I was on my way to visit with a customer today. I was driving over the upper level of the George Washington Bridge to NY and a guy in a box truck rear ended me and pushed me into the car in front of me. And they went into the car in front of them and so and and so on. 5 cars in all.

Tomorrow, I was all set to meet up with Lyle of Vinyl Styles who is out in the NYC area to do his vinyl wrapping. I was going to have the whole car blacked out and get rid of the bonnet stripes to put on some racing stripes over the bonnet and down the boot/rear bumper. So much for that.

My car did not fare so well. As for me I was wearing my seat belt even so I have whiplash and I think I have a concussion from hitting those rocks we call head rests.

I need a new front and rear bumper at the least... I think I am done modding my car. Its just not worth it.













The car is going to get repaired at Prestige MINI. I am praying they do a great job!!

-Steve

 

I'd say your Mini faired pretty well. I was expecting much worse!

 

That's rough, onefish. I'm heading up for the Vinyl Styles install on Saturday so I wouldn't have seen your blackout. Best of luck - I hear good things about Prestige. Don't give up yet! Glad you're OK, though sore.

 

Sorry this happened to you but the most important thing is you're okay. Hope you feel better and that Prestige puts it back as good or better than new. You might already know this but based on my experience don't sign for anything until you've taken a test drive and are sure that not only the body work/paint is back to new but that all the suspension & stuff is as you remember. Good luck!!!

 

Jeeeesh Onefish, glad your ok Been across the GWB few times myself, sounds like the dope in the box truck was texting or dialing his phone before impact ?

I have also been on the receiving end of what you went through too.

Ice the back and neck/shoulders, take what you can to prevent muscles from tensing up tonight while sleeping. Otherwise you could be really stiff in the AM. And some massage therapy asap would not hurt either. The faster you apply attention to the aches and pains the faster they will go away.

As far as the wrap goes. There will be other days. Lyle is a great guy, and if he can't do it another time, he will probably give you a reference to good installer who can.

Glad your in one piece. Prestige will work their magic, hang in there.

 

onefish, sorry to hear about accident, glad you'll be ok. Mini's seem to be rear-end magnets. I was rear-ended in March. Luckily, I wasn't pushed into the guy in front of me.
My rear end damage appeared about like yours and the estimate was over $4200. I was hit by a BMW and he took out my exhaust which was not on the original estimate and added another $1800 damage.
I have since put a brake light pulsar on my center light. I hope it helps.
Hopefully the you're feeling OK soon.

 

$3000 to $7500 is my estimate, depends on whether or not any mechanicals were screwed up.

 

Sorry... I had a very small front bumper hit in a January snow event... 1 headlight, bumper cover, wheel arch, and fix and paint the hood, 3M clear bra and stripes. $4400... Unreal...

Anyway, don't forget to demand diminished value compensation, for your now damaged/repaired car...

 

I saw you post this somewhere else. I hope you're feeling ok this morning.

 

Sorry to hear that. Yes Prestige doesn't do the work themselves, but the body shop they use does a very nice job.

The worst part (imo) is that Lyle is in town - I'm sure he'll be back next summer? I feel for ya!

 

Thanks for the support and well wishes fellow NAMers. I am doing much better. Just a bit stiff. I should be all set in the next few days.

More importantly to me is that the adjuster was out at Prestige MINI and things are moving along. Repairs will happen next week when the parts come in.

Hopefully I will have my car back in the next 2 weeks.

The estimate is $5300 or so. New front a rear bumper, boot, alignment, back of the drivers seat and some other stuff. I am very familiar with Prestige MINI as I bought my car there, have it serviced there and many of the add-ons were purchased and installed there including the JCW aero kit this past winter.

The insurance is also covering the clear bra on the JCW aero front bumper.

I am confident they will do a good job.

I got a rental from Enterprise. My insurance will allow me to get pretty much any car that Enterprise has in their fleet which is cool. So they said hey you have a MINI Cooper, you must like retro cars. They gave me a bright red Dodge Challenger. What a piece of junk. Handling sucks, steering sucks and the brakes suck. My car is way faster and cooler. I can't wait to get it back.

-Steve

 

Glad to hear you're doing well and that you're already seeing progress on your ride. Sorry you got stuck with a retro-beater...drive it like you stole it and get back behind the wheel of your ride soon. Keep us posted and post some pics of the after-repair. Take care.

 

Not sure what paint they are using, but in most cases it has to cure before the clear bra is installed.....otherwise you could end up with issues later down the road. I would just have a chat with the auto body tech doing the work before it's applicaton.

 

I am aware of this. I just need to find out exactly how long the paint needs to cure before the clear bra can be applied. We are already talking about setting up a date in the future after I get my car back to do the clear bra.

 

I can't stand this Dodge piece o garbage. I spoke to Enterprise this evening and its going back in the morning.

I love all the old muscle cars and it's so cool that they have brought back the old Mustang, Charger, Challenger, Camaro etc. They look great. But I just know they are not what I am looking for in a car, which is a quick, nimble car with great steering/handling and braking like my MINI .

 

Glad you're okay. We'll miss ya tomorrow.
We'll get that bad boy blacked out. Don't lose faith.
Working on settin' somethin' up with Helix.

 

I'm glad it sounds like you are feeling better, Steve. $5300.. wow.. It looks bad.. especially considering how nice your car is... but it doesn't look $5300 bad. Hopefully the dealer will do a good job on the repairs.

I'm taking the GW in the morning to go see Lyle. I'm definitely dodging any truck I see.

 

Don't let this incident discourage you from modding your Mini. To be honest I really started modding my Mini after I had a small accidence with a pole when my Mini was only about 3 months old . Long story short I was driving in a parking garage that had just sealed the cement so it was super slick and I turned a corner at about 10-15mph and lost traction on all four wheels and slid into pole hitting my front bumper. When this happening I was literally devastated . But running into the pole showed me my Mini was not made of glass and could take a hit and recover. Even though the damage was very minor I still had to replace the whole bumper. Luckily, I found a new one on NAM and once I bought the new bumper I thought to myself, hey while the bumper is off this might be a good time to add an intercooler, change the grills etc, ect. Basically, what I am trying to say is that s**t happens and sometimes you can't avoid it, but don't let it get you down as sometimes these situations can be better in the end. Also, I am glad you are not seriously hurt!

 

Onefish2...Glad you are alive. I agree with the earlier poster in regards to taking care of the muscles and avoiding the stiffness in the morning. Unfortunately, I know how you feel as my Simone was backed into this past Tuesday. There is nothing worse than having your car jacked up by another idiot's actions.
I also have Enterprise. I curse the Hyuandi that I got every day, mostly because it drives terribly, but also just because it is not my baby.
I don't know about you, but I am taking Richardsperry's advice about the "diminished value compensation"...

 

"diminished value compensation" I can not even fathom how this could apply. Over the winter I had the factory aero kit removed and had the JCW aero kit installed. This is not much different. They are removing the bumper covers and replacing with new. At this time there isn't any body work being done to the car. So its simply replacing the damaged pieces which are easy to remove. The frame is not bent, no body work. No cutting panels out and welding new pieces back in.

A few months back I called up my insurance agent and asked what would happen if I got into an accident, would they cover all these mods that I did. And she said no. I was a bit worried.

So some of my concern about the repair came from not knowing if Allstate would pay for the replacement of the JCW aero kit bumpers and the clear bra on the front bumper. Those were not original to the car.

The adjuster looked at the car yesterday and they are covering everything.

I will look at this as a learning experience and move on.

-Steve

 

But when you go to sell the car, and the buyer runs a carfax, it will show it was in an accident. The buyer will then offer you less than he might otherwise. Hence the diminished value. Your car won't be worth what the exact same car without an accident on it's "record" would be. Possibly $3-4K less... Why do you think Carfax exists?

See http://www.insure.com/car-insurance/...car-value.html specifically Third party claims...

 

Richard, I was rear ended about three months ago. I did not claim diminished value. I had about $7,000 damage, 100% the other guys fault.

Have you claimed diminished value and if so, how did you go about it?

I don't see the insurance company waiting to just write me a check. What kind of hoops do you have to jump through to get anywhere and is it worth it?

 

i got rear ended last month in Fort Lee, NJ right by the GWB. I was just waiting for the light to change, but i guess the driver of the Ford Explorer behind me was in too much of a hurry. I only had damage to the rear though, $1200 in all to repair. Since we're on the subject does anyone know how bad an accident has to be for it to show up on a carfax?

 

when things like this happen, I also wonder if it is worth modding our cars

 

I am not selling the car ever unless its dead or needs a new engine or something else very expensive.

Replacing bumper covers and a broken seat back do not seem too much of a repair. That is why its easy to take them off and put new ones on.

If it was a more severe accident, I might consider this diminished value thing.

I was upset about the accident for a few reasons:

1. I have enough going on in my life with out this added headache.
2. My car was PERFECT. Not a dent or scratch on it.
3. The more you jack around with a car the more things get misaligned or broken. Even tough its my local MINI dealer that I trust for the most parts... its not their car they do not care about it as much as me.
4. I love the car. I love driving it and seeing the looks I get from other people. Its a conversation starter. Now I am in a loaner car.
5. Its unique. There is not another another on this planet that looks exactly like mine. Now I am in a loner car.

I'll get it back soon and hopefully it will be as good as new.

-Steve