The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: ketchup on November 17, 2016, 01:54:04 PM
-
Hey guys, I've got a weird one.
Yesterday morning I was driving my girlfriend to the airport and our car blew a heater hose and almost overheated. Girlfriend got an Uber and got herself to the airport in time (the important part). I called AAA, got the car towed to a shop, and got a rental for the day. Shop called me around noon and confirmed what happened and fixed the heater hose.
Today I picked up the car and the alignment is 30-45 degrees off. I turned around and went back to the shop, they confirmed that they noticed that but "we thought you knew it was like that." They looked at it again on the lift for me, and concluded that nothing was visibly broken or bent or anything, and I'd have to take it to an alignment shop to figure out what's wrong. They said it was almost certainly damage from the tow truck.
Meanwhile, the car is safe up to around 40mph, and tire-chewing at any speed.
How in the world do I handle this? Do I call the tow truck company and complain? Do I get it looked at myself? Do I pay to fix it and then try to get them to reimburse me? Do I rope AAA into it (tow truck and shop both AAA affiliated)?
I don't know what the right way to handle this stupid situation is.
-
First step is to call the tow company. Talk to them. You're assuming that they're going to blow you off, but you don't know that yet.
-
First step is to call the tow company. Talk to them. You're assuming that they're going to blow you off, but you don't know that yet.
I'd call AAA first. They cover this sort of thing. I know from experience.
Edit: if you can get the shop to put "likely tow damage" in writing, that will help immensely.
-
First step is to call the tow company. Talk to them. You're assuming that they're going to blow you off, but you don't know that yet.
I'd call AAA first. They cover this sort of thing. I know from experience.
Edit: if you can get the shop to put "likely tow damage" in writing, that will help immensely.
Thanks for this. I talked to AAA and they're bugging the tow company on my behalf. They seemed optimistic. In the mean time I'm going to get this looked at later today. I will try to get them to put something in writing like you said, thanks for that tip.
-
In the meantime don't drive it much. I had the rear camber? out on a set of tires when I was doing some diy repairs. They weren't even as bad as some of the "stanced" cars and it chewed up the inside lugs down to no tread on half tread tires in about 500 miles, maybe 1000.
-
First step is to call the tow company. Talk to them. You're assuming that they're going to blow you off, but you don't know that yet.
I'd call AAA first. They cover this sort of thing. I know from experience.
Edit: if you can get the shop to put "likely tow damage" in writing, that will help immensely.
Thanks for this. I talked to AAA and they're bugging the tow company on my behalf. They seemed optimistic. In the mean time I'm going to get this looked at later today. I will try to get them to put something in writing like you said, thanks for that tip.
Fortunately, in my case, I just needed a new bumper cover, so driving it wasn't a problem. Hopefully yours will get resolved quickly. Maybe next time you talk to them (if things are moving slowly) re-emphasize the inconvenience and safety problems you're having with the car this far out of alignment.
-
Inner and outer tie rods were bent on one side. That plus the alignment is going to run almost $300. They said they can't (won't?) put in writing that it was caused by a tow truck. Hopefully a receipt without that will be enough. AAA did emphasize to hold onto records (which of course I will do). Hopefully I'll see a reimbursement...
-
Inner and outer tie rods were bent on one side. That plus the alignment is going to run almost $300. They said they can't (won't?) put in writing that it was caused by a tow truck. Hopefully a receipt without that will be enough. AAA did emphasize to hold onto records (which of course I will do). Hopefully I'll see a reimbursement...
Hope this works out for you! Sucks that the shop won't stand behind you, but I can see their side of it.
-
Any update?
-
Any update?
Nothing yet. I'm probably going to call AAA about it today or tomorrow and see how it's going. Total cost of repair the damage was $323.67. Car's fine, and we've driven it about 1500 since the repair.
-
I had damage happen during the hookup before a AAA tow. The tow truck backed into my car and dented the bumper. The tow truck operator said that I drove the car into the back of the tow truck. After about a week AAA paid to have it fixed. This was about 10 years ago.