What to check before you take the delivery from your repaire

[jamiedia]

Hi, boys and gals,
This my first time leaving a post here, I joined a couplea days ago,
anyway, Here is my question, if anybody has experienced this, might be able to give me some diea.

What should I check before taking delivery of my car from the repairer???

and this is what happened, My girlfriend crashed my car (Astra Conver 2002) onto a pole at a local roundabout on Goldcoast, at about 25Km, luckily didnt involve any other vehicles or persons. we didnt hurt ourselves either, but the damage on the car looked pretty bad. it was last year in Novemeber. my car has been in the panel shop and sometimes sent to the Motorama Holden since then.

today i went to the repairer and he said, they had to pull the engine and transmission out as when the damage occured, it pushed everything inside the bonnet backwards causing all the engine mounts and transmission and even wiring harness our of place. not to mention the bonnet and the front bumber and all headlights were unrepairable.
At first I was so glad to see my car, but now i am just a bit worried that if my car wont drive the way it was before, what am i going to do??
If the damage even caused something that they didnt think was broken by the accident and decided not to fix it.. basically my baby was just perfect without any troubles whatsoever.

He also told me the quote for the repair thing came out for almost 20K including labour which is 5K. thank god for insurance.
He said everything towards the battery has been replaced with new parts.

Has anyone had any serious accident like this before and felt anything wrong with the car when they got it back?? is it possible to restore fully original condition just by repairing and replacing the parts??

What do I need to check with the repairer before taking my car back??

Is any "after-accident check up service" necessary??

I dont know what to do, i am so confused and worried.

I will post some pics of my car with new 17" astra turbo wheels when i get it back, Thank you
oh, btw, anybody interested in buying my old 16" astra converti wheels?? they are in perfect condition with almost new tyres..

Thanks!!

Warning: This is an Old Thread This discussion is older than 120 days. information contained in it may no longer be current . Please think of the children before resurrecting this ancient thread!

[Namus]

perhaps there is some govt oranisation u can talk to.....like office of fair trading for example...i don't know

[astrix]

All work would be guaranteed on a job like that. If you have any hassels with the repairer go your your insurance company.

Check for paint matching and panels lining up.

I had blotchy paint on the bonnet, one panel darker than the others, a bumper that kept popping out at the sides and a missing wheel nut. I even scored and extra very small dent in the rear panel that no one was owning up to. I found all these after I took the car home and took my time checking it out. The pepairer fixed all these without any pressuring or agro from me. All I had to do was point the problems out to him.

My car drove straight and I didn't have any extra rattles you don't normaly get in a convertable. If you're not happy with the way the car drives talk to your insurance company or get some one independent like the RACQ to check it out.

One small consolation is the paint they use in Australia is better than the soft European water based paint.

[Anonymous]

:shock: God damn i'd be crying if i saw my car sitting like that :cry:

[RK]

^^what he said! :shock:

[Degen-Astra]

:shock: God damn i'd be crying if i saw my car sitting like that :cry:

Or getting excited cause of 2 words...

Engine Conversion!

[jamiedia]

Thanks for your reply, My car was exactly like that in the picture when i saw it.
It was just sitting without engine and the bonnet and everything on the front.

So how is yours driving now? I am actually a bit concerned about the rattles too they are so annoying..and handling and so forth. But what a relief, knowing tht i can always go back to the repairer...when i saw mine this afternoon, I thought the exterior was looking perfect, though i didnt look at it closely, but will find out tmrrw.

I CAN'T WAIT TILL I PICK MINE UP!

[em]

Hmmmm interesting it was 20k damage, i'd assume that would be enough to write it off? especially if it has structural damage. I'm no expert at all but can somone who is plese explain this???

Other than that question your car will never drive the same, dont expect it to. if it's convert, i'b be looking at the damage to things like the roof etc, they are a bugger if they leak :roll: .

Then again anything your not happy with after its fixed go straight back to your insurace company.

[Namus]

well, judging from the pic, at least they wouldn't have to fix the air conditioner...

[jamiedia]

Hmmmm interesting it was 20k damage, i'd assume that would be enough to write it off? especially if it has structural damage. I'm no expert at all but can somone who is plese explain this???

Other than that question your car will never drive the same, dont expect it to. if it's convert, i'b be looking at the damage to things like the roof etc, they are a bugger if they leak .

Then again anything your not happy with after its fixed go straight back to your insurace company.

Yeah, I understand, and luckily my roof was down when that happened,
He also told me if the car had been damaged a bit more seriously they would have writtne it off without question, but they didnt think they would when they looked at it.

They also told me that a lot of modern cars now all have safe feature that protects the body frame and structure from any collision or impact to prevent other part of the body from being twisted or damaged, so that only the part where damage occurs to gets damaged.

Hope my car is going to be fine....