybe if your t-bone was one of those 'guy from the Austin Powers scene with the steamroller' type of scenarios. ;P

That was actually kind of what I alluded to with the whole "buff paint off my bumper" comment. 😛

 

[iamwiz82]

So independent inspection of the car yields ~$9,700 in damage, including $1000 on audio equipment. Now to get to the dealer with what they are going to do to rectify the situation.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Didn't you say a door was sticking? I would be very VERY surprised if this was truly fixable at $10k. I know you said independent bodyshop, but still...

 

[Subyman]

Sounds about right. It is hard to know the structural damages from pictures. We also don't know how fast the other car was going. I was lightly bumped in a ML320 from the side and it took the entire bumper off plus pushed in the lights and such. It looked terrible in the pictures, but it was actually minor damage that didn't make it to the structure.

It really sucks to hand off your car in good faith and to get it back wrecked. Could have been anyone driving it though, so I feel sorry for the dealer too. Idiot drivers out there that choose not to pay attention ruin the roads for normal people.