I accidentally hit someone backing up. Their car was undamaged. I had a small dent in the bumper, and the quarter panel had come loose. It didn’t look like much, but I have to replace the bumper to fix it (it doesn’t look like a big problem, but there was no other way to do it right). Insurance is covering all but the deductible and paying 2/3rds of the rental.
The cars been in the shop for a week and a half, delayed by supply chain issues.
I got a call that it’ll be another week. It’s complete, but the dealer has to come by and make sure the sensor is calibrated.
A couple of years ago I accidentally hit someone backing up my Toyota Corolla. At about 2 MPH in a parking lot. The driver I hit was a lady busy texting while going too fast in her Range Rover. Her car was undamaged. Nevertheless, my auto insurance went up $250/year because, “if you’re the one backing up, it’s always your fault.”
I’ve had cars in for repairs three times this summer. One was a small repair at a local shop; they got it back the same day, but couldn’t do one of the things we asked for. The other two were at dealerships, and they kept the cars for over a week. I don’t like supply chain problems.
Someone dinged my door a few weeks ago. Seems it’ll take 2 weeks. WTH? Nothing has to be changed. Nothing has to be ordered.
It is an odd color, but they say they have it. Have to paint the whole door, I suppose.
Service places of all kinds are overworked, understaffed. Yet no one can find a job? Don’t add up in my pea brain.
It’s a long story, so I’ll cut to the Chase. After MONTHS of inactivity in getting my car repaired, finally work had resumed. I was in the shop watching them, to make sure progress was being made.
Andre Agassi pulls up in this Testarossa, and the mechanic LITERRALLY drops his fucking wrench (it went ‘Clink Clink Dung’ as it bounced off my exhaust manifold, frame and onto the floor) to run to see what that bald fucker wants.
That was frustrating. But I still own/drive that car. Who the fuck cares who Andre Agassi is anymore?
This caused a conundrum in my last accident: we were both backing up. Even more of a coincidence, we were driving the same year, make, and model. It was just a tap and the woman driving was a knockout, and I was thinking it was like a rom-com “meet cute” moment… until she started yelling at me. I hadn’t been called Four Eyes since grade school, but this grown-ass woman brought it out that day.
Turns out she saw me backing out but decided I should let her out first, so it was my fault. But because she was nice, instead of filing a claim, I could just give her $500 cash and she’d let things slide.
Ungrateful son of a bitch that I am, I passed on this generosity.
I don’t think that’s actually a problem these days.
WRT fixing a door, they generally have to paint the whole door. It’s often a multi-day affair with sanding down the door, fixing the dent, applying putty, sanding again, sanding again, sanding again until it’s perfectly smooth, masking the car, applying primer then multiple coats of paint and clear coat each of which have to cure and be sanded again between coats before being buffed to a shine and returned to you good as new.
You don’t want them to take your car unless they definitely have the time to do each step in turn, which means scheduling a week or two out.
Oh for the good old days, when cars were built like tanks with massive bumpers and could slam into objects without receiving a dent (while the unbelted driver pinballed around inside the cabin before impaling themself on the steering column! ;))
Seconded. A few years ago I spun out on black ice and took out a reflector pole with my passenger-side door, creasing it and breaking off the handle. The garage had to replace the outer part of the door, which took a couple of weeks to get. And my car had that weird lube smell for literally months afterwards.
My other sad car story was when both my fuel line and brake line were corroded through simultaneously. Stupidly, I had the tow truck driver take it to the dealership where I’d been getting my oil changed, Since it was a Hyundai place, I guess they had to go through the official Hyundai supply chain, which meant the replacement brake line came from Mississippi and the fuel line came from Oregon (I’m in Toronto). I was without my car for three weeks. I’m sure if I’d gone to Canadian Tire instead they would have had 'em on the shelf, but you live you learn.
I have to know more about this story. Does Agassi really drive a real (80s Miami Vice) Ferrari Testarossa? They are both so uncool they’ve become cool again, I think.
Fucked up thing is it’s not even the “bumper,” it’s the plastic bumper cover that all cars have now because at some point in the last 40 years the auto making industry as a whole decided the auto body repair industry needed a huge artificial boost. Or so I cynically assume.
I hit a cat a couple of weeks ago in my new Kia. I didn’t think I had done any damage to the car because I felt it go under the wheels, not hit any of the bodywork. However, when I examined the grill yep, big – well, cat head sized – hole in it.
However, I’m not inclined to get it fixed any time soon. I know I’ll have to take it to a body shop an hour away and I’m sure it’ll be weeks in the shop getting repaired. It’s also deer season and the body shops are already swamped. It sucks, but the damage it did isn’t too noticeable and it didn’t affect the drivability of the car or any of the various sensors that are built into the grill so for now I’m just going to live with it.
I feel really bad about the cat but there was nothing I could do. One second the road was clear, the next it was right in front of me. I couldn’t even stop to check on it.