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^^ Yeah paint-matching is key. The dealership has agreed the work is not complete until I am 100% satisfied, and the shop does 80% Mercedes and matches matte (looked at in tear down stage today, got some further assurances).
And you're right PurpleHeart, at this point I feel the dealership is working to take care of me -- considering I bought my AMG there, and my wife bought her SUV there, and that we have serviced our cars there for 2 years, and that their tech screwed up, it's both the right move and a smart one, wins our loyalty.
Mercedes makes original spares for many many years. Don't worry, OEM parts will be available for decades. Jay Leno had a show about this.
Don't let the dealer lie to you that they can't find OEM replacement parts!
BTW- where is the dealer? Just so we can steer well clear.
After some back and forth, they agreed to include an extended vehicle warranty, along with lifetime warranty on all new parts and repairs. That covers diminution in value and gives me assurance about something that might come up down the road.
Be very careful and ask to read the fine print for the extended and "lifetime" warranties. What does "lifetime" mean? Is this the dealer's own warranty or MB's? I wouldn't settle for anything less than MB's own extended warranty.
Lifetime warranty on parts and repairs seems worthless - of course you have a warranty on repairs and parts! As far as "lifetime", good luck trying to argue it 10 years later...
I would get cash from them today to compensate you for the loss in value. Extended and lifetime warranties cost them nothing today, especially if they are the dealer's own BS warranties.
If they say no, post a YouTube video and publicize it all over the media. And take them to court!
This is the best point made so far. Now your car has an accident history. They're going to have to do something extraordinary to make this right.
This! I used to be "ok, they fixed it, no problem". But these cars are a huge asset and their value is diminished significantly when they are wrecked--regardless of the degree of the damage. When we go to sell, WE take the hit.
The dealership needs to bleed a bit in these instances.
Sorry, 507.
AMG32--You're not "being douchy" at all. This is an AMG, not a Corolla. If they can't be trusted to treat our vehicles accordingly, WE will make them.
TC
ETA: Finished the thread after posting. Glad this seems to be headed in a positive direction, 507. Good luck and stay on them.
Last edited by AA717driver; 04-30-2016 at 04:45 PM.
Oh my god. This is one of my more worse nightmares. I had my car in for a SRS recall a couple of days ago and I put as huge sign taped to my dash saying "Mialage: XX,XXX, NO ROAD TEST, NO CAR WASH" for this very reason. I also told the Service Advisor to please note this on the documentation.
No way in hell is anyone going to road test my car for tires, airbags, etc. I'll road test myself and let you know.
I'm sorry -- I can come off a bid douchy about this, but I won't let something like this happen. These exact stories make me cringe big time.
If I were you, like others have said, take them to the cleaners with everything that's not as perfect as the day you left it there.
Does not always help, had my Cayman S in for service and some numpty customer backed into it (right front) you win some you loose some.......
Also for the "lifetime warranties and repairs" is that transferable if you happen to sell the car later on down the road. I would make sure to write down a checklist of everything this could possibly cover, get it all in writing and a extremely detailed report so they can not deny you years later. Glad everything is getting worked out though .
2017 Mini Cooper S Clubman ALL4 - British Racing Green
Keep in mind, there will only be a record of an accident if the dealer or whomever is performing the repair reports it. They are not required to by law. For minor damage, especially if the dealer that caused it is also performing the repair, and the repair is performed well, there will be very little to no loss of value.
Sometimes cars get damage (as in brand new no mileage except of the few miles during build/test/moving the vehicle) in transit, are repaired, and sold as vehicles with no accidents and are never reported. Just a fact of the car industry.
As long as the dealer makes you whole, don't sweat it too much. But don't even bring up lawyers or lawsuits.. at that point, the moment you say that, work may stop, and the dealer will hand it off to their lawyers, and your turn around time will be much longer, and may cost you in the long run. Legal stuff is that of last resort.
I've used the "legal threat" successfully in the past. Keep in mind that the dealer does not want to incur legal costs, so why would they cease work and hire a lawyer just for bringing it up?
The damages would be small, this would be a small claims court, if it goes that far. It wouldn't make sense for a dealer to get a lawyer for the damages (which would be the depreciation hit).
The dealer is not a huge corp with in house lawyers!
Do what you can to get back the resale value hit now.
Oh and not reporting the repair is illegal. jvanbrecht, I highly doubt the dealer WON'T report the repair, AND get a lawyer. LOL.
2017 Mini Cooper S Clubman ALL4 - British Racing Green
Originally Posted by Surge
I've used the "legal threat" successfully in the past. Keep in mind that the dealer does not want to incur legal costs, so why would they cease work and hire a lawyer just for bringing it up?
The damages would be small, this would be a small claims court, if it goes that far. It wouldn't make sense for a dealer to get a lawyer for the damages (which would be the depreciation hit).
The dealer is not a huge corp with in house lawyers!
Do what you can to get back the resale value hit now.
Oh and not reporting the repair is illegal. jvanbrecht, I highly doubt the dealer WON'T report the repair, AND get a lawyer. LOL.
Last I checked.. carfax was not a federal, state, or local entity. Rather a commercial service used by many dealers/repair shops. They are by no means required to report anything to them. They are only required to report things do the insurance company when they make a claim. If no claim is made, no reporting is required. FYI, there is a difference between reporting and disclosure, and there are limits there too as to when they have to disclose. As a customer when they damage your vehicle they have to disclose, as a dealer when selling the vehicle, as long as the repair was done correctly, they do not have to disclose, unless it was a write off, but then we are getting into the area of illegal retitling of written off vehicles, usually from out of state.
As for the lawyer thing, it all depends on the dealer, or rather any entity you are fighting with. The reason is that when you threaten with legal action, anything said by the dealer/shop/whomever can be used against them, and most dealers, small and large, have legal counsel. Might not be onsite or in house, but they have lawyers, and the first thing their lawyer will tell them when they sign up, is if anyone threatens legal action, you stop talking. Small claims or otherwise. Some might continue to talk, and it might work here and there, but it is not the best way to proceed, and the talk about legal action should only ever be a last resort.
My preference is to have the dealer provide a replacement. Depreciation and potential workmanship issues are too much to deal with if this happened to my car.
Also for the "lifetime warranties and repairs" is that transferable if you happen to sell the car later on down the road. I would make sure to write down a checklist of everything this could possibly cover, get it all in writing and a extremely detailed report so they can not deny you years later. Glad everything is getting worked out though .
It's not transferrable, but I used that to get the extended warranty. The 'lifetime' warranty covers everything the repair shop did, for the lifetime of my ownership, and the extended warranty is there in case something pops up later that wasn't repaired. Not perfect but I'm OK with it at this point, and thanks again for the feedback.
My preference is to have the dealer provide a replacement. Depreciation and potential workmanship issues are too much to deal with if this happened to my car.
I hear you and thought about it but it was a relatively minor accident, and I got the extended warranty, $5,000 value, plus new wheel and the repairs. Also, I had a puncture in the right rear fender from some douche in a parking lot, and the dealership took care of it, repainted the rear bumper as well, even though it had nothing to do with this accident, so I'm good at this point.
OK so here's the final report, for all of you and your input -- all appreciated.
Picked it up today from the shop. They appear to have done good work, andall repairs and work are guaranteed for as long as I own the car.
Gave it a long look and the matte finish looks to be well matched.
New hood and grill and component parts, all appear good.
They threw in fixing a puncture and slight drag line in the rear bumper -- fixed, repainted and buffed -- from some douche who apparently bumped me in a parking lot, even though that wasn't part of the tech's accident. That's at least $1,700 by itself, a good move by them for my loyalty going forward.
They put the extended warranty and lifetime warranty on repairs in writing, all good.
The wheel has yet to be replaced, but the dealership is going to handle that themselves instead of having the shop do it (also in writing), good there as well. Setting it up with my service advisor.
Only other thing I need to do at this point is order the 507 race stripes for the rear bumper, as the shop had to take them off when they fixed that bumper. They'll put them on w/o charge.
I haven't posted the dealership and shop names, as I don't want to give either a bad name. S*&* happens, and the question was whether they would take care of me. It took a while -- well, a full month - but in the end they took care of me.
If any of you are in the Houston area and want to know the dealership and shop, pm me and I'll reply. Even though the tech screwed up in a big way with the **#& collision, that could happen anywhere, and as the dealership and shop have now taken car of me, I am OK with things and would recommend the dealership, for doing the right thing. My service advisor is a good guy, and stuck with me through the whole deal, including in writing.
^^ Sorry, I've been incredibly busy at the office (a good thing, but still).
My phone takes terrible pics, but here's a couple -- can see I still haven't added the 507 decals back onto the rear bumper, doing that next week. Everything seems fine now, glad this got worked out.
04-29-2016, 08:28 PM
you win some you loose some.......
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