By an umbrella!

Yesterday I was sitting at the drive-thru of a local coffee shop ordering a tasty beverage. All of a sudden, I heard a loud SMASH and an umbrella from the patio smashed down on my roof and then slammed into the bonnet. There's a dent in the roof in between the windshield and the sunroof. It also put a really tiny dent in the bonnet and caused two small scuffs in the paint.

What are the odds! It made me sick to my stomache. The first smash was the ubbrella taking out a light fixture on the building. It hit that, which redirected the rabid umbrella's path of fury directly at the innocent and unsuspecting MINI.

I should hear from their insurance today.

 

So sorry to hear... I would guess that you no longer needed that coffee as a wake-me-up!

 

No, I was pretty alert at that point. I did go ahead and take them up on one on the house, though. I hope this all works out.

 

Hope you have a low comp deductible.

This was YOUR patio umbrella, right ?

 

No, it was the Coffee Shop's. Their insurance is supposed to call me today. I called ASKMINI and they said the work does not have to be performed by a MINI shop, which is good because the closest one is over two hours away. I am a little concerned about having a non-MINI shop touch it, though -- especially the paint.

 

Sorry to hear about this. Seems our MINIs aren't safe anywhere these days.

In your shoes, I'd be taking the time off to take it to a MINI shop for repair. You deserve for it to be returned to pre-attack condition.

CRPWJB, you 'lil insurance guru, you....if he has to drive 2 hours away ~ likely requiring a day off of work and a rental car, can't he include that in the insurance claim/settlement?

It's not like one bit of this is his fault.

 

Since the umbrella belongs to a third party, they can be held liable by your insurance company. Your insurance company should go ahead and handle the damages under your comp coverage (your deductible applies). When they have paid, they will then subrogate against the owner of the Coffee Shop to get their payment back along with your deductible.

Unless you have a really good attorney who threatens lawsuit for the lost wages, not likely you can recover anything for that. Lost wage settlements only apply in Bodily Injury Liability settlements... not property damage settlements. And if the coffee shop hires an atty, they will know that too so you'd probably waste your time and money hiring an attorney to pursue that.

Rental car... that's a different story. Yes, as long as you carry Rental Reimbursement Coverage on your policy, that is available from your insurance company and they will subrogate that cost when they attempt to get their comp payment back.

Now... you may want to pursue this directly with the coffee shop owner since he/she should have liability coverage on their business ! That would keep you from fronting the money for your deductible and for any rental cost sharing you would have on your own auto policy.

 

Was your coffee free?

 

Wow, that just sux. Pictures please.

 

Yes, the coffe was free. And very good, actually.

The guy who owns the business seems really nice. He said he would take care of everything. My niece works there. There's a really good body shop by my office that I'm going to check with. The damage is very minimal, so I'm leaning toward letting them take care of it. As long as everything looks like it did before, I'm happy.

I'll try to get some pics during lunch...

 

There is a chance that your insurance company will waive the deductable completely. Mine did recently when some twit grazed the corner of Gromit. Didn't have to pay a dime up front.

 

Don't worry about not taking it to a Mini dealer - BMW/Mini does not officially have any company body shops at dealers, they simply use third party shops or the franchise owners open their own shop to profit on the referred business, so paint done through a dealer will not be any different (and is not even assured to be particularly good, it all depends). Best you can do is get referrals from other car enthusiasts who have personal experience with a body shop, or find out where the high end car dealers take their cars and start with an estimate to see where you stand cost and timeline wise. The 'dent in the roof in between the windshield and the sunroof' sounds like it could be tricky to repair and could require some interior disassembly - I'd ask about that just to see how they think that will be done.

In any case, sorry to hear about the bumbershoot attack, best of luck with it and be sure they cover the cost of a good rental car for you.

 

However, some Mini dealers do have their own collision and body shops. I had Niello fix mine.

 

Right, as I said "or the franchise owners open their own shop to profit on the referred business"... If the dealer has a good body shop its fine, but its not more endorsed or backed by the manufacturer then any other shop. The key to any body shop is their own skills and warranty on their work of course. I'm actually more inclined to using a shop the dealer does not profit by as I had a bad experience with a Honda/Acura dealer's shop and it was a pain when they did a terrible job (repeatedly, ug) since they were hooked up to the dealer and that relationship.

 

Good info, thanks. The shop by my office does great work. They've been around for a long time. They are locally owned and offer a lifetime guarantee on their work. I'm going to see them in a few minutes...

 

An advantage of a dealer owned shop, is the availability of parts. Your car might get done a day or two earlier, as cars in the dealer's shop will usually get priority over a competing body shop for parts.

 

Not sure that is always true, the body shop I use gets parts in stock at the warehouse or in stock locally very quickly. I don't think at the warehouse level there is any preferential treatment, stock is online and first come first serve as far as I am aware (and dealers can't keep every part in stock which is why the centralized parts is often needed).

Also worth noting, I've been made aware that many insurance companies have their own part warehouse where they stock take offs of all sorts of things, so the location/type of body shop will not make a diff. I found out about this practice from a State Farm rep and am not happy about it actually (when I get a car fixed I won't want used shocks, for example, but he said suspension and other such take off parts are used) - I'd like to know if any insurance companies can say for sure they do not do this sort of thing or at least restrict it to non wearing parts..

 

Got a couple estimates. Big difference in the two.

The first place quoted $743.93.
The second quoted $413.59.

That's quite a difference! I called each place to try and figure out where the difference was. It appears that the first place is going to fix the dent in the roof and repaint it. The second place is going to have paintless dent repair done. I'm not sure which way to go.

The advantage to PDR is that they will only have to remove a small section of my headliner, so much less intrusive. But, will I have issues with my paint?

I like the idea of having the full-blown repair and paint to make it perfect, but I worry that it won't turn out perfect. The thought of them removing the sunroof scares me. I fear problems with leaks, etc.

Anybody know what the best option is?

 

Does either shop have experience with a similar repair? Will you have the option to check the work of the PDR to see if it perfect (and the paint perfect) with the option to repair if not to your satisfaction?

I have to run right now and rushing, but those are questions that popped into my head

 

Both are reputable shops that guarantee their work. Neither have worked on a MINI. The guy I spoke with at the shop that wants to do PDR said that if it didn't turn out well, that they could inform the insurance that the first approach did not work and do the full repair and paint method.

 

I speaking on MINI specific parts. Dealer only stuff like logos, etc.

 

Poop....so sorry to read this.... Hopefully your MINI will be good as new sooner rather than later....

Donna

 

Go PDR if you can.
Matching paint is hard, even with a very new car. If they can repair with PDR you may never be able to see the spot. Also factory paint is almost always better than paint from a body shop.
I have had PDR done many times and if I did not know where to look I would have guessed there was never any damage.

 

The shop I prefer to have do the work is sending their PDR guy by tomorrow to have a look. Hopefully he can fix it right.

 

WOW!

So sorry to hear that Norton was attacked by a rabid umbrella and this coming
right on the heels of Norton's 1st B-Day!

Hope Norton gets his Boo-Boos fixed soon! I have no doubt that he will be good as new in no time!

Where is the Animal Control Oficer when you need him to capture that rabid umbrella!

Good Luck to you and Norton!

Motor On!