[joshguy]

Hi All,

This has happened to my friend Naresh Sridhar. As he is not part of Team BHP, I am posting on his behalf here for advice /suggestions from everyone.

It has been posted on Nissan's Facebook Page, but nothing has moved so far. Avenue Nissan is promising to bring the car to roadworthy condition with an insurance claim, but why does the Car owner need to claim insurance for Service Station's Mistake?

Please give suggestions.

To the Concerned,

I am writing this to inform NISSAN about the incident and request to take action. Awaiting for the reponse.

I have left my car for 1st service on 27-May-2015, which was bought on 28-Nov-2014. It was just a 6 month old vehicle with 6000 KMs. It is almost brand new.

The service center has damaged my car with the raw material used for manufacturing carton boxes. The Co-tenant occupying Avenue Nissan premises were unloading goods, and the raw material fell on the front top portion of my car parked outside the workshop. The car's front portion was completely damaged and broken. (attached the pics below)

The above incident has pushed me to a Mentally Disturbed state. Moreover, the vehicle was bought on my hard earned money.

I am completely dissatisfied with AVENUE NISSAN, Ambattur with the way they handled the situation. The incident happened on 06-June-2015, 10:00 Am. But it was not informed to me. I have not received verbal or written communication with regard to this at that time. A representative from Avenue Nissan, Ambattur has spoken to me at 8:00 PM on 6_June-0215, about minor damage on the bonnet and asked me to give 4 more days to repair the bonnet.

After visiting on 7-Jun 10 a.m. I realised this was absolutely a major damage, with all the parts under the bonnet including Engine & Chassis completely damaged and broken. Representatives from Avenue Nissan, Ambattur had tried to hide information about the incident.

This is not the first time. Earlier, when I got my brand new vehicle delivered from Avenue Nissan, Ambattur, the registration number on the car was wrongly printed and I drove the car without realising the number plate was incorrect for 4 months. When I had gone to the showroom to get my papers, I noticed that the registration number was wrong.

Avenue Nissan premises and driveway are being shared with a warehouse. Trucks unload goods regularly at the warehouse and cars which come for service get parked in the way. This shows the carelessness and attitude towards safety of both personnel and cars.

Moreover, the vehicle was parked outside the work station during the time of damage, which a reputed service station like Avenue Nissan is not supposed to do.

[arjab]

This does not look good. Especially the A-pillar damage. The way the bonnet is crushed, it may be the front crush member or "shotgun" as it is called, (under the fender, you have to remove the fender to assess the damage), may also have suffered some warping.

And why should the Dealer claim from your insurance? Whether its 6 months or not, its immaterial, its ethically not a good way to resolve a problem, for which the dealership is entirely to blame. And you will lose the 1st year no claims bonus as well.

Suggest you seriously ask for a complete bodyshell replacement. If you are in Chennai, lay seige to the NISSAN office on Venkatnarayana Road (ASV Towers, opposite BP petrol pump) till they give in.

[Engine_Roars]

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[kiku007]

That's a very sad sight.

Cars with similar damage would typically go under the total loss category.

Get a total loss claim and ask the dealer to foot the loss due to deprecation. Considering the car is new the dealer might not have to pay much.

[Hrishi_111]

Certainly the service center is at fault for their negligence as the car parking bay is being shared with warehouse movements, and it shall hold all the responsibility to get the car back on road.

Originally Posted by joshguy

but why does the Car owner need to claim insurance for Service Stations Mistake?

Many people here might disagree with this. However, considering that it was an accident and not a deliberate act, insurance is the one of the feasible options and your friend should agree upon it.

He could go legal against the service center for loss of time and resources due to their negligence. However the car repair would most likely go under insurance only.

After all, the insurance is made to bare the repair costs in case of an accident, irrespective of whose fault it was !

[prakhar1998]

That is the height of negligence.

Do not accept a repair.The car's structure has been compromised and no job done at the body shop can even closely be as structurally sound as a brand new car. Plus, accepting an insurance claim would not only make you lose your NCB, but also your next insurance premium would be more expensive.

Raise it to the higher ups at Nissan. You deserve a new car.
Its a shame that such a thing was allowed to happen in the first case. Nissan already hasn't got the best reputation, and then the dealers try harder to take it deeper in the abyss.

[amitoj]

My heart goes out to your friend.

His car suffered an accident due to no fault of his own. Now in case of an accident between two vehicles, the vehicle at fault needs to pay for the damages to the other car as well. Same thing should apply here as well.

If the dealer does not have insurance that covers this kind of an event, then they should dig into their pockets and make your friend whole.

If none of the above scenarios work, then it is quite possible that your friend's insurance will write it off as a total loss. In fact, ask your friend to see if he can persuade his insurance company to write it off. There is a huge difference between "road worthy" and "safe".

[vinjosep]

Sad!

1) The car's apron seems to be damaged based on the odd angle/ lowered position of the front LHS tyre/ wheel. This means the car will take a massive hit on the depreciation front.

2) As someone mentioned before me, the A-pillar is bend. Overall structural integrity is definitely compromised since the attached frames (roof etc) would also have been impacted. The service center cannot really gauge the damage to repair the faulty bodyshell

If I were in your friend's position,I wold fight tooth & nail to get the car declared as a total loss. Also I would ensure the language of my post on social media garners max sympathy for me. Sorry to say this, but the way he has presented his case is in poor taste. In comparison the response from the service head is suave (am not condoning the service head response but rather the language of the response).

Wishing your friend luck with the fight!

[Amarkarthi]

Originally Posted by joshguy

MODS Please delete this thread if it is already posted

Hi All,

This has happened to my friend Naresh Sridhar , as he is not part of Team Bhp ,So I am posting on his behalf here for advice /suggestions from everyone.

Please give suggestion





Photo

This is something serious man and I would suggest that your friend shouldn't accept the car back even if its fixed. I'm sure that no experienced workmanship can get the car back to perfect condition with such a huge collateral damage on the engine bay and A Pillar.

Also from the gist of incidents I understand that the car was left for service on May 27th and the incident reportedly happened on 6th of June, why was the car sitting in service center for nearly 10days for 1st service?

[Umesh Kumar61]

Hi Joshguy,

By the look of things, this service center guys are so ignorant and careless and most probably they will not have mechanics with technical expertise to bring the car back in 'shape'. By 'shape' I meant reliability of the car.

More importantly, these people has hidden the facts from your friend. So don't ever trust them or their words. They are completely responsible for all the damages that has happened to the car and thus there is no reason for your friend to claim the insurance and lose the NCB. They should take all the liabilities and should repair the car at their own cost. So tell your friend to escalate this with Nissan India and push for a complete body shell replacement because even the slightest bends in it can cause misalignment, unsteady ride and no owner of a 6 month old car would expect their cars to wobble and rattle. one of our cars, needed its Front LHS wheel bearing to be replaced every month resulting from similar damage and nobody buys a car to leave it in the garage for weeks every month.

Reliability is one of the important factors due to which one goes for a new car.

In short what your friend should do is

1. Do not claim the insurance and lose your NCB
2. Ask for compensation and tell the SC to refund your taxi bills.
3. Push for replacement of bodyshell and additional warranty at zero cost for the repairs done but best option is to go for a complete replacement of the car.

Regards,

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Umesh Kumar61

In short what your friend should do is

1. Do not claim the insurance and lose your NCB
2. Ask for compensation and tell the SC to refund your taxi bills.
3. Push for replacement of bodyshell and additional warranty at zero cost for the repairs done.

Regards,

Seriously? You are expecting a Car Dealership to refund the Owner's taxi bills? Buddy, he'll be blessed if they don't charge him parking charges after three weeks

[GrammarNazi]

This will be considered as accident repairs & will figure in the service history of the car, hence the resale value will take a hit.

NCB is a secondary topic, if owner insists & after your friend is forced to make a scene at service center, I guess they'll refund the NCB asif it's a big favour.

Although, in that case, do remember that it'll be considered as Owners fault and incase insurance companies decide to collate owner information in the future as insurance industry matures.

But first, ASAP go to the cops and file an FIR against dealer for loss due to negligence enumerating all the losses you can imagine, including financial loss due to unavailability of car and mental trauma & harassment. Also complain they've illegally taken custody of the car.

While this happens, keep cool. Don't raise BP.

Infact, I'd suggest you to get your car towed out after the FIR process & get it repaired elsewhere - because this dealer may take what it considers as revenge against a 'troublesome' customer, and purposely do a bad job.

Anyway, do it under insurance if you feel there's no chance offender/dealer will foot the bill.

[Lalvaz]

Terming this as "minor damage" is laughable. Had this accident occurred due to the fault of the owner, the service center would lose no time in declaring it as a total loss, now since the fault is theirs, its minor damage?

Your friend has to simply insist on a new car or at the very least, a demo car, with the service center paying all the costs in registering the vehicle in your friends name.

No way would I accept their kind offer to claim it on my insurance policy!!!

Seriously wonder what S.Vijayaraghavan (the so called Service Head) would do if this was his car?

[arunphilip]

Potential Option for Resolution

I presume Avenue Nissan also have a sales division. Ask them to provide an estimate for a new car, and a take-back value for this old one (rather, a car of similar age). It should just be the depreciation hit, and should not include any accident damage.

Then, argue that difference down on goodwill basis (on Avenue's part) for their screw-up. At a satisfactory point, take the offer and move on to a new car. There will still be some monetary loss, but sh*t happens and we occasionally have to roll with these punches.

If required, file a consumer case against the dealer, and list this out as one of the resolution options you're amicable to.

The service centre might point out a statement that the vehicle is left with them at the owners risk. If they use that argument, laugh and tell them they'll hear from your lawyers. Just writing down generic cover-your-a** statements (literally A.S.S. in this case) does not absolve them from responsibility.

Other Options

• Exchange with a demo car (i.e. display car, not test drive car), as mentioned above
• Write to auto magazines with the photos/emails provided. They tend to intercede on customers' behalf at times
• Write to newspapers to garner attention.
• Ask them to bring in an engineer from the Nissan plant with due credentials to assess the damage and provide a written summary.

Dealer Claiming Your Insurance for Repairs

Do not claim your insurance, or allow them to file a claim on your behalf. Inform your car insurance company about this incident also, forwarding the above email to them.

The dealer will have (or should have) workshop insurance that covers both buildings and contents. And being a garage that has various vehicles moving in/out, the cars should be covered under the 'contents' clause. It the dealer has not done this, its his problem, not yours.

Consider this - if the service centre had burned down destroying all the cars, would the insurance companies of all the cars honour the claim made against the car insurance? I think not.

Damages Observed

• As others have mentioned, seeing the damage on the A-pillar, there will be a concern about the structural integrity of that part. Given it forms part of the passenger safety cell, its not worth the risk.
• Also, I'm not sure of what extent of suspension damage might exist - the position of the car fender and front-left tire appears wrong.
• I expect there's also under bonnet damage to the engine - this can either be damage to hoses/air intake pipes that are easily fixed by replacing them. However, if the main engine was touched by the bonnet, then there is also a risk that the engine will have pushed the engine mounts, and that might have deformed something (either on the engine side, or worse, the mount points in the car).

[arun_josie]

You have mentioned that "with all the spares under the bonnet including Engine & Chasis got completely damaged and broken.", do you have any pics of the same to share? If damage is heavy under the bonnet, then better to push for a new car at least by paying some difference amount. Here is a similar incident which happened at MASS in which a Dzire was totalled with severe damages. Maruti took responsibility and replaced with a brand new car to the customer.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-replaces.html