Man, I am so ****ed.

Here's the scoop - Wife has the day off work on Monday so I decide to take her 2k 5 spd to work to give our 2k2 6 spd a break on the mileage.

Of course, she just can't stay home and has to head out to run some errands in town.

So, she's on her way back home when she sees a 6-wheel grater with this lawn cutting attachment coming the other way, cutting the grass along the shoulder of the road.

Being a little cautious, she slows down to make sure nothing is coming out of this machine, given that where we live the shoulders are unpaved. Cost is clear, so she speeds up to go past.

Well, wouldn't you F#^@ken know, as soon as goes to pass, this Bozo manages to drive the grass cutter attachment right into the gravel of the shoulder and basically "shot-guns" my car with high speed gravel projectiles.

This has the somewhat undesired effect of instantly cracking my windshield and putting 30 or so rock chips into the hood and roof of the car. The rock chips are each about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch in size, and are down to the sheetmetal.

So she pulls over and gets the guy to stop, shows him what he just did, and to his credit he was very nice and apologetic. Gave her a number to call and what not.

So we call and send an email to the City's claims department, explaining what happened. I finally got a call back today and found that an adjuster will be coming out soon to look at the vehicle, but was warned that the process can take up to a month.

Urge to kill rising, rising....

Anyhow, the dealership I bought my Max from has a bodyshop on site, so I'm taking it in for an estimate in the next day or so. That way, when the adjuster shows up, I can give him a copy of the bodyshop estimate. Hopefully, this will sway him to "adjust" to a similar number.

I can't see how this is going to be any less than $1500 - $2000 CDN. The windshield needs to be replaced, and I don't think you can just buff out rock chips which are down the the sheetmetal. This probably means I will need to get the hood and roof repainted.

I hope this fcker agrees because I'm not accepting anything less than the car the way it was. The car is only 6 months old.

Please excuse me while my head comically balloons up and explodes from the rage...

 

That's messed up. I'm an internal auditor with city government and most cities are self-issured and they usually drag their feet on claims, in my city it may take several months to get paid. Don't let up until they pay you. I never understood why the people would cut grass with the debris blowing towards the street. Couldn't they just cut the other directions so the stuff would blow to the inside. Idiots....

 

That's crazy...Sorry to hear this.

Keep your cool man, they should be liable for the full amount.

 

that sucks man. fight the system!

 

Actually, I think you're doing pretty well. Consider yourself very lucky that the city is even considering fixing it.

Good luck.

 

Same sort of thing happened to me, except it was on the highway and it was a private company that owned the truck that shot cement debris at my car.

Here are some pointers:

Do not take it to a Nissan dealership to get it fixed. They will use the same crappy paint that chips easily, and they'll take a long time to do it. I made this mistake and now I have a lot of nicks and chips again.

It's going to cost more than that, especially if you go to the dealer. Mine cost $2200 US to replace the windshield, replace the headlamps, and repaint the fenders, bumper, and hood. That's something like $3500 Canadian, right?

I had to pay the premium and my insurance company paid the rest. My insurance company is currently fighting with the private company to recover the cost of the repairs. It's been almost a year and I still haven't been reimbursed for the premium. Of course, my claim is against a private company who won't accept liability (I didn't get the license number of the truck).

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the sympathy.

I don't really care that much if it takes a while to get paid, I just don't want to have to wait a month or two before I can get the car fixed.

I hear you on the city workers. Where I live, the city seems to employ some of the biggest idiots.

I mean, take this guy running the machine. If the machine occasionally shoots gravel and rocks out onto the road, maybe you want to stop while cars go by so you don't pelt them with rocks? What if my wife had been driving with the windows down? A rock with sufficient velocity to crack a windshield could do some serious physical harm.

My biggest peeve is that the city guys always pick the busiest roads at the worse fricking times to take their backhoe from point A to point B.

A few weeks ago I was almost rear-ended because the city decided that 8:30 AM on a Tuesday is the perfect time to get the street-cleaner out and clean this major commuter road. Its two lanes each way, with a large grassy/cement median, so we're all driving along doing a 100 km/h when all of a sudden everyone is slamming on their brakes and doing panic stops. Guy in a SUV behind me locked up and almost rear ended me. I then proceeded to wait 20 minutes in traffic as everyone is trying to merge into a single lane to get around this guy humming along at 20 km/h in his stree-cleaner.

Here's a thought. The street cleaner has lights on it. Clean the road at 2:00 am when its totally deserted instead of making me 20 minutes late for work.

 

Thanks for the tip. I talked to my insurance and I have the option of paying the deductible ($300) and getting my insurance to pay, and it won't affect my premiums.

I don't know. Call me stubborn but for me its the principle of the matter. They screwed my car up, they should pay for it. I might change my mind if this drags out too long.

My fear rgd the paint is that if I don't go to Nissan the paint might fade to a different color, which might screw me when I return the car in 3.5 years at the end of my lease.

 

fight the system dont let anyone deter you from making them pay

 

get enuff money to change the color of the car - your real lucky that its being paid for by the city - where is this anyways?

 

*flagellates self*

 

It sounds like the city is at least responding to you and letting you know up front what is going on. When the adjuster shows up, get his card and a direct phone number where he can be reached. If the check doesn't come in 30 days then start making a stink!

 

what city ? dont tell me Toronto

 

am in a similar situation but with my insurance now they dont want to pay up the shop....11,000 they want to raise my premium!! but it was not my fault.. is being a MONTH...this is CRAP@!!!!!

 

Ottawa.

 

A girl cut me off an I got a new bumper skin on my 2002 with 2000 miles. I was upset but then went to body shops and talked paint quality and got a much better aftermarket paint and a great match for zip and I think I made out fine.
Consider it an opportunity!

 

Got a chance to wash my car tonight and itemize the damage. Here's the low-down.

- Cracked winshield
- 23 paints chips in the hood, all down to the sheetmetal
- 4 paint chips in the roof, down to the sheetmetal
- 3 paint chips on the driver's door, down to the sheetmetal
- 3 paint chips on rear passenger door, driver's side, down to the sheetmetal
- 2 paints chips in rear quarter panel, driver's side.

I'm taking her in tomorrow for the estimate. Anybody care to venture a guess how much?

 

Read my post (second one in the thread).

 

Yikes. Based on your experience I should expect between $3K and $4k.

 

Yep, pretty much identical damage. I think the front of the roof was damaged too. I can't remember if they fixed it or not, but you can't really tell that it's been damaged though. That's $3-4K Canadian money .

 

Am I correct in assuming that when the rock chips are down to the sheetmetal the only option is to repaint?

 

If you don't want it to look like crap, then yes. Unfortunately, that means they will strip all the paint, sand it down, then repaint the entire part. I had a cool picture of my car with a sheet metal hood when it was at the shop.

Again, if you go to a Nissan dealer, they will use the same crappy paint they used to paint the car the first time, so it will chip again. I played it safe and took it to a dealer, now I have a good number of rock chips again .

 

To be honest, I don't have a big problem with rock chips. I was having a few problems initially with our 2k 5spd until I got the plastic nose guard.

Put one on our 2k2 the day we picked it up. Seems to do the job.

 

How in the heck did the guy on the mower manage to ding both sides of your Maxima? Maybe a physicist should draw me a picture.

 

Post some pics so we can be nosey!!!

 

Damage is all on the driver's side. Maybe my terminology is confusing, but what I am trying to say is both the driver's door and the door behind it are chipped (the door for the passenger sitting behind the driver).

The other side of the car is fine.

 

Well,

I went to the dealership today and had the guy's at the bodyshop look over the car.

Given the number of panels that need to be repainted (only 4 panels were undamaged), the bodyshop manager is recommending repainting the whole car.

Estimated cost: $5500 CDN, taxes in.

Can't wait to see what the city adjuster says...

 

u should post this in the canadian forum hehe

 

$5k??? your car must be in a LOT of pain - sorry to hear about that...

 

I don't know for sure, but your resale value could drop (even worse than just being a Nissan) because your car will be repainted, even though it's not your fault.

 

I would definitely pursue a diminished value claim if your laws allow it in Canada. Get a written estimate from a couple of dealers on the trade-in value of your car right now. Ask them to give you a value if your car wasn't damaged (might be hard to convince them) and then appraise it after your car is repainted. Take pictures to show a potential buyer that there was only paint, not body damage before the repaint. Make sure the place you use gives a lifetime paint warranty. Good luck!