I bought a 2010 Mini Cooper S just 3 months ago, my dream car for years and years. Her name is Snowflake, this past weekend someone keyed her on the side of a street, on both sides! As if one side wasn't enough!

It broke my heart, I was completely devastated when I saw the marks. On the driver side, it goes across the entire door but is not very deep. On the passenger side, it goes across the entire door and extends all the way to the tire, and this one is pretty bad.

I'm at a loss for what to do. I just spent all my savings to buy Snowflake, not sure if a new paint job is a good idea. Will the marks rust? Is there any touch-up alternatives out there that you guys have tried?

Please do let me know what you think is best. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I love my MINI too much, this is even hard to write about b/c i still don't want to admit that something like this happened.

Thanks in advance !

 

That is awful. This world sucks!!! Check with a reputable body shop and see how much they want to paint it. Then check to see if it is worth putting in and insurance claim. At the very least, get a police report for the vandalism. If the scratches went all the way down to the metal, you will definatly have to paint it. If you don't, it will rust out. You could try the touch up paint, but you will always see the damage and it will just continue to eat at you. Since the car is so new, it is worth having it professionally repaired. Good luck.

 

Wow. Some people are just ****ing terrible *******s.

 

i think it might be a good idea to go thru the insurance and get snowflake the way she was......good luck

 

Sorry to hear this happened. There's absolutely no excuse for such a thing. +1 for getting a police report and a couple of estimates. You really don't want to try touching up yourself...it'll look like Liquid paper globbed all over your car. Good luck!

 

The world doesn't suck, but the ****-hat that did this to your MINI sure does. Time to call the insurance company & have it fixed right.

Sorry for your trauma.

 

If no other cars were keyed it would not surpise me if it was someone that knows who owns the car. Keep your ears open and if it was someone you know at least you would have the option weather to call them out on why they did something like that.

If other cars were keyed and damaged it was just plain sickness and I hope someday someone like myself would catch them at it.

 

thank you guys for the advice!! it is really depressing, i always always garage her, had her on the street for a grand total of 1.5 hours when this happened

i just called my insurance comp and i have a $500 deductible, the insurance agent is a friend of a friend and told me it might not be worthwhile to file a claim b/c I might be able to get it fixed for $300-400 if i settle with an inferior paint job (no-go for baby snowflake).

i live in Chicago, if anyone knows a great paint/scratch repair shop around the area, please do pass on the info

 

Take photos so if ever you sell the car, you can show the damage before the paint (if they ask/notice)

Ask the dealer where they go, and they should be able to blend it well.

I hereby swear that if I ever see someone key a car, I will beat the crap out of them and leave them bleeding in the street, just for you. No charge/my pleasure.

 

hi ronnie- i agree it is suspicious that someone would go through the trouble of keying both sides. also, the marks are not arm-level, they're about knee level which also strikes me as uber-odd.

i am 98% sure she was violated while she was parked right outside my own apartment. the thing is that i don't live in the safest neighborhood in Chicago (ironically b/c i wanted to save up for a mini coop). i park her inside the garage 100% of the time but had to give the spot to my friend for an hour b/c his pickup truck was loaded with goods & furniture.

good news is: i just moved out of this neighborhood

 

haha thanks HRM! so glad you got my back

 

+1

 

Sounds like you've already talked to the Insurance company, and they've advised you to pay for yourself... But of course!!! They don't want to "loose" money fixing your car... Typical of insurance companies!!
(I don't care is a friend of a friend...)

My 2 cents...
Calm down and do the following:

- File a Police Report - VANDALISM.
- Open a CLAIM with your insurance company. Even if you decide to do it yourself later, you can always close the claim. If you take longer to open, they may recuse later because of any rusting that has occurred.
- Get estimates from body shops. Specially the one your MINI dealership recommends.

If the estimates to paint your MINI back 100% to original are lower than the deductible ($500), which I doubt it, go with the bodyshop yourself. If not - USE YOUR INSURANCE. That's what you pay them for!

You'll be glad you forked out the $500 now to get your MINI back to beautiful as it should be, specially when you try to (GASP) re-sell it in the future

Don't take sh*t from your insurance company!!

Something similar happened to me, but it was a scratch from another car... (hit and run) so I opened the claim as Vandalism... It was a nice new-ish Mercedez, so they bought it...you can claim the neighborhood isn't too safe and they vandalized your car.

Good Luck!

 

SUCKS ..... I had this happen to my 1968 Cuda Convertible back in 1970 and the body shop made it perfect!! Get it done RIGHT!!

 

------------------------ You said it right:-----------------------

My opinion is it should be the ""DEATH"PENALTY"" for keying somebody's car. Well, Maybe life on Devils Island would do !

 

Just wondering if a police/ accident report would show up on Carfax. I am guessing it would. If that is the case, it is a particularly good idea to take photos of the damage. I am not so sure it would matter to a dealership if you were trading in the MINI but if selling directly to a person, it might make the difference between him passing on you MINI (because he believes it was in an accident) and him buying the car once he knew what happened.

Sorry this happened to you and Snowflake. Sometimes people stink.

 

Good idea, although I think the Carfax is not reliable and what is reported varies from State to State

 

Carfax usually only shows damage of over $3K if I remember correctly.

I used to work in a body shop. Here's my suggestions.

1. Open a claim.
2. File a police report. See if they can get any fingerprints from the car.
3. Obtain an estimate from a body shop. It can be any body shop. Heck, go get 3 estimates from 3 different body shops.
4. Having worked in a body shop, I can guarantee you that just the labor on painting 2 doors will be over $400, probably more in the city. Factor in at least $150 for materials. We just had our bumper cover repainted because someone backed into it. The little chrome piece, paint and labor was over $605.
5. Call your insurance company and lower your comp. deductible to $0. It only added $6/year to our policy to do this. And with Mini windshields, you'll pay that back in no time.

If you live in an area with businesses, you might want to check to see if anyone has any externally mounted cameras. Maybe someone got it on tape.

Good luck and don't sacrifice.

 

The reason I was thinking a police report might show up is that my husband hit a deer and called the police. We never filed a claim but an 'accident' report was showing on the Carfax report from about the same time when we went to trade in the car. Since the car had never been in an accident, we figured it had been triggered by calling the police about the deer. This was in either NY or NJ if that matters.

 

What the hell is wrong with people! I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. Hope you get your baby back to it's beautiful self soon.

I would feel gutted as well if someone did this to my Nibblet.

 

I don't know exactly, but most of the time, if you file a police report, they don't ask for your VIN. It is on your registration, but I really don't think they'd put it on Carfax. I may be wrong....

My wife's Lexus IS250 had its entire bumper ripped off and some paint scraped while it was parked at WalMart. She was in it when it happened, so there was no chance of a drive-off. Lots of damage and an entire new bumper.

There was nothing on Carfax or AutoCheck about it at all when we traded it in. So, some things show up. Some things don't.

We had a brand new 05 Infiniti FX35 a few years back. A local guy took a screwdriver to both sides, all the way from the front fender to the rear quarter.

It was fixed, didn't show up on Carfax, but Lisle Infiniti knew it had been repainted (it's easy to tell if you are a body guy, no matter how well the painter/finisher did with the paint and clear) and they knocked $1K off the trade in price. It's bogus, but nothing you can do about it.

I'd still file a police report. And take pics. If the job is done correctly, you should lose very little value in the car as a private sale. If it is done at a Maaco or some cheap place, your car will lost at least $1K in value, easy.

 

What a horrible feeling! So sorry that this had to happen to you, junpea. +1 for filing a police report and definitely get a couple estimates first before calling your insurance company. But I think you should get the doors repainted because it's a brand new car. Ugh.....may something violently horrendous happen to the a-hole who did this and to all a-holes who do crap like this.

 

All good advice but I'd say file the CLAIM NOW. Don't wait for estimates...

Insurance companies are tricky!... They'll give you trouble if you take time to file a claim... Let them see the damage now... You can always close the claim and fix the car yourself if the estimate is lower than the deductible (doubt it)

 

Did you make any one angry recently or do anything to someone?!

 

Since they will have to panel paint the entire sides to repair in correctly - I would pay to have the entire car clear coated in urethane. This brittle water based paint they used now is junk.

And what's up with MINI anyway - they don't finish the areas when you open the hood - dull looking paint like it is not clear coated.




Went 3 years without a scratch on my 2007 crew cab truck - but it has chips all over the place. Some of them don't just chip, just explode. Then a month ago I had a bike come loose on the bike rack and rub a good silver dollar size area on the tail gate. First thought was get it fixed, until I saw the bids of $300 to $600. Even the quickie same-day mobile dudes recommended panel painting the whole gate. So I hit it with the bottle of touch-up paint I have been using on all the chips. Figure another tailgate ding is due to happen anyway……..