Toyota dealership hit my car!

Hey guys just wanted to share what happened to me. I put my lift in and I brought it to Toyota after driving a couple hundred miles and have them inspect everything to make sure it doesn't fall apart lol. To have everything torque to specs. Before the day was over Toyota called me and said that an employee accidentally hit my car with another customers vehicle. Any advice or tips you guys can give me to handle this situation.

 

I'd have them buy you a high clearance swing out bumper and call it even. That's about $2000 item right there. No insurance, nothing, just take it and go.

I gotta ask the obvious question. If you put on a lift yourself why would you bother letting Toyota touch the vehicle? You have to know that they probably understand way less about lifts than you do at this point, and you can find torque specs online. I'd never trust a dealership to touch the parts of my truck that are lifted.

Truck looks good btw. And as for the parts that wouldn't be fixed by an aftermarket HC bumper, find a PDR (paintless dent repair) guy and have him pull out what he can, and chalk the rest up to trail damage so you look cool for the ladies.

 

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I didn't over torque anything. So my friends were telling me is to have the damage repaired and also ask for year of maintenance and accessories like trd rims, aftermarket running boards and trd skid plate.

 

Those aren't bad suggestions as well. The ToyotaCare, hwoever, is essentially tire rotation and oil changes, which on a 5th Gen 4Runner come out to be like $180 every 10,000 miles. I'd probably gloss over a year of that and go for something like rims.

If you plan on doing sliders later, avoid the running boards, you'll ditch them. Or, if you're like me, you'll mangle them the first time you really go off road and then have you ditch them without being able to resell them.

 

I was gonna just sell the running boards asap and get aftermarket ones if they aren't willing to give me the aftermarket ones off the bat.

So also I forgot to add. Before this happened my plan was to drive up to Canada. They are going to give me a rental when the repairs are being done. I asked them to do it the next day and give me the rental to take to Canada. They said no. I had to wait for when I got back. I just told them. I don't have time to argue because of the trip, I was leaving the next day. Now that I've been driving the 4runner around. It's been pissing me off even more.

 

I would be extremely pissed if that happened. I wouldn't want them to just fix the damages. I would want them to replace everything! New quarter parts from Toyota and I would ask for the bumper Fajitas21 suggested.

That's a shitty situation your in. The dealer will fight you on everything and you just have to stick to what you want or you will take them to BBB (better business bureau).

 

You should expect the vehicle to be fixed the same as though you had an accident out on the road someplace where it wasn't your fault, expecting a bunch of "free" stuff then not getting anything is just going to piss you off more, so I'd ditch the assumption of getting something, "for your trouble".

 

Here is an idea. Take it to a different body shop and get an estimate. I would guess it would be close to $1000 in repairs. Tell them you would like payment for the damages that they caused and do what you want with the $1000 dollars. Or simply turn it over to your insurance company and have them go after the dealership for the damages. If you go directly through the dealership they are going to try to skew things in their favor, by not giving you a rental, telling you how they will fix it etc. They will look for the easy way out. If you don't want to deal with it take it somewhere else. If you don't like the way you are treated don't go back again.

 

Ok Im going to be talking with them tom about it. I'll let you guys know what happens

 

The metal is very soft in that area I would have the dent removal guy look at it .. if he can pull the dents out that is the best way to . go you do not want to replace any metal or grind down metal causes more issues later... on the bumper this can be touched up no need to repaint it as that can cause paint failures later .

 

Thanks everyone for the input!

 

Keep us updated

 

People need to stop with the free TRD wheels or whatever crap. You're not entitled to free upgrades or free maintenance for a year or whatever. You are only entitled to have your vehicle back in the same condition (aside form the original work you agreed to) as when you dropped it off as quickly as is feasible.

If the dealer keeps playing hardball, you should contact your insurance and have them file a claim with Toyota corporate (or at least the dealer) to get reimbursed. Your insurance will (depending on the coverage you have) give you a rental car (upgrade to a 4Runner if you can). This is really no different than if any one else hit you. Each of your insurance companies fight it out for who pays whose deductible based on whose fault it is. Clearly not your fault in this case, so your insurance would claim that the other party pay your deductible.

In the end, you should pay absolutely nothing, aside from the cost of the original work you agreed to.

 

So update guys! I just talked to the dealership. They are getting it repaired, giving me a bug deflector and a trd skid plate and waived my maintenance charged I had.

 

sweet!

 

Good to hear OP.

Entitled to it? No. But why would you not ask? If they say no, then so be it. But if someone throws it in I'm certainly not turning them down.

My suggestion to see if they would trade you the value of the damage vs repairing it could cost them less in insurance and allow the OP to upgrade to a bumper.

 

I ised to work retail (bike shop) and I can tell you that the one thing we LOVED to hear is customers making all sorts of unrelated "requests" if we happened to screw something up.

As manager, it was my job to make it right if we screwed up, but it was as if sone customers were just waiting for something minor to go wrong, like a delay in a special order or (I kid you not) forgetting to put valve covers on, and they start making demands like wanting free service or new chains, etc... so yeah, that stuff kind of annoys me. So you can go ahead and ask, but from my perspective, those unrelated requests are unreasonable to ask for an honest mistake.

For a deliberate fowl up, but even then all I'd want is to get back the way I started, and who ever purposefully screwed something up not have a job anymore.

 

Thank you for your reply without getting offended. My comment wasn't meant as an attack and I appreciate you didn't think I was trolling you. +1 for being civil and replying earnestly and honestly.

 

I am offended at my atrocious spelling though... I hate writing on my phone... ;-)

 

Well this is truly disappointing and I am sorry it has happened to you. One thing I have learned in the past from people running into my vehicles is that MOST LIKELY the repair will show up on a Car Fax. So what does this mean? IF the damage shows up on a Car Fax this means to you that when you go to sell the vehicle to a private party or dealer MOST LIKELY they will use this as a bargaining chip to give you less for your vehicle. This factor is something the insurance companies tend to want to sweep under the rug. Again, I am sorry this happened to you but please consider what I said. Just saying......

 

I don't think it's on my car fax cuz the dealer repaired it. I believe they wanted to sweep it under the rug.

 

how did they do the repairs ? what method used ?

 

I'm not sure. It looks like nothing happened. I mean I wasn't that bad. But I know they repainted the whole bumper.

 

Way to go Migs!!!

 

they probably did use the dent removal guy on the metal. that is the best way to go on those small dents.. hopefully they properly painted the bumper ... bumper painting is complicated on the mix and the surface prep.

 

Did you use a torque wrench and do it to spec?

 

I know this post is old, but curious how the paint is holding up and the job they did?