Scratched headliner and plastic pillar

[laurene]

I was helping my Uncle with his art show this past weekend and one of his neighbours decided that I was going to bring his work to the venue as well. Now I was being a nice person and had room for the work so I drove all of the paintings down to the venue. That evening, the neighbour decides to bring one of his paintings home. He got into the back seat of my Rogue and tried to lift the piece (about 30" x 20") over his head into the trunk. He continued to jam the painting back and forth trying to get it into the back before realizing that it wasn't going to fit. This all took place over a few seconds and I didn't notice the damage until a couple of days later. I feel that he is totally responsible for the damages that HE caused as they were totally preventable. He chose not to use the trunk and it was too late to stop him once I realized what he was doing. I was doing him a favour by driving he and his work to and from the venue and he did not take any care in my property.

He scratched the headliner in a few spots and gouged the pillar between the rear seat and small rear window. The headliner isn't bad, but there are still visible zigzag scratches that I feel were caused by his carelessness. The pillar is the most important thing to me as it is about 3-4" long.

I got an estimate to replace both the headliner and the pillar and I'm looking at a minimum of $1700 including labour. My dealership gave me the number of a guy that can repair the areas, so I will call him tomorrow for a quote. I'm just wondering if anyone has dealt with this type of issue and if they could give me advice on how to approach the guy that caused the damage? The guy is apparently wealthy, but is very cheap and does everything he can to get out of paying for things.

Thanks, Lauren

[Leo2005]

Did you find out how much the parts by itself? Replacing a liner is not a big job but recommended to be done in couple. Maybe you could just replace it yourself and save a lot of money.

[laurene]

You're as bad as my brother. haha, he says that I should just begin modifying it and wrap everything in suede. It's about $1300 for parts. Another $380 minimum for labour. I'm not really interested in saving this guy money and don't have time to do it myself.

I wouldn't be so upset if it was truly an accident, but he literally jammed the painting into the trunk. It's also my first car and only 6 months old. I'll probably leave the headliner and try to get it repaired because I know that I will never be able to get $1700 out of him without suing.