Wemyss

I have a 99' 4x4 4runner (highlander i believe)


Well i got rear ended about 2 weeks ago , and the bumper was pretty messed up... but it looked like the bumper was the only thing wrong. The guy that hit me had an acura TL... His car looked a whole lot worse then mine.

I went to the toyota dealership and they recomended a body shop to go to. So I went there to try and get an estimate, and the guy knew what he was doing, and told me to lift my rear hatch and told me that the unibody or something buckled upwards. He said they would be unable to give me an estimate without taking the car apart.
Well after i talk to the guys insurance they told me to go to this other place, which has a reputable name. Well one of the guys (someone who works with the customers) gave me an estimate and he only gave me an estimate on the bumper, and I asked what about that damage and he said that he couldnt give an estimate on something that he could not see, although the estimate might change once they take the car apart.

The place i dropped the car off at is called Abra, I believe that they are fairly reputable, and have a bunch of shops around here.
Well i dropped the car off 2 days ago and called them today and he said that it was suppose to be ready today, except that the bumper they ordered was chrome and not black. So i asked the guy what about the other damage and he said he would go and check with the guys in the shop. He came back and said oh yea there is some other damage that we will need to roll out.


Ok my real question is, I have never really been in a wreck before. Is there anything i need to look out for to make sure they dont just half ass the job? I want my 4runner to come back just as good as it was before it got hit. And does anyone know what all could possibly have happened to it. I just dont want these guys to screw me over.
And if these details help, I was completly stopped and a guy hit me going im guessing 10-15 mph (maybe more maybe less) he was driving an Acura TL. He hit me dead center in the rear bumper ( i believe he hit me in the center) and the right side of the bumper looked alright, but the left driver side was pretty messed up and i had to remove my mudflap before i could continue driving. Also when i looked at it the other day the tire looks like it got moved and is now touching some bar connected to the axle.

Im mostly just concerned about my car, and worried that these people arent going to fix it completly especially since the other guy's insurance is paying for it.


Sorry for the long write up...
Thanks,
Chuck

ASU4runner

I was rear ended in my 96 4runner Limited and I took mine to a collision repair place in Raleigh, NC. They did an estimate in about 30 min. and it came to $1200. This included a new bumper (all brackets, side pieces, top platic piece), new spare tire mount, and a little paint touch up on the rear quarter panel where the bumper pushed into it.

Seems kinda odd that in your case (at 10-15mph) all of that happened to yours. I would have to guess that the guy hit me going probably 20-25mph in a Dodge Neon and I was at a dead stop.

Wemyss

yea he might have been going faster. I wasnt looking in my rearview mirror or anything, just felt him hit, and said a few cus words under my breath. so he might have been, and i got that exact estimate at Abra, and he said that it could change once they take the car apart. Also how do they usually fix stuff like that if the unibody gets bent? do they replace the pieces that are messed up or just hammer them out? and which way would be better?

ASU4runner

They'll replace whatever is necessary. Put it this way, you're the victim -- get whatever done to it to make you satisfied. Get your money's worth b/c later on down the road when you try to sell yours, prior accidents on a carfax report take away from your 4runner's value.

Oh and 4runner's aren't unibodies (ex. Toyota Highlander (not the 4runner Highlander) is a unibody). 4runners are body on frame like most trucks.

Wemyss

lol i didnt claim to have a clue what i was talking about I just remember the guy at the first place i took it said some similiar things to that.

ASU4runner

No sweat man! At least you're admitting it!

024Runner

Wheres your towbar? I got rearended 3 times in my 4Runner and the towbar would win. First car to rearend me after I bought my 4runner within a week brand new, a honda civic. He hit me doing 35mph in San Fransisco. His car was farked. 2nd car was a Camaro doing doughnuts and he lost control and rear ended my 4runner. Towbar ate him up. 3rd was a Dodge ram. This time I had a ball on my towbar and heh, the rams horns broke off LOL. And the towbar does a beautiful job offroad when I go up really steep hills and scrape the 4runners ass.

Wemyss

I didnt have a tow hitch... was meaning to get one on, but never got around to it (mainly since boating season was over).

Andrey

LOL, join the club:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f5/should-i-pursue-further-72693/

One the side note, I have a few extra pieces now from the rear bumper if you need them.


-- Andrey

Wemyss

Well i got my car back the other day...
I walk into Abra Auto at aprox. 2:00
I wait for 25 minutes for my customer service guy. The lady doesn't know what the hell he is doing so she starts figuring out if my car is ready or not and so then tells me that they have to fill out a report and it should take 15 minutes. I tell her ill come back.
I come back about an hour and a half later.
She shows me the paperwork and i ask if I could talk to the guy and see if he will tell me what all they did with my car (since they claim that is part of their "Repair Process") Well she calls him to come up to the front about 5 times. I wait another good 30 minutes. The lady then gets frustrated and walks out the door to try and find him herself. And all of a sudden here comes the guy. He just walks to the front and looks out the window. I stand up, the other lady behind the desk tells him that he has a customer and points to me.
He looks at me with a face of stupidity "Oh. I thought i recognized you!"

So I ask if he will tell me what all they did with my car.
I already thought he was a dumbass from when he took an estimate on my car, but now i just cannot believe the bullÅÅÅÅ he is telling me.

Well the estimate I got was about 1000$, and I had to point out to the guy that the car was buckled but he said he couldn't put "hidden damage" in the estimate. And when i got the car back the total was 1200$ now I'm no body shop expert, but the buckled floor looked like it was going to be a hell of a lot more then 200$...
Well i look at my car, and i notice that my hatch doesn't look too right... (the hatch worked perfectly after the wreck... still works, but it isn't aligned correctly)
And i still feel little random bumps on my floor, and a friend said that it looks weird with my rhino liner in the back. Plus the Bumper they put on is somewhat misaligned. I asked the guy about that and his response is "Well obviously the bed of your car is different on the both sides, and that there are going to be bumps like that" Which seems odd because the rest of the trunk area is completely flat and no bumps, and i don't remember any weird bumps before the accident. And now the fact that when i look at the back it doesnt look right, looks like when they did a "body pull" they pulled it out a little too far on the left side of the truck. and the "effective" body pull apparently didnt get rid of the buckling damage either. The dealer also said well you know everything is fixed because you can open and close the rear hatch with no problem what so ever. He said if it was off by 5 or 6 mm it wouldn't close like that, and i reply with "Well the hatch worked fine before i took it here." and he replies "Oh." So i then ask is there more space under the rear hatch on the left side then on the right? and he said it was the "bump stop", so he is like here ill fix that in a jiffy. Drives the car to the back. I walk inside to sign the papers, and then I come back outside.. my car is there and the customer service guy is nowhere to be found. And "fixing" the "bump stop" did jack ÅÅÅÅ for the alignment of the rear hatch.

Ok I kinda need some advice here. The wreck was not my fault at all. I want my car to be exactly as it was when i drove it off the used car lot.
Should I take my car to another place and have them take it apart and tell me what is wrong. But not to fix it, so I can bring it back to Abra so they can fix it perfectly. And im also afraid that Abra might have created more problems too. Or should i just take it back to this place and tell them that these things are now misaligned and that they need to fix it. (I have a lifetime warranty on there repair and i asked a good 4 or 5 times to make sure I could take it back and get them to fix it) I mainly drove the car away because of Christmas and me needing it and wanting to finally go hunting (The rent a cars lancer they gave me wouldnt make it through the mud i need to get through to go hunting )

And sorry if the english is just horribly shot, or if it doesnt make much sense I wrote bits and peices while getting ready for a family dinner.

Thanks for any and all input.
Chuck

tc

Once they get paid by the insurance company, they won't have any motivation at ALL to help you out. Remember, YOU are NOT the customer, the insurance company is.

Best bet is to call both his and your insurance and tell them you aren't satisfied with the repair and ask them not to pay Abra until it is.

Good luck!

KZN185W

iTrader: (1)

That's exactly why I bought one for my truck