OUCH ! ! !

[David M 7173]

Re: OUCH ! ! !

Gordon
We are so thankful that Rachel was not hurt cars are repairable. We are excited that your scan was good. See you guys soon I hope.
David and Blenda

[Daktari]

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Hi there,

Thanks David, you are right - no injuries is the main thing. Rachel was really upset because we don't usually use the T-bird mid week and usually save it for weekends or sometimes evening tours out in the hills.
On this occasion, I had taken the FX, which is our main driver to work and Rachel had an hair appointment. She was double upset firstly because of the damage to the car and on top of that she missed having her hair done.

I do want to stress that it was not Rachel's fault at all. She was sat in line at a red light and the van drove straight in to the passenger side rear fender.

Ouch! again.

This is the first Ford I have ever owned and so I automatically took the car to our local Ford dealership. Your'e correct, they don't have their own body shop and use an independantly run place also used by Toyota and Nissan in this town. It is I found out later owned by the same family that run the Ford dealership. Anyone who I have talked to seem to think they are pretty good at what they do.

I guess I'll soon find out. Fingers crossed.

Gordon.

[Goldwing]

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Yesterday must have been a bad day for our Thunderbirds, While on the way back to my office a little old lady (born in 1917) made a right hand turn but did not stay in the right lane and came into my lane and hit my Bird from the door to wheel well opening. Minor damage but I thought she was going to have a heart attack while we were waiting for the police to arrive. $1,300.00 for the repair and week Birdless.
The Bird even got a Get Well Card!

[Leroy]

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Bradford Our Ford dealer has been in buisness here for over 40 years and has a State of the Art body shop. I wouldn't let anyone else touch my car. I went through this before with another car I had. My wife hit a deer. The estimate was $8000.00. I wanted the dealer to fix it but they didn't do body work so it went to a independent shop. They did most of the work except replacing both air bags. They had to be replaced by a factory rep. so my vehicle sat for an additional 3 weeks and the finale bill came to over $11,000.00. As soon as I got it back I dumped it. Live and learn.
Leroy

P.S. It was a Mitsubishi Montero Sport SUV.

[Bradford]

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My experience was the opposite. The Cadillac dealer has been around since the 50's, same local owner, same dealer I bought the car new.I had also hit a deer, car was in for a extended time, then back in four or five times for a week at a time. Final repair cost skyrocked by the time they "claimed" is was ready. Black car and they could not get the black paint matched, which was the least of my complaints at the time. Since then, a 18 year old hit me in a intersection in my Acura in a rainstorm. Went to the independent body shop, was was ready in record time, never needed to go back, genuine Acura parts, lifetime warranty on their work. I am a perfectionist and can literally not determine where the damage was, paint match is perfect, Silver at that. Entire car was detailed, prior to pick up, inside and out. Follow up call to see if I was satiified with the work.
I'll stick to the independents where body work is what they do and is their primary business.
All the Cadillac dealer wanted to do was try to sell me another car. I would have started walking before buying another car from them.

[Daktari]

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Hi there,

I guess what we can learn from this is that there are no hard and fast rules. Some dealerships are good, some are bad. The same with independant body shops, some good and some bad.

I think a lot of it has to do with the basic philosophy of the management of these places. If pride in their work and seeing a satisfied customer is the top priority then all should be well.

Rather than learning by mistakes and finding out the hard way, it is always best to ask around and get as many recommendations as possible first.

I must say, in this case I didn't do that, - the car ended up at the body shop that Ford use and is also used by Nissan and Toyota so I presume they must be doing something right.

Their assesor guy promised it would look better than new when finished and if we were not happy, just bring it back.

Here's hoping.....

[ThunderBubba]

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Gordo -- Great news on the C.T. results!!!

[YLO BRD]

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Isn't it illegal to wave someone thru a line of stopped traffic? Most of us do it out of kindness but, I think I read its illegal.

[Daktari]

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Hi there,

Joanne, to answer your previous post. In this case, the guy was not passing through the stopped traffic into the next lane but the guy behind Rachel had stopped short to leave a space for the van to pull into the same line.

It seems the van driver misjudged it or something and instead of hitting the space he hit our car. I'm thinking that from the position he may have been parked in the driveway, he had stopped maybe with full lock on the steering. When the guy waved him out he probably accelerated away and I think he actually went over the corner of the sidewalk in order to hit our car where he did.

At this stage, it's not important as long as nobody was hurt and his insurance pays for it to be put right.

On a similar subject to your original point. Each day, we have to leave the side road where we work and join a very busy 4-lane. Usually, drivers pull out into the outside lane to give the merging traffic some chance of pulling out without having to wait for ages. I must admit, sometimes I pull out into that inside lane but this is really taking a chance.

What happens is that some guy, (or girl), sees a long clear space on the inside and suddenly ducks in probably doing around 50 m.p.h. All it takes is for someone to be pulling into that inside lane at the same time and, BANNGG!! - this happens quite often - at least once a month that we have witnessed.

It's a tricky one. Gordon.

[00mustng]

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.....Our '02 was rear ended twice in less than two weeks...the incompetence of the insurance companies....the lack of skilled labour to repair....the poor repair job....all the little fasteners and brackets etc. that are no longer available....the three months it took to complete...has made it easier to drive...I no longer worry now, because it's not completely original....and I still love the car and can't imagine driving anything else...It's still a good looking beater!.....@95000km.

[Daktari]

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Hi there,
I just thought I'd post an up-date on the work in progress on our 2003 bird, FLYAWAY.

The car has been in the body shop now for about 2 weeks and we got a call last week telling us that the rear fender which they thought was repairable is not repairable after all. In one way I'm glad about this because it means we will now have a new panel instead of a patched up one. On the other hand, it means the car will be away even longer because they had to call out the other guy's insurance inspector before they could go ahead with the work.

At the end of the day I would rather wait a while longer and make sure the job is done properly rather than rushing it through. And, the guy admitted it was totally his fault and the police report also backs this up. I'm just hoping that his insurance company won't start to attempt to wriggle out of it. I know for sure that the original estimate of $2,500.00 is going to increase considerably with the need for this replacement panel.

We keep watching these nice sunny evenings pass by along with the weekends and we are really starting to miss our topless cruising.

Patience, patience, I guess. Gordon.

[bronzebird]

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Gordon:

Here in Georgia we have the diminished value law. Make sure that you get their adjuster to provide you with a diminished value settlement statement. This uses a modifer that runs from 0 to 1.0 to determine the damage to your car and compensation due to you.

I think it is .25 for minor damage; .50 for moderate; .75 from Major and 1.0 for severe.

From that report they take the NADA retail value of the Bird, and multiply that times the damage modifer that is determined. From what you indicate, it could be around $600-700 that they will owe you for diminished value to your car.

Bronzebird

[Daktari]

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A good Tuesday morning to all,

Thanks Rick for that piece of info. I hadn't realized there was such a thing and I'm sure most folks have never heard of it which is I'm sure is the way the insurance companies like it.

To be honest, right now, I've had enough battles with warranty companies and insurance companies. I looked the 'diminished value clause' up on-line and it seems it is up to me in this case to prove to the insurance company the loss in value caused by someone running into our car.
I am not prepared to get involved in a long fight over this but I have already mentioned to a friend who happens to be a lawyer and I will go as far as letting the insurance company know that I am aware of this clause and ask them what I am entitled to. I have his permission to drop in the lawyer's name if I this might help....

If it looks like turning into a long, drawn out struggle, I'll just let it go. Sometimes, life is too short for all that kind of hassle.

We will just be glad to have the car back - driving and looking good.

Thanks again, Gordon.

[Leroy]

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Daktari, Isn't the rear fender part of the unibody? Does Ford sell that part or will it have to be removed from another car and welded on? Sounds like alot more expensive job.
Leroy

[Daktari]

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Hi there,

When the body shop found the rear fender was not repairable they did have to order a new panel and this has raised the cost from approx 2,500 and is now around 3,500.

They had to send the insurance adjuster out once again and he has given them the go-ahead.

I spoke to this adjuster guy and he is going to get back in touch tomorrow to let me know what we are entitled to on the diminished value thing.

Lawrence, I don't know about the uni-body thing. I presumed the rear fender would be a seperate panel from the door back.

Gordon.