That was pretty much our reaction to the Lexus I bought for my wife, it was a fine car and certainly a good car for us and even the people I sold it to, but "loved, cherished and treasured" it was not.
The hail repair to my MINI was estimated to take 3 days - but I was without my car for nearly six weeks. I have it back now, but it is still not finished, and it is not back to 100%.
Here's what happened: Back in early April, I dropped my MINI off at a temporary location which a major bodyshop chain (a well-respected chain) had set up to deal with the massive need for paintless dent removal (PDR) in the wake of a very bad hail storm here in March. The temporary location was an empty car dealership where the bodyshop chain had hired expert PDR contractors to handle the massive need to deal with storm damage. (apparently these PDR contractors travel across the country like gypsies, following hail storms).
After about 1 week, they informed me that the underside of my MINI's roof had too many inaccessible areas preventing PDR to be done on all the damage (I have the dual-pane sunroof with all its components up there), and the car would need to be taken to their newly-opened bodyshop about 15 miles away so the roof could be painted. Note, the hail damage to the roof was very slight, only visible if you really looked for it.
So, my MINI was driven to the new bodyshop to get its roof painted. I would get updates every couple of days. I was told the first paint job on the roof wasn't up to their standards and they would repaint it. After about 10 days the car was declared finished and driven back to the temporary location where I arranged to pick it up. But, when I saw the car it was awful. I'm not a super picky person, but anyone could see it was a mess and they never should have tried to present it to me in that condition. There were fine scratches in the clearcoat on the sides of the car and the taillights also had fine scratches. There was white paint overspray on the rear side windows and hatch window. On the hood and windshield cowl there were several quarter-sized areas where the paint was a darker color (I learned this was because they had used some sort of glue to try to pull hail dents out and the glue pulled the clearcoat right off of the basecoat). The headliner - which looked fine before I dropped the car off - was now in tatters. It looked like someone with very dirty hands (like they just did an oil change) pulled the headliner fabric off the backing and left it hanging down around the windows and sunroof frame. Now I realize that the headliner was original to the 14 year old car and the backing glue was getting old – but this looked like a gorilla attacked it.
Naturally, I refused to accept the car that way – and the guy who showed it to me apologized that it looked so poorly. So, now it took a visit from the new bodyshop manager to the temporary location to agree that the car needed to be corrected – that took 3 more days before it was driven back to the new bodyshop for round 2. I got a call several days later telling me they were going to repaint the entire hood and windshield cowl to deal with the multiple quarter-size problem areas they created. I was generally happy to hear that because new paint would also take care of the small stone chips the car had accumulated over its life. They also promised to fix all the other fine scratches they had caused. Regarding the headliner, they said they could not fix it, but suggested some upholstery shops in the area. To help cover the cost of a new headliner, they agreed to forego my $500 deductible. I agreed to that solution. After about 10 additional days at the bodyshop the car was driven back to the temporary location where I was to pick it up. But I never made it there. The car went through a second quality assurance inspection (the first QA inspection was supposedly done at the bodyshop before it left). The second QA found the color of hood and cowl did not match the rest of the car – they called me and told me not to even come and look at it. I was not a happy camper.
It was at this point they explained that the new bodyshop, where my car had been twice, had just opened 3 weeks before and they did not really have their act together yet. (Duh) I was told my issues were be escalated to the bodyshop chain’s regional manager. He had my car flat-bedded to another bodyshop in the chain that was I was promised was much more established and would do first-quality work. He said they’d need my car for 3 or 4 days to complete the work (which focused on repainting the hood and cowl yet again, but this time matching the color!). My car was transported to the new bodyshop and I called the regional manager about 4 days later to see if my car would be ready later that day. You see, my expectation, after being as patient as hell for more than 4 weeks, was that they’d prioritize my car and get the damn thing done. Silly me. I was told it would be an additional 4 business days but it would be “done rightâ€. They also told me they were going to repaint the roof (for 3rd time!) yet again to ensure it looked right. I spoke about every other day with the regional manager who updated me, and on Thursday, four days later, I was told it wasn’t ready but would be ready the next day. Friday morning I got a call from the local bodyshop manager who told me my car would indeed be ready late that day, and I made arrangements to go pick it up.
I arrived about 4:30pm, an hour before they closed. At this point, I had been without my car for 5 full weeks. I saw my car parked in a lot behind a fence and went to go look at it. What I saw was a car that still had issues and it wasn’t ready for delivery. The paint on the hood and cowl looked to be a good color match, but there was still mess from polishing compound residue all over it. The driver’s side roof trim was missing. There was a scratch on the left rear quarter panel where there had been none before (I might have the only 14 year old MINI that’s never had a door ding) next to some weird un-buffed area. I opened the hood to see if there were any issues underneath and found somehow both hood struts were now shot (perhaps from leaving it open for weeks on end? Or removal for painting?). Some prep guy at the bodyshop had gone crazy and sprayed some industrial version of Armor-All silicone crap over the front seats and rubber floor mats – making them into an automotive slip and slide. And there was overspray on the driver’s window. I was pissed.
The bodyshop manager explained the car wasn’t ready for delivery to me yet, but if I’d just wait he’d have a team jump on it. Gee, with an hour to closing time I’d hope they finally get around to it. They took care of the overspray, the polishing compound mess, and tried to de-Armor-All the interior. The manager was very easy to deal with and apologetic for all the problems. The issues that remained were the missing roof trim (parts delivery was late), the hood struts (the manager said they’d order new ones), and the new scratch (the manager said they’d repaint the quarter panel, but would need the car for 3 – 4 days to do so). I took the car home knowing I’d need to bring it back the next week for the hood struts and roof trim. We agreed to take care of the painting issue next month when it would suit my schedule better. The manager told me to make note of any other issues I found and let him know. So, for the first time in 5 weeks I was finally able to get back behind the wheel and drive my car home.
The next day I had an appointment for the installation of a new headliner at a shop that specializes in that service. As they disassembled my car to move the headliner backing board, they discovered two problems: the driver’s side sunvisor mount was broken (it was only held on with one screw), and the rearview mirror mount was also broken (on a first generation MINI you turn the entire mirror mount 45 degrees clockwise to remove – a PDR guy or somebody at the bodyshop must have pried it off, braking some tabs and leaving it loose).
At the start of this week I informed the bodyshop manager of the additional problems with the sunvisor and the mirror and he agreed to order and install new ones. He’s been very easy to deal with and I can tell he’s genuinely trying to fix the situation. The bodyshop had my car for 2 more days this week and they installed the roof trim, hood struts, and new sunvisor, then they delivered it to my home. I’m told the mirror is on backorder, so they strengthened the current mounting to help keep it from bouncing around.
I’m leaving on a roadtrip to California next week (flat towing my classic Mini to MiniMeet West), so we agreed that painting and mirror corrections will be postponed for at least the next couple of weeks. I can’t tell you how happy I am to finally have my car back, and knowing the remaining issues with it should be soon fixed.
Yes, I just renewed and my insurance premium did not go up. That was the good news. The bad news was that while both my MINI and my wife's car were in the bodyshop for hail damage, we had another massive hail storm and that damaged both our rental cars. So besides our own personal cars, I had to pay the insurance deductibles for our two rental cars.
As for filing a claim, what's the point of having insurance if you are afraid of using it? My sister's car got hit in a parking lot, and she didn't file a claim because she was afraid of her rates going up. On the other hand, I was hit by an uninsured motorist, and the claim was for 12K in damage, and 4K in diminished value. My premium did not go up one penny. A $16,000 claim, and no increase.
Paintless dent repair is definitely the way to go, BTW.
