Car Show Damage - Quandry!

[cowtown]

Hey all, been a while since I've been on, probably better for my pocketbook, lol. I moved last year from Calgary to Victoria so I haven't had a lot of time for the forums or to do much on my car.

Anyways that aside I was at a Mustang show in Victoria this past Sunday and I got there nice and early as always, I got parked in the designated spot (which is to say wherever they want because this club can't be bothered to set up a show properly, but I digress). About two hours later the show is in full swing, in our section about 3 crudely constructed rows of 05 and up Mustangs have arrived, probably 20 something cars so a good turn out. A guy in an 07 GT shows up a bit late and starts to drive the wrong way, one of the volunteer parking staff flags him down and has him start backing up the aisle to a parking spot. I'm a couple cars down chatting with a Shelby GT-500 owner and we all stand off to the side so he has room. We're watching this guy get backed up and I suddenly notice hey it's kinda tight there and right then the parking staffer tells the guy to turn, two of us yell but it's too late the driver who's not paying attention to his front end but rather the parking guy swings the car around and bumps into my car. Thankfully really slow and stopped immediately as he heard us yell.

So he removes his car from mine and they finish backing him in. I am standing there with hands over my face trying not to blow up as I can have a temper about my car (as many of us can). I walk over to my car as a couple of other owners come to see what happened and thankfully the damage appears to be limited to a couple inch spot on my bumper. I have a full front end clear bra installed on the car and it remarkably took the damage (again it appears). The impact tore the clear bra so it's pretty much useless now but the paint underneath looks OK aside from some of the bra goop underneath still stuck to it. Other driver lost a quarter sized chunk of paint from his bumper and got quite lucky he didn't hit my hood pin lanyard that was hanging down or it would have torn the crap out of his paint.

So I'm sitting there mumbling to myself the other driver comes over and apologizes and the parking attendant pulls a houdini and is nowhere to be found the rest of the show. Anyways got the guys info and I told him I'd check to see how much the clear bra would cost to fix.

Now for my problem, I have called a number of places here and nearby in Vancouver and NOBODY does these things anymore citing that they're more trouble than their worth and one shop who used to do it said they wouldn't even want to do the removal of the old film, yikes! So what do I call this guy and say? Do I keep going until I find someone that'll quote it or come up with a number we feel is fair or?

I feel bad for the guy as the parking guy should have been more attentive but he was driving and is an unfortunate casualty. At the same time I feel I shouldn't be punished for just being there. So with that in mind I don't want to soak the guy but I don't want to be on the hook for hundreds to get this repaired or heaven forbid when the current stuff comes off there is hidden damage.

 

[klaw]

Nice to hear from you - hope the weather in Vic is better than Calgary. Crappy deal! At the end of the day, the guy has to be responsible for his own driving. I'd keep looking for someone to replace the film.

 

[SCJSTU]

it it what it is....do whatever it takes within reason to get an estimate to fix and make you happy then the other fella needs to fig out how to pay.......insuarnce or his cash

 

['08GTcaRED]

Well maybe let the guy know that you are having trouble finding a shop to fix it and need more time to keep looking...

 

[autumn_again]

me and a few friends were hanging up at a tacobell, after hitting up a movie. all our cars are backed in in between the lines, no problems.

a chick comes and tries to park next to me not paying attention at all, blasting music, and she hits my fender and front bumper.


fenders pretty messed up, bumpers just got a couple scuffs. she starts backing up after she realizes she hit my car and starts backing up into my car more. i get PISSED. haha.

the car is going in the shop this monday to get repaired. it would of gotten done sooner if she had told her insurance company, when my insurance company contacted hers, tehy had no clue about it. and they are covering the cost 100%. she originally tried saying she was paying cash and she would call back later the next day. she never called, trying to screw me over once again.

should be a quick easy repair i plan on staying late for work mon and maybe tues so i can probably get the car out of the shop tues.

 

['08GTcaRED]

Man what is with people these days... Nobody knows how to drive anymore! Then good cars and honest people get screwed I hope that the both of you can get your cars fixed to your satisfaction and without too much hassle and phone calling

 

[stanmckinney]

The guy driving the car that hit you is responsible and his insurance company should pay up.
The guy directing him should have known better, but the driver did not have to follow his instructions.

 

[oh9mustang]

There are NO rules of the road in a parking lot, The police wont even respond to a parking lot accident unless there are injuries. It's a matter for the insurance companies to clear up. I would bet that they (Insurance Co. ) will say each car owner have their company fix their vehicle. Then it will coast you a deductible and a no fault claim against your policy.

 

[autumn_again]

There are NO rules of the road in a parking lot, The police wont even respond to a parking lot accident unless there are injuries. It's a matter for the insurance companies to clear up. I would bet that they (Insurance Co. ) will say each car owner have their company fix their vehicle. Then it will coast you a deductible and a no fault claim against your policy.

called the cops, told them my car was hit in taco bell parkinglot on ____ road, [didn't know the number] they asked if everyone was okay i said yes, cops arrived in less then 5 minutes. at midnight. wrote a police report. even had a first cop car that was closer to the scene come by to make sure everything was alright.

if i didn't call the cops i'd be s.o.l. right now since i'd have no claim number. since the lady never told her insurance company, i'd call and have no proof and be denied. because i called the cops her insurance companys claiming full liabilty for the accident.

 

[stanmckinney]

Always call the police. I had a woman hit me a few years ago at Wal-Mart. She backed into me, wasn't looking. She was nice until I called the police. Then she claimed she never hit me.
Police could tell what really happened, wrote a report and her insurance paid within a couple of day.
ALWAYS call the police no matter where the accident happens.

 

[oh9mustang]

I guess it depends on what city your in. Cops in Houston wont come unless it's estimated over a certain amount of money or there are injuries. By all means , always call the cops. More important than calling the cops on a minor accident is getting the other persons information and pictures. Your insurance company will handle the accident with or without a police report. The only real thing the police report has is what laws were broke and a statement from each. There are no rules of the road in a parking lot so no law was broke if someone backed into your car. Insurance companies will take care of this, and if not it goes to an arbitrator. The arbitrator is the reason for the pictures, ie Door dent and rear bumper dent. An arbitrator can assume that unless the door dent slid into the rear bumper, the rear bumper was at fault.
Most accidents in a parking lot are no fault, If someone runs one of those stop signs in a mall parking lot and runs into you, It's no fault. Those signs are not a legal stop signs. Only signs on publicly maintain right of ways are legal sign. And in the city I live in the signs also have to have a city sticker on the back.

 

[cowtown]

Thanks for the comments guys, given the nature of the hit I don't think either of us were overly worried about getting cops involved.

Well the results are in, after A LOT of searching, emailing, calling with no replies I found the apparently only certified 3M Clear Bra installer left in BC and thankfully he works out of Victoria so yay, no trip to Vancouver to get it fixed, not that it would have been that big of a hassle.

Anyways I got the quote from him, to remove the old stuff he says $65 an hour at 2 hours. OK that's fine. The upper and lower bumper... $750, the hood section another $265....

Yeah... Anyways I am calling the guy tomorrow to tell him what I found out. I am going to press for the whole kit if he goes through insurance, if he wants to pay out of pocket then I am going to tell him just the upper/lower with removal costs. Still way more than expected. Dude said the lower bumper piece (which is the damaged piece) could be done for just shy of $500 not including the removal cost but he agreed that it would look out of place given the difference in weathering which I think shouldn't be my problem. It'll be one thing to disguise the difference in look between the hood weathering and the new bumper, it's a whole other thing to try and pass off a half assed patch job.

I'll let you know what he says, hopefully he doesn't decide to turn this into more of a hassle than it already has been. As it is I've been sick and then travelling on business across Western Canada so this has been a real pain to track this stuff down.

 

[cowtown]

So finally got this wrapped up today, yes today... Ultimately the guy didn't want to pay for the full tick so off to ICBC. Couple weeks to get into there, got approval for... $300. I told the guy it wouldn't be enough and it wasn't. Thankfully the guy I found that does the installs went to bat for me and got the guy to approve both the upper and lower pieces of the bumper ($702). The hood section was pretty beat so I worked out a price to get that replaced ($200).

Got the pieces finally swapped out on the September long weekend but wait it's not done! Because the shop that did the work isn't a certified ICBC shop I had to take the invoice back to ICBC, another 3 weeks I finally manage to get in there this morning and got a cheque cut. So just over 2 full months to get it all settled out, what a grind. Looks really good, I forgot how clean and clear a fresh install looks.

 

[kooldawg6]

Glad it all got worked out and you're happy with it!

 

[Wraith413]

Wow, 2 months!!!
I'm glad to hear that you finally got your car fixed.