Heading home after going to a wake for my friend's grandfather, I'm in the middle lane of a 3 lane highway, slowing down for a red light. Noone's in front of me, and cars are on either side of me. Just as I'm about to pass a white GMC cable truck that's on my right, said cable truck juts out into my lane. I can't do anything but jam on the brake pedal and hope for the best. I nail him in the tire, and he takes out my front bumper, scrapes my fender and headlight, and knocks out assorted plastic parts that I can't identify right now because I'm so pissed. The driver is very clearly out of it, either via alcohol or pot or something. The cop gets there and doesn't pay any mind to any of the symptoms the guy was showing. Doesn't take my suggestion to check him for DUI. He really seemed more interested in getting out of there than getting this ass off the road where he belongs. So now I'm out my $500 deductible. I'm not going to bother with the GEICO Express shops that they recommend. F that. My last accident required three trips to the shop to get the car satisfactory. I'm getting an estimate tomorrow at 1 and will take it to a shop that doesn't suck.

The damage:

Yikes, that sucks. Dealing with insurance is always a hassle. Hope it's good as new before too long.

I'm sorry, z. That kind of stuff really chafes my nerves. You should see some of the vehicles that are driven in to our shop by customers who were told they could be driven by police officers who were too lazy to fill out the extra paperwork for vehicles that require towing.

I hope it is fixed right the first time, and soon. Looks like an air intake resonator on your front floor, there. And I'd insist on a front end alignment, as well.

OH my goodness, Z ... sorry that happened to ya.

Why on earth did the officer not notice the guy's impairments????

Cort | 36.m.IL | "Mr Monte Carlo"."Mr Road Trip" | pig valve.pacemaker * 07/24/2010=ChitownMeet #3 *

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"What can you do?" ... Mickey Gilley ... 'Full Grown Fool'

I guess because he had to get home, or something like that.

Water under the bridge though - I went to pick up my car this afternoon and - lo and behold - they got it right the first time! Everything fits as good as, if not better than, it did when I first got the car. The paint matches perfectly, and it's clear (pun intended) that they paid extra attention to getting it smooth, shiny, and free of imperfections. What really blew me away was what the shop owner told me. I had voiced to the estimator that I wanted an OEM bumper and would pay the difference, and he gave me this song and dance about how CAPA bumpers are just as good yadda yadda yadda. Well, the shop re-wrote the estimate using ALL OEM parts and fought it out with GEICO. His reasoning being that money spent on labor to adjust a CAPA part to try to make it fit can be used to buy better parts that give a nicer final product. GEICO wouldn't budge, so he went all OEM anyway. I ended up paying an extra $40 over my deductible - I'd expected to pay more than that for just the OEM bumper. So yeah, this one ended up being much less stressful.

Saturday I'll give it a good wash and snap some beauty shots.

All's well that ends well.

But, uh... z... GM, like Chrysler, has a program where THEY MATCH AFTERMARKET PARTS PRICES. All the shop had to do was send them documentation of the prices for the CAPA parts, and the prices would have been matched. We do it all the time. Just today, I got an order in for some 2004 Suburban parts. The GM dealer price matched a fender, front bumper facebar, and mirror with CAPA.

I wish I'd known your parts situation beforehand, I could have advised you of this. You should not have paid anything more than your deductible.

Edited May 14, 201015 yr by ocnblu