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I am leaving on a trip tomorrow so I wanted to get new front tires (Michelin PS 4S) mounted. I was taking my car and the tires to the dealership for installation, alignment and a once over before the trip (fluids etc. since it was there already). I was turning in to the dealership when I heard and felt a BANG and suddenly I was moving forward toward a car in the right hand turn lane ahead of me. I was standing on the brakes to keep from hitting the other car and I could smell a weird burning smell. Then I realized I had been hit from behind. I looked over to the left and a Dodge Avenger was parked on the side of the road. I got out and started toward the other car and the driver exited and came to see if I was okay. She looked okay, I could see that her airbags had deployed (the burning smell). Then I went to look at the damage. As hard as the hit was, I new it would not be pretty. I was surprised that I wasn't sick to my stomach, knowing that my pristine car was now a crash victim. I remember one time I put my hand too close to a spinning metal fan, it hit my fingers with a loud "THWANG", I immediately grabbed my fingers and as the blood was dripping down, I looked around for severed fingers on the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't a sharp fan and I only required a few stitches. Still it kinda reminded me of that.
So here is the damage:
Notice the popped up trunk and bent exhaust
Pretty sure I can take it to any shop I want.
With the trunk damage, I suspect they will have to paint the rear end if not more of the car. With the metallic paint, how will that blend with the stock areas?
The question now is, return to stock, or try to find a shop to do a BS conversion.
I would need to find a shop in Dallas that can handlke that and then get a settlement form insurance and make up any difference.
Up to this point, my car was pristine, no door dents, no road rash, only a few rock chips on the front.
Looks like you were already at Park Place MB. Just have their body shop do the work. I’ve been told they do an excellent job. Any aftermarket parts that are damaged just give the other person’s insurance a copy of the receipt and they’ll cover. Contrary to popular belief, paint matching on regular metallic paint isn’t a big deal nowadays.
Today's the day for those slick N. Texas streets with that first rain in awhile. Sorry for your pain. Hope you get made whole again. And on that note, allow me to offer a 'watch out'. Details Limited in Addison may not be the right place to go. I had some rock chips being taken care of that required multiple panels being painted and they couldn't get the roof right. It doesn't have the same luster as it once did. It took twice as long as it should have, lots of delays and excuses, and then it wasn't quite right. If I were you, I'd research other places to go - although I can't point you in the right direction as that was the only time I've need paint on my Obsidian Black car. Good luck.
I am leaving on a trip tomorrow so I wanted to get new front tires (Michelin PS 4S) mounted. I was taking my car and the tires to the dealership for installation, alignment and a once over before the trip (fluids etc. since it was there already). I was turning in to the dealership when I heard and felt a BANG and suddenly I was moving forward toward a car in the right hand turn lane ahead of me. I was standing on the brakes to keep from hitting the other car and I could smell a weird burning smell. Then I realized I had been hit from behind. I looked over to the left and a Dodge Avenger was parked on the side of the road. I got out and started toward the other car and the driver exited and came to see if I was okay. She looked okay, I could see that her airbags had deployed (the burning smell). Then I went to look at the damage. As hard as the hit was, I new it would not be pretty. I was surprised that I wasn't sick to my stomach, knowing that my pristine car was now a crash victim. I remember one time I put my hand too close to a spinning metal fan, it hit my fingers with a loud "THWANG", I immediately grabbed my fingers and as the blood was dripping down, I looked around for severed fingers on the ground. Fortunately, it wasn't a sharp fan and I only required a few stitches. Still it kinda reminded me of that.
So here is the damage:
Notice the popped up trunk and bent exhaust
Pretty sure I can take it to any shop I want.
With the trunk damage, I suspect they will have to paint the rear end if not more of the car. With the metallic paint, how will that blend with the stock areas?
The question now is, return to stock, or try to find a shop to do a BS conversion.
I would need to find a shop in Dallas that can handlke that and then get a settlement form insurance and make up any difference.
Up to this point, my car was pristine, no door dents, no road rash, only a few rock chips on the front.
Some of the guys in your area seem to trust that dealer. The key is there are good shops but they do not have the benches that can pull it back to spec and then reinforce it where needed. Your dealer likely has this equipment or knows a shop that does. I made that mistake on a 2003 W211. The guy I used was good but chains and posts are not a bench.
Good luck.
Thanks for the condolences and advice.
The car is at the MB dealer in Fort Worth. That’s where they have the body shop.
Turns out the other driver wasn’t covered. They showed me and the police an insurance card, I even had them call and file a claim while we were at the dealer. Then the insurance carrier called me last night to tell me they have a signed letter excluding her from being insured on the car she was driving.
I have “uninsured” on my policy so I am still covered. I have to call my agent this morning and find out if I have a deductible. If so, I will absolutely require her to cover it.
I wonder if I can recover any decrease in value of the car from her as well?
Last edited by bjonesmd; 11-09-2017 at 07:31 AM.
Reason: Typo
If she was clearly at fault - and typically those who rear end someone are - and she waived insurance then I would call her and tell her she has two choices.
She can write you a cheque for damages and what a quality appraise tells you the loss on your car will be or she can face civil litigation to reover these costs. You can engage your insurer in that fight too.
It would depend on what they have to put out in th end whether they would get involved in a civil suit but my philosophy in life is that if you don't ask they never get put in a position to say no.
This woman was totally irresponsible ffrom the git go. She can afford and Avenger but not the insurance. Sue her ***.
Sorry to see such a beauty smashed up. I know the feeling.
Some of the guys in your area seem to trust that dealer. The key is there are good shops but they do not have the benches that can pull it back to spec and then reinforce it where needed. Your dealer likely has this equipment or knows a shop that does. I made that mistake on a 2003 W211. The guy I used was good but chains and posts are not a bench.
Good luck.
Further to my comment above, I found this on line today. https://www.motor1.com/news/186198/b...-bmw-7-series/
Now this guy did a phenomenal job with this car.
He pulled and pounded, cut and welded and the finished car looks great but here is the thing.
My 2003 W211 E320 had a front end incident wherein the damage was similar. if not worse.
The shop I used had all the same equipment and did all the same caliper measurements, tape measurements and the laser stuff but stiil when it came time to align it it did not want to come into spec.
They took it to my dealer's alignment shop and by using offset bolts and other tricks they got it close but that car always wanted to drift slightly left if you took your hands off the wheel. Not good.
In the end I tended to run the tire pressures slightly higher on the left front vs the right theoretically to create a differential in the rolling resistance that would tend to drag on the right and hold the car better. It was not perfect but it seemed to help and I put another 25000 km on that car after the accident. I would not let the insurance company do that to me again. I would insist they buy it.
The key issue was and you see it here is at no time did he establish a base plane where he was certain one of the frame rails were square and precisely aligned to the body and the front wheels tracked properly to the rear wheels with the tracks aligned.
He measures with calipers from a central reference point and pulls the rails to insure they are equidistant from the reference point but just pulling can get you close but if they are marginally off square that car is not going to run straight down the road with hands off the wheel. He eyeballs a lot of stuff that is not critical but where the front wheels, steering and suspension gear gets hung close is not good enough.
When it comes to body panels and glass - e.g. he makes sure his opening for the windsheild is square which is fine - within a mm is ok because you cover some gaps with moldings and doors etc can be adjusted to hang right and gaps set with the hinges but when it come to the frame rails they have to be square, parallel and centered in the car.
I am not saying he didn't insure things were square but we don't see it in the video and from my experience that is where my guys went wrong and it was too late to go back and fix it.
Mercedes spec benches are set up to check of this stuff really accurately. I saw and drove a W124 Coupe that barrel rolled at least 5 times they figured down an embankment after hitting the end of a bridge head on. The dealer shop fixed it and it drove perfectly when done.
He did a great job in the end but I would be careful if I saw this video before test driving the car with an intent to buy.
The car is at the MB body shop in Fort Worth. I spoke with the service rep there and I feel good about their ability to restore it to like new condition.
I also raised the idea of a BS conversion like the one done by Wobble64 or Craiger.
I am compiling the list of parts and it will depend on the cost difference between the repair to stock and the conversion.
Maybe one of those guys can PM the list of parts they used? Then I factor in the cost of wheels and tires (but I can sell mine).
I don't know that I will ever sell this car but do you think a BS conversion will help or hurt resale, given that it is the last year of the 6.3 motor and the 507 Edition?
The car is at the MB body shop in Fort Worth. I spoke with the service rep there and I feel good about their ability to restore it to like new condition.
I also raised the idea of a BS conversion like the one done by Wobble64 or Craiger.
I am compiling the list of parts and it will depend on the cost difference between the repair to stock and the conversion.
Maybe one of those guys can PM the list of parts they used? Then I factor in the cost of wheels and tires (but I can sell mine).
I don't know that I will ever sell this car but do you think a BS conversion will help or hurt resale, given that it is the last year of the 6.3 motor and the 507 Edition?
While its desirable, I think in your case it may just offset the fact that the car was in an accident. I don't think it will hurt or help.
Have you done a credit check on the woman? I'm not a Texas lawyer, but I had to chase a defendant into Texas and I was blown away by how debtor friendly Texas was; apparently it has to do with Texas being founded by people running away from debt collectors.
Before you start spending money or planning to spend money that you think you will get from her, consider seeing what assets she has, if you can. You can't get blood from a stone.
agree w/ Amby......similar situation here and my wife is a Texas attorney....understand wanting to recapture some $ and punish the at fault person, but at the end of the day you'll go through all the effort and only end up w/ a judgement against them.....all you could really do is hurt their credit which probably is already not great...sorry
I am not too interested in pursuing them for DV claim, I doubt they have the money. I am going to ask for my deductible and they don't come through with it then I will sue them for it. The driver and the car owner who appears to be her father and may have assets. I want to get the deductible first because I suspect my insurance will come after them for the repair cost and I want to get what I can before that starts. I will considering filling a DV claim, but as GerryV said, I don't have a lot of hope in that regard.
The way I understand tort law, there must be an actual injury i.e. loss of money, meaning I would have to sell the car and prove that I received less money than I would have if it had not been wrecked. The POTENTIAL loss doesn't create an actionable injury. Any actual lawyers, please feel free to correct me.
If I do sue them and get a judgement, I can request asset seizure i.e. a 2010 Dodge Avenger or bank accounts or wage garnishment. Having never actually done so, I suspect it is easier to talk about than to actually perform.
Tort law does recognize that a lost opportunity is an actionable loss but the circumstances that will give rise to an actionable loss, and the extent of the loss that is recoverable vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This includes future losses. As example, if you're suing for personal injuries, it's common to include a claim for future loss of income/earning capacity, loss of future housekeeping capacity, and cost of future care.
In theory, a diminished value claim may exist in Texas but you'd have to talk to a Texas lawyer about that. In my jurisdiction, claims of that nature are pretty difficult.
Have you talked to your insurance company about you pursuing a claim for the deductible? It's probably worth having that conversation just to make sure it doesn't interfere with their ability to pursue the other driver for the repair costs.
Last edited by Ambystom01; 11-12-2017 at 12:42 PM.
Hopefully your insurance isn't State Farm as my situation was exactly the same w/ an excluded driver and even though they had all the contact info and police report, I received a letter a couple of months later stating they weren't pursuing the matter and case was closed. They make a business decision about whether it's worth the hassle to not only win, but then collect. In Texas,seizing assists is not an easy process.
It doesn't matter to me if the insurance company doesn't pursue her. I am not interested in punishing her, I just wan't my car fixed. Hopefully her own damage, which will not be covered by her insurance, will help to change her behavior. Hard to say, she was 18 so will it result in lasting behavior modification, I doubt it, but we can hope.
I rear ended another driver when I was 17, haven't had another wreck since.
Her brother was offering to pay for the repairs He clearly had no idea what the cost was, he was probably only 25 and was wearing a uniform from a retail sales chain. I think I can get the deductible from him with out much drama, I plan on calling him tomorrow.
11-08-2017, 05:00 PM
, Very sorry to hear OP. So close to the dealership as well, damn. Best of luck with the repairs and all!
Then I factor in the cost of wheels and tires (but I can sell mine).
He clearly had no idea what the cost was, he was probably only 25 and was wearing a uniform from a retail sales chain. I think I can get the deductible from him with out much drama, I plan on calling him tomorrow.
