Help! Dealer crashed car during service!

[OAM]

Just wanted to reach out for some opinions. My old man took one of his cars to the dealer today for some routine service. The dealer he uses has two different lots for their service garage we found out today that one of the service guys was driving the car from one lot to the other and someone ran a red, he swerved to avoid an accident but ended up pretty much see sawing the car on an island! I"m not sure the extent of the damage but from what I have been told it's pretty bad. Anybody have any opinions on what we should do? Call our insurance to report it? The dealer is planning to fix everything, but now the car will have a crash history, right? It's an expensive car over 100k back in '02 when we bought it new and it only has about 10k miles on it. It's garage kept 24/7 and immaculate, well till now. So what should we do? I don't think just repairing it would make us whole, the car definitely has lost some value now, correct? Any help is appreciated.

[NYC6]

Call your insurance ASAP. They will fight to protect you(and themselces) from any funny business. Get the police report if there was one. Dont delay. Keep us informed.

[SS e93]

What car was this? Z8? Alpina b7?

[Year's_End]

What was the car?

[wisesoul]

According to his description and his avatar, a 996 Turbo?

[OAM]

Originally Posted by Year's_End

What was the car?

Merc SL55

[NewYearsBoy]

Originally Posted by OAM

Merc SL55

That was going to be my guess I like what everyone else said but if I my add.. Lawyer up!! Just in case..

[blue2fire]

Well, i would want some money for the lost value but honestly, you will never feel whole regardless of how many thousands you collect because you paid 100k for something that will just feel imperfect to you.

[OAM]

Well went to take a look at the car yesterday. Who ever was driving it, did a pretty good job smacking it up. Tie rod is bent, suspension damage, wheels gouged out and that was just what I could see! My guess is one of the kids who runs the cars back and forth decided to have a little fun and went a little too hot in the corner in the last pic.

Here you can see the front end and the wheel bent in.


Here's the bent tie rod


Here's the bent suspension


Here's the curb and sign whoever was hooning the car took out

[MikeyV]

From looking at the damage it's not serious, nothing major, looks like what my wife did when she curbed our old 3 series. I'm not really sure what your worried about, the dealer will fix it, nobody will ever know.

[OAM]

Originally Posted by MikeyV

From looking at the damage it's not serious, nothing major, looks like what my wife did when she curbed our old 3 series. I'm not really sure what your worried about, the dealer will fix it, nobody will ever know.

Just afraid that it may have affected the sub frame, and when it does that the car is never really the same. I'm no mechanic, but that's my understanding. If I'm wrong, which I would be happy to hear I am, someone correct me.

The other concern is that if they report it to their insurance it will go on to the car's history. We've kept this car in pristine condition. Garage kept 27/7, we got a lift just to keep it inside. Less than 10k miles on it.

[VividRacingSale]

Originally Posted by OAM

Just afraid that it may have affected the sub frame, and when it does that the car is never really the same. I'm no mechanic, but that's my understanding. If I'm wrong, which I would be happy to hear I am, someone correct me.

The other concern is that if they report it to their insurance it will go on to the car's history. We've kept this car in pristine condition. Garage kept 27/7, we got a lift just to keep it inside. Less than 10k miles on it.

You could always have them compensate you for lost value. There's a thread on an Evo forum right now with a guy who left his Evo X overnight for service and the tech TOOK IT HOME! Not only that, but the car was vandalized while parked in the techs apartment complex.

[MikeyV]

Originally Posted by OAM

Just afraid that it may have affected the sub frame, and when it does that the car is never really the same. I'm no mechanic, but that's my understanding. If I'm wrong, which I would be happy to hear I am, someone correct me.

The other concern is that if they report it to their insurance it will go on to the car's history. We've kept this car in pristine condition. Garage kept 27/7, we got a lift just to keep it inside. Less than 10k miles on it.

Sub frame is bolt in bolt out if it needs to be replaced, if the yard is anything like the couple I worked for they will repair it in house and not get their insurance company involved, rule of thumb is they will only involve their insurance company if the damage is substantial or it's a write off, yours on the surface looks pretty minor.

Besdies its a 2002 SL55, it's not an exotic, badly crashed ENZO's and F1's have been nearly destroyed and rebuilt, it hasn't done anything to their value.

[OAM]

Originally Posted by MikeyV

Sub frame is bolt in bolt out if it needs to be replaced, if the yard is anything like the couple I worked for they will repair it in house and not get their insurance company involved, rule of thumb is they will only involve their insurance company if the damage is substantial or it's a write off, yours on the surface looks pretty minor.

Besdies its a 2002 SL55, it's not an exotic, badly crashed ENZO's and F1's have been nearly destroyed and rebuilt, it hasn't done anything to their value.

I see your point, but I don't agree that the car would be the same if the sub-frame had to be replaced. I've even had the dealer admit that.

I agree it's not an exotic, but that's why I would think it would affect the resale more than it would a Enzo or F1. You can rebuild an Enzo or a F1 and it'll still hold it's price because they just don't come up for sale that often. SL55's do. It was in amazing condition, low miles most people would rather buy one that's never been crashed then one that has been.

[DooBs]

WOW thats horrible. I never knew service people did this kind of stuff!

TAKE THE CAR HOME?!!?!! Are these antics occur often???

[Sy546]

Originally Posted by MikeyV

Sub frame is bolt in bolt out if it needs to be replaced, if the yard is anything like the couple I worked for they will repair it in house and not get their insurance company involved, rule of thumb is they will only involve their insurance company if the damage is substantial or it's a write off, yours on the surface looks pretty minor.

Besdies its a 2002 SL55, it's not an exotic, badly crashed ENZO's and F1's have been nearly destroyed and rebuilt, it hasn't done anything to their value.

sorry but your wrong. It will def. never feel the same if you have any serious frame damage and of course its going to hurt resale.