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sadly a service advisor was driving my 2017 GS because I have the warranty to replace the low profile rims or tires if damaged. I'm a vet person and a PE so I knew something was wrong. Took it to the dealer, they parked it on show room floor on Sat on June 11 on the second joy ride on the property a very old man hit my car in a 4 door pick up and knocked it 15 feet backwards as the service manager was coming up to a blind corner. the pickup front left tire mounted my vet towards the left side head on and drove over the top of my vets left front wheel. everything is busted, lt front wheel is bowed outward from the wt, seams all the way around the car shows crimped or torn spots from the force of the truck. The truck was totaled and the dealer said only $4,956 dollars in damage was done to my car. the car frame is torqued because the gaps all the way around the vet are wide on the passenger side and zero on the driver side. I'm still in shock, the damage is extensive and the value is demished considerably. I am told they have to start fixing the car by taking it apart, and asking for additional state farm money to repair as they go and that includes the drive train as the car was in motion forward and hit so hard it forced it 15 ft backwards with the pickup on top of the hood.
please advise on what I should do, let them fix it at another Chevy dealer or sue the dealership with the wrecked car as evidence for time, replacement and demished return? pictures are available if needed.
Some folks are jumping to ridiculous conclusions that are not supported by the story the OP wrote. He took the car to the dealer for warranty work. He left the vehicle in their care and created a bailment for mutual benefit. This requires the dealer to exercise reasonable care to safeguard the vehicle while it is in the dealers possession. Evidently they did so witness the storage of the vehicle on the showroom floor for safekeeping. While moving the vehicle on the dealers property by an employee, it was hit by an elderly gentleman in a truck. While not made clear by the OP, it appears the elderly gentleman was not an employee of the dealership. Where is the liability?
The OP needs to contact his own insurance long before contacting an attorney. They are the primary coverage in this instance as they insure the OP's vehicle. Should they have reason to think they can prove negligence on the dealer's part, they will subrogate against the dealers insurance. This also could extend to the truck operators insurance as there seems to be a reasonable thought he was possibly at fault.
The dealer most likely has deep pockets and insurance that also has deep pockets. The least smart action in this case would be for the OP to instantly hire an attorney so he could play the "lawyer game" at the tune of several hundred dollars an hour. This is the reason you buy insurance and you should let them do their job. They already have lawyers and a vested interest in the ultimate outcome. There will be plenty of time later to start spending your own funds if you don't like the outcome and find a legal reason to change that outcome.
sadly a service advisor was driving my 2017 GS because I have the warranty to replace the low profile rims or tires if damaged. I'm a vet person and a PE so I knew something was wrong. Took it to the dealer, they parked it on show room floor on Sat on June 11 on the second joy ride on the property a very old man hit my car in a 4 door pick up and knocked it 15 feet backwards as the service manager was coming up to a blind corner. the pickup front left tire mounted my vet towards the left side head on and drove over the top of my vets left front wheel. everything is busted, lt front wheel is bowed outward from the wt, seams all the way around the car shows crimped or torn spots from the force of the truck. The truck was totaled and the dealer said only $4,956 dollars in damage was done to my car. the car frame is torqued because the gaps all the way around the vet are wide on the passenger side and zero on the driver side. I'm still in shock, the damage is extensive and the value is demished considerably. I am told they have to start fixing the car by taking it apart, and asking for additional state farm money to repair as they go and that includes the drive train as the car was in motion forward and hit so hard it forced it 15 ft backwards with the pickup on top of the hood.
please advise on what I should do, let them fix it at another Chevy dealer or sue the dealership with the wrecked car as evidence for time, replacement and demished return? pictures are available if needed.
I would personally be suing immediately. Not even a chance I would ask for forum advice. They are trying to cover their butt by saying their is minimal damage. I would attorney up provide pictures and have them write a nice love letter. i would guess they would be singing a different tune. Post pics. And there is no way in hell i would let them charge your insurance for repairs. Do NOT sign ANYTHING
I would personally be suing immediately. Not even a chance I would ask for forum advice. They are trying to cover their butt by saying their is minimal damage. I would attorney up provide pictures and have them write a nice love letter. i would guess they would be singing a different tune. Post pics. And there is no way in hell i would let them charge your insurance for repairs. Do NOT sign ANYTHING
My charger just got rear ended at 15mph and crushed in one side of the rear bumper and bent the exhaust, damaged parking sensors, and busted the rear diffuser. That was $5500 in damage. Getting smashed in the side enough to change panel gaps all the way around and getting driven over the top of is far more than $4900. Get a lawyer and get one now.
Based on your description, the damage would seem to be way more than “$4,954.” If the frame is damaged, i.e. panel separation on the passenger side, then I would suspect that it should be totaled. While they may be able to fix it at their cost to keep pricing low, you’ll have to worry about future alignment issues, panel fitment, etc., and as mentioned, diminished value. Certainly an unfortunate event. GL getting it resolved to your satisfaction.
I had a friend who bought a brand new Porsche Cayman S which was maybe 8 months old and he got t-boned as he was in an intersection waiting to turn left. A kid in a light pickup truck flew threw the red light and hit him right behind the driver's door. Spun the Cayman all over the place, barely missed killing my friend and his Big Gulp in the cup holder didn't spill a drop. Kid did not have insurance either.
Insurance company did not total the car and instead had it torn apart and fixed which took about 8 months. So there's no telling when an insurance company will or will not total a car. Had it been me, I would have sold it immediately after it returned and bought another new one and sucked up the loss. Why would you want a repaired vehicle that's been compromised? My friend kept the Cayman and says it's been fine with no issues. Hard to believe but whatever. Rear axle destroyed, rear frame bent all out of shape, parts of the engine compromised, etc.
In 2012 a GM dealer wrecked my 5 day old car while driving it on the dealer lot. We could not agree on the repair. I requested the car be replaced with a new one due to the extent of the frame damage. They offered to fix the car and promised that the repairs would never show up on Carfax. They told me that my insurance was liable but they would fix the car and not involve my insurance "out of the goodness of their heart". I called two different law firms and neither one would recommend making a legal case, even though I had prepaid legal representation coverage through my company benefits. They stated that the case could draw out for at least a year and possibly two years. All the while you will be making the note and the best you may get is a 2 year old repaired car.
Long story short, they legally may not have to do anything other than fix the car. One option is to get your insurance involved and let your insurance find another dealer for the repairs. It took over 8 weeks to get my wrecked car issue resolved. Have them put you in a comparable loaner ASAP and have them understand that you be driving the car as long as it takes to get your car repaired.
I was lucky, i found out that the employee was injured and threatened to report the injury to OSHA. The owner ordered a new replacement car that day and swapped it out penny for penny. Did you get a copy of the accident report? Any injuries?
Good luck dealing with your dealership.
sadly a service advisor was driving my 2017 GS because I have the warranty to replace the low profile rims or tires if damaged. I'm a vet person and a PE so I knew something was wrong. Took it to the dealer, they parked it on show room floor on Sat on June 11 on the second joy ride on the property a very old man hit my car in a 4 door pick up and knocked it 15 feet backwards as the service manager was coming up to a blind corner. the pickup front left tire mounted my vet towards the left side head on and drove over the top of my vets left front wheel. everything is busted, lt front wheel is bowed outward from the wt, seams all the way around the car shows crimped or torn spots from the force of the truck. The truck was totaled and the dealer said only $4,956 dollars in damage was done to my car. the car frame is torqued because the gaps all the way around the vet are wide on the passenger side and zero on the driver side. I'm still in shock, the damage is extensive and the value is demished considerably. I am told they have to start fixing the car by taking it apart, and asking for additional state farm money to repair as they go and that includes the drive train as the car was in motion forward and hit so hard it forced it 15 ft backwards with the pickup on top of the hood.
please advise on what I should do, let them fix it at another Chevy dealer or sue the dealership with the wrecked car as evidence for time, replacement and demished return? pictures are available if needed.
Oh, definitely talk to a lawyer specializing in auto cases. Laws are so different from state to state that any advice you get here is going to be suspect. Possibly also talk to your insurance company, but remember that their adjuster is in charge of keeping down their costs.
My impulse would be to tell the dealer you would like a new car, and they can repair the wrecked car on their dime and make back their losses that way, but I'm not a lawyer in your state, so don't take anything I say very seriously.
Talk to a lawyer before you let them turn a single wrench on that car and for God's sake, don't sign any papers with the dealer!
This.
Not to mention, any dealer is going to have an insurance policy that handles this type of incident - and likely more than one policy (liability, umbrella, etc). They have that in place to protect the business specifically for events like the one you're talking about. Here's some of the things I would do:
1) They don't touch the vehicle. Whether you fix it or not is up to you, but I wouldn't even consider that dealership...doesn't matter if it had to be towed another 100 miles - no way they work on it.
2) I'd like to see some pics. You said the truck was totaled. What truck was it? My F-150 weighs 5500 lbs and my corvette 3500 pounds. You also said it got knocked backwards - which is entirely plausible. So if the truck got totaled and your almost new vette has less than $5k in damage, I'm Donald Trump. "We're going to fix the car...it's gonna be amazing...wonderful shop employees...gonna make the car great again." A corvette could bang into a smart car and get more damage than that.
3) Did the airbags deploy? If they did, that's a huge cost alone right there (though i want to say that 15 or 20mph may be the threshold for their deploying.
4) The law provides for all kinds of remedies for this - just make sure the paperwork you signed with the dealership when you dropped the car off doesn't LIMIT their liability. If they were negligent, then such limitations don't necessarily always apply. So if it's in there for a rim repair and they weren't out 'testing' the repair - that's negligent in my book. Even if they were testing the rim, it could still be negligent if they were the cause of the accident...after all, they work there. It shouldn't be hard to know where the 'dangerous' or blind spots in the lot are. As for what they should be responsible for, cost of repairs from a 3rd party is just for starters (again, tell them to stuff it if they think they'll get to fix it). As someone who has been looking at your exact car and Z06 prices for the last 9 months on a pretty consistent basis, the value of your car likely just dropped by AT LEAST the amount they're saying it'll take to repair it ($5k). I've seen plenty of Z06s that won't sell because they were in an accident - despite the cost being $6-8k below market (at dealer prices anyways). If someone is looking at spending ~$50k for used sports car, they sure as heck aren't going to spend that much for something that's been in an accident.
5) If you're almost entirely certain they were negligent when they damaged your vehicle, I'd offer them one of two things. They can replace your car with a new GS they have on their lot that is almost identical to the one you have...then they can take ownership of your car and do what they want -or- they can take the chance of taking the matter to court. In which case, at a bare minimum they'd be responsible for replacement costs, loss of value, loan costs/interest, and any loaner vehicle costs you have. If negligence is established, they could also be given punitive damages. Those damages could get pretty high if it's determined they're trying to screw the pooch with this $5k in damage repair estimate they've given you. That might be cheap imitation parts that come from some chinese ebay seller for all you know.
6) Make sure the dealer knows if it goes to court, they'll be responsible for all legal fees as well. Lookup the average hourly rate for lawyers in your area...which is probably $250-$300/hour. Your best bet might be to offer them the trade for a new GS (or used Z06 ) Legal proceedings can get drawn out and complicated. I'd only go that route if the dealer intentionally tries to screw you over or just cover the costs of the repair. No doubt about it...they screwed up and you should get paid.
Anyways...that's my $.02. Post up some pics, and I bet a few guys here on the forums can tell you what you'd really be looking at just for repair costs.
I had a friend who bought a brand new Porsche Cayman S which was maybe 8 months old and he got t-boned as he was in an intersection waiting to turn left. A kid in a light pickup truck flew threw the red light and hit him right behind the driver's door. Spun the Cayman all over the place, barely missed killing my friend and his Big Gulp in the cup holder didn't spill a drop. Kid did not have insurance either.
Insurance company did not total the car and instead had it torn apart and fixed which took about 8 months. So there's no telling when an insurance company will or will not total a car. Had it been me, I would have sold it immediately after it returned and bought another new one and sucked up the loss. Why would you want a repaired vehicle that's been compromised? My friend kept the Cayman and says it's been fine with no issues. Hard to believe but whatever. Rear axle destroyed, rear frame bent all out of shape, parts of the engine compromised, etc.
Jeez. Hard to believe that wasn't totaled and that your friend had zero issues w/ it afterwards. That repair shop must be worth its weight in gold to have brought that cayman back from the dead.
In 2012 a GM dealer wrecked my 5 day old car while driving it on the dealer lot. We could not agree on the repair. I requested the car be replaced with a new one due to the extent of the frame damage. They offered to fix the car and promised that the repairs would never show up on Carfax. They told me that my insurance was liable but they would fix the car and not involve my insurance "out of the goodness of their heart". I called two different law firms and neither one would recommend making a legal case, even though I had prepaid legal representation coverage through my company benefits. They stated that the case could draw out for at least a year and possibly two years. All the while you will be making the note and the best you may get is a 2 year old repaired car.
Long story short, they legally may not have to do anything other than fix the car. One option is to get your insurance involved and let your insurance find another dealer for the repairs. It took over 8 weeks to get my wrecked car issue resolved. Have them put you in a comparable loaner ASAP and have them understand that you be driving the car as long as it takes to get your car repaired.
I was lucky, i found out that the employee was injured and threatened to report the injury to OSHA. The owner ordered a new replacement car that day and swapped it out penny for penny. Did you get a copy of the accident report? Any injuries?
Good luck dealing with your dealership.
What?! Did you buy your car from a crack dealer, lol? A dealer wrecks my 5 day old car while they're in possession of it and it's hit hard enough to injure an employee, we obviously aren't talking about a door ding here. Sounds like the legal reps you spoke with were either lazy or just plain garbage (maybe both). I don't know the whole story, but I'll assume the car only had minimal damage and the injury to the employee was somewhat of a freak accident. Not to mention, it not showing up on carfax could be considered fraud on a number of levels....I know carfax has a buy back guarantee on stuff that doesn't show up on their reports, but I doubt they'd take it lying down if they had to purchase a car back from a buyer after the dealer willfully hid that from the vehicles history. Bottomline is unless you're talking about something that might only be a minor repair, it amazes me that the only thing the dealer would do is offer to repair the damage. "Your insurance will cover it." Yeah...when hell freezes over. That's sum booshem right there.
06-27-2018, 07:45 PM
Dealer wrecked my 2017 GS L2 Vet 8.5k miles
) Legal proceedings can get drawn out and complicated. I'd only go that route if the dealer intentionally tries to screw you over or just cover the costs of the repair. No doubt about it...they screwed up and you should get paid. 
