Just thought I'd share this with you guys.. My camaro was hit today.

A guy in a S-10 did a illegal u-turn in front of me .. I turned as hard as I could the damage to my car is not has bad as the S-10. As you can see from the pics. But the indirect damage on mine affected the headlight bracket, and parts of the frame where the fenter attaches. The front bumper is split on the top sharp edge. This is the first collision claim this car has had in it's life. I guess this also goes to show how well our cars can do in a collision. I'm getting it looked at early next week.

 

it held up very well the guy in the truck insurance is paying for for it i hope and good luck and glad your ok.

 

No injuries to either of us.. ya.. I really hope that guy will be held liable. Besides there was no where else I could go.. Thus attempting to avoid him as much as I could. After the fact I wondered if using the e-brake too might have helped, parallel my car to the truck more. But more then likely I might have put the whole car into the side of the truck.. But keeping this some what tech.. I think the shop may replace the fender.. the bumber can be fixed.. as with the headlight frame too. The hood should be ok, I checked it over and most of the damage appears to just be the corner, and a ripple because of it in the area around it. surprisingly the side marker light does not appear broken.. and neither the front signal light, but the paint around it is cracked. I'll post an update after the car is gone over by the insurance people.

 

Good keep us informed

 

so what hapend? did the guy in the s10 just not look when he was makin the turn? luckily it was an ilegal u turn so he should be 100% at fault. good to see noone was hurt

 

ya, I guess like a lot of drivers around this town, he was not paying attention.. Heck I was behind him with my headlights on. So I know he knew I was there.

We where both traveling down the road, in the same direction. He slows down and pulls to the right onto the shoulder. No signal light. right or left. So I proceed to pass him, then he just peels hard left. Right across my path. So I brake and crank the wheel. I know the damage would have been a tonn worse if I didn't..

 

at least you had quick thinking to do that but yeah thats too bad, good thing your not hurt. If that was me though i woulda got outta the car and made that s10 a write off

Ive had my share of close calls, when people dont look and just do what they want. Pisses me off how stupid people can actually be. Ive been fortunate to avoid all of them so far, and if it does ever happen, I will flip on that person and take everything from them.

 

I thought the exact same thing.. but odds are .. you don't.. I always would say the same thing.. but when you see your ride damaged .. thats all on your mind.. The dialog could have easily gotten out of hand.. when that guy got out of his truck the first words that came out of his mouth was "Where the hell did you learn drive". I bit my tougue.. and said nothing, just looked over the damage. His tone of voice dropped like now, because I kept my cool.. Having a argument of something pointless would get no where.. and not make either vehicle magically fixed.. Sure venting it out may seem like a good idea. But... for what...

 

OMG if a guy hit me and came out and said that, i would be so pissed. Good thing you kept your cool though. I would be on the verge of murder lol

 

Yep...I've always hated when people turn right to make a left. Unless it's a one way road or you're moving at speed, almost every car on the road has the turning radius required to U-turn without first pulling away.

I know what you mean by it being on your mind. Last Sunday all my audio gear was jacked from right in front of my house. Cops didn't care, really. It's a serial thief who's been doing this for a while but they'd prefer to write speeding tickets for 6 miles over the limit instead of catching someone stealing thousands of dollars of personal property. Sucks...

As for the car. I could be wrong, but from the pic it looks like it would be much less expensive to replace the fender than to repair it. I'd suggest demanding genuine GM replacement parts. A lot of aftermarket metal panels are thinner and dent more easily. Even a used fender is cool as long as it's prepped decently. My replacement fender was $80, but I could have grabbed it for about half that if I felt like waiting.

 

I had a guy do a similar thing to me while i was driving the intrepid.. old guy, doing like 20 in a 45.. i followed him for miles but when he started pulling to the right and slowing down i pushed it hard and started to pass him..
but apparently pulling to the right is the signal for making a left turn, I dunno, i braked hard and slid off into the dirt without hitting him, flipped him off and left.. noticed his left blinker was made out of duct tape afterwords

 

Ok, a little update. I've delt with the insurace today.. and they are putting the fault on the other driver. So I've scheduled my car into a body shop start of next week. It'll be in there for about a week. I hope they do a good job.. though not to many there have taken the front end of a thirdgen apart. (cringe).. So we shall see... I have received compliments the work I've done to my car from the insurance place, and the body shop.. Which is nice. Well I guess the next update will be some pics once it's out of the shop.. Oh ya, the fender is being fixed, the bumper is being fixed. The side marker light and the headlight assembly is being replaced.

 

Where did you take it?

 

Boyd Autobody.. I know the owner at one of the shops. They will do it properly.. Some shops will blend the clear.. these guys will re-clear the whole hood, repaint and clear the whole fender and bumper. He knows I do car shows with it.. So if they did a crappy job a lot of people would know it..

 

With the kind of work they normally do, I just hope they can lower their standards to match the rest of your car.

 

I've got to commend you on keeping your cool.

It's very tempting to tear someone up in that situation but wether it's because we know the police will be involved or because it's just obvious the person is a **** and you can't beat on retarded people I dunno..but calm means your in control.

Just saying.

 

Ok, I picked up the car from the body shop today.. While they did a good job painting it, and the body work. Thats where it ended.

- Bare metal left behind fender, and under hood. No corrosion protection replaced.
- Hood/Fender gap out to lunch compaired to the other side.
- Head light assembly was to be replaced. They fixed it, but sprayed rock guard over it. Looks like #%@^. Not original looking at all.
- Fasteners missing, fasteners loose, missing push clips.
- A chip on the back part of the fender that was repaired which was never there in the first place. Was not touched up. Looks like crap.
- Nose emblem on crooked.
- chipped paint around headlight on newly painted bumper, not touched up.
-Poor buffing job on in headlight pocket, really scrached.
- Alignment of fender/hood/bumber not good.
- The hood height on the repaird side was below the fender line. My adjuster is almost as high as it will go..

This is what I've found in a couple minutes.

In Short aside from the painter being better than me. I did a heck of a lot better job than they did. Now I know why I don't trust anyone with my car but me. I shall have pictures available later on today.

So Apeiron - I think they should have raised their standards to mine!!!!! If this is the kind of quality I can exspect.. Thats just.

 

Well that's disappointing, I would have expected better from them. Sadly what you ended up with is pretty typical of other shops though when an insurance company is paying the bill.

 

Id definately have it right back at the shop the next day and point all this stuff out to them and make it very clear you want it fixed right.

 

I agree Apeiron, further more.. I did tell them I take it to car shows.. I guess they just didn't care that much.. I forgot to mention, they where supposed to replace the headlight bracket assembly. They didn't, and the Insurance paid for a new one, and it would appear they fixed the old one, poor job at that, and sprayed rock guard on it Not to mention there is rock guard over spray on the outside driver side fender, it hardly looks 'factory'.

 

you need to take the car back like I said. I would point all this stuff out and let them know you are ready to get the insurance company involved since they paid for work that wasnt done and if that dont work there i always a court somewhere that is looking to get a shop for fraud which is pretty much is going on here.

 

Yep...the mention of fraud will either get the job done properly or will get you the money to pay a more reputable shop to do the work; although the legal system is horrendously slow so count on being out for a while if you have to take that route.

 

Ok, I talked to the insurance company, and they recommended to first deal with the body shop, then if there are any problems to contact them. So I went to the shop. Talked to the manager, and the owner. Went over all the problems, talked to the guy that did the work. The car is in the shop now, and they will deal with it all. The owner appeared to be a bit surprised. So hopefully he'll over see it. The part that I thought was not replaced (headlight assembly) was a new part, but a after market one, they had a bit of a problem and had to make a minor repair. It was described, I could understand .. So, I might eventually get a OEM part. I know in reality I should compain to high heaven over this.. but It's a typical aftermarket jobber. I've seen it before. The repair isn't really visible, unless you look closely. My beef with that other wise was the rock guard. I told them what color it should be. So this will be theur second chance.. we shall see what it looks like at the end of the week.