moar scooby drama

You know how they say, you can never go home? It’s the same with my car. Once busted, it will never be 100%.

So my Morris got hit in my parking lot. Took it in to get fixed, the body shop did a fine job of fixing it. I was so pleased to have it back, all shiny and back to normal. That is, until I dropped the tail gate to wash it. It was all skewed. Like fitting a round peg into a square hole. The gap between the tail lights was not even, the tail gate was tough to open, and when closed again, never fit quite right.

So I took it back to them. Pictures showed when I dropped it off the first time, things were a perfect fit on the tail gate. Even gaps around all the edges. They claimed ignorance as to removing the tail gate, and were just as baffled as I was. The tail gate was removed the and a dent was discovered on the top edge. No damage to the plastic cover on top. A mystery. Perhaps damaged in transit to the dealer prior to sale, they put a new cap on it and called it even. Only to have the damage discovered 4+ years later. Right.

The body shop had it for a day, fixed things, alignment and operation of the tail gate was back to 98%. Picked it up, all better again so I thought.

That night… clicking the unlock button to get in my car… no tail light flash on the side they were working on. Yep, no back up lights either. Dark. Guess I never used my blinker to turn left after picking it up. The tell tale sign of hyper active fast blink… somethings burned out.

Easy fix… pop the tail light out, plug it back in, and in the process replace the lamps. UGH! When I popped the cover to the bolts off, the little tension tab broke. Super glued… not by me. Double UGH. I give up.

The ending: I am now sitting at the dealer. They can pull it off, plug it back in, replace the bulbs (it’s off anyway) and get me a new cover that’s not super glued back together, and empty my pocket another $100 bucks.

The moral: My insurance company has been great. USAA has never let me down. This was my first real car damage where metal was bent. They took care of everything. They know I am unhappy with the overall quality of the body shop. Not the initial repair, but the subsequent problems. But I did not want that body shop to have my Baja one more day, or one more hour. I’m willing to pay the dealer, and won’t even expect the body shop or my insurance company to reimburse me. Don’t know why I feel like it’s my burden, but I want it back the way it was. I want it back like it was before the fucktard left a big white streak down the side. I want it back, and I can only do that myself.