mas

It was last June that I had an accident and my car has been in and out of the body shop since then. It's been 11 months now and it does not look like there is an end in sight. The initial estimate was for $16,000, so far it's at 24,000 and still the car's not right. I'm not going to go into the history of all the trips I've made to the shop cause it's going to be a loooonnnnnggggg post. Here's where things stand as of now:

1- Car's going back to the shop in a few days to get some small pannels and door handles re-painted. I guess they forgot to paint them with the rest of the car. The paint job is pretty good otherwise.

2- Car cannot be aligned to specs even after 4 trips to the body shop (for various new suspension components that were not originally replaced, like control arms, struts, ...) and 2 trips to an independet alignment shop with a state of the art Hunter machine (even hunter's own rep could not do it so it's not a skill issue).

3- Car is very unstable on the highways, any little bump makes my heart skip a beat cause it feels like I have no control over the car. Changing lanes at highway speeds is a really scary experience. It takes me between 7 to 10 seconds to change one lane cause steering does not give me the feeling that it'd stop turning once i'm in the other lane. Sorry if it's not clear.

4- Accelerating in vtec in a straight line is also very scary at times. It feels like all 4 corners of the car have different spring rates and are doing their own thing. I also feel like the car shudders at time in vtec. Absolutely not the car I was used to.

Anyways, I'm going to post a seperate thread in "under the hood" about the problems to get technical advice.

For now, i'd like to hear from others who've ever had this kind of experience or those in the collision repair or insurance industry. I'd like to know what my options are - legally and morally.

I know I can do many things, like consult this and that authority, the BBB, etc. I'm not interested in that till every other option is exhausted. I'd really like the car to be fixed so I can enjoy driving it once again. The biggest problem is that the body shop never says no to me. However, it's always me that has to go back to the body shop and point it out to them that certain things are not right and need to be fixed. Then they fix it. I feel they should have fixed these things before giving me car on day one. It's like they are trying to get away with it and not spend any more time. They do get paid for it directly from the insurance company so $ is not the problem here. If they tell me no, then I have other options but otherwise I don't know what to do.

So far I've had broken glass come flying from the vents right at my face, been given a car that was tilted to on side, had bent control arms and mismatched paint and God know what else that has not been fixed yet.

I'm really frustrated cause the weather is finally nice now and I can only use the car as my gorcery getter as it is now.

Please help!!

bayarea408

with all the troubles.. my suggestion would be to trade in the car and dont think about it anymore... get yourself an 03 or 04 (when avail) atleast you will have a peace of mind

mas

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, I cannot afford the financial consequences of a trade-in (it's actually a lease) at the moment. The dealer is willing to help me get rid of the car but I'd be losing a lot of money out of my pocket which I otherwise don't have to if I just return the car at least end - gap insurance is a good thing!

JetBlackS2000

Did you sign off on all the work that was done? I would go back to the insurance company and tell them that the car is too dangerous to drive. Did they underestimate the repair? Was it close to being a write-off? Your car sounds nothing like an S2000 which should give you worry free driving. You are getting screwed. I would really like to know if you have recourse with the insurance agency. The alternative looks like suing the autobody repair shop for huge damages. This really sucks!

mbitton

I hear that there its possible to complain to insurance and tell them that this isnt the car that you used to have. My buddy got his car back from a $15,000 CDN accident and it wasn't fixed properly and they ended up writing it off (or selling it) and bought him a new car. I dunno man, try complaing to your insurance

mas

blackS2000: The initial estimate was for 16,000 which was far from a write-off. I authorized them to work on my car, I got the check for 16000 from insurance and I paid them that + my 500 deductable. They have been working directly with the insurance company for supplemental damages. The good thing is, the shop is on the prefered list of the Insurance Company so they warranty the work for life. The only reason I have not called Insurance yet is that the shop was not denying the problems and trying to fix them - it's just that I don't know if they are competent enough to fix the rest of the problem or diagnose what's wrong with the car anymore.

mbitton: Thanks for sharing your friend's story, this gives me hope. Any chance you can get some more info from him, like did the insurance company inspect the car to decide it was not right? Any details will give me a better course of action. I'm just afraid the insurance will not write-off the car after spending 24,000 getting it fixed.

I will wait and see what comes out of the next trip to the body shop in a couple days, then I'll call insurance.

Does anyone know if the insurance companies have their own mechanics/techs to resolve this kind of issues? In my case, if the body shop tells the insurance they fixed the car and it's fine and I say otherwise, what's going to happen?

ruexp67

Best advice possible: Document EVERYTHING. Get everything in writing from insurance AND body shop. Keep everything. Don't just take anyone's word for anything over the phone. If someone leaves you a voice mail message, record it to tape and document when you recieved the message.

It seems to me you are in for a long drawn out ordeal (that is sadly just starting after 11 mos.) The better your documentation, the better your resolution. Good luck and keep us posted.

cyber_x

mas,

I'm sure it doesn't help much, but for what it's worth, a few months back, I also had a crappy collision repair job on my S2000. My damages were minor compared to yours (final cost of less than $3k), but I also went through a most irritating situation with an incompetent body shop. It actually still isn't fully resolved yet, because there's a few parts of my car that still aren't completely correctly fixed; I've just been too busy to go back and bitch some more (it's a major pain in the ass as I'm sure you know), but will do so in the near future. My car's also been in and out of the shop many times, so I understand your frustration.

Anyway, you might inquire about whether you can send the car to another shop to get the remaining issues ironed out. In my case, there was an item on which the body shop and I disagreed - I felt there was a problem (one of the body panels was visibly misaligned), and the body shop didn't (they felt it was within industry specs). So, I spoke with both the insurance adjustor and the body shop, and they agreed to let me take the car to another shop and get an estimate on how much the remaining issues would cost to fix. Then, I was told that the original body shop might just cut me a check to get it fixed, rather than deal with the car any longer.

I'll spare you the details of my story, but I think at this point, it might be a good idea to check with your insurance company and also the body shop, and see if they'll allow you to take the car elsewhere. Chances are the original body shop is sick of dealing with the car anyway, and they might just prefer to give you some money to get it fixed elsewhere.

If that doesn't work, then keep complaining to insurance, and try to schedule a meeting with the insurance adjustor, so that he can see firsthand the problems with the car. That's pretty important. When you talk to the insurance adjustors over the phone, I've found that they normally assume the customer's an idiot and has no clue what they're talking about. They'll tell you stuff like the car is within specs, or it's supposed to be like that, without ever seeing the problem in person. Get the adjustor out there so that he or she understands you're not talking out of your ass. It's easy for them to mumble some crap over the phone about the car being fine, but when there's an obvious problem staring them in the face, it's a lot harder to deny. Oh yeah, and if they insist that the problem is normal, then see if someone with an undamaged S2000 can come with you and show them how it's supposed to be. I had to do this for a couple of items.

Finally, I don't know if these exist in all states, but here in California, there's agencies like the BAR (Bureau of Automotive Repairs) that you can complain to. They specifically handle these types of issues, more so than the BBB. I met with a BAR representative a while back, and it seems that they're actually pretty helpful and consumer-oriented.

Good luck...

mas

Thanks for the advice, ruexp67 & cyber_x.

I have some of the stuff on paper, I will organize and put it in a file asap. Most of it has been phone conversations :-(

cyber_x: The independet alignment shop that I mentioned in my original post is actually a honda collision repair center that is being paid by the body shop to fix the alignment on my car. There is even a 3rd shop involved, they are a local tire shop where I've been a customer for years. They were kind enough to look at my car as a courtesy when I first picked it up and they found out the alignment was out on all 4 corners. Then I talked to the body shop about it and they said I could go to any shop to get the alignment fixed and they'd pay for it. They even recomended my own honda dealership since they had just purchased a state of the art Hunter machine. The dealership has also been very helpful, they even had a hunter tech come in to look at my car and even he could not align the car. Right now, they tell me they have some ideas and are talking to the body shop about this problem. I'm waiting to hear back from them.

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate your help. It's hard to see straight with all the frustrations.

nastinupe1

I had crappy repair work done as well. It took a whole year to get my car back to it's new looking state. I just kept taking it back until I was sastified. Sounds like you have a bent frame. Also, how old are your tires?