$15k damaged caused because of a "joy ride"

Tx_Cat · 12-28-2006, 01:22 PM

Read this. I can not believe how companies can not care about their service and reputation. The thread involves a guy who took his new Vette for some minor repairs and one of the employees took the car for a joy ride and wrecked the vette causing a 15k damage and the dealer refuses to pay. It kinda sucks. This thread is making alot of news lately. Pass it on

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1581344

icecore · 12-28-2006, 03:07 PM

That story actually true?

icecore · 12-28-2006, 03:10 PM

Nevermind, looks legit. Bad story...

Jay_1.8t · 12-28-2006, 03:12 PM

There is no way that dealer can refuse to pay. Well they might but it will never hold up in the court.
Sadly that stuff happens a lot here too, just yesterday I saw a Mercedes being driven REALLY HARD. I know the guy didn't own it since it had a bag over the seat and he was wearing dealer jacket.

edrex · 12-28-2006, 03:20 PM

C'mon, thats part of the fun of working at a dealership. Thats why anytime you buy a new car and there are multiples of the same color/options you are buying, ask for the one with the lowest milage. Its not just people that work there either. When test drivers take a car out they want to see how it performs so of course they drive it hard.

edrex · 12-28-2006, 03:25 PM

Ha, thats only about 40 minutes from my house. What really sucks for the guy is that the car wasn't totalled so it will be repaired and he will have to drive around in a car that is not factory new anymore.
If he takes it to court he'll win, and he'll be able to have his lawyers fees paid for by the dealership also, but that won't change the fact that he will still get the same car back.

turbocad6 · 12-28-2006, 05:18 PM

this is what happens with insurance companies.... the dealer didn't refuse to pay for the damage... there going to pay the $15k to fix the car of course... BUT, this guy is not satisfied with that (I wouldn't be either) & he wants a new car...

I get situations like this in my shop all the time... where a car is really ****ed up... but an insurance company would much rather pay less to fix it, than what they'd have to pay to replace it..... had this guy crashed it himself then he's **** outtta luck.... but it has to suck way more having a dealer do it to your new vette

he's claiming diminished value... something that applies to pretty much any car that gets hit.... the theory behind this is that a car that is hit & fixed is not the same, & not worth the same, as a virgin

diminished value has been a hot bed of debate for years with the insurance companies... they just don't want to aknowledge the fact that even if the car is repaired properly, it can never be exactly the same as it was before being hit.... this is compounded now with insurance company belt tightening, & the increased use of aftermarket & inferior parts...

sucks for that vette guy though... he's paying for a virgin & he's going to wind up with a whore

edrex · 12-28-2006, 06:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by turbocad6

he's claiming diminished value... something that applies to pretty much any car that gets hit.... the theory behind this is that a car that is hit & fixed is not the same, & not worth the same, as a virgin

Not to mention that CarFax will have this on thier report attached to his VIN number and he will never be able to sell it for the same price as he would with a free and clear CarFax. That in itself should get him some sort of extra settlement from the dealership.

icecore · 12-28-2006, 10:15 PM

BTW: What makes an accident go into your carfax history?
I had one a couple of weeks ago, with police report and insurance claim, but basically all that had to be replaced is the grill and front bumper. A lot of people replace those parts anyway because of chipped paint and dents from driving on the interstate.

turbocad6 · 12-28-2006, 11:01 PM

carfax is the biggest lie out there, carfax is bull**** & does nothing but give people a false sense of security... I have bought wrecks... cut 2 cars in half & pieced them together & had them still be squeaky clean as far as carfax is concerned...

the bottom line with carfax is, if it shows something screwed up, then there is something screwed up, but if it shows everything clean, the car still could be a screwed up car... insurance companies don't always report everything to the proper channels & there are thousands& thousands of claims each month in each state that there is no official record of incident....

even there grantee is bull****.... they give you a buyback warranter that there is no record of damage, but that don't mean **** cause if there was a record then they'd have it... this don't mean anything to guarantee that the car was not wrecked, flooded vandalized or rebuilt, miles kicked, etc... it just means that there is no official record of it.... you buy a car with a clean carfax & then find out it was cut in half & put back together, carfax ain't going to do anything but say, well there is no record of it....

I'll say it one more time..... CARFAX is bull**** & nothing but a false sense of security for the uninformed....

icecore · 12-29-2006, 10:43 AM

So if you buy a used car, how can you be sure it is ok? Bottom line I guess is you can't?
And what does count as an accident? Dent in the front bumper because somebody hit it on the parking lot, left and you call the police and make an insurance claim?

turbocad6 · 12-29-2006, 01:19 PM

that depends on what your buying & how much you know about cars & identifying paintwork... & then identifying any other signs of repaired damage...

if your buying a 5 year old honda, & one side has been painted, but the doors haven't been replaced & no signs of work in the jambs & such, then that's not so bad... truth is, I'd bet well over 60% of 5 year old cars have had some paintwork....

if, on the other hand, your buying a big dollar car, then this becomes much more critical.... a repainted nsx is worth a fraction of what a virgin would be.... if you don't detect it, then your going to loose out big time....

the ONLY real way to tell is to have a trained eye inspect the car... & even then you'd be surprised.... I've done many new cars that have gone back to the dealer & they couldn't detect anything.... if you really stress making it undetectable then even a trained eye can be fooled without being able to start dissasembling the car to investigate further....

don't let the "newness" of a car fool you either... I get brand new cars in my shop all the time... I've fixed wrecks with 3,000 miles on them & I've fixed wrecks with 1,200 miles on them... when they leave they look exactly like a brand new car again.... be especially careful with new cars, like 1-2 years old... most of the times, when someone gets rid of a car that soon it's cause it was blasted...

the best way to buy a car is still to get it directly from the original owner, & even at that, hoping the guy isn't lying about it's history.... buying a used car sucks in this regard... you'd be surprised how many cars out there have a screwed up history in some respect...

the biggest drawback to a hit & repaired car is not necissarily that it's been hit & repaired... i mean if it really has been repaired properly then it can still be a good car.... the problem is the residual damages that can occur from a hit that either get overlooked in the repair, or is repaired crappy.... just cause it's shiny & the color matches, that don't mean everything really... structural is important & how a car was repaired is sometimes not even evident initialy.... sometimes a shoddy repair can take a year or 2 to show up as a problem, weather it's rust surfacing or filler cracking....

the easiest way to detect damage even by a novice is checking the edges for signs of an edge to the paint that shouldn't be there... for example, if a door gets painted, the majority of shops will never go to the extent of totally stripping the door of all trim... so you will be able to detect the edge of a respray at the mouldings around the window, or even the handles.... same goes for lets say a fender or a qtr panel.... usually there will be a tape line at the jamb to detect...

just detecting paintwork isn't the worse thing really, but it can be a clue to look further..... just because a car was scratched, or a bumper got bumped, doesn't make it a bad car, but if a hard nose was put on the car, or it was blasted hard enough that a quarter was replaced or something, then the car should be bought much cheaper, or move on to another if you desire a top dollar mint car....

one thing to keep in mind really is,normally, the most you will get is what you pay for most of the time.... if you find a car that should be 12g's & you can get it for $8,500... unless theres a real good reason, chances are something is up....

it's not so much that a hit & repaired car is no good, it's more of what you pay for it... if you can get a repaired car at a 30% savings, it may be worth it to you, but to pay full price & get something that's only worth 70% of a full price car sucks...

I have no problem buying a blasted car & fixing it for myself, BUT, that's only cause I'm saving quite a bit... if it's going to cost me close to what a virgin should cost then why bother... plus, if I fix it myself, I KNOW how it was repaired, & I can repair a car to be about as good as new in most respects... I bought my minivan 2years old w/23k miles, but blasted in the front... got it for $2,900 & it was worth around 11-12 at the time as a virgin.... when I was done with it, no one would ever know & I saved 4-5g's doing it.... I am very leery about buying a car that was fixed by someone else though...

Genesisfactor · 12-29-2006, 07:09 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by turbocad6

carfax is the biggest lie out there, carfax is bull**** & does nothing but give people a false sense of security... I have bought wrecks... cut 2 cars in half & pieced them together & had them still be squeaky clean as far as carfax is concerned...

the bottom line with carfax is, if it shows something screwed up, then there is something screwed up, but if it shows everything clean, the car still could be a screwed up car... insurance companies don't always report everything to the proper channels & there are thousands& thousands of claims each month in each state that there is no official record of incident....

even there grantee is bull****.... they give you a buyback warranter that there is no record of damage, but that don't mean **** cause if there was a record then they'd have it... this don't mean anything to guarantee that the car was not wrecked, flooded vandalized or rebuilt, miles kicked, etc... it just means that there is no official record of it.... you buy a car with a clean carfax & then find out it was cut in half & put back together, carfax ain't going to do anything but say, well there is no record of it....

I'll say it one more time..... CARFAX is bull**** & nothing but a false sense of security for the uninformed....

Its true, carfax said my first car was in all good and when i got it i found a crumpled fender and in the trunk, a pedestrian accident form. I carfax isn't a bad thing, but it isn't really a good thing either.

Plus my friends don't report their accidents, esp when "the woods jump out and attack them and destroy their car" It very interesting what people do just to save money on their car insurance.

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