fu@K, Sh!+, CR^P! DAMAGE!!!!

[sjm]

Originally Posted by qball

The damage is inclusive of the rear clam, front clam, underneath the driver's door, and a nice puncture through the bottom diffuser around the passenger seat area.

First off, these cars do not have a frame but a bonded Aluminum chassis with rear steel sub chassis bolted. The aluminum chassis can not be repaired in any way. If damaged it must be replaced. Hole in floor = new chassis.

That said, the bad news is your car is totalled. The cost to replace the chassis, front & rear clam, and any other assorted body work adds up to more then the car is worth. I would be searching for a ripping deal on a new '06 and letting Goodyear know who to talk to at that dealership about the new car they are buying you!

Idiots! This is why I bring my wheels in off the car then hold their hand while they change the tires.

Steve

[codymac]

I've never understood why cars have to be six feet off the gorund to pull the wheels.

[cpforyou]

Dibs on the Stage II Exhaust?

[mark.r]

Originally Posted by TimMullen

Not correct. You should use the rear jack points - that are located under the engine under-tray. The problem is that you need to lift the car to get the under-tray off to get to the lift points that you need to lift the car. A nice Catch-22.

Next time my car comes off the ground (the brake bleed is due real soon now), I'll back it up on ramps, drop the under-tray, and put it back on the ground. Then jack one side, install two jackstands, and the repeat on the other side. Repeat as necessary to get it up high enough to meet the necessary work height.

The problem is that those that don't know, would thing that the two jack points in front of the rear wheels are the lift points - they are not. They are where you lift one side of the car for a tire change - no the whole car.

Sorry this happened to you. Hell I think this should be a sticky as jacking these cars is not very hard but sometimes confusing. Tim has a great idea one side at a time, that is what I will be doing when my tire change is due. Perhaps we can link the jacking links to this thread as this one should stay around for a while.

Tim to clarify, does the undertray (the middle) or the engine (the rear) cover have to come off?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by LARRY

Based on this, NO should ever let any one touch these cars unless they have worked on them before - consult your dealer first.

Exactly! This is the exact reason why I went and bought a new jack & jackstands when it came time to replace the rear tires.. My Elise will never be caught on a lift (or jack) unless the operator has dealt with several of these cars.

Sorry to hear about this incident though. If I were you I'd be pushing for a new car. It sucks though that because someone was either too lazy or too dumb to read that you're in this situation.

[khamai]

Make sure the body shop understands that the chassis can not be repaired. Get a copy of the shop manual that speaks to this and/or get a letter from the LCU tech rep. Copy the letter & section from the manual to the Goodyear shop, your insurance company & body shop.

Here's a link to the story behind the dropped Corvette I mentioned in an earlier post.
http://corvetteactioncenter.com/foru...ad.php?t=50014

Kiyoshi

[RegGuy]

I think it would be hard for anyone to argue this car is not totaled. It's a high performance car built for fine handling and some ding-dong dropped it from 5 feet onto the ground. The car got a hole torn into the frame while it fell, The back end is smashed, who knows what happened to the engine/transmission/rear suspension when it hit the ground. Then to add insult to it, they grappled it down to the floor with the front wishbones. Then if that wasn't enough, they dropped it onto a tool box.

Oh my goodness. Do Larry his brother Darrell and other brother Darrell work there?

To echo another's comment, thankfully no one was killed or seriously hurt.

I can almost hear it now Dude? ah, I think somethin' bad happened on lift #4, can you come an take a look and tell me what you think?

[catapult]

Originally Posted by qball

This is what I've done.

1. I photographed the car at the Goodyear store.
2. Car has been flat bedded to Dimmit Lotus in Clearwater (their expense)
3. I've already spoken to the body shop manager and he knows that I am going to be picky about the car (if salvageable). They said they were going to bring it to the Lotus shop and have the mechanic go over it for mechanical issues.
4. I've asked for a copy of the incident report to be faxed to me from the Goodyear store (not received yet)
5. I've called my insurance agent and they are aware. He said the first step was to see how Goodyear would handle it.

Am I missing anything else?

I suggest you not circulate the pictures too much. You could use this as a bargaining chip. Jay Leno (and the press generally) would love these pictures. It would definitely be bad publicity for Goodyear. I'm not sure if each Goodyear outlet is independently owned or not (ie. franchises) but I'm sure a case could be made against Goodyear generally that they represented that they (or their franchisees) knew what they were doing (which you relied on) and they failed to fulfil their duty to you.

Btw, Why is everyone telling you to get an '06? I'm sure if you wait a couple of weeks the '07s will be in. They are already in stock in Canada.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by doma

Even that doesn't always work. I dropped off my rear wheels at a local Firestone shop for new tire mountings. When I got them back one rim had a nasty cut in it. The 'tire removal' tool crunched it.

Did they pay to replace the rim?

[OneFastLotus]

I have a family member who works in the auto industry. These sorts of things happen waaaay more than you'd expect.

The most recent situation at his dealership involved someone parking a car underneath a car on a lift. This is something dealers do all the time, especially when locking up for the night, as a way to get more cars inside the shop.

So, picture a car up in the air, and a car parked underneath it. One of the technicians kicked around a tall garbage can near his lift and it thumped the lift button and wasn't paying attention. The car on the lift then came down on the car that was sitting on the ground. Yeah.....good times.

What does the customer get in these situations? Anything they want. I believe the dealer offered to fix the damages to the crushed car, but the owners didn't want it back due to worry of diminished value. The dealer then apparently sold them a newer car at their cost or something....basically they got to trade their old car for a new car, for the same amount they still owed on the old one.

[dfa2100]

Why do I suspect this picture will be all over the internet soon?

[smoseley]

Like others have said, when it came time to change tires on my Elise, I slipped the technician an extra $20 and told him to whip out the floor jack and torque wrench. IMO, that's the only way to go... that, or pay your dealer an extra 100% for the same service.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by codymac

I've never understood why cars have to be six feet off the gorund to pull the wheels.

I get what you're saying but if you had to bend over to take off every single wheel all day, on every car in and out of the shop you might have a different perspective. Working at waist level is sufficient, although it would appear this car used to be a bit higher than that.

I’m also curious about what the shop did with the cut rim situation. I don’t want to take the time to baby-sit my local place for everything they do. The Firestone shop near me has been very patient and competent when it comes to helping me service the car. They have no parts, no oil, not even the filters but they still let me take the car there and work on it for a very small fee. Most of the guys really like it when I bring in the car.

Oh, the panel to expose the rear jack points (4-point-lift-wise) is the one covering the engine. The same one you must take off to do an oil change. It’s right in front of the rear diffuser and has 3 staggered air vents (as seen in the pics). Too bad there’s no quick release kit for this part. They used to have one on a site but I couldn’t find it months later when I went to buy them.

[babak]

Originally Posted by catapult

I suggest you not circulate the pictures too much. You could use this as a bargaining chip. Jay Leno (and the press generally) would love these pictures. It would definitely be bad publicity for Goodyear. I'm not sure if each Goodyear outlet is independently owned or not (ie. franchises) but I'm sure a case could be made against Goodyear generally that they represented that they (or their franchisees) knew what they were doing (which you relied on) and they failed to fulfil their duty to you.

Should you want to hide this thread let me know and I'll archive it. It'll be intact just not visible until you want it to be.

[OneFastLotus]

Didn't Qball say his father in law is the manager of this Goodyear dealer? I'd give them time to make good on this. No need to be nasty until it's deserved. I realize dropping a car off a lift is probably a good reason to want revenge on these guys...but accidents do happen and technicians make mistakes. Dumb ones at that. However if his father in law is the manager I'd try and work it out first.

[catapult]

Originally Posted by OneFastLotus

Didn't Qball say his father in law is the manager of this Goodyear dealer? I'd give them time to make good on this. No need to be nasty until it's deserved. I realize dropping a car off a lift is probably a good reason to want revenge on these guys...but accidents do happen and technicians make mistakes. Dumb ones at that. However if his father in law is the manager I'd try and work it out first.

+1

[codymac]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

I get what you're saying but if you had to bend over to take off every single wheel all day, on every car in and out of the shop you might have a different perspective.

Probably why I never see them that high at the Lotus dealership and their tech.s charge three times as much hourly.

[FirstClass]

100% chance that the car is totalled. The clam didn't hold the car up when it was on the ground, the frame/engine did. Its dead. So the question is, will you get a new Exige or Elise and what color?

[PhlypSide]

(yet another) +1 to totalled
but 1fast made a great point... don't want to jeopardize your Father-in-law's (FIL) "Political" currency at the office.

Surely there will be some form of hell to pay. Probably the techs, but I'd be worried that there will be some kind of backlash (silent or otherwise) for your FIL.

[Fungezap]

Wow, shockingly awful.

This video shows another shop screw up (probably driver error).

http://www.break.com/index/drive_thr...one_wrong.html