Subaru dealer damaged my car - What is a fair expectation?
 

Hi all,

Set foot in my local Subaru dealer for the first time to get my 6k free oil change and ended up going back home in a brand new Accord (mmm so comfy). A very young looking dealer employee drove my car into another parked Subaru and damaged the front bumper and fender.

They are currently working with a repair center to give me a time estimate. They will cover all repair costs and use OEM parts for repairs. They also gave me a brand new rental car. To sum up, they seem to be doing everything to correct their mistake.

On the other hand, the only thing I received in return for this whole trouble and possible diminished resale value is a free oil change coupon and a "Sorry man, that is actually my favourite car". I first offered that they fix some other cosmetic blemishes with the car while they were at it as a goodwill gesture on their part, but the managers just refused. Then I suggested that they provide me a statement in writing confirming that they wouldn't use the current incident to lower my car's trade in value if I decide to trade it in for something else in the future, which they accepted (I haven't received anything yet though).

I am trying not to make a big deal out of it, but wondering what you guys would consider as "fair"? Is it enough that they just fix their mess up and I don't have an "original" car anymore? Should I look for a "diminished value appraisal" when picking the car up?

If it shows up on a history report as an accident, the value will drop regardless of what they give you in writing.

Yeah, that whole thing stemmed from me asking them rhetorically "Would you value this car the same as a no accident car if I wanted to trade it in today?" and the lady replied "Yes". That's why I asked for it in writing to see if they can back up their claim or just making stuff up on the phone. I am aware any statement that they give me doesn't mean anything for any other buyer.

If it won't show up on a car fax, I wouldn't worry about it.


If it will, I'd be demanding an even trade for a similar car, lol.

But seriously, your incident is my nightmare.

I always try to bring my car in on a nice weather day with it freshly detailed just hoping beyond hope that the persons entrusted with its care might notice, and treat 'er accordingly. And so far I've been lucky . . . or my plan works.

It sounds like you're being looked after pretty well.

Regardless of Carfax - if it involves replacing entire panels (bumper, fender, etc) - you'll lose the OEM VIN tags on those body panels. You _WILL_ have diminished value upon sale or trade in. These VIN tags are common knowledge now and every buyer looking at a car that is more expensive than your random junker Civic is going to check for those. I've seen it over and over (I've owned 20 cars, sold all of them except for 2 at this point). If one of those tags is missing - your car is automatically worth thousands less. Also, you won't be able to tell your prospective buyer that your car has never been in an accident or had paint/body work done - unless you like bad karma.

Tell them about this, tell them that you know it. Tell them that you demand a check from their insurance company for the diminished value differential after they completely fix it to like new condition with OEM parts. They screwed up, they damaged your car. Treat this like any auto accident where you are not at fault.

You have all the power here, take it.

Very much this first...

And hey...fair is fair. They damaged his lady...Them's fighting actions...

As mentioned in previous posts, if you're worried about monetary loss, you'll have to claim diminished value from their insurance (good luck though as its always a fun fight through this process). I'd be hesitant to only deal with their dealership as no loss in trade in (I mean, do you know 100% that your next car is going to be a subaru)? In the end, it's up to you what you think is "right." If you decide you're driving this car to the ground, then it wouldn't really matter in the long run, but if you do decide to switch cars in the next few years, than you'd be taking the financial hit.

As for the car, be weary of the repairs that our done. OEM parts is one thing, but quality of work is what matters first and foremost. Make sure the paint matching is accurate, no corners were cut. Especially since the dealership is doing this at their cost, it's all the more reason for them to get the job done quick and dirty.

Extremely sorry for you that this happened...


My Opinion...

Find out who is the General manager, or better yet, owner of that dealership.

Contact him/her and use this little word in any sentence : Lawyer. Often helps quite a bit...and best used in a written letter from yourself.


In a dealership, believe it or not, the shit flows to the top. Owners/top management often are the ones dealing with real customer complaints. So, screw the chain of command...go to the top immediately.


They owe you , at this point...either a new car now, or a cash payment for diminished value, in addition to them paying for repairing the car to your satisfaction.

Thanks for the solid advice guys. Let's see how it turns out. Crystal white pearl should be a tough one to match, I just hope the body shop does an acceptable job. I was really itching to have a nice drive this weekend with the new tires and alignment, but I guess I'll have to wait for a while..

Thanks, I am really not expecting a new car or anything from the dealership, but I will look into the diminished value claim. Waiting to see how the repair turns out first.

Honestly, I would probably say "sh*t happens" and move on if the service manager and the service "liaison" (whatever the f that means) sounded sincere in their apologies and told me that due to this and that reason they couldn't help me further, but their attitude in handling the situation is getting to my nerves.

life is crappy

"Honestly, I would probably say "sh*t happens" and move on if the service manager and the service "liaison" (whatever the f that means) sounded sincere in their apologies and told me that due to this and that reason they couldn't help me further, but their attitude in handling the situation is getting to my nerves."

Additional thoughts on my part:

As I've stated before, best to deal with General manager of dealership or owner of dealership. A way which often works best...Have a sit down, with this person, privately, office door closed, with no one else within hear shot. This can be accomplished either by appointment, or walk-in by yourself. Call their receptionist, find out just when that management person will be in house. Amazing what happens in a face to face situation in which both parties are calm. Arm yourself with questions written down.

Other option...Call your own insurance company. It's just like someone else hit your car, and they are insured. Your company may be willing to deal with the 'accident' without charge, easier than you paying for a lawyer.

That's why I try to avoid dealers/repair shops at all costs and do stuff like oil changes myself. Honestly, I don't think there's ever been a time where I walked out of a shop without other issues created by the service people.

Be careful going after diminished value. If no insurance company has been involved it will not show up on a report and therefore no value is diminished. From your description of the damage the value would drop a few hundred dollars at best so any settlement could work against you in the long run. I would push for the letter stating that the repairs will not effect trade in at that dealer if I went for anything at all. Don't let your emotions run the situation stay cool and get the most you can back out of them.

With how easy an oil change is on the BRZ, there really is no reason to pay someone else do it. On the other hand, I live in an apartment with no garage and couldn't pass on a free oil change. Guess nothing in life is free :)

The insurance thing is what I was wondering actually. Doesn't the dealership report everything they do to Carfax anyway? I guess I will ask them tomorrow and not worry about diminished value if they don't report it.

I put minor repairs/blemishes in the sales ads on CL anyway, and most people with real interest don't care about a changed bumper and fender as long as they see before/after pics to verify minor damage. I just don't want this thing to bite me in the *ss if I want to trade it in and the dealer gives me a generic valuation based on Carfax.

I have the opposite version. For 15 years now all my service has been done by dealers and I have never once had a single issue. Not so much as a smudge on a seat or the body.

Yeah, especially if you put a Fumoto QuickValve on there. You could probably pull off into some abandoned parking lot and get it done in like 15 minutes. That's the way I see it; even if service is free, I have to ask myself if it's worth the risk and hassle of the dealers - and that's a resounding "No" for me.

I guess that's the difference between America and Canada. People just don't seem to give a shit here. I'm sure there are exceptions but I have yet to find one.

Regardless of whether you go after diminished value or not, make sure you get a bunch of pictures of the damage to document exactly what happened. Make them put it on a lift with you present if need be. Make them let you be there to get pictures when they take the panels off to show the extent of what else was damaged, or make them do it themselves.


This is not a '67 Camaro whose value is greatly increased by having every number matching. The fact is, if you document in great detail exactly what damage occurred and are able to prove that it was nothing but a fender bender that ruined a couple panels, many buyers won't give two shits what the carfax says or if it is the original bumper/fender or not. Even more will lose their minds without fully understanding it because something came up on a carfax, and can be calmed down and convinced that nothing occurred that isn't fixed by a simple unbolting of some cosmetic pieces and application of paint.


The one thing I would push for being that this is the pearl white, is a full repaint of the entire car. I highly doubt they're going to be able to match that very well, as most places can't. If you end up with mismatched panels, have you been made whole?

I didn't hear anything back from the dealership, although asking to be updated.

Ended up talking to the body shop directly and they mentioned new fender, bumper, side marker and maybe a new headlight if some mounting tab is bent by any chance. That seems to match what I was expecting on first observation. They sounded pretty thorough (no reason not to be if they can charge the dealer more I guess), so I hope everything will turn out ok.

They also mentioned they would need to blend the hood and the door, which sounds fair since pearl white should be hard to match. I really hope I'll get lucky with paint matching and don't have to push for the full repaint. Already bored out of my mind driving around in this Accord and I want my car back.

Not sure about a "full repaint", but remember that you have the right as the consumer to take it back and have them repaint it as many times as it takes for you to be satisfied.

Like you said the pearl white is a hard paint to work with and match, so they may try to just do their normal routine the first time which might not be good enough.

Make them do it right!

You're not going to like hearing this, but get over it. It's not an Aston Martin.

Maybe you'll see a loss of value of a couple thousand? It would probably be the same "loss of value" as putting mileage on the car or trying to sell it modified.

I've been in a situation like yours. It sucks. But realistically you're going to have tons of stone chips and other minor cosmetic flaws anyways. If you wanted a car that was going to have tremendous value in the future you should have bought something rare, or desirable.

I'd ask for a a credit on whatever you think your diminished value would be. Let's call it $1000 to make things easy. That's $1000 of free service and maintenance, which you would spend otherwise. Focus on what they can do in the present to make it right, and not theoretical or hypothetical circumstances in the future. If you were to be involved in an accident in a few years, is your insurance going to pay out less because the bumper was previously replaced? Probably not.

I find it crazy that people put so much concern into something like a bumper.
"Oh no! My bumper has been replaced!!!"
Meanwhile mechanical things have broken or worn out and been replaced and nobody cares.


For the moment just be glad they're owning up to it and fixing it for you. They seem to be giving you very good service and doing what they can to help you out.

Blending a metallic or pearlescent paint is half assed bullshit. To the untrained eye, it may not be noticed, which is why you need to get an independent professional to give you the okay on the results if that is the approach the dealership is going to take.


This is not an Aston Martin but they are still obligated to bring it back to the condition that it was before they crashed it. Putting a new factory bumper and losing a VIN stamp isn't going to affect anything in terms of functionality or how it looks. Half assing a paint job by blending it, may.

MY BAAAAABYYYYY
 

Picked it up today. I was happy like a child when I saw my car waiting for me at the parking lot:D

It looked perfect to my eyes when I checked the paint under the sun. They also told me it wouldn't be reported due to this being an internal incident. Therefore, I can say that even though they messed up at first, they made everything right for me within one week.

With this out of the way and new tires, it should hopefully be a fun weekend.

Before:
http://i67.tinypic.com/mjpvus.jpg

After (forgot to take pics under the sun):
http://i66.tinypic.com/bhwvpg.jpg

Hope it all works out man. This is part of the reason why I do not go to the dealer for anything...they can keep the free oil changes. I'm nearing 100k miles and at 3.5 years have only been at the dealership to buy oil filters and coolant from the parts dept. 0 service visits. It's somebodies 9-5 to work on something I care about too much.

Oh wow! That employee REALLY screwed up lol I was expecting something much less.

I guess you never go to the doctor or restaurants either eh
:rolleyes:

He did screw up, obviously unintentional as are most incidents that occur in parking lots etc.

I go to restaurants all the time and doctors when I need to. I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

What I meant by the '9-5' comment if that's where you're going is if a mechanic stripped a bolt or broke something that does not impact functionality and would not be easily/quickly noticeable by the vehicle owner, chances are they will let it go and not spend the time replacing it. It's happened to myself in the past with prior cars and it's happened to my brother as well on his Legacy GT. If you prefer to let other people service your car then all power to you. I prefer to work on my car myself so I know exactly what was done and there are no surprises

This is gonna sound wierd but make sure you don't wax it for at least a month. Allow that paint to out gas.