My baby's HURT!!!
 

As usual, I was parked in the space on the far right end of the lot. Friends of mine pulled up next to my car and one of them opened the door into the side of my car.:eek2: Large dent. No real problem. Paint chipped down to the primer.:mad: :impatient: :no:

Stopped by local Dent Wizard on the way home. He said $100 to remove dent and, if I supplied touch up paint, do the touch up; he also said he thought I would not like the touch up and would want to repaint. $350 :eek:.

Thoughts, anyone, as to the best way to handle this? Where is the best place to obtain Lightening Blue touch up paint?

I don't think my friend has insurance, as he is obese and does not drive. I don't know what to say to him; he has offered to pay for the repairs, but I know he can't afford to. On the other hand, I can't either and leaving my MINI like this is definitely NOT an option. I tried to play it off lightly when he told me what he did, but then I saw the paint chipped off and knew this was not a simply door ding.

Argh.:cry:

MINI can supply you with the paint to match your color. I think the small bottle of touch up paint was 15 - 20$ or so. We've got a small chip on Liz's R50 passenger door and not had the nerve to actually apply the touch up paint we got... Good luck with whatever you decide!

Can you take a picture and post it so we can see the damage?

If I were you, I would talk to Loren Koski at Import Paint & Body (located on Independence Blvd. near Hendrick MINI). His shop is the best in town, and his personal car is a MINI, too. Their number is 704-535-0571, and the website is http://importpaintandbody.com/html/a...t_and_bod.html

Use dr colorchip

so sorry abt yr dent.. post pics and let us knw what the outcome

anyone used it before..i've never heard of it:grin:

File a claim against your friend's insurance company. You pay nothing, dent gets fixed right.

(CR&PW&JB - see Post #1; he/she doesn't think he's insured)

MiniRee, you should be commended for your level-headed, measured, and downright forgiving reaction to your friend damaging your beloved MINI. Many lesser humans would have overreacted, lost their temper, and essentially acted like a turd. The fact that you're measuring your words and remain concerned about the financial well being of your friend shows that you have a good heart.

Because of this, I know things will turn out okay for you. Maybe you and your friend can agree on some sort of partial compensation--sounds like he's amenable to it.

Good luck and best wishes for a speedy fix. :wink:

Thanks... guilty of not reading the entire post. :grin:

So, depending on what your Uninsured Motorist deductible is in your state, consider letting your own insurance company handle it. Sounds like too much damage for a touch-up job, to me.

Of course, not every one is as picky about their MINI as I. :nod:

So sorry to hear that. Stop by Import paint & body and let Loren look at it and give you an estimate. Let him know you are paying. Good luck and glad its not very bad.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice and sympathy. Really, it's not very bad. Sort of.

I'm late posting because I've just gotten in from work (I'm at the beach). I did talk to Loren today and I will be in to see him on Tuesday for an estimate. I did get another one later yesterday at Carolina Collision in Rock Hill -- $450, but he is proposing to blend the door, too, so there is no stark change between the door and rear panel. On the whole, I expect to go with Loren, who has experience with MINIs and certainly can't estimate the job any higher than that (I hope!).

As for the liability, my friend DOES have insurance, but they won't pay because he was a passenger in someone else's car when the accident happened. HER insurance would pay, but her deductible is $500, so it doesn't help my friend. So, he and I will work together to make sure the car is made whole and the friendship remains that way.:)

It's all good...:cool: Hope everybody's fine. Looking forward to seeing you all at our place in North Myrtle Beach in August!

Your friend's insurance company fed you a line. Or maybe the rep assigned to your case doesn't know what they're talking about. But there is no deductible for a Propert Damage Liability claim.

There are deductibles on Collision and Comprehensive coverage and this is neither one of them. Your friend opened the door into your MINI, it's a Liability claim. Yeah, if you get a ding on your car and have no idea how it got there, then it's a comp claim on YOUR policy. But this... no.

You could press the issue if you wanted, but it sounds like you would not prefer to do so. Just want you to know your options.

And $450 doesn't surprise me a bit.

Thanks for the information. I will pass it along. I never stop being amazed at the "ingenuity" of insurance companies.:sly: I know there are good and honest companies and agents out there, but they sure are hard to spot!

I have not posted pictures yet because I am at the beach and Ramona is resting in Rock Hill. I did not want to expose her wound to the salt air, so I rode with Paul in Roland.:)

Ya'll have a really good weekend...

Sorry to hear about the dent.:sad:

Two thumbs up :thumbsup: :thumbsup: for you handling the friend thing much better than so many others do now days. Good and true friends are hard to come by.:nod:

It's always great to read through all the excellent advice given to a Mini owner in need. We sure have a great community here!:thumbsup:

(Bad) Photos of Damage
 

Here is the damage:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co.../IMG_11821.JPG

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co.../IMG_11801.JPG

That last picture sucks, but I think you can get the gist.

It's not too bad, but I did see Loren at Import Paint & Body today and he quoted me $729.:eek2: :eek: :eek2: :eek:. I don't suppose I have any choice, though, if I want it done right, and I do. Still.....:cry: :sad:. That's gonna hurt...

UPDATE
 

Loren did it again! He fixed my car and it's perfect!:thumbsup:

To top it off, the owner of the car whose door hit me WAS insured with Allstate, and they paid 100% of the claim! She had to pay a $50 insurance upgrade to avoid paying a deductible (which my buddy who actually opened the door into the car paid on her behalf, of course). Otherwise, no one was punished financially for what should have been nothing more than an embarrassing social error for my friend!:wink:

Ramona goes to Hendrick tomorrow to have her sunroof issue resolved and then it's off next week to get tinted!:grin:

It's a good day here, and I hope it is where you are, too.:)

Glad that all worked out for you. Fifty dollars out of the pocket of the door offender is appropriate justice, IMO.

Allstate is doing some creative claims adjusting. :sly: I never heard of charging a policyholder a fee to prevent a claim from having a deductible. Especially when I said before that liability claims have NO deductible. Never have.

Maybe they are charging a fee to keep the claim from being surchargeable due to your damage being close to the limit for a surchargeable accident. IOW, there is a threshold for payout that makes a claim increase your premiums. Ours at State Farm is $750. So if your damages, in this example were $799, then by paying $50, your friend is keeping the claim from being surchargeable and preventing a future increase in premiums. Interesting.

That's Great! In the end, good things happen to good people! I'm glad to hear that Loren did a great job. I may need to go see him soon as well. I was driving home from work the other day and took what sounded like a pretty big stone on the passenger door....it just misssed the window by an inch or so! (I think I might have been better off if it had cracked the window....at least from an insurance stand point!) Anyway, there is a small but deep dent that went all the way through the paint AND the primer. :mad: I'm hoping the road hazard clause of my insurance covers it. Now I know how you must have felt....big dent or small....they all hurt!

You're absolutely right; I misspoke. The $50 was to prevent their having their premiums raised due to the claim, NOT to avoid paying a deductible.:nod: I really only have the barest of details because my friend "Driver" and I have never once had a conversation about the entire incident. My friend "Passenger" (who caused the ding) handled it all with her and, remarkably, we all managed to see each other several times during the process at social gatherings and never mention the car once!:thumbsup: No awkwardness at all and still friends. Whew!:)

Loren at Import Paint & Body is definitely the guy to see, as far as I'm concerned. Flawless job, nice staff, finished on time and delivered to me sparkling clean. He also drives a bad MINI himself!:cool: So sorry about your damage, though. It feels remarkably like having an injured pet, doesn't it?!:roll: