Satuday morning, I took my ES300 93’ lexus to CC (circuit city) for a stereo installation. In the middle of it, a guy backed the car with the driver’s door open and it hit a wall. The door was pushed forward towards the hinges and now won’t close.
The assistant manager told me what happened and assured me their insurance company would pay for the repairs. One of the employees gave me a ride home. I rented a car and I am now waiting to be contacted by CC’s insurance adjudicator. According to CC, he should contact me within 48 business hours after the incident. This means by tuesday.
Now what? Will my car rental bill be covered by their insurance? Is there anything I should know before dealing with the adjudicator? I’ve never been in an accident or filed an insurance claim so I don’t know what to expect or if there are things I should do or say (or avoid doing or saying). Basically, I just want to not get screwed because of my ignorance in this matter. I have no idea what my rights are either.
Not a lawyer, but have made a few insurance claims.
Usually in a clear no-fault incident like this, you’ll be totally covered for everything cost you incur due to the incident.
Also, when dealing with the insurance company of a very large organisation, it’s far easier for them to make a settlement that makes the customer happy, rather than contest anything: I once got hit by a Ministry of Defense van, and I got everything settled in less than a week, based on an estimate, with absolutely no quibbles.
They should absolutely cover your rental bill: make sure this is clearly and explicitly stated in your statement. If you lost any money due to time off work, etc., get it documented and present that too. Keep all paperwork regarding anything to do with it - and maybe try to get something in writing from CC just in case.
If you try to claim for “mental anguish” etc., you’ll probably run into a bit more resistance.
You could be like my father who had his convenience store nearly destroyed when a delivery truck for Sears backed into it. Sears’ insurance carrier is Allstate (I don’t know if they were still part of Sears, but they were at the time.)
My father got paid a large sum and retired.
Circuit City likely has a lot of insurance coverage, although most of it covers theft. But since they do car installations of stereo systems, they have to have a goodly amount of auto coverage since they likely screw up not an insignificant number of cars.
Yeah, I can see that: “Seeing the door of my beloved car in this state has inflicted a great deal of emotional stress on me. GIVE ME FREE MONEY!”
OOT: I rented a Chrysler Crossfire (it was only 30 bucks / week more than their entry level compacts). I did it because it looks nice and it’s a red convertible but man, does that car ever suck! I’m never, ever buying a chrysler. You’d think that they’d learn a trick or two from Mercedes since they own it but you’d be wrong. Stay away from Chryslers.
Usually with a replacement vehicle you should be allowed an equivalent. In other words if you had an SUV they can’t expect you to rent a compact.
I’d also ask about a warranty on the body work, so if you have some problem after you sign off w/ the insurance company, you’ll still have some recourse. This should be in writing, not just a verbal promise.
Are you kidding me? Surely there is no way a Mercedes could suck so much? All the mercedes cars I’ve been in were way better than this one. Granted, I’ve never been in an SLK.
Well, The driver’s seat is not very comfortable. It didn’t let me push it back enough and it didn’t let me recline it enough. I have a bad knee so I try not to tense it for long periods and this car forces me to. That said, there is a cruise control so it slightly alleviate the problem (but only slightly, it’s still too uncomfortable).
to remove the roof, you have to press a button and KEEP IT PRESSED for all the time it takes for the process to finish (about 20-30 seconds). If you release it too soon, you can get stuck with your rear window completely obstructed. The mechanism sometimes gets stuck towards the beginning and the end (it did 3 times in one day, once with the rental agency guy who knows his way around the car. On the plus side, it disappears completely inside the car.
There is only one cup holder! And it’s placed in an ackward position, between the two passengers and towards your elbow. It’s hard to reach and requires more attention. On the plus side, it’s a nicely engineered cup holder that’ll work for lots of sizes and hold them tight.
It lacks an “auto-temperature” setting. The ac flow is bad and you can’t direct it much. It also lacks an interior “open trunk” button. When you electronically lock it with the remote, the lights stay on for about 10 seconds…that I spend looking at the care to be sure I didn’t accidentally leave my lights on.
The point is, I like my 93’ lexus a lot better…and I shouldn’t!
The press and hold to fold the top is a safety issue and I can’t really fault Damiler-Chrysler for that. If junior stuck his head or hand in the way of the top, it will stop as soon as you release the button. If it was a one touch fire and forget system, junior winds up short a finger / arm / head.
Oh, yes it could suck that much. The quality of European cars has been slipping lately. In fact, Chrysler’s quality has surpassed that of Mercedes for the last couple of years!
You’d think that would be the case. Sadly, Mercedes built and marketed the 280S. It managed to be the worst car I ever had. And, mind you, at one point I was actually driving around in a Gremlin. Yep, the 280S was worse than that! Granted, I bought the Mercedes used; however, the Gremlin had been through more owners and more mileage.
