Has anyone ever seen a professional towing service drive a car onto a slide-out flatbed for towing? Set the brake, get out of the car, level the bed then tie it down? No winch or cable involved!

He drove the nose of my car into the flat bed, scraped the hell out of it. He actually said, 'These bumpers are pretty forgiving.'

He ruined a pretty expensive paint job...

 

That's a shame, sorry to hear it, Jack.
Texas is a death penalty state, right?

 

You have no idea how funny that is, Steve. This situation happened to my wife. She asked me on the phone if she could shoot the driver...

 

good luck getting them to cough up, probably have to sue them.

 

Did you call the tow company asap, did you take pictures, etc. I deal with tow companies on a daily basis and if you call them on it right away they usually take care of it, they are not happy about it. If it has been a week then good luck.

 

i think that's a given. i'd call the office as soon as they unloaded my car.

 

You called the wrong towing company...



No, I've never seen or (thank God) had a tow driver try that with any of my vehicles.

 

I fortunately have not had that experience...

Every time I needed a tow for a lowered car, I've asked to make sure he/she has 2x4's...

Even my FD with the splitter mounted went up one with no issues.

 

So it went like this: My wife was running errand in her SL55 Merc. The alternator light came on, she parked and called me. While on the phone, the car then did what Mercs do: It vomited every warning possible and flashed every warning lights on the dash. The car has extensive safety features such as a pop-up roll bar and brake-by-wire, stability control etc. If the volts are out of spec, some of this **** might not work and all your babies might die in a fiery crash. She kinda freaked out and called me. She was about 10 miles away.

We decided to have AAA bring the car to my Porsche buddies place. He has a hydraulic lift. The alternator voltage regulator is the likely culprit and can be replaced from below with a 10mm socket and a phillips screwdriver. 15 minute job.

Ive been a AAA member for over 20 yrs. All of my kids have had cars towed, my wife has had multiple tire changes, tows etc. We have never had any problem-nothing but the best from AAA.

We decided that since my wife was a competent self-actualized business woman, there was no need for me to supervise the process. I headed to my buddies house to wait and drink some beers.

I knew there was trouble when she sent the text asking permission (jokingly I think) to shoot the driver. (I deleted that bit of evidence, just in case she was serious. No need for me to be raped in prison, right?) But now I'm 25 miles away and a couple beers in.

 

Then she called to complain directly to me. In this conversation, she says "...and He broke my radiator hose'.

WTF???! What was he doing under the hood???

 

Let me explain the electrical system of the SL55: There are two batteries. One is under the hood, the other is in the trunk. Under hood ONLY starts the car. All the rest of the electrical system is fed from the trunk battery. They are isolated so that any parasitic draw will not prevent the car from starting. These cars tend to lightly driven second or third (or fourth etc) of wealthy persons. The first five years of my particular 2004 SL it was maintained at Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills .

Back to the action: WTF??? She tells me he broke the coolant hose when he set his jump box on top of it. The guy won't communicate. Once he got hold of the key he was out of control. He decided he needed to put the jump box on the battery so he could start the engine, drive the car onto the flatbed and raise the retractable roof. This is roughly when the request to loosen the Rules of Engagement came in.

The moron didn't know (and wouldn't listen) that the under hood battery was fully charged. He assumed that the WOMAN driving the car must have exhausted the battery before calling for a tow.

So he pops the hood, hooks the jump box on the starter battery while setting the box on the coolant reservoir, lowers the hood on top of the jump box and starts the car. As he is DRIVING the car onto the ramp, the bumper scrapes. He applies more gas. She yells, he stops to explain the bumpers on this car are very forgiving.

He stops and gets out his wooden ramps to add to the clearance.

 

He carefully places the (soon to be exposed as inadequate) ramps, gets back into the car and drives it onto/into the truck, again scraping the front bumper. After all, he has 493 Hp to over come that extra friction, right?


That's when the nipple broke off the coolant reservoir. The combined weight of the jump box, the hood and the impact on the bumper was too much for the nylon nipple to bear. So much for German engineering, huh?

Then he set the brake and leveled the car before tie-ing it down.

So I was on the phone with AAA and with the tow company before the car arrived at the destination. Both parties assure me that they will take care of repairs.

We Shall See.

 

here and i thought it was going to be a 30 year old semi beat up crappy FC, but he abused the AMG? i foresee that company losing their AAA contract in no time flat. i mean i can actually picture someone not giving a crap about an old mazda.

 

I got my tow truck driver back..
My car peed 4 litres of oil onto his deck!

 

I was thinking the same thing, wow this guys is pretty upset about his rx7, maybe it had a fiberglass body kit or something, well then. The merc. thats a whole notha level.

I work at a dealer and I love it when Mr. Tow truck driver tells the customer whats wrong with their car and Im sitting here like how am I supposed to get my diagnosis charge since you have done my techs job for him. Oh yeah because your wrong. Mr. Tow truck driver you stick to towing. Thank you and have a good day.

 

The paint is pretty decent on my vert, too. Best FC paint in the world is Rob XX 7 vert..




90 vert with Mazda6 wheels



90 vert with customized mustang gt wheels

 

I saw that in the back ground, it is a good looking car. My paint sure does not look that good.

 

 

I painted it in my garage about 12 years ago...GEEZE! time flies!

 

looks forgiving to me. Wow. Thats terrible.

 

you know he knew he screwed up, but he figured the wifey was just an ignorant dumb chick who would ignore the sound of her car scraping up the flatbed.

 

He doesn't have to live with her-she's locked and loaded.

 

lol, any news on what theyre going to do?

 

I actually was buried in work today and didn't have a chance to do additional follow up.

The night of the tow I spoke to the AAA supervisor. She assured me AAA would stand behind getting repairs done. Lot's of apologies.

I also called the tow company. Was hung up on rudely.

Yesterday, I spoke to the towing company VP of safety, who also handles claims. She asked for pictures and assured me that they would stand for the repairs.

Tomorrow morning I'll be following up on both companies.

Also, the Voltage Regulator has arrived ($51) and the coolant recovery tank has arrived ($100). Both Genuine MB parts.

 

be sure to note to AAA about the initial response of being hung up on. i certainly wouldn't want that tow company responding to my roadside service, in fact sounds like they should be out of business if they treat customers like that.

i called to have my insight towed by a local company, they quoted me $200 to tow my car 2 miles, i said the car still rolls just fine.... he said there was likely other complications so i hung up. too bad i forgot that i also had roadside assistance but i was too shook up by the accident to even remember i had it, i wound up calling a friend and towing it home myself which took all of 5 minutes.

maybe i should be looking for a tow truck and treat everyone rudely, i'd have plenty of business. or not.