Category automotive

Accident Along I-75

While heading north at lunch time I was stuck in a whole bunch of traffic on I-75. From the burnt out flares and the use of construction employees to narrow lanes of traffic I figured that the accident had been there for a while.

What you see above is all I could see of the accident. I think it was a Chevy Malibu MAXX in a dark grey/silver color, but it was crushed / torn up enough that I couldn’t quite tell.

Beyond the damaged body pieces and broken out windows the passenger compartment didn’t look particularly crushed, so hopefully the occupant was okay. If there were side curtain airbags and they had their seatbelt on, I imagine they might be… Hopefully they are…

Well, as mentioned on Thursday of last week, I was having some difficulties with my car. Because of a couple of complications involving having it repaired at Cass Collision – Shelby it was taking a bit longer to have completed than originally planned.

The complications were an odd blend of bad luck, bad timing, and a couple missed bits in the finishing of the repairs, all of which were handled very professionally by Andrew, the manager of the shop there. As I said before, this is the sort of thing which I’d normally expect to be frustrated by, but seeing how the problems were handled when stuff did go wrong, I really have no complaints. If I have a need to get my car repaired at a body shop in this area again, it is very likely that I’ll end up back there. Their customer service (a big thing for me) has been shown to be very good, and the repair work was great as well.

Pontiac G6 which I have to drive for a day. (At least…)

Okay, so as mentioned before, someone had hit my car right after having it repaired and I had to take it back in. Due to a convoluted bunch of things happening today, I now have the Pontiac G6 seen above to drive to work tomorrow.

Although I didn’t mention it before, there was one more problem with my vehicle after I got it back from being repaired. That is, the door lock on the passenger side wasn’t working quite right, and it couldn’t be manually unlocked. This isn’t a huge problem, and when I took the vehicle in to have the bumper repaired I mentioned it to the person at the shop, and he said he’d have that sorted out.

Well, fast forward to today. At about 4:00pm I walked up to Cass Collision to pick up my vehicle, and it was waiting for me, looking great. I picked it up, and drove the mile (or so) home. After I got in the garage I noticed a couple of problems. It appeared that whoever had taken apart the door to fix the aforementioned lock issue nicked up both the door panel and the handle itself. There was a small screw which holds part of the bumper trim (the piece which needed to be replaced) in place which was missing, and one of the screws / mounting pieces for the cargo net in the trunk weren’t reinstalled.

So, I drove back to the shop and talked with the manager Andrew who started to take care of these all right away. He ordered a new door panel and handle and the missing screws so that everything could get sorted out. While I wasn’t too happy with the problems existing, I feel pretty comfortable that the problems were going to get sorted out, so I left and headed back home.

While driving home I noticed a rather curious sound coming from the rear wheels, but I chalked it up to a rock in the tire. However, when I got home I noticed some scuffing on the wheel right next to where the vehicle was hit, and that led me to thinking that the wheel might be slightly bent, or some other similar problem. (This scuffing wasn’t initially visible to me when the damage first occurred, because the wheel was dirty and the paint on the wheel is practically the same color as the underlying aluminum.) I immediately called up to the shop and we arranged for me to head back there, and they’d take a listen for the noise.

Andrew and I hopped in my vehicle and we drove the 22 Mile / Schoenherr / 23 Mile / Hayes loop back to their shop and both heard the noise. So, it was agreed that the shop would order a new wheel and after it was installed they would have their mechanic look at it and ensure that nothing else was off.

Then, things got really interesting. After dropping Andrew back off at the shop, as I went to pull out of the parking lot he and another one of the employees flagged me down and ran up, saying that my rear tire (on the driver’s side) was flat. I pulled the vehicle into one of their service bays, and looking at it, it was an absolute, complete, dead flat. The vehicle was jacked up, and Andrew started looking at the wheel. After seeing a piece of metal in it, Andrew grabbed a pair of pliers and removed it. For some reason there was half of a bearing jacked completely embedded in my tire!

After discussing it a bit, we figured that the noise was probably being caused by the piece of metal stuck in the tire which broke off, eventually causing the flat. It seems the shop had received a load of write-offs for assessment earlier in the day, and it’s thought that some bits fell off of one of the vehicles and ended up somewhere where my vehicle was moved past.

So here it is, 5:30pm, at the shop, with a flat tire from something at their facility, a damaged wheel, a marred door panel, and some a missing screw in the trunk. We could have just put the emergency spare on the vehicle to get me to work the next day, but I was a bit hesitant to do that. So, Andrew went and made a quick phone call and arranged for a rental car for me to drive tonight / tomorrow. We then got in his vehicle and he drove me to the Enterprise rental facility over at Hall (M-59) and Heydenrich where we picked up the vehicle seen above for me to drive. He’s going to get the tire bits sorted out, then give me a call and we’ll take care of the return of everything.

While I would think that in this situation I’d be a bit frustrated, I can’t really say that I am. Sure, I don’t have my car and the repair shop made some mistakes, but they sure seem to be taking care of them. I’ve got a vehicle to drive and I’m fairly confidant that the problems are being taken care of.

Now, if only my internet access would stay up. :\

Woman with an overflowing vehicle at the 7-11 at Hamlin and Dequinder.
(Click for more moblog photos…)

So, this morning I was running a bit low on gas, so I decided to take the 22 Mile to Ryan to Hamlin route to work and stop at the 7-11 at Hamlin and Dequinder and purchase fuel. Right after I pulled into a pump I noticed that right next to where I’d stopped was a driverless SUV (not even anyone standing around it) with a fuel nozzle hanging out the side, pouring gas all over the ground.

As the SUV also appeared to be running, I let my desire not to be in a gas station fire override my desire to purchase fuel and pulled away, but not before taking a photo. Right as I was pulling my phone out the woman who owned the SUV ran out of the 7-11 and shut off the fuel flow, before running back inside.

My understanding is that there is a state law prohibiting one from leaving the fuel pump unattended while it is operating, but I’m having a really difficult time finding it. Can anyone help? www.legislature.mi.gov just isn’t being very helpful today.