My new baby 8... arrgh... got rear-ended on the highway this morning... I JUST GOT HER!

I was stopped on the rush-hour parking lot that is the ramp merging from the 403 onto QEW W. Took a look behind me and noticed a Civic skidded a little to stop. Next thing I heard was a crash behind me, then I was hit from behind... I managed to roll around the car in front of me and avoid any more damage...

Here's the van and the Civic it totalled:



You can see my poor car off on the left shoulder down the road

Here's my car...

Rainy, cloudy light, black car, crappy camera... you can't really see the demolished bumper and crumpled trunk and rear quarters.

I'm ok though.

BTW, I named my new car Rukia. All those who understand the irony now raise their hand.

 

Maybe if yours was silver the curse would have done more damage...
good thing you're ok though...

 

That is aweful to hear. Hopefully the damage won't turn out to be more serious. Just be glad you didn't get it as bad as the Civic did. Those shift jockeys can be reckless drivers alright.

J

 

That bites.....and so soon!

 

ouch....be thankful you're not the civic

and, kill the driver of the van. The road will be safer

 

Now you know why I drive a beater to work! You never know when another car is running on bald tires and expects to stop the same distance in rainy conditions!

Good to see you avoided the car in front of you. Unfortunately the rear end got the brunt of it... hopefully they'll be able to straighten out the rear quarters and trunk. You'll definately need a new bumper. Hopefully nothing underneith the bumper got too dented.

It could have been much worse!

Lates,

 

Jezzus, that sucks. GTA driving is a crap shoot in these fall months. I can't believe the number of cars out there @ 7 o'clock who don't have their lights on. I like the daytime lights but unless somebody with an IQ of more than 100 is driving, they forget to turn on the full package. Morning and night. Bald freaking tires everywhere in single digit temperatures. This is why you'll see signs throughout Peel Region offering a driver's licence in two weeks...guaranteed! Hey McGuinty...screw DriveClean and fix the bloody MTO!

 

Sorry to hear about the crash ... hope you get it fixed up soon

 

jesus, that's terrible man.
At least your not at fault so your insurence shouldn't go up.

 

With the brakes on the '8 I'm always worried about getting rear ended. People follow way too close on the highways.

Sorry it happened to you and your new car! Glad you're okay.

 

^ hehe..tru..i think we need a plate frame that says: stay back i've got brembos and i kno how to use em!

 

Not happy with the repair... the paint job is good, but nothing sits perfectly after they stretched out both rear quarters, attempted to flatten out the trunk lid (they didn't give me a new part), and installing a new bumper. Both trunk-quarter inner corners are not level, the trunk lid itself still has a bulge by the rear window where they couldn't completely straighten it out, the bumper flares out past both quarter panel edges by one or two millimeters, and they stuck the "mazda" and "rx-8" emblems on crooked. And to top it all off, the passenger taillight replacement was cracked; after they parked the car overnight in the pouring rain the trunk was full of water I thought these guys would do a better job, their huge shop was full of high-end cars.

This, after six weeks of being told "it'll be ready next week" every single time I call. I mean c'mon, if it'll take six weeks to repair, tell me that instead of an estimate of ten days. That's just a setup for disappointment.

In the end though, if the job had been perfect I wouldn't have cared as much, but lifetime warranty or not, I'm not going to take my baby back to them to try to fix it. Hopefully my trusted bodyshop in London can make it right (still under insurance). To the untrained eye probably no one would notice, but -I- do.

And to add insult to injury, the driver of that van was NEVER CHARGED. Just deemed at fault for driving too close. *sigh*. Is there even any point in pressing charges? I think the driver of Civic should...

Commiseration appreciated, sorry for ranting.

 

Looks bad, you got every right. If it was a "preferred body shop" from your insurer, in most cases your satisfaction should be gauranteed.

 

Listen, I know you're not going to rest till you get justice. I hate breaking this to you, but the car is NEVER, and I mean NEVER going to look like it use too.
They should have gotten you a new trunk along with a new bumper. But alas, this is insurance we're dealing with. As far as they're concerned the car was fixed to "as new" condition.
A person who notices the "small" details is never going to get justice.
I know it's not something you want to hear, but I'm trying to ease you back into reality.

Maybe if you complain enough the bastards will replace the trunk and the bumper for you. All the power to you!

Life is full of injustices.

 

Actually, send the pictures back to your adjuster, and complain that the car is not repaired properly, and that you demand that the car be repaired appropriately.

You pay insurance to cover the costs of repairs should you get in an accident, and they have an obligation to ensure that the repairs meet the standards of the car pre-crash - they need to repair the car back to a state where it is safe to operate and cosmetically indistinguishable from the prior state. How your car looked before the accident is up for interpretation by the insurer or the shop they go with.

However, I'd wager that they'd be interested in knowing that their preferred shop did a poor job of repairs. Certainly, if you can send digital pictures with obvious defects, I can imagine how it would look in real-life. Consider this: if you leased the car, the defects would likely be noticeable to the dealer, and then you'd be on the hook to get the car straightened out prior to lease return. The shop might have cheaped out to keep the insurance company's business, which would account for the sub-standard repairs.

 

That sucks bro It always hits a chord with me

 

Thanks, everyone.

Westman Collision in London straightened out the trunk a little, and replaced the emblems; they didn't bother with billing anyone for that. However, after giving the car a good wash (I haven't had the chance, what with the two foot snowfall we had), they pointed out a huge amount of overspray all over the rest of the car from the original repair. *sigh*. So Rukia went back and had a whole day buff job, courtesy of insurance.

Anyways, all good now, still waiting for that replacement taillight though.

And yes, I realize (or at least my wife keeps telling me) I may have been overly critical about the whole thing, and should count my lucky stars I wasn't hurt or that the car wasn't totaled (I saw another grey RX8 at the original shop; it'd been sideswiped.. total write-off, but I overheard the owner wanted it fixed! these fantastic machines sure can attract an obsessive type of person ) It just stings, to know your baby will never be same because of someone else's stupidity.

Cheers

 

ouch ...glad to see everything is back in order

 

Persistance paid off! Only the tail light remains.
You have the spring to look forward too now...