So our car got rear-ended sitting at a red light a couple of months ago (grrrrrr). We went through all the insurance rigamarole and brought the car to the dealer service center where we bought it. (It was 100% the other guy’s fault, he acknowledged this and it will all be paid by insurance with no out of pocket from us, just FYI).
Aaaaaaaaaaaand, we’ve been waiting and waiting. Apparently the supply chain is holding one part up: the bumper cover. It has been about 7 weeks now, and my wife has called numerous times to get some kind of status update, but all she has gotten has been: “supply chain is holding parts up.” No estimate of when this elusive bumper cover might arrive.
Now, we only have one car, so not having it is, understandably, a pretty big hardship for us. So I called again today to politely request a better answer or a creative solution. They are supposedly going to talk to their “parts person” and try to get us a time frame. At one point in the conversation, I did explain (again) that it was our only car, and that we can’t just leave it there indefinitely, so without meaningful new information, I would likely come and get the car back until the part comes in. And he told me that he “couldn’t release the car” without the bumper cover.
Now, on the surface, this makes some sense to me: they don’t want to release an unsafe, unrepaired car. But at the same time, I was like: you can’t just keep my car forever because of a missing part that you are unable to provide. (I didn’t say this to him). I mean, what if the part doesn’t come in for six more months? I’m wondering if anyone else has run into this before? Can they really stop me from showing up and getting my car back…indefinitely? That seems crazy to me.
(Note: the car, though hit hard and definitely damaged, still runs fine - I drove it, gingerly, for a week before we brought it in for repair, so that’s definitely not the issue).
Neither we nor his insurance had rental car coverage included in our policies. Our insurance adjuster said that if we wanted to pursue that, we would have to delay bringing our car in to be repaired, which we didn’t want to do. In hindsight, of course, this was a mistake, but the original repair time estimate was two weeks, and we just wanted to get it done ASAP.
(Side note: we’ve had the rental car coverage on our insurance for 20 years and never used it once. ShadowWife took it off this year to save some $$. Oops.)
The bumper cover is cosmetic. Maybe it holds the license plate but other than that there’s no real safety reason they can’t give you the car back as is.
Do you live in a state with vehicle safety inspections?
From my layman’s perspective, I find it very hard to imagine that they can legally hold on to your car if you demand it back.
But what I can imagine is that they can then charge you for all the work they did in looking at the car and assessing the damage and storing it on their lot etc., while not actually repairing anything. Insurance would probably not reimburse that.
But again, that’s just a lay person guessing.
What you could possibly do is just show up at the place and get in the car and drive off, and then fight it out with them later. (Would suggest getting it repaired at a different dealer or at a body shop, if you go that route.)
The license plate is in the hatch. Unless your state’s safety inspection has specific rules about needing bumper covers (which does put a responsibility on the shop) , I’d say go get your car.
Depending on what other damage there is, they may not have put the car together yet. It’s sitting there with the back part missing until they have all the parts.
Ugh. I’d be tempted to post the story on social media, with the dealer’s name, in hopes that the bad publicity would encourage them to either expedite the process, give me a loaner, or give me the car to drive until they got the part in.
But I know relatively little about car repair or insurance, so I don’t know whether or not that’s fair.
It seems like it’s as much on the insurance company as the repair shop. It’s plausible that it’s supply chain issues and a critical part is just not available anywhere.
OP, have you contacted your insurance company? I mean, ultimately if the car cannot be repaired, it’s down to your insurance company to address that problem. You said you have an insurance agent - may they would know something about this, maybe there is legislation to protect you?
I like that idea too. I think, in your situation, I’d call my agent (broker) and explain to them that the mechanic said he can’t fix the car AND he’s refusing to release it back to you.
It’s a bit passive aggressive to just vaguely say that he “can’t” fix it and leave out the reason, but IMO, that’s more likely to get the insurance company to call mechanic directly and hopefully they can hash something out. Maybe even say something along the lines of ‘they must be charging you guys a fortune in storage fees’. They probably aren’t, but anything to motivate them to call on your behalf.
OTOH, maybe there are storage fees and that’s why they “can’t” release it back to you.
Having said that, if the car isn’t roadworthy without that part and they can’t get that part in, I feel like someone owes you a replacement car (or at least a check equal to what your car was worth immediately before the accident). But I know it doesn’t work that way.
I’m surprised there isn’t a junkyard somewhere that they can just go grab another one and have it painted to match.
All you have to do is pay for the work they’ve done so far and call a tow truck to pick up your car and tow it wherever you like. I don’t see how anyone owes you a replacement car though. If you didn’t negotiate that when you dropped the car off it’s too late now.