So its been a year or more since I have driven my car. I leave it at my parents home while I attend grad school. I decided to drive a few hours to my parents home for the weekend to take my car for a spin. After prepping my car for the road I decide to wash it at one of the touch-less car washes. Big mistake, the washing mechanism misaligns with my car and it scrapes along the left side of my car ultimately knocking my mirror off. Well now it looks like i need a new mirror and a good body shop that can buff the scratches out. Lesson learned...

 

Did you report it to the carwash owner?

That sucks!!

 

Why would you take it to ANY car wash? Machine or hand wash?

Those idiots dont know a thing or 2 about washing a car.

Im assuming you took it to a place because its cold out.

What i do in the cold months, is hook up a garden hose via faucet hose adapter to the kitchen sink in the house. Run the hose outside the window and wash the car with WARM water.

I have gloves on, with latex gloves over it so i can get my hands wet without my hands freezing.

Just something to think about in the future.

 

I tried contacting the owner, no luck so far. I emailed him/her pictures and a statement describing the incident. From what I've googled, I am SOL. They will say I damaged it beforehand, although I did notice they have 24/7 security camera located before and after entering the washing bay.

Ya, it was cold outside. I normally hand wash but... yeah. Just a heads up for anyone out there, the so called "touch-less" washes can touch your car.

 

Dont want to ruin your day, but I believe you are SOL.

I've actually brought my FD and my friends FD to an all automatic car wash before. It washes it flawlessly.

Even with the camera, it is used to protect the Owner of the washing machine, not for you to be used.

I guess Lesson learned and never bright it back to the same place or only hand wash it =).

GL to you and hopefully the owner can be righteous and do something good about it.

-AzEKnightz

 

Yeah, I am quickly adjusting to the fact I am SOL and trying to find a temp fix so that I can drive it to a body shop.

anyone have experience disassembling the mirrors? I managed to remove the mirror from the car but cant take apart the metal plate leading to the inner chamber of the mirror.

 

Ooooh wow. That's such a bummer.
Luckily I goto coin op self car washes.
Hopefully the owner contacts you back.

 

I live in a condo with no access to water. My solution has been: 2gal pump pressurized spray garden thing for the clean water and a 5 gal pail with soapy water. Ive been doing it this way for years and still get strange looks from people.

 

The title of this thread sounds like a top gear episode.....

 

The most touchy touch-less car wash... in the wuuld

 

how did the machine mis-alignitself? I thought it's your job to drive onto/through the machine and make sure it's lined up properly. I've never seen one that posititions itself to a particular car.

Good luck with everything.

 

You basically drive in and it tells you to stop, then it adjusts itself to your car. I have used the place before with another car several times with no problems. There are other washes that have a rail you drive onto, but they also scrape your wheels.

It was the first time I took the FD through it. I am thinking this is the first FD it serviced and went nuts or something.

 

What makes you think you are SOL? Continue trying to contact the owner and document what you are doing. Just because you drive into a carwash doesn't mean the system can malfunction and destroy a vehicle with no liability? The owner has insurance and will probably settle -- look into small claims court.

Ps, nothing says that film on the camera is his only. If he erased whats on there from that day after you've repeadedly contacted him, all the worst for him...

 

Good luck trying to get information out of the owners hand. Have you ever dealt with something like this? If someone come up to you and say your machine broke my car and wanted a video, and are you willing to give up the video if it it your fault?

The scenario would be different IF someone saw what happened and could witness this situation, THEN the owner would have to pull out the record to support/justify what happened.

BUT your suggestion for bringing this to the small claim would work, however would it justify for the time that you need to take off work, attend court and NOT get paid and in the end you MIGHT be able to have the damage fixed yet it cost you couple of days off work and the time/hassel to have it even approved.

I rather just call my own insurance if you have full coverage and say I've damaged my car now lets get it fixed and end of story.

-AzEKnightz

 

If the owner of the car reports it to the police, the police has the right to access car wash video.

Although since op didn't do that right away, im sure any footage that was captured has been deleted already.

That being said I would so what you said and let the insurance deal with it.

 

Something like this happenned to me about 12 years ago. I took it to a carwash and it scratched the **** out of my car. Contacted the owner and my insurance. I ended up getting a $200 check from the owner's insurance in order to get my car buffed.

 

Yep, exactly my thought.

The owner cant access the video, but police would have no problem asking for those videos.

That's a great idea. Just contact your insurance like Montego, and let them go forward to see if they can claim it or not.

Good luck!

-AzEKnightz

 

You may get lucky in the end, i hope.
but sometimes touch-less washes have signs while you pull up next to them saying
"we accept no liability from damages caused due to the of the variance of different sizes of cars and trucks"

or something like that.

 

That doesn't mean a thing when it comes to liability and negligence. It's merely used as a tool to deter those that are ignorant about the law.

 

Ok, good news! The owner of the carwash called me and requested I show my car to a local manager. I went there today and the manager spent a good 30 mins lining my car up with the washing arm, looking for a way out of it. In the end he was unsuccessful and gave in saying that it was definitely possible. They will review the camera located directly above the bay to make sure it was their machines fault before they decide to reimburse me.

It sounds like they want to handle this without going through their insurance. Should I be concerned about that?

Thanks for the comments and support.

 

odd....

i take my FD through touch-less wash bays all the time when i dont have time for a proper wash and never an added swirl


suck for you boss. you'll be ok and so will the car

 

See how people are... they had a camera all along why didn't they check that first.

You can be assured that they will low ball you, so go now and get three different estimates from three different mazda dealership body shops. They should all be around the same ballpark. Once you have those let them throw a figure out at you and if you disagree then show them the estimates. BTW those aren't up for negotiation as its what you are going to get charged.

Why mazda? it's because they have real knowledge of what parts cost. A few years ago I had to argue the quoting of a tailight because the "approved body shop" under priced it because some website that they used for parts claimed that it could get OEM replicas... riiiight. Well their website did state it (they werent lying) but as an FD owner I know that attainable was another thing. So I asked for them to get me that tailight and a couple of weeks later the estimate was increased by $200. My answer to them was "See I told you that your website was wrong".

 

I hope it works out for you. Definitely lesson learned.

Hand washing is the only way to go. Any car I've ever given a crap about was hand washed. It's pretty well known that machines do a mediocre job. Even if they seam to do a great job, I'd take a closer look at the surface they are using on your pristine paint.

I've never seen a Ferrari at a auto car wash..... and you will never see my FD there.

 

Why did you even leave the car wash without speaking to a manager about the damage? You did notice the damage before you left the car wash, right?