Roof dings - Feck

[davhill]

Damn, blast, st and women's things.

Morrison's automtic car wash assaulted my week-old lease Audi A1. There was a funny thudding sound as the roller brush passed along the roof. Of course, Morrison's are absolving themselves on the grounds of 'own risk' and because I didn't report it immediately (on a wet car? fk off).

These pics really highlight the two dents, which happen to be at exactly 90 degrees to the car's centre line. Trouble is, there's a hard-ish headlining. Anyone tried one of theose eBay sucker jobs?

[davhill]

Gary C said:

Ouch

Put in a small claims against morrisons, they probably won't even contest.

Do you mean small claim as in court? I've had a bh at Morrisons but therey're denying all responsibility.

I can only think a couple of the brush 'fronds' must have been knotted. The irony is that I've used the same wash dozens of times, with different cars.

[davhill]

It's very strange. I took the car to a local body man and he couldn't even see the dents, concluding that he couldn't do anything. In fact, my pics make the dents appear worse than they look to the naked eye. take a look at this - same car, pic taken with a Galaxy Note, four days before the other pics, that were shot using a Fuji S7000. The roof gutter line reflected in the paint is dead straight in reality. When the car is parked in the place where I took the other pics, the dents are all too obvious.



I'd no cause to mistrust the car wash as I've used it loads of times in the past with no problems at all. The brushes look like their fronds are made of very thick strands of J-cloth about a foot long and four inches wide. I noticed the thump sound at the time and the car seemed to be being moved about more than usual but I put that down to its being a small car. I checked when I went back to report the damage and there was nothing to see on the horizontal brush. I wonder if it was the part of the mechanism that dictates the amount of pressure apllied to the roof.

Thanks for the info. The heat gun trick looks very risky to me (burnt paint). It looks to me like a good press upwards would pop the dents out but I appreciate that's risky too.It seems that PDR is the way to go.

[davhill]

swisstoni said:

Screw their 'own risk' disclaimer. You have every right to expect a car to emerge without dents. Get legal advice - that's not going to be easy to fix.

Considering it's a blank holiday (my definition), I've done what I can. I found a PDR outfit that covers my area and have sent pics and requested a quote. I've also sent the pics you've all seen and a no-holds-barred mail to the car wash owner's insurance company. I can but see what develops but I have made it more than clear that I object very strongly to a slimebag insurance company trying to call the shots on an obvious malfunction and doubting my word to boot.Funts.

[davhill]

swisstoni said:

The plot thickens.
Seems to be a hidden feature on the car.
What's your roof 'doing' now OP?

It's warm with a cool breeze. The r.h. ding's gone shallower and the other's disappeared.

Perhaps I have a CGI roof. Peculiar.

[davhill]

UK345 said:

Go down tonight and stage a protect. Put your trousers down and tell everyone that morrisons have well and truly pulled your pants down. Tell them that you never wore a belt and this was the consequence.

The plit has thockened big style. There are lots of posts on the Audi A1 forum descrbing exactly the same thing! Some of the forum posters have taken their cars back to the dealership and one has had the headlining removed and a new glue/assembly procedure carried out.

All these posters are describing the correlation between the dents' appearing/disappearing and ambient conditions.

Meanwhile, Morrison's insurance team have stuck firmly to their guns. I'm smart enough to know when I'm wrong and may even admit it!

Incidentally, I spoke to the dealership where I got my car and pointed my contact there towards this thread. Might be interesting.