Damage to my Corvette !!!

[JohnnyC]

I am incredibley P*SSED OFF right now. I go out side to wash down my Corvette and find a dent, crumpled up area right above the driver side tire, front along the wheel well. The dent/scrape is about 4-5 inches long ad ad ad

Now, i have been out and about the past few days. I am THEE MOST carefull person in parking, and driving and i KNOW i didnt hit anyone or anything. I also park 10 miles away at stores, and never NEVER next to anyone, EVER. When i go out i park on a very safe side, street. Light traffic. In my apartment complex i park at the very end of the lot, about 5 feet from the next car on the passenger side, noone on my driver side. I know ALL the people i park next to, they all know me, and know my car and are carefull too. So i dont think it could have happened here.

Now it just so happens, that just yesterday, i had my Corvette serivced at the dealership for an oil change. This has been pretty much the only time recently where i wasn't in control or knew the surroundings. But i have been there several times before, but you know what i mean.... SOMEONE ELSE WAS DRIVING MY CORVETTE!

I have already called them and b*itched about it. He told me to come back tomorrow afternoon and he'll check it out, but that the guy that serviced my car was there for 25 years, and if he ever damaged a car, he would have admitted it. Does that mean he has damaged cars in the past? Is this the same guy that couldn't turn off the "change oil light" too from last time? It took them an hour to figure it out. !!!! If i find a garage door wa, or pole or something with black on it they are paying for it, and i aint never going back there.

Now, i dont want to 100% accuse the dealership, but i have only noticed this today. I AM 1,000,000% sure I would have seen this before. But of course, i don't inspect every inch of my car every day. It has been raining often and i go out alot at night. But it is on the driver front tire!

My roommate is bringing the digital camera home tonight, so we can take pics of it, and i'll post it as soon as i can.

Has anyone else had to repair a small damage similar. I dont want to have to replace the entire hood, but can they reshape or glue it back together some how? Comments, suggestion are welcome. It might help me cool off knowing others have been thru this pain.

John

 

[MsSchroder]

that is bad news... I hope you get it taken care of!

 

[dmrodco]

If they admit to it and pay for the repair I will be REALLY surprised ! The first rule is deny everything. I bet they are going to say that since you didn't see it till the next day there is no way to prove they did it. I am REALLY picky about who works on my cars. Mostly its me. However when I have to use a tech I drive 60 miles just to get to someone I trust . Good luck !

 

[Ctfoodguy2000]

John, I feel for you. Nothing worse then that feeling of Oh "S4it, look at my car!"
I will be very intersted too find out what the dealer says to you. Good Luck!

 

[compyelc4]

This happened to me this spring. I talked to the manager of the tire shop, where I KNOW it happened. I was cool, calm and determined. Amazingly he asked me to get a quote and he paid for it 100%. Can you believe that! I think my being calm and not acting like the raging maniac I was surpressing helped.

Ted

 

[Ctfoodguy2000]

I think Ted's approach works better then screaming & yelling. Granted, it sure does feel better to rant & rave, but you get more favorable results by being in controll.

 

[JohnnyC]

So, i go back down to the dealership. Talk to the manager of service dept that I go to. He showed me where the car was, and showed the service man my car and the damage. He said that it wasn't there when he worked on it, and the car was "emaculate". He did a front end alignment so he said he was looking directly at this much of the time with mirrors, and didnt see anything. The manager went on to repeat that he "has" damaged cars, but has always admitted it and been there for 25 years, and would completely trust this service man with what he said. I was still pretty ****ed, but since no solid evidence, like i knew it wasn't there before, and saw it exactly after they were done. But since i didnt notice it until the next day, he said the chances of it being damaged under my care where much greater than the 1 hr it spent there. Yeah, BS !!!

I attached some pictures so every one can see what it looks like.

The manager said he didnt have a body shop, but knew a place just arround the corner. He sent me there and I was quoted at $533.82 for 3 days worth of work. That hurts.

I have since calmed down alot, its just a car right, yada yada yada, right... i will probably have it done in the spring time.

Does anyone know how to get a good body shop? or have any suggestions for central/northern NJ? The place he sent me to seemed "skectchy".

John

 

[JohnnyC]

2nd picture

 

[JohnnyC]

3rd picture

 

[TomsToy]

Man that's bad. I'd question the service manager. Some of them shouldn't even be in the service business. I had a chevy dealer here in Orlando service mine and they didn't even drain the oil, just added more. Claimed one of his most experienced mechanics did the work.
Lots of Luck

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Devil's Advocate...

Appologies in advance...

I think that looks pretty noticeable...and I feel most Corvette owners would have noticed it when it was picked up at the shop if it had happened there. Especially having occured on the driver's side.

However, another point...
I would expect 'parking lot damage' to have occured more towards the middle or rear of the vehicle, and not so close to the nose. (If you were parked nose-in.) By the time a car is that far into a parking spot, they would be moving mostly in a straight line, either backing up or pulling in.

Perhaps you could serepticiously check the other resident vehicles parked in your area for damage? Was there any paint transfer to indicate car color? It could have been a new resident or a visitor.

Sorry for my opinion, I know it is probably not what you want to hear.
Heidi

 

[qwall]

that sucks dude

q

 

[Gorgon]

I tend to agree with Heidi. This appears to be pretty noticable. If you didn't notice it when you picked it up then there's a pretty good chance it didn't happen at the garage and may have happened overnight if it was parked outside.

As to the service man damaging other vehicles, crap happens. After 25 years of working on cars I would not expect anyone to not have accidentally damaged any vehicles. If he's up front about it and the garage takes care of the damages, that a good thing. Just sucks when it happens to you.

Leon

 

[Ctfoodguy2000]

Those pictures make me sick! No, its not just a car!!, but it really is. That is easy for me to say....

I agree that the damage would be pretty noticable. However, I'm not saying that it didn't / couldn't have happened at the garage. I walk around my Vette whenever I return to it if I have to leave it or park somewhere. This is one of the reasons why mine is not a daily driver. This would drive me nuts!

Get it fixed in the spring and you will feel much better.

 

[Interceptor430]

MAN! That makes me sick - hearing/reading/seeing.
How could damage like that happen?......Tires/wheels are so wide on these Rockets, and there was no hint of something bumping
it?......would the service dept have had the hood up on the car, and maybe something sitting on top of the tire when the hood was closed?....possible, I guess....I dunno....
I hope it is repaired soon, right, and becomes history (aka a fading memory).
:blow

 

[dmkoger]

Fairly good chance the damage was done by a customer. My Nissan was damaged by the dealer on their lift. Didnt notice it till the next day, and they refused to fix it, until I called the owner of the dealership. Might try that approach, stress youre a long-time customer and you're sure they want to continue to do business with you in the future.
I didnt notice if anyone else asked this, but do you have insurance that might cover it? Would probably come under your comprehensive.

 

[sothpaw]

John...you can't win

John,
I have a black vette too, and I'm telling you, you can't win. Unless
you watch every service guy the whole time. And then, there's apartment living. People just don't respect cars.

--The people at my apartment were the worst. I wouldn't be so convinced it's not someone at the apartment if I were you.

At my apartment:
1. The week I was moving out, some idiot who didn't even live there parked there car next to mine (all by itself in the middle of
nowhere, like yours) and bashed the mirror. Apartment management did nothing because they couldn't find out who's car
that was or who they were visiting or why it was parked there.

2. Just for grins: I used to find cigeratte butts on the hood. It put some nasty scratch-like markes on the hood. Super noticable at any angle, these really catch the light.

3. There's cracking on the LOWER part of the door--can't be from
another car. Probably some idiot with an RC car (used to see
them a lot).

 

[JohnnyC]

How could damage like that happen?......

Thats what p*isses me off. If i KNEW i hit something, or could explain this like a door ding at the mall ok, but this is very strange damage, before the front tire? Its really bad, enough to really crush it. Its not falling off, but cracked.

I am truely at a loss for HOW this happened. The tires seem fine. The service manager showed me a wheeled step ladder near the lift, but i would imagine you'd have to really get a running start and aim at my car to get the damage. or do it on purpose.

Well, i am trying not to think about it. What happened, happened and thats it. I am going to inspect my car EVERY time i get it back now. All i'm saying is, that time at the dealer was the only time it was "out of my care".

Southpaw: one time at my work, the next door office used to feed the birds with bread and seeds. I go out side for lunch, and find a big bread crumb right on the exact center of my roof. I jumped and knocked it off. What are the chances of a bird dropping a piece right in the center like that? I knew someone put it there hoping a bird would crap on my Corvette. Punks

I get the impression sometimes people resent we have Corvettes and are jealous.

John

 

[Vettelt193]

it is hard to tell from the pictures what angle things are etc., but could it have been something that the tire picked up and spun up into the fender?

 

[rrubel]

I may have missed this in an earlier post, but did you check with your insurance company for repair under your Comprehensive coverage? That's the section that handles things like glass breakage and vandalism. If someone did this while your car was parked, then your deductible might be less than you thought (my comprehensive is $100, as opposed to $500 collision).
[RICHR]