pics? 2500 is not that much. My wife did 6500 to her car and it drives just like new now.

 

Couple of questions. First, did the tech call the police from the scene of the accident?

I don't know about other states up in Illinois, leaving the scene of an accident in which more than $500 of apparent damage has occurred is considered a criminal offense. If that's the case then that is certainly admissable in court and would certainly help a jury sway your way.

If they did call the police to the crash site, the investigating officer should have taken some pretty thorough notes and a good investigator should have been able to draw some conclusions about approximate speed and such. Another thing to note is if the brakes DID lock up and not just the rear (from the transmission) there would be tire tracks from both the front and rear tires (also should be noted in the accident report).

A bunch of people here say that you are not going to get a new car and I think you can. Get a good lawyer and have them call the dealership. In a civil case all you need to do is convince the majority (not even all of them) of 10 average people like yourself that by the "perponederence of a reasonable peron" you should have a new car due to their negligence. Much easier than you might think. I tell you this because the dealership knows this and will settle out of court.

Just a note that I deal more with business law than these sort of issues so I by no means am claiming to be an expert here, go get a lawyer.

 

In South Carolina if you are in a single car accident, it is best to not call the police. Their reaction ranges from indifference to major tickets based on no evidence of any wrongdoing. I would never call the police in that scenario and I guarantee the techs from Nissan wouldn't either.

 

I'm sure you can have the dealership repair it.. Every dealer will want to take it into their own hands to fix the problem. You can probably get something out of it!

good luck.

 

Correct which is what I'm assuming happened. Where this leads is that in court the point would be made that the lack of evidence is due to the failure of the tech to call the police when they should have.

 

Reading the ECU is being used in a court of law thus certain things could be determined by reading it. Maybe consulting an attorney that knows his stuff is a good idea + do a search on this topic. I read about it on the internet so it is out there.

 

An issue related to this thread is training (or lack of) for auto technicians. There is a good possibility that the person driving the wrecked car was not an experienced master tech. Dealers tend to have 1 or 2 master techs now and the remainder of techs employed are actually minimally trained meaning no technical training what so ever or simply take high school automotives classes. There is a possibility the driver of this car has no training and is a young guy with maybe only a HS diploma.

Nissan and other manufactures have training programs to develop master techs BUT the dealer must pay for their tech to attend those classes. Most dealers elect not to have their techs go to training courses thus many of the services done on your car may be performed by a tech without factory training or other training such as an AA degree or technical degree in automotives.

GM led the way addressing this issue by developing a program called AYES (AutoYES). Now, Toyota, VW, Ford, MB and most manufactures are involved in AYES. Basically the program begins with a high powered HS auto program that connects outstanding students to dealers. They then job shadow at the dealer and begin working there after class in high school. After they graduate HS, they work full time at a dealer while attending AYES approved classes. These classes lead to a tech getting all of his ASE’s, smog lic., & becoming a master tech within 2 years vs. the regular path of 10+ years.

The responsibilities of this program are as follows:

Manufactures: Provide program standards for curriculum, course sequence, funding to print up brochures to recruit future techs etc.

HS and Colleges: Meet the standards for each class taught and develop an entire program that meets the standards. Trust me; this is a lot of work to do. I know because I was involved in getting this program started. And my HS was one of the first in America to do so. To begin with, we had to have a first class shop (as well equipped as any dealer in San Diego County). Even at the HS level, you must teach specific classes in Brakes and suspensions, engine performance etc. and these classes must meet specific industry standards. Basically, this is not your typical HS autoshop! Next, you have to have a highly trained teacher with a smog lic., and all his ASE’s thus he is a master tech (hard to find one that will work for lower teacher wages).

Dealers: Select students from training programs at local school. Have these students job shadow and for those that the dealer feels is job ready, work at the dealer and take related training classes.

Once again, the problem with the AYES program seems to fall on the dealers whom don’t want to invest the time and money to have a person trained. They are more worried about the bottom line of how can we make money today, not how can we provide the customer with the best trained tech.

Many people have negative opinions of unions that contribute to these forums. The positive side of unions such as within the home building trade was that they had training programs to become journeymen carpenters, plumbers etc. Now, even though houses are being built by untrained workers with no union, the cost of housing goes up based on housing market demands, not because of built quality. I personally know from designing houses that many designs are being modified so that unskilled labor can do the job simply because skilled labor does not exist often times to be able to hand cut a roof.

30 years ago, it was common for auto techs to get 50% of the dealer hourly rate. In addition, the dealers were more likely to send their mechanics to factory training programs. Now, it is common for even master techs to only get 20-25% of the dealer hourly rate (Flag rate). It appears to me dealers have become greedy. Charging $80 per hour shop rate to the customer and only paying a master tech $17-22 per hour or paying a non-skilled tech $10 per hour.

There is a downside and upside to cutting cost. With hiring unskilled labor and not willing to train them, you will cut cost immediately however the quality of service you provide to the customer is reduced. As you can often read on these threads, many 350Z owners complain of poor service when they get their car worked on at a Nissan dealer. The upside of cutting tech salaries should be a savings for the customer in hourly rate. IMO we have not seen the savings of labor trickle down to us as consumers.

 

so what eventually happened in the end?

 

Yeah, me wants to know too !!!

It was probably treated like any other accident in the state. No fault insurance, is no good. You get the car fixed and that is that. I had an idiot wreck my car in a parking lot, he left a nice note. However, the court would only give out repair costs in this state. Now, if I had been in the car and hurt it's a completely different story. Be glad no one was hurt in your car or your insurance and you might have been in court fighting medical bills of the tech the got hurt in the car or worse yet the people who he hit that we're sueing you for the damages. Insurance goes with the car not the people.

Accidents happen to good people too. This would burn me up too! $2500 damage without frame damage .... just fix it .... it's all you can do.
Then just forget about it. Life is too short.

 

yeah im kinda intrigued
my next door neighbor took his truck in like two weeks ago to get an oil change. they forgot to put the plug back in and his engine seized. they were going to just give him a new engine but he demanded a new truck. they ended up taking his from him and giving him a used truck that had an upgraded interior and less miles on it.

 

+1... They will try to use the fact it was wrecked to low ball you but you can call them on that bs and get what the car is really worth... besided I had about a $5000 repair on my last car and it didn't even show up on carfax...

 

get a lawyer... sue sue sue until you get new car.. don't let them fuq with you by trying to sell you a new car and trade in your old one... DONT FALL FOR THAT