Dealer wrecks customer's WRX and refuses to pay

[airwg2189]

So- his insurance opened a claim and then closed it and told him it was all up to the dealers insurance now. He has posted a screenshot message stating they Be taking care of him with a new car.

 

I get rather annoyed with people jumping on the "bash wagon" it helps no one and solves very little to post false reviews and get everyone riled up. There are good avenues to take before getting to the point this did IMHO.

 

You're kidding right? The dealer told him to go through HIS INSURANCE for THEIR WRECK. They 100% deserve every last bit of public ridicule they've received.

[kirks5oh]

It's tougher. The zl1 was two years old and had quite a few miles.

 

For the most part, the customer should always be right. With so much selling of goods on the net, this concept is lost in many circumstances.

 

I can remember a story from 15 years ago where an oil change place took a guys 911 for a joy ride and wrecked it. It was a 10+ year old car. The owner bought him a brand new 911. Talk about stepping up.

[Jewtoys]

It's tougher. The zl1 was two years old and had quite a few miles.

 

For the most part, the customer should always be right. With so much selling of goods on the net, this concept is lost in many circumstances.

 

I can remember a story from 15 years ago where an oil change place took a guys 911 for a joy ride and wrecked it. It was a 10+ year old car. The owner bought him a brand new 911. Talk about stepping up.

 

Yeah I remember that as well, rare.

 

 

A year or so ago, I was in a pinch and needed a suspension item on my truck replaced before towing something out of state. No one could get me in, so I ended up going to a Goodyear...... Ended up just having them do the whole front suspension, On my way to work the next day the ball joint came loose. The district manager called me, Had another shop work on it and replaced everything that was just installed with new parts and gave me my few thousand dollars back. I was shocked

[Geeto67]

It's tougher. The zl1 was two years old and had quite a few miles.

 

For the most part, the customer should always be right. With so much selling of goods on the net, this concept is lost in many circumstances.

 

I can remember a story from 15 years ago where an oil change place took a guys 911 for a joy ride and wrecked it. It was a 10+ year old car. The owner bought him a brand new 911. Talk about stepping up.

 

I don't know if 6K miles counts as quite a few miles for a 2 year old car but let's just say it was. The owner was also the guy who literally wrote the book on first gen camaro restoration and had clearly bought the car as a collector item. The car was also in for a paint issue, so no driving was even necessary to fix the warranty issue.

 

I think what made that one even more sour was that the dealer offered him a car that was a year older, didn't have any options he wanted, had been in a wreck, had 2 owners and 20K miles, and had been modified, and had less paperwork than the previous car. They then told him to take it or leave it and offered him a $4K good will discount to undo the modifications but that wouldn't put him back to square on his car.

 

I get that it is a rare car but if you are dealer and your employee fucked your customer as badly as this one had, it's up to you to make it right not fuck the customer some more.

 

There was some talk about the car owner's insurance and I thought I would throw my 2 cents in here as to why it is a bad idea to do the initial claim with your own insurance.

 

1) value. Almost all new cars are a Fair Market Value policy. Classic cars have an agreed value policy usually because they are not depreciating assets like a new car is. So unless you have special provisions in the policy, even if your car is 1 month old when the dealer wrecks it you are still going to eat some depreciation. This is even worse if you don't have something like gap insurance where you take a depreciation hit before you have time to build equity in the loan (ie you owe more than it is worth).

 

2) Subrogation. When you file a claim with your insurance two things happen, you are largely agreeing to how they want to handle it, and you turn over your rights to pursue legal action to the insurance company. Like it or not in these situations nobody gets a "free car" someone has to pay for it. Let's look at two examples: 1) if you file with your insurance company, your company will then call the dealer's insurance company and work out a deal where you get the fair market value of your car in check form which can then be used to purchase a new car, usually from the offending dealer because they are offering you an incentive to do so.

 

The insurance company works it out on the back end with the dealer's ins company who pays a portion of that to the insurance company. If you go this way, you have given up the right to sue the dealer if they cannot find a replacement car because you already have money in your hand and the dealer is already off the hook because their ins company settled with yours. 2) You can sue the dealer directly which brings the dealer's insurance into play since the dealer probably won't file a claim with this action. You can ask in the court proceedings for "specific performance" which means they need to provide you with a comparable car (you probably won't get that but it can be asked for and settled for) or money to make you whole (including legal costs, which you probably won't get unless the dealer's behavior is really bad).

 

what this new "media" approach of blasting the dealer tends to do is get the dealer to file a claim with their insurance company without having to file a lawsuit - which means there is value in blasting these dealers on the internet to the customer.

Edited February 2, 2015 by Geeto67

[Sully]

You're kidding right? The dealer told him to go through HIS INSURANCE for THEIR WRECK. They 100% deserve every last bit of public ridicule they've received.

 

 

A few years ago, an aunt of mine was crashing at my place for a bit and while I was out of town for a few days, she stole my T/A, damaged it in my driveway and didn't tell me. After I put all the pieces together, and trying to get her to claim it on her insurance, her insurance company told me that because the car is mine and I have insurance on it, that I had to file with my insurance company first. Then they would go after her insurance company to recoup the loss. It sucks, but that's the way it works.

[owndjoo]

A few years ago, an aunt of mine was crashing at my place for a bit and while I was out of town for a few days, she stole my T/A, damaged it in my driveway and didn't tell me. After I put all the pieces together, and trying to get her to claim it on her insurance, her insurance company told me that because the car is mine and I have insurance on it, that I had to file with my insurance company first. Then they would go after her insurance company to recoup the loss. It sucks, but that's the way it works.

 

Yes, Ohio law is the owner is responsible for the insurance. However, dealerships and other companies carry that commercial insurance to protect them against these type of situations. Someone taking your vehicle would still go under your insurance as you are the owner. Same as if you lent the car out to a friend.