Need some advice
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Need some advice
I just recently got my WRX back from the shop, and I need some advice from someone who might have had more experience mechanics. But first let me tell you what happened...
About 3 months ago, I wrecked my car. It was foggy and rainy, and I was being a jackass. Basically I was racing through a corner to get to work, lost control, hopped the curb and smashed straight into a pole.
So I talked to my insurance company, etc. and they told me it would be ready on December 6th. Well, it wasn't ready. So I called the next week, and the next; each time getting a new excuse as to why I wouldn't be driving my WRX home that day.
This went on until today. I was totally patient throughout the whole process, didn't badmouth the head mechanic guy I talked to every single time I got one of his excuses. So I go into the shop, and pay my deductible, and finally...finally get my car.
The outside of it had a few new scratches and some dirt and stuff, but I didn't expect it to look perfectly new either so I just kinda blew it off. But when I got in, there were shoeprints all over my seats from people climbing around, my pedals had all this black stuff all over them. I was pretty forgiving about this too. It's totally not a big deal to clean it up, but then I started to drive it.
The first thing I noticed was this strange noise coming from the passenger-side AC vent. Whenever I step on the gas I hear some sort of rubbing noise, or what sounds like a fan spinning. The sound gets more intense the harder I accelerate.
My shifter is much more stiff than what it used to be. Before, there was some play from neutral and you could kinda move it around smoothly. Now it's very uncooperative. I also sometimes hear noises coming from it after shifting, or when I'm just plain driving.
I can hear what seems like a screw, or some other part, roll around somewhere near my steering column whenever I accelerate or decelerate quickly.
The centerpiece?(I'm not sure what to call it, the thing the horn comes out of, where the airbag is) is like loose, I can move it around.
After I got out of my car, there was a burning smell coming from inside the hood, I never noticed this before.
There's also about 100 extra miles on the car, I assume from the mechanic test driving it. Which would leave me to believe that after all these miles, someone must have noticed at least one of the problems. The head mechanic guy himself told me that "it was a big job, and he would expect there to be problems".
This thing really sucked from the start. The insurance assessor was totally wrong about what was damaged and what was not. He said it was because the Subaru engine was "tight", and it was difficult to check everything. So the final cost of repairs came very close to what the actual cost of the car was.
I really, really think they should have just totalled it. At one point the body shop had to send it off to the Subaru dealership, because they didn't know enough about the timing to figure out why it wasn't starting. Next thing I know, the Subaru guys tell them that they need to replace valves and an oil pump. Why is someone who doesn't know much about my car even working on it? Why didn't they just do body repairs and then send the engine work to the dealership?
There's a bunch of other crap that I could tell all of you, but this thing is getting really long...so I'll just get to the point. Does anyone have any advice whatsoever as to what I could do about this? The mechanic said that his work is guaranteed, but I really don't want to be in and out of his shop every week...and I somehow get the feeling that this is going to happen. I've been totally understanding for 3 months, but now I'm seriously angry at these people. Should I call my insurance company and demand that they take care of this or call the body shop or what? I'm not exactly sure what my rights are here, hopefully these guys aren't allowed to jerk me around like this. Can anyone help me out? I'm really stuck as to what I should do next.
Thanks
About 3 months ago, I wrecked my car. It was foggy and rainy, and I was being a jackass. Basically I was racing through a corner to get to work, lost control, hopped the curb and smashed straight into a pole.
So I talked to my insurance company, etc. and they told me it would be ready on December 6th. Well, it wasn't ready. So I called the next week, and the next; each time getting a new excuse as to why I wouldn't be driving my WRX home that day.
This went on until today. I was totally patient throughout the whole process, didn't badmouth the head mechanic guy I talked to every single time I got one of his excuses. So I go into the shop, and pay my deductible, and finally...finally get my car.
The outside of it had a few new scratches and some dirt and stuff, but I didn't expect it to look perfectly new either so I just kinda blew it off. But when I got in, there were shoeprints all over my seats from people climbing around, my pedals had all this black stuff all over them. I was pretty forgiving about this too. It's totally not a big deal to clean it up, but then I started to drive it.
The first thing I noticed was this strange noise coming from the passenger-side AC vent. Whenever I step on the gas I hear some sort of rubbing noise, or what sounds like a fan spinning. The sound gets more intense the harder I accelerate.
My shifter is much more stiff than what it used to be. Before, there was some play from neutral and you could kinda move it around smoothly. Now it's very uncooperative. I also sometimes hear noises coming from it after shifting, or when I'm just plain driving.
I can hear what seems like a screw, or some other part, roll around somewhere near my steering column whenever I accelerate or decelerate quickly.
The centerpiece?(I'm not sure what to call it, the thing the horn comes out of, where the airbag is) is like loose, I can move it around.
After I got out of my car, there was a burning smell coming from inside the hood, I never noticed this before.
There's also about 100 extra miles on the car, I assume from the mechanic test driving it. Which would leave me to believe that after all these miles, someone must have noticed at least one of the problems. The head mechanic guy himself told me that "it was a big job, and he would expect there to be problems".
This thing really sucked from the start. The insurance assessor was totally wrong about what was damaged and what was not. He said it was because the Subaru engine was "tight", and it was difficult to check everything. So the final cost of repairs came very close to what the actual cost of the car was.
I really, really think they should have just totalled it. At one point the body shop had to send it off to the Subaru dealership, because they didn't know enough about the timing to figure out why it wasn't starting. Next thing I know, the Subaru guys tell them that they need to replace valves and an oil pump. Why is someone who doesn't know much about my car even working on it? Why didn't they just do body repairs and then send the engine work to the dealership?
There's a bunch of other crap that I could tell all of you, but this thing is getting really long...so I'll just get to the point. Does anyone have any advice whatsoever as to what I could do about this? The mechanic said that his work is guaranteed, but I really don't want to be in and out of his shop every week...and I somehow get the feeling that this is going to happen. I've been totally understanding for 3 months, but now I'm seriously angry at these people. Should I call my insurance company and demand that they take care of this or call the body shop or what? I'm not exactly sure what my rights are here, hopefully these guys aren't allowed to jerk me around like this. Can anyone help me out? I'm really stuck as to what I should do next.
Thanks
Last edited by hahcoe; Jan 24, 2003 at 07:40 PM.
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Damn I hate hearing about bodyshop/repair shops screwing people over. It sounds like they were they screwed you and your insurance company over. Take it back to your insurance company, point out what all is wrong with it and let the insurance company and their lawyers figure out what to do cause apparently its not been fixed totally. New scratches mean a new claim as well as a ****ty repair job on all the rest of it. You might end up having to drop it off at another shop to fix what the first shop was too incompetant to do.
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