Did the OP say whether the car was or was not paid for already? I may have missed it. I didn’t get the feeling they were holding on to the car for lack of payment but because they were waiting for a part to come in.
I would bet that it’s a few things - the aforementioned COVID based inventory issues, the current seller’s market where they can sell easily and at high prices, AND that I bet the OP is far from the only person having extended repair times with the part issues.
So yeah, a perfect storm of buck passing (from the insurance of the OP, and the penny pinchers at the dealer) and supply issues (parts and loaners). At this point, if the other driver’s insurance doesn’t pay out, maybe it’s time to follow the fad from the horrible rental car shortage and rent a Uhaul for in city driving!
I don’t know if the shop has been paid or not; insurance is handling all that directly. Though I plan to ask when I speak with them. But in any case, payment or lack thereof is definitely not the issue. The issue is:
- They don’t have a bumper cover for us
- They claim they have no idea when said bumper cover will arrive (supply chain issues) - it’s been 7 weeks already
- They claim they won’t give me the car back without the cover
So they are essentially holding my car indefinitely, which I think is not right. After my last call, the shop is supposed to call me back today with (hopefully) some kind of update. I will find out if they’ve done the rest of the repairs yet or not also. My plan is to politely insist they give me a loaner since they can’t tell me when I might get my car back. If they continue to say they don’t have one, I’ll tell them they should prepare the car to be returned to me without the bumper cover and I’ll bring it back when it comes in.
And I’ll also be calling my insurance to see if they can help at all. I’ll report back.
If the car can’t be driven for some safety reason call a tow truck to come pick up the car. If they don’t cooperate in any way call the police. I’m serious about that, the police will set them straight immediately. If there’s no safety problem you can just drive it away. The police will also make sure you are charged a fair price for the work done already, which may be nothing if they did nothing substantial towards a repair.
You still have no basis to ask for a loaner. It’s not the shop’s fault that the part is not available. They owe you a repair, not a free car. Your insurance company may owe you a car, and it will be in written in your policy if they do.
Which is it?
I really think you should read the thread to understand the information that has already been provided before continuing to offer advice that doesn’t apply here. OP has already stated that his own policy does not provide for a rental car. But it is not in dispute that the other driver is at fault, and the relevant question here is whether the at-fault driver’s insurance has an obligation to pay for a rental car for OP under the current circumstances, and how to go about making that happen.
All of this is equally unhelpful. OP says that safety rather than payment is the reason the shop won’t release the car. But nevertheless, the current arrangement is for the insurance company to pay for the repairs direct. If safety concerns can be sidestepped and the car is to picked up unrepaired or partially repaired, that process (and any subsequent repair) still needs to be sorted out and agreed with the insurance company, or the whole thing becomes even more of a mess.
I gave some kind of “elite” status with my car dealer. I’m supposed to be guaranteed a loaner car when I’m in for maintenance.
For the last 18 months I have had a choice. Either schedule my maintenance two months in advance on a day and time that they specify or forego the loaner car. Usually I can’t take their date and time because I have to work (it’s always something like 11am on a weekday)
Also their drop off & pick up service now takes so long as to be useless. And a minor service takes 2.5 hours instead of one hour. They basically cannot commit to a time when your service will be done. They used to, but at some point this became unreliable so they stopped promising.
This is all said to be due to labor and supply chain shortages. They don’t have cars they want to use as loaners. And they don’t have shuttle drivers (who were mostly older folks).
My wife is seeing the same thing at her car dealer. I suspect these are widespread issues in the industry. The customer is no longer king, the supplier and employees now have more bargaining power.
This problem exists because the delay in repairing the car is not costing anybody anything (other than the owner, who has no voice). This is one reason to insist that you have to get a rental car when they do an accident repair. The at-fault party should have to pay (or their insurance), although that may depend on the state. This is also why it is important to carry rental car coverage on your collision policy.
First and foremost, the OP needs to get in touch with the at-fault party’s insurance company and demand a rental car, and not take any excuses for why it is not needed. If the delay in repairing the car was costing the insurance company money for each day the car went unusable, they would put pressure on the repair center (the insurance is the one who not only pays the check, but also able to steer new business to the repair shop). Regardless, the owner wouldn’t be without a vehicle to drive.
That still has nothing to do with the shop paying for a loaner car. It is not their problem at all, it is the OP’s problem and it doesn’t matter who’s insurance company is involved, it is not the problem of the auto shop.
I assume you are not a licensed mechanic and you have not examined the car in question, so you have no idea if the car can’t be driven for a safety reason. That’s the claim of the auto shop. That does not stop the OP from having the car towed away. And frankly I doubt the shop has any authority to determine the car can’t be driven away for safety reasons. I’m sure the police can resolve that situation too. Sorting out this matter with any insurance company has nothing to do with the auto shop, they have to get paid for any legitimate work done and after that it’s none of their business and they are not in the least bit obligated to provide a loaner car. What are they to do if the car part can’t be found? Are they to provide a free car to the OP for life? The OP could have driven or had their car towed away at any time they were unsatisfied with the auto shop, it is in no way the fault of the shop that the OP doesn’t have their car.
I was not responding to the question of whether the auto shop should provide a loaner. I was responding to your incorrect comment (given facts already stated) that OP’s own policy is what determines his entitlement to a rental car paid for by insurance.
As for the rest, despite your doubling down on the bluster, I seriously doubt that “send a tow truck” or “call the police” are helpful practical suggestions for resolving the problem in a manner that will make OP’s life easier rather than much more complicated.
That coverage is for you if you crash your car and it’s your fault or an uninsured/under insured person hits you. You can’t turn down coverage on a policy that would otherwise protect the other driver.
You’re being fucked with. By the mechanics, the other guys insurance, and even your own insurance. And you’re letting it happen. The at fault drivers insurance most certainly should be paying for a rental car. Doesn’t matter what kind of coverage he picked for himself. Their policy holder was at fault, they have tp pay.
I don’t think the OP has gotten a reason from the shop as to why they won’t release the car , just that they won’t release it without the cover.
How nice but irrelevant to this issue. The car is not being held by an insurance company, the car belongs to the OP, and the only reason the shop can keep them from taking it is if the OP owes them for the costs of the work they’ve done already. If the OP wants their car back they should pay anything owed to the shop and go get it. Calling tow trucks and the police if necessary are much more practical solutions to the problem than arguing with an insurance company.
The shop has a great honking big Hyundai on their sign, their business is predicated on Hyundai owners coming to get official Hyundai branded service and Hyundai is not making the part available. Seems to me the shop is complicit by their ongoing relationship with the party who is ‘really’ at fault. The shop, the dealer, and Hyundai deserve a helping of bad publicity for letting their customers down with such vigor.
This.
That driver may have chosen not to pay for his insurance to provide him a rental if he’s at fault. But that doesn’t affect his liability towards you. Your insurance company doesn’t need to help you negotiate that benefit from them, as they aren’t in the hook to provide it to you directly. But the other driver is liable for your loss of a car, and his mandatory liability insurance ought to be paying for you to have the use of a rental car.
If there are no rentals available and they can’t actually make it happen, you may have other issues. But over seven weeks they should have been able to find one if they’d been trying. They haven’t, because you haven’t pushed the issue. You should do so.
I agree in principle but I don’t think that’s how it works out legally, or at least not without much greater difficulty than just going to pick up the car. I’ll bet there’s a used or 3rd party part available any old shop could install and the OP can fight it out with whoever they want after they have their car back on the road.
Well, I have an update that is good news for me but bad news for solving the central question of my OP.
The shop just called back to say that - oops! - they were wrong yesterday and very sorry that they gave me bad information: the bumper cover did in fact arrive (supposedly on Monday, though not sure I believe that) and it is being painted as we speak. Once dry, it will be installed and the car will be ready to go by Friday or Saturday.
So, crisis averted, though I am honestly still curious about the original situation. Sorry I won’t have an interesting follow-up to post, but I am thrilled that I get my car back soon.
That is great news altogether, far better than having to follow any of the suggestions here. As usual, incompetence is a likely explanation for the problem. They may have made up “Monday” as the date because it sounded much better than “two weeks ago”.
Good news.
It has probably been a helpful thread for general information anyway, since the current situation with supply chains means that others may find themselves in a similar situation. I think the only “mistake” you might have made in retrospect is not insisting on a rental car paid by the at-fault driver’s insurance. Not only do you have something to drive, but the ongoing cost to the insurance company if there’s a delay means that it’s their problem as much as your problem, and they have an incentive to be proactive in pushing to get the car repaired in a timely fashion.
And I can’t remember if I have rental car coverage on my own policy. With the current supply chain issues, I’m doing to check and add it if it isn’t there.
I remember one time when my car was rear-ended on the freeway. 100% the other driver’s fault, of course. Traffic came to a sudden stop, I stopped, the guy behind me didn’t. (My speculation is that it was the afternoon and the sun was low, I had sunglasses, the other driver didn’t. But who knows. He was a young guy.)
I got his info, including insurance info. I let my insurance company know what happened and they said I needed to contact his insurance company. I tried calling his insurance company multiple times a week every week for months and only ever got voicemail, and none of my messages were returned. I never got anything from him or his insurance company.
It really was just a fender-bender, literally. Just a dent on my rear bumper. The other car wasn’t so fine; his whole front end was smashed and his car was putting out a lot of steam and was undriveable. So he definitely got the bad end of the deal. (My 2001 Toyota Echo was a beast apparently, or more likely I just got lucky.)
It sucks, sometimes if the other person is ducking you, there’s not much you can do unless you want to spend a lot of money on a lawsuit. I guess the other thing I could have done was called the cops at the scene, but he gave me all of his info and it was a minor accident (for me at least) so I didn’t think it was necessary. And I don’t even know what having cops there would have done for me.
Months later I traded my car in and bought a new one, so really I didn’t suffer at all. But I was really steamed about that company. I can’t remember the name of the car insurance company but when I’d looked up reviews of it online, it was some kind of shady business that supposedly was only run by one person. (I don’t know that it was even a legitimate insurance company.)