Dealership damaged my car, denies responsibility

White95Max · 05-18-09, 05:31

2 weeks ago I bought a 2003 Protege5 for my wife. It had rust in the wheelwells, so part of the deal was that the dealership would fix the rust by sanding and respraying the panels. We'd pay $600 for all four panels to be repainted.
They ended up only spraying 3 panels, and after a bit of complaining, I got them to agree on a $150 refund. However, there were some other problems:
* They painted the rear wheelwells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything.
* There's overspray on the door and rear bumper
* They scratched the hatch several times, right through the paint.
* They left a ~10" scuff on the rear bumper, which also goes through the paint.

I took photos of the car before the work was done, which clearly show no damage to the hatch or bumper. Tomorrow I go into the dealership again to argue my case. I took the car to a different body shop today for an estimate to fix the new damage, and it came out to $360 for the hatch and $475 for the bumper.

In your honest opinion, what should I argue for? How do you think the dealership will respond? Would the case hold up in small claims court?

I'll add a few pics into this thread in a few minutes...

White95Max · 05-18-09, 06:40

Notice the long scuff on the bumper, and the deep gouges at the top right corner of the photo.

White95Max · 05-18-09, 06:43

critical_level2 · 05-18-09, 09:03

You could see if they would pay to have the body shop you got the quote from do the work. It is a very good thing you have before and after pictures, that way they cannot back out and say it was already like that.

White95Max · 05-19-09, 05:00

I'm still thinking they will argue that my pictures aren't good enough, or that some variable caused the damage to show in the after pictures but not the befores. They've been very stubborn to this point.

This is the same body shop whose manager pointed things out on my car with his dirty boot, and wiped a rag on my bumper after dropping it on the asphalt. What a joke.

jimmie jam · 05-19-09, 07:05

i feel for you. take this as a lesson learned. never, ever let a dealer do anything to your car that they are not expert at. "most" dealer body shops are after thoughts. they are experts at taking you money for the most part, not much else. next time purchase the car as-is with the understanding that you will take the car to your expert to repair the paint/rust. try to get a total refund and start over at a "professional" paint shop. good luck.

japjoe7 · 05-19-09, 07:44

If your up for it take them to small claims court. Over spray on the rear wheel wells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything is freaking ridiculous! Obviously not a reputable shop or a ****** tech.

Accumulator · 05-19-09, 11:45

White95Max- Oh jeeze I'm sorry to hear about this

See how it goes, but I'm not all that optimistic. For every dealership like Stoddard (where they really do remedy any problems for me and their paint/body guys are OK) there are a dozen like Cascade Porsche/Mazda/Audi/Subaru where they'll do damage and then just shrug it off (just had the MPV's wheels repainted due to their negligence).

I will scold you just a little for letting the shop work on it after the way the manager acted. Nobody like that can *stand* next to my cars, let alone be responsible for work on them. I woulda explained about the dirty rag and marring and taken it elsewhere (cost be damned).

White95Max · 05-19-09, 08:38

Well they refunded me $150, and offered to redo the work. I declined their offer and told them "I brought my car in for $600 worth of work and came out with $800 in new damage! Why the hell would I want your body shop to do more work on my car??? What's going to happen this time???"

The general manager would not give me the amount shown on my estimates, and would not even give me the net cost that the dealership would pay to fix the damage. All he would offer was to fix the bumper and hatch at no cost.

I was very hesitant, but agreed to this. The majority of the scratches on the car are on the tailgate and rear bumper, so they will all be fixed with this repair.

I felt that my only options were to have this fixed at no cost, or sit on my new $800 worth of damage with no compensation, and have to attempt fixing it myself. I was skeptical that my photos would hold up in court, since it's entirely possible to edit digital photos to remove a scratch or something.

Wish me luck with the repair. I'll be taking a lot more photos before it goes in this time.

Hey, Moe! · 05-19-09, 08:40

I'm sorry to hear about this, too. I do have a "decent" body shop here who cares, and did wonders with a hailstormed car of mine.

I guess that may be one perk of living in a small town. There's a good chance on any given Friday night, I may be drinking a cold one at the lodge while sitting next to the owner of the shop.

I must say that looking at Stoddard's website is an eye-opener. I've been told that working on Audi aluminum issues takes something extra.

Anyway, White95Max--I agree. I feel for you, but this does not sound like a shop that you will be dealing with in the future.

I will hope for the best.

White95Max · 05-20-09, 04:19

I certainly won't be dealing with them in the future. I can't wait for next Wednesday, when the new work will be complete and I can be done with all of this crap. It goes in on Tuesday morning.

Hey, Moe! · 05-20-09, 05:32

Here's hoping for the best.

You know, I would be ashamed to turn out work of that quality in my profession, and cars must be easier to work with than teenagers.