My PT meets a tree, tree wins

[Gt_Cruiser]

Sleighboy, That's one sweet ride!! and I am not biased or anything! Love the grill. Love the Thoreau quote too!

Thanks for telling me what happened to you with your accident. I am glad everyone is okay! It helped me to read how someone else got through the trama [:0] of having this happen.

quote:Originally posted by Sleighboy

Well, ok . . . I was keeping this to myself ....again, thanks for sharing it!!


yeah we checked the transmission too! why did you check this? It doesn't sound like it would have been damaged (imo) with what you incurred from the accident? should I be concerned?

I had the Chrysler Dealer examine all the work and they saw no problems anywhere. is this also something I should do?

There is life after an accident . . . even in your PT!

[:0] it just doesn't feel like it for the first couple of days!!!

My questions are for anyone! I am grateful to be a lurker here in this forum ... (lurker... most of the time, that is [?])

[comPuTer]

TripleJackInGA wrote...

Also, make sure the insurance company reimburses you for deminished value.State Farm lost a big law suit over this not too long ago and had to pay out a *lot* of money to past claims.Basically, they have to not only fix the car, but compensate you for the value of the car going down.You will never get as much for the car when you trade/sell it, as you would for one that has not been damaged, thus the reimbursement.

If I am not mistaken, diminished value is only a factor when you are involved in an accident where someone else is proven to be at fault. While it is definitely worth looking into, I don't believe you can get your own insurance company to cover the diminished value.

BTW... I have 2001 Ltd Inferno Red and was involved in an accident in September of 2002. A guy in a Ford Explorer ran a red light and hit me in the driver's door. The L-rd (and the side airbag) saved me from very serious injury. As in Pinstripe's case, the body shop had my vehicle for 2 months. After staying on their backs, they did do a good job and you cannot tell that there was ever a problem.

And I was able to force the other insurance company to pay DV. They (as they always do) try to rip you off at every juncture. The way it works is they tell you to hire an independent appraiser, have the vehicle appraised and submit that report to them. If they *think* it sounds reasonable, they will pay it. If not, they will hire their own appraiser, compare the two estimates and then try to meet you half way.

Someone once said that "insurance companies are the scum of the earth..." From my experience I have to agree with them!

[neps]

Hey Gt_Cruiser your damage looks to be the same as what happened to our PT in January. My then fiancee (now wife) was driving to work in Brooklyn and was stopping at a red light and skid on some black ice into the back of a Crown Victoria. The driver in the front car didn't want to call the police (may have been an illegal driver) and she was too scared and agreed, so we are paying this all out of pocket. *doh*

We took it that day to a mechanic, and he replaced the radiator, and everything was fine, except the panels above each light, the center grill and the hood were pushed in. So we waited to get the car fixed cause it was running fine, and we decided to leave the car with a family friend who has a business repairing body damage. We left the car in February while we were on our honeymoon, and came back on the 29th and he had popped out all the panels and the car looked great again, he said that the car needed a new thermostat, but since it wasn't warm here yet, we wouldn't need it and to come back with the car at a later date.

Then we were driving on March 6, in a bout a half hour of stead moving traffic, stopped and waited for a friend to get in and then stop and go for another half. While we were waiting for our friend, an odor came into the car, which lasted for about 5 minutes but then went away, however now our car was quickly going above the mid level on the temperature gage. Stupidly we drove the car, but the temp gage would go down to normal levels when moving, but then would raise back up when stopped. We stopped using the car after that night, and dropped it back at the body shop friend on Saturday, and it's on its way to the dealer today.

Our friend said it was a good thing we brought the car back and had stopped using it because we nearly blew a gasket. He's tried replacing a number of parts, and its still over heating, so it's going over to the dealer to see if they can figure out what wrong. This is right now.

Not sure why I'm telling everyone my story, just I guess it's part of this support group and knowing that your not alone. The car is under my wife's name and insurance, so I'm not sure if it's even too late to claim it, or even if you could without a police report. The airbags didn't go off on ours either. I'm just at a loss trying to wrack my brain at what is wrong. I took auto in High School, so I know more than a novice, but not everything. Why would a car run fine for a month an a half and then now over heat to the point of near catastrophe? The crumpled panels no doubt allowed water to get into the engine compartment in the beginning, could that have been the cause? Maybe it's just a short in a wire somewhere preventing it from working?

Oh well, good luck to everyone on their babies!

[IRPT]

neps, welcome back to the forum. It's been a while since you last posted.

[neps]

Thanks for the Re-Welcome IRPT!!

We got the car back from the dealer last night. The diagnostics determined that the fan behind the radiator was faulty, so they replaced it under warranty! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it solves the overheating issue. Amazing these computers they have in there, sometimes it pays to goto a dealer vs mom and pop.

[Gt_Cruiser]

Hey Neps how's this going for you? I am wondering if I should tell my dealer what has happened. Was your dealer being okay with your fan problem given the fender bender you had that damaged the radiator?? Cars overheating have alwasy scared me and I read here once that the cruiser's thermostat was set oddly so that it wasn't really a true read. So that kind of freaks me out.

so anyway...
I took mine into the body shop today, making sure first that they had all the parts in! I am hoping I get my car back in time for the upcoming Cruiserfest in Modesto. Not to enter it.. just to have it back when I go to look at all the super cool cruiser's everyone else has modified. I don't think I could bear looking at everyone else's cool rides if I didn't have my own cruiser waiting in the parking lot for me. Hope everything is coming out okay for you. I skidded on a dry 65 degree weather road going about ten to twenty miles an hour! ugh! I re-live it every now and then. shivers me timbers.

quote:Originally posted by neps

Thanks for the Re-Welcome IRPT!!

We got the car back from the dealer last night. The diagnostics determined that the fan behind the radiator was faulty, so they replaced it under warranty! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it solves the overheating issue. Amazing these computers they have in there, sometimes it pays to goto a dealer vs mom and pop.

[Pinstripe]

[:I]
I felt it was time for an update. Let's see here... the accident took place the week before Christmas. My car is still in the shop... they say I will get it back by Friday. Who wants to bet?

Dec 20, 2003 to April 19th 2004 and still in the shop. I saw it last Friday. It was still in parts, no engine or front drivetrain, no front body parts, no paint needless to say. The best news is that at least it's all in the same room for one time.

I bet nobody has had a car out of action as long as this. As a present for the car I bought it a XM Radio system to say I'm sorry. I live in the middle of nowhere so getting radio will be nice.

Take care everyone.

[Gear_Head]

Pinstripe, after hitting a deer my car was in the bodyshop from 11/12/2003 until 2/18/2004. Hang in there and hope that its taking so long to get it back cause they wanna do things right....

[gc428]

Hey, I feel your pain. Last fall, I had $8,500 in damage to my PT. Here's the long and gory thread somewhere else (http://www.ptenthusiasts.org/PTForum...ad.php?t=41158)

(I hope that's ok to post)

Anyway...just wanted to let you know that after a few break-in issues, the car has been great for the past 6 months. No one can tell the damage, and I still love driving it. We don't have any dimished value that I can get, so I'm going to drive it until its worth aobut $5,000....at that point, its going to be worht 5 grand to whoever buys it, you know? Anyway...keep hanging in there!