its monday!! cant believe it happened

[bigdog]

looking for opionions: to v to dealer on fri to have brakes looked at. well went this morn to p/u car from shop and service mng went to get out of shop and bam accidentally drove into work bench,evendently brakes car wasnt ready. well hood got pushed down in front & bumper needs replacing no other damage done. the car is an 07 never wrecked or anything like that. anyway dealer is repairing w/new part paint . of course they're eating the cost,but think i should call & tell them i know value dropped even more and the should offer something else like extended warraty or new car,lol. just seenig what ya'll think

[Vahagn23]

NEw car would be good. Because even if its repaired, its still not the same as a brand new one.

[my_new_v]

Do it, ask for more and push it on them hard core.

[biggie]

Tell them to throw on the sport package and paint the entire car so it matches.

[kc5f]

I had the same thing happen with my last car when it had about 100k miles on it. By then, the hood had enough dings from rocks that when they got done with it I actually came out ahead!

[Visaversa]

The exact same thing happened to me two months ago. Was getting minor warranty work done on my F150 and when the service writer was bringing it around, bam! Porter driving an 80's Jeep took out my bumper and right headlight in front of everybody. Just ask them to fix the car and waive the cost of the brakes. I wouldn't go too far because you may end up needing a lawyer if they refuse.

[DejaWiz]

Just have them fix what they damaged. It was an accident, after all. The more people demand extra stuff or sue for big money, the more it hurts the honest citizens because prices go up even more as a result.

[bigdog]

Brakes are covered under warranty (only 17,000 miles on it) anyway. Would it be unreasonable to ask them to paint the whole car so you can't tell there is a difference in paint colors on hood/bumper from rest of the car. Its magnetic gray and is NOT garage kept.

[matttail]

Were the brakes actually not working and that caused the crash?

Or was it just an accident, someone not paying attention?

If it was just an accicdent, I'd let them order in a new hood, paint it to match and then if you can see a difference between the hood and the rest of the car insist that they paint the rest of the car again.

If the brakes were actually faulty, I would not only demand the above but make the dealership tow the car to an other Nissan dealer to have the brakes inspected before I would drive it. You're taking your life into your hands if they had a problem with the brakes like that and were going to let you drive away with it. And I would make them tow the car there too - if a tech gets in and drives it and crashes because the brakes still aren't working that you're going to be in a bigger mess than before.

[aleckz]

They will match the paint, it will be fine. They will actually blend it in to the existing non-damaged paint so there are no lines or paint color differences.

It should look brand new, also drive it and make sure they didn't hit hard enough to throw your car out of alignment just in case. Other than that it should be nice.

Oh and they won't paint full car and they definitely won't give you a new one.

[bigdog]

wellllll,from what i understand is when the service mng got into the car(with the assumption of the tech the car was ready) he started it(NOT KNOWING IT WAS IN NUETRAL),pulled it down a gear(THINKING HE WAS IN REVERSE) and proceeded to run under the work bench before he relized it.

[bigdog]

quick question: if you were in my shoes would you wait till the car is done and i check it out to make sure paint blends w/rest of car before saying anything about having whole car painted,i only ask because if car is traded alot of places would know the car has had work done and that alone kills trade-in value even more,or would you insist having whole car painted from get-go. i think parts for car should be here today/tomarrow @ latest. opinions can be helpful, thanks.

[kc5f]

If it is like mine was, you should have no problem. I put another 120,000 on my car with the repainted hood, and it never looked different or faded differently.

[bigdog]

mines not garaged or covered. Its out in the sun all the time. thats my only concern,since the car is a year or so old just want to make sure theres no color diff.

[kc5f]

We have a one-car garage and my wife always gets it...

[07V84Z]

matttail makes a good point. You need to further investigate if it was just an opperator error, or were the brakes actually not finished. If the Service Manager made a mistake, then he's just a human. Yeah they'll fix the car and all that, so you should be fine. I might also have them check the allignment.

If they say that the brakes weren't finished...then someone is in some really hot water. Like someone else said, have it taken to another dealer and have the brakes inspected. I wouldn't want anyone else at that dealer working on it. And then have THEM check the allignment, and all that.

If you find out that the Service Manager just had an accident, then I'd be careful with your 'demands.' You won't get a new car, and the probably won't be willing to paint the whole thing. Given that it's the dealerships body shop doing the painting, the paint should match ok.

Good luck either way man.

[Kokanee]

Guys it sounds like the manager accidentally drove it forward instead of reverse, so brakes shouldn't be the issue.

I'd just be happy to get the damage repaired and a loaner car while they are taking care of it. Going after the dealership and trying to get a bunch of free stuff out of them is only going to sour your relationship with them and will make future dealings more difficult.

They'll blend the paint no problem, and you won't notice a difference. I had a 2003 neon before my V and it was crashed three times (never my fault lol) and subsequently it had just as many partials paintjobs, was never able to pick out which parts were new etc if you didn't already know.

[Ever Victorious]

Any good paint shop will be able to do a fine blend job. Just make sure they don't use a Maaco or something like that... the paint will blend in fine, but their "blend" repairs use their cheapest paint, which is a 1 year paint (!)... whereas a good body shop will use their best paint, which is 10+ years.

[bigdog]

should i atleast request to have the whole car buffed out because from looking at the factory paint i dont think it is as smooth as you would get when you have a repair done at good quality shop,that paints by hand and not by robot. what do ya'll think?

[bigdog]

well they are paying for a loaner(i & my wife think its a pos: dodge calibure) so i've got something to get me from here to there,anyway any answer for my previous question?

[matttail]

A few people have given their opinions about the paint - most seem to think it will be fine. But what you need to get from the dealer is what ever it takes to make you happy. They want you to keep bringing your car there for service and they want you to come back and buy an other car from them - so they're going to do be willing to do anything reasonable to keep you happy.

Decided what it's going to take to make you trust them and bring your car back in the future. Then tell that to the service manager. I'd just be straight up with the guy; It was an accident and I understand that every body makes mistakes, but here's what it's going to take to keep me as a happy paying customer in the future. If you want them to buy up the entire car than tell him that, if you want some coupons for free service than say that. Just decide what it's going to take and let them decide if it's worth it to keep your business and avoid the bad rep.

[aleckz]

The most I would actually ask for is a free oil change and maybe a tire rotation. Other than that you're getting it all painted and prepped there is no point to ruin or scar the relationship you already have with your dealer.

If you do have any problems with the paint in the future, make sure you have all documents that the parts painted were from the dealer and they should replace them, IE: paint peeling, fish eyes, dry spots (rock chips and debris don't count). I'm pretty sure that they will go over it very well and get good coverage, but if rushed a paint job can be very shoddy.

Good luck!

[bigdog]

well got call from dealership car ready for most part,went to look at it,looks really good. i got them to have the body shop to polish/buff it from front to back top to bottom,. only issue they had was something happened to one of my aftermarket fog lights. they asked if i could still find a set to replace the ones i put in. i did. so those are getting fixed also. im getting credit for p/u fogs on my account at shop. should have in morning to see how it looks outside n sunlight.

[frankoV]

Hope your bledn is better than mine. Car was 4 mnths old when hit; took it to an -- no, the -- "approved" body shop (a month long wait for the dealer). THe "new" gray is a bit darker than the "old".

No matter. Was at a wedding yesterday. Parked at the fringes of the parking area. Truck I parked beside was into a second lane so I thought I'd be fine beside it. Obviously not. Looks like someone tried to fit in between us and when s/he discovered there wasn't room backed out and scraped the same bumper that had just been repaired. So I'm driving an injured car -- and will be until someone runs into me again (looks like Vs are indeed "collision" magnets.

[kc5f]

Maybe you shouldn't have gotten "magnetic grey", frank!

[frankoV]

spelling=a Billy Joel quote

whatever kind of mood I'm in tonight

[bigdog]

lol. I dont care who you are, that was funny.

[kcourtad]

when someone backed into my car they got all the parts already painted... the same color of my car... i never noticed a diff... .and u cant even tell its been wrecked...

[frankoV]

I can be so dense at times. Doh!
Modified by frankohabs at 7:44 AM 6/16/2008

[bigdog]

well got car back,looks great ,paint matches beautifully.brakes are great(rotors turned,new pads fixed under warranty), replaced fog lights,oil changed(no charge,wasnt expecting that,but i'll take it),car detailed inside & out & service mng told me to bring back in a couple weeks to let paint cure so it can be buffed out top to bottom. Even though what happened was their fault this dealership acted extreamly professional in all ways possiable and went out of their way for customer satifaction. I think all dealers should be this good.