Well this event happened Friday the 13th of all days. I was never superstitious but I have to say I am now.

Friday morning, 8:00am. I drop my car off at Les Schwab to have the camber messed with. For those of you that do not know, Les Schwab is a tire center, much like Discount tire or something along those lines. I recently purchased some new wheels and wanted to run a bit more negative camber to help with the fitment. Drop off the keys, give them my cell #, and say call me when its finished. At that point I have my girlfriend give me a ride over to work with the intentions of picking up my car when completed.

9:45 am. I get a call from Les Schwab.

"Hi Keith this is Mitch from Les Schwab, how are you today?"

"Im fine Mitch, how you doing?"

"Actually not so good"

(Its at this point im thinking to myself that they were probably just not able to get the camber dialed in to my specifications.No biggie. Boy was I wrong...)

The next line is where my heart dropped into my stomach...

"I have some pretty bad news for you Keith, are you sitting down for this?"

Right then I know my car has been wrecked in some shape or form.

Mitch from Les Schwab proceeds to tell me that his tech doing the alignment took it out for a test drive, (A drive which they claim is standard procedure) pulled out of the parking lot, was immediately passed by someone doing high speeds and was cutoff, then spun the car out of control, up onto a curb, and into a lightpole and fence.

I immediately leave work and head over to the crash. As im going over there, im thinking to myself that this story I was just told seems a bit bogus, and I soon find out I was correct in my thinking.

I get up to my car about 10mins after 10am to see my pride and joy in a pile of gravel, airbags deployed, and panels dented all over. I go talk to the cop who takes my info and immediately tells me the real story. I know this story is correct because 2 witnesses stopped and gave written reports of the events as they saw it.

The Les Schwab tech pulled out of the parking lot, started racing another car, lost control, spun a 360 and ran it up onto a curb through a small plastic fence and into a 2001 BMW 325ci and a 2006 BMW 325i that were parked at a car dealership. The entire left side of my car dented to all hell, airbags shot out, and both left side wheels all busted up.

The cop cited the asshat driving my car for exhibition of speed (racing), reckless driving, and speeding. Fortunately that should be enough for him to lose his liscence. I went in to speak with the manager a few hours later, and found out he had just walked in and quit a few minutes before I got there. Guess he wanted to quit before they fired him.


Long story short, I am waiting to find out if the car is totalled or not. At that point I can decide if Les Schwab will be paying me the cost of a 2004 S2000 with 21k miles on it, or if they have a law suit on their hands. They have agreed to pay for all damages, any aftermarket parts that were harmed, and a rental car until mine is fixed. The appraisor supposedly went to look at the car Friday afternoon so hopefully I hear some new info today.

I will update the thread as soon as I know more. Feel free to discuss and give me any pointers/suggestions to help me out.


-Keith

 

Sorry to hear. I don't know why mechanics love to destroy S2000s. I had one to destroy my diff on my AP1.
As far as tips go- do NOT be nice. Be mean and angry... If you are nice they will think they can walk all over you and stick it to you. Just remember what they did to your car, and remember it will never be the same. Think about that whenever you have a meeting with them, and that will give you fuel.

 

Just goes to show the stupid things people will do. The tech probably jumped into the car not knowing what this car was capable was.

I would try to get a bit more than what the car was worth. Paying for all damages and a rental car doesn't help you out in any way. You should walk out benefiting from this after all the trouble they put you through. Having a dumb tech mess up your car. Having their manager lie to your face.

 

this is terrible and sorry to hear about it. there is another thread HERE where a dealership wrecked a members s2k as well. if it is not totalled, try to get some compensation for diminished value on top of the cost of repairs. you will not get full resale value for a car that has been in a wreck and it is there fault. therefore they should have to pay you the money that you will lose when you go to sell it. im not sure if every state has this rule, but i would look into it. reading these threads makes me not want take my car to a shop more and more. so far i havent had to.

 

People suck.. sorry to hear about the infortunate news..

 

I started saying that there will be NO TEST DRIVES. I get odd looks (espically at the Honda dealership) but I tell them to look at the car - see, it is clean and well cared for and I know it has no problems that require a technican to drive it off the lot. I have also had the service writter enter this statement in the computer so that it shows up on the work order. When I go to discount tire (bought PS 2's from them) I tell them that I will wait for the car and unless I'm in the car it is not to leave that place of business and again I make sure that it is recorded on the work order.
Maybe this would help someone from getting a call that asks if you are sitting down.

 

This was the first thing I brought up to the store manager and their head insurance rep. Its all nice and good if they fix it properly but legally you have to let the potential buyer know that the car has been in a wreck, which will immediately lose you $5k give or take. They have agreed to compensate me for any diminished value as a refult of the car being wrecked. At this point I am just hoping I can total the car out and start over again. The last thing I want is a wrecked that thats been fixed, even if fixed properly.

 

I usually just wait around and watch them. I never leave my cars unattended unless it's a bucket and I don't care about it.

 

The first thing I'd do is try to make this as simple as possible.
Tell the shop that you do not want your car fixed and that you want to go out on your own and find another S2000 same model same relative milage and that you want them to buy this car for you.
Tell them they can do whatever the like with the wreaked S.
THis is reasonable and this is simple. It may not work but it's a starting point and the advantage is it eleminates all hassels that are sure to follow if they don't accept this proposal. Good luck

 

Man, sorry to hear that.
I would make sure that I get more than what the car's worth.
Keep us updated. Good luck!
BTW, I curbed my front bumper that day.


Dan