It had 11,000 miles on it when we were rear ended by a 2017 Camry (which was a rental) and I swear she was going thirty five to forty mph (based on some of the other pictures here I have seen of cars being hit at fifty plus mph, my car was damaged pretty similarly). Another guy ended up hitting her from the back, which caused even more damage to my car.
In total there were four cars in this accident.
Front car - Jeep Patriot (barely got a scratch on his bumper, as I tapped his car after the impacts of the cars behind me).
Second Car - me.
Third Car- The girl going thirty to fifty mph in the Camry that rear ended me (totaled).
Fourth Car- Chevrolet Malibu with a uninsured motorist with expired drivers license.
Police report deemed the fourth guy at fault. So this is a uninsured motorist claim with my insurance carrier (Geico). I have coverage for this.
November 3, 2017- Accident occurred, took to a local highly reputed Austin shop on Nov 5.
Nov 5- December 6, 2017 - Shop "worked" on my car. "no frame damage" "The whole impact was on a aluminium impact bar"
Nov 22- Fought with the body shop to perform a laser (MATRIX) frame inspection, they claim their fifteen plus year veteran tech says its not necessary.
Dec 6- Fought with them on Dec 6 at pickup that the car will need an alignment at a minimum. They did it in house, collected from Geico for this.
Dec 6- Car alignment is out of whack on alignment, and I do not know if the shop screwed it up more than factory. There is a small 'clank' noise every-time I start driving the car at five mph. Sounds like as suspension issue.
Dec 11- Took the car to local Acura dealership who knows about the accident they are the ones who recommended the body shop to me. I think they are in bed with the body shop above they recommended to me. They perform a courtesy alignment and confirm the car was out of spec from the alignment done in the body shop.
Dec 11+ - Car is still drifting right. No matter what I do.
Dec 20- Drop car off at a different Acura dealership, who has no clue about the accident. I work with the master technician there. He does all sorts of tests, tests tires with a tire force check, alignments, rotates, checks all the struts, control arms, etc. He replaces a control arm (driver side front). Again I never mention any thing about the accident. He tried his best for three days. He comes back and says, everything is in spec on the alignment, but the car is still pulling to the right. Just so I confirmed I was not crazy, I had their loaner 2017 MDX while my car was in their shop for three days. The 2017 had no drift issues, I did have to put the wheel in line every so often, but no pain from pulling the wheel left or right for an extended period of time with my thumb. Nor was the wheel so stiff over a long drive, hence causing the pain in holding onto the wheel.
Basically the problem is that I have to fight with the wheel (ever so slightly) to keep the car going straight, no matter what the road is. I dont normally mind a slight rotation in the steering wheel, but this one feels like I am fighting to keep it going straight.
I took a three hour drive today and my thumb is hurting from holding the wheel. I am very worried there is something else going on here (like the rear impact was so hard on the left side that it knocked the frame out and the car will never drive 100% straight like it used to).
I want to get this fixed correctly (replacing the struts, etc. As needed)
I do not want to take this back to the body shop. They have no clue what they are doing. I want Acura to fix this and so far they have been doing so but need some gentle guidance without me telling them I was in an accident.
Please help! Any ideas on how I can get this fixed? What to do next?
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Friday, January 5th, 2018 AT 8:44 AM
