Some of you may remember my visit to Ft Lauderdale last fall for the swim coaches conference - and the accident I had on Los Olas when a truck turned into me...

Just wanted to fill you in on what has happened since:

First, I want to tell everyone DO NOT USE DONNIE'S BODY SHOP - EVER!!!

After two months of not having my car, I flew down to pick it up...the first thing we noticed was that the "S2000" logo on the side of the car read "2000S" instead - that should have been a clue that this shop had never worked on an S2000...

So, I drove the car home to Atlanta and took it straight to the body shop that is a sponsor for our club - they only needed a 10-second look at the car before their collective chins dropped to the ground - and immediately started pointing out things that were SERIOUSLY wrong...without going not the entire list, let's just say Donnie's BUTCHERED my car...there was overspray everywhere (including the interior), the top was ruined (they left the top on when welding and a cinder had singed the material), many pieces were damaged or outright left off the car (some parts inside the door for example)...they couldn't get the door to line up right, so they took a hammer and chisel to the hinges - ruined the hinges in the process and the door STILL didn't line up...OK, I said I wasn't going to go through the entire list - unfortunately, that is only a small portion of the problems...

The damage caused by the truck that hit me - $8500 to repair

The damage caused by Donnies body Shop - $12,700 to repair

How can a body shop cause more damage than a truck!!!???

Fortunately, my body shop did a fantastic job...they had to strip the entire car down to bare metal, re-replace the rear quarter panel and replace a BUNCH of parts...it took them three months to correct Donnie's damage...

So, 5 months after the accident I got my car back...it's beautiful...I'm happy again...I just wanted to warn everyone in the area...DO NOT USE DONNIE'S

 

Wow, that is an ordeal. It's great that your local shop fixed the car correctly.

So, who paid for all of this? The insurance company? Donnies Body Shop? Hopefully not you!

 

Yeah it seems to me that body shops are either very good, or they aren't. I haven't found a lot of middle ground in my experiences. I'm glad I have a good one in the event I need one.

 

sorry to hear about all of this!

 

Sorry to hear man, I really hope the insurance company covered some of the bill!

 

damn cubans, cant drive

 

Wow - that's insane!
I hope you haven't had to lay out any $$$ for this.

 

Well, the insurance company of the truck that hit me paid the first bill...Donnies paid the second bill...he actually would have been better off just buying my car, dropping the price $5K and selling it to some unsuspecting kid...he would have only been out 5K instead of almost $13K...

No, I'm not out any money on this...just 5 months without my car...it felt so good to drive it again after all that time...I had to drive my PICKUP that entire time...

 

Glad they paid for all of it. Damn people this days.

 

You didn't get any problems from them? I'm surprised that they would just pay the bill just like that. Most places, they would give you some B.S. and try to re-repair it themselve.