They totaled my Viper today

[chiefchad]

RTTTTed - Don't forget that the mechanic who showed up on the scene mentioned it hopping a curb. If it was at a good clip then the rims could be injured, possibly other drivetrain issues, suspension worries, and maybe even the frame. Who knows. I would not feel comfortable taking this car back after a simple cosmetic fix.

Seeing the pics on the Truck forum it looks like it's easily fixable. I couldn't see the bottom or the front, but the pics show the trees took out the rear quarter and the front fender only. Since a bodyshop wrecked it they'll probably be fixing it right now?

I'm hoping that it can be fixed easily.

If the car does get fixed I'd be asking for that supercharger to be installed when you get the car back. Just to cover the loss in value since your car now has been in an accident. Make sense?

Ted

 

[99 R/T 10]

WOW! It looks like they just killed the thread. I was halfway thru page 4 and ****. Gone........................

 

[99 R/T 10]

Found this on the VTCOA. Is this the same car? If so may be helpful in putting a case together.

Our body shop wrecked a customers Viper today - Viper Truck Club of America

Bruce

I sure hope somebody screen shot that thread.................Anybody?

 

[AFL in NJ]

Dear Mamba,

First off, sorry to hear about this; I would be throwing stuff in the showroom and the police would have to be called....I admire your restraint.

Second, make them an offer, NEW ACR or ACR-X straight-up trade for your old baby....and "its non- negotiable".

Regards,
Aaron

 

[ViperTony]

Was able to salvage this from that forum:

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"He came around a corner and slammed the gas, ass end kicked and he let out. Car spun around and jumped a curb backwards and took out two trees.
What makes it worse is the customer told me the car was his dream, his baby. the viper was his dream car he saved up for a long time to be able to afford it. He sent the engine to roe and spent 30k on a sick ass cammed motor( ***** was the best sounding viper ive ever heard). He told me it made 650 to the wheels, he was waiting to put a blower on it. Well that what happened "

Our body shop wrecked a customers Viper today - Viper Truck Club of America
__________________

 

[BlknBlu]

I am a member of that Forum from back in my Truck days. If needed I may be able to retrieve that thread from an admin.

Bruce

 

[Martin]

If that page went down that fast, they're obviously paying attention to this and know they're about to be in a fight... Hopefully someone did save a copy of that. It sure looks 'fishy' that someone would post first-hand details of the situation and then those details were wiped clean. I wonder what constitutes 'evidence' in a situation like this, and what would be considered 'destruction of evidence'? If it does get litigated, I'm sure that site will receive a subpoena for evidence for that thread if they don't just provide it on their own...

 

[black mamba1]

Under the advice of a very good friend that is also a member of VCA and a lawyer, I wont say much about the dealer or the body shop at this point in this forum.

I did meet with the owner of the dealership today. He is also and attorney, we had a decent talk, but he said he wanted to see what the insurance company does before he does anything. I wasnt really happy with that decision, but I will leave it at that.

I then went and visited the body shop and picked up the Police report and got my belongings out of the car. The police report indicates the guy was speeding, 45 in a 35. Car spun when he stepped on the gas, and he went backwards into some trees. The guy who wrecked the car came out and apologized to me over and over. I just told him I was happy he was ok. The owners of the body shop seem to want to do the right thing, we will see. They are trying to find a Viper or a Challenger or a Vette (dont kill me, I do like Vettes) to drive until this all is cleared up.

I appreciate all the support and advice you guys are giving me. You guys are great!

 

[black mamba1]

The way that I handle life is;
1. find out if the problem will be fixed first. (Sounds like the dealership wants to make the situation right).

2. start fighting ... if they Dealership doesn't get on the sitation immediately.

I think that a lawsuit would probably be a mistake and it's completely uncalled for at this time. Unfotunately accidents do happen.

Seeing the pics on the Truck forum it looks like it's easily fixable. I couldn't see the bottom or the front, but the pics show the trees took out the rear quarter and the front fender only. Since a bodyshop wrecked it they'll probably be fixing it right now?

I'm hoping that it can be fixed easily.

If the car does get fixed I'd be asking for that supercharger to be installed when you get the car back. Just to cover the loss in value since your car now has been in an accident. Make sense?

Ted

Makes perfect sense!! I like I like!!

 

[plumcrazy]

Don't blame them for letting the ins co do their thing. As long as the dealer males it right in the end....

 

[ViperTony]

Hey Keith...I see you still have your CT plates.

 

[Viper Ed]

I'm extremely sorry for your loss. Good luck with the fight.

 

[Lundqvist]

unfortenatly things like this happens when your a liberal.. voting for obama serves you right. lol

 

[Shandon]

BM it is good to see you on here posting some but like others have said "not under these circumstances". It's a real shame but accidents do happen and they do happen to everyone at some point or another. It ***** so bad when it happens and no amount of "sorry" makes it feel any better but hang in there man!
I hope that you will be completely satisfied with the outcome and are able to get into a new Viper soon. Good Luck!

 

[Kala]

I just pulled a cache of page one on the Truck forum, I saved it as a PDF if you need it. If you need the other pages I can probably find those too.

PM if you want the PDF. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Gus Strakes]

...The guy who wrecked the car came out and apologized to me over and over. I just told him I was happy he was ok...

Unless he's a relative of the owner, I don't understand how that guy is still employed there. Inexcusable action, in my opinion, and cause for immediate termination.

Hope it all works out for you.

 

[boplaw]

unfortenatly things like this happens when your a liberal.. voting for obama serves you right. lol

Cheap shot.

OP, good luck with your claim.

 

[2003 Viper]

So sorry to hear this happened. Hope it all works out for you!

 

[GlennSullivan]

Gotta be careful about having a HP car and dropping it off at dealer. My insurance specifically excludes anyone under the age of 26 from driving my 4 collector cars.

Did you sign the standard dealer service form when dropping the car off? If so, it probably has an authoriztion statement permitting dealership employees to operate your vehicle on and off the property.

If you have a collectors "agreed value" policy and the value was set where you needed it to be to cover your car and the mods and they total it, you will get the agreed value and your company will go after the dealers insurance to recover their outlay.

If you do not have collectors insurance, you will receive less (probably much less) than you want and you will either need to fight with your insurance company or you will need to go after the dealer for the difference. In either case it will not be pretty. If you don't have an agreed value policy, retain an attorney and / or your own insurance adjuster now.

 

[johniew398]

I drove my Viper over to Lake Norman Dodge and Chysler on Monday for an oil change, fix my a/c, and to put a new Gen 4 hood on, replacing the Gen 4 Lemke hood already on the car.

I had the new Gen 4 hood shipped to the dealer from Chuck Tator. Chuck talked to the manager at Lake Norman Dodge and told them it was an easy install, the hood was already painted and polished, and they did not need to take the car to their body shop, which was several miles away.

Well, they decided to drive the car to the body shop anyway, against my wishes and against Chucks advice. I told them the car was modded and I didnt want them driving it off the property. They drove it anyway and the kid downshifted and stepped on the gas and the car got away from him, spun off the road, went down an embankment and into the woods.



These clowns totaled my Viper. I had close to $25,000 in mods to the Viper, now I have to deal with their insurance adjuster....

Anyone got any advice?

Sorry about them totaling your Viper. Unfortunately regardless of how well we know a dealer this could happen to any of us that take our cars to a dealer. Some are better than others. I have never had an issue the 2 - 3 times I have had to leave my ACR at the local Dodge dealer; however, the service advisor lets me know they keep it locked up but don't want it there any longer than they have to.

As far as my ZR1, I took it to a dealer I trust right after I got it because of a front end vibration. The service advisor I have known for a long time wouldn't even drive it to test it, he rode with me while we tested it.

 

[TrackAire]

In cases like this, the body shop won't want to fire the driver at this point as it shows and admits fault. There are a lot of things the bodyshop can claim happened, (gravel on road, got cut off by a chicken, sun in my eyes, etc) not just their employee was street racing around. He'll get fired right after the body shop owner pays the settlement or his deductable....then again, he might be the owners kid

As bad as this situation is, it would be worse knowing that this accident hurt or killed some innocent bystander.

Cheers,
George

 

[Slypopsracing]

I left my Viper about 1 1/2 yrs ago at Dodge for a couple of hours..So nervous I stood around legal but not seen; I hear this woman say "why can't weeee drive theeeese" She wasn't even my service adv.I look around the corner and her fat a&& is sitting in the car??? The other employee said that only the Viper Tech was allowed to, (right after serveral vipers were totaled at dealerships). I thought Dodge had this problem fixed..obviously not.

 

[BlkViper]

Wow.....Hopefully they take care of this and then some!!!!

 

[marvinb]

Sorry to here about your loss keith hope all goes well and sue sue sue.

 

[black mamba1]

Its funny how much we actually spend on our mods. I was so busy trying to hide the costs from my wife that I forgot how much I actually spent on mods on my Viper. I have collected receipts and I am already up to $36,000 and counting. This includes the engine build (Tator), roll bar (JonB), navigation (Ebay), VEC 3 (Sean Roe), Belanger full exhaust (Sean Roe), competition coupe cam (Tator), swinging arm oil pan (Dan Lesser), SB hi flow filters (Sean Roe), PS2;s (JonB), Gen 4 Lemke hood (Jeff Lemke), Gen 4 Dodge OEM hood (Jeff Lemke), O2 "fake sensors to keep from throwing codes (Sean Roe), Exhaust Insulation to keep cockpit cool (Sean Roe).

This is where I am today. I had a tad over 24,000 miles on the car and I paid $65,000 for her back in 2006. The values I am seeing online range from $43,000 to $55,000.

IF the body shop tries to leave this up to their insurance company and not do the right thing I am gonna get screwed, as thats what the lying ass insurance companies do for a living, beat people out of money. But IF, the body shop and Dealership make a good BUSINESS DECISION and decide to replace my Viper that will be the right thing to do.

The police report indicated the guy was speeding when he crashed my car. I am driving a Dodge Challenger right now supplied by the body shop. But its not the same...for the first time in 4 years I cannot terrorize any car that pulls up besides me. I was in the 6 cylinder Challenger today and a C5 Vette pulled up next to me. I felt like an ass...I couldnt even do anything with that car. Then a modded El Camino from the 70's pulled up next to me and revved his engine...HELL, I could even do nothing with that!!

This is a living hell.

 

[FEDBYVORTECH]

I would buy your old car back from the insur company. I did this with my sisters car. The car had allot of mods. And then I stripped it. Was the motor damaged? If your interested my 04 Black Mamba is for sale. Shamless plug

 

[plumcrazy]

what insurance company do you have ?

allstate has always done me right in the past. very much so in fact.

 

[black mamba1]

I would buy your old car back from the insur company. I did this with my sisters car. The car had allot of mods. And then I stripped it. Was the motor damaged? If your interested my 04 Black Mamba is for sale. Shamless plug

I think the stock internal engine parts of the 04 are probably the worst of any Viper year. Very prone to rod failure and oil starvation. I paid 24k to overcome these issues. I had a rod failure in CT in 07 that caught my engine on fire. Thats why I had ny new engine built.

I would only by a Gen 3 if it had a swinging arm oil pan AND upgraded rods.

 

[InjectTheVenom]

Keith, look at it from the bright side, you could be in my situation with no car to drive at all I hope that they do you right and that it doesn't end up in a huge ass lawsuit!

 

[black mamba1]

Keith, look at it from the bright side, you could be in my situation with no car to drive at all I hope that they do you right and that it doesn't end up in a huge ass lawsuit!

I am driving the 8000 lb Dodge Challenger with 6 cylinders. I love the look of the car and I love Dodges, but this thing is a lead sled. I wouldnt race a tractor in this thing.

But I love the look.