Worst day of my cars life!

[ginkof]

So i took a trip into NYC with a friend of mine, dropped my car off at a garage, had a bite to eat, roamed the streets and had a grand old time. i go back to pick up my car and this is where the problems start.

I pay the parking guys, give them my ticket, and wait for my car. 10 minutes later they bring down a white Acura TL. The guy parks it at the exit and walks away. He comes back after getting another car and asks why i haven't gotten in my car yet. I told him to look for a bright blue Audi and bring that one down.

A few minutes later my car appears in one of the elevators. The guy pulls the car out very slowly by just letting off the clutch and pulls it up to the exit. He tells me the car must have a hole in the exhaust. I figured he was telling me about my car being louder then most V8 cars he drives. I toss my jacked into the back seat, buckle up, and start up a muscle car. I turn it off, jump out of my car, look under my car, only to see that the driver side down pipe was separated from the catback.

I just had my clutch replaced on my car and figured the tech didn't properly connect my downpipe to my catback. I went over to the counter and asked the gentleman what had happened to my car and knowing my luck he didn't speak English. He just asked for my card and $17. After giving shit to another one of their employees and seeing if they had tools i ended up leaving since i needed to find a solution to this problem before my 3 hour ride home.

My pipe was hanging 1/2 an inch off the ground, and i was driving around the streets of NYC at a solid rate of 5 mph trying to find a low congested section of town. After 2 miles of driving and lots of searing and freaking out i finally found a place to jack up my car. I had friends on their way with tools to meet me and fix this DIY repair.

After jacking my car onto wooden blocks that i found at a construction site i get under my car only to find my downpipes was pushed and bent toward the front of my car by 5 inches!!!! My flex pipe took most of the beating and was mangled pretty badly.

I found a coat hangar in someone's trash, and after 10 minutes with a pair of pliers i secured the downpipe to the transmission mount. i went back into the garage with my unbelievably loud car, made their line of customers go deaf and went nuts on the valet that drove my car.

He told me exactly what happened. My car was put into an elevator, taken upstairs, and the elevator doors were opened. They are the kind of doors that split and open up and down. While backing my car out of the elevator, my exhaust got stuck on the lower door and he forced my car back and absolutely destroyed my downpipe. He then tries to blame it on the fact that my exhaust was aftermarket. I asked him what he was going to do about it and he said "nothing" and pointed at the sign on the wall. "we are not responsible for mechanical failures" and some crap about dents.

At this point i was soo heated that my friend called NYPD for me to get some sort of report of all this happening. After an hour of waiting she calls again. 30 min later calls for a 3rd time. After another 30 minutes She calls and starts yelling at the dispatcher. While on her 4th phone call i plugged in police to the nav system i had only to find out that the police station was 500 feet from where we were! While i relay this info to my friend who gets even more heated, the boys in blue finally show up.

Well the cops walk over and i asked them if there was a way they could document this incident. their response was No. ??!?!? WTF! their cops! the told me its a civil matter and that they couldn't do anything about it. Not even give me proof that i was in NY at the place that the damage happened. The cop told me that it was more then he had to do and handed me a fucking business card for the place i was at. I pretty much start swearing at all of them and got into my car.

I started up my car and in the process of leaving made stupid amounts of noise with my car and set off a couple car alarms in the garage in the process. So there started my 200 mile drive home to western mass with an open exhaust.

I didn't get pulled over the whole way home which was nice, but it was one of the most brutal drives of my life! I even stopped at some places to see if they sold ear plugs, but at 10 pm-1 am my options were limited. I called my friend who was nice enough to pick me up at the exhaust shop i have been to before and drive me 30-40 minutes back home.

I have no idea how much this is going to cost. Can i purchase only one milltek downpipe?

Any idea what my legal options are?

[wofman]

(1) You have a "tort" action against parking garage (that's why cops were not very interested -- did you get name of guy who told you "what happened"?) and (2) being in Mass won't make it easier.

Check with your insurance company (I assume you have comprehensive coverage) and ask what they advise. Presumably you have $500 deductible? They can pay damages over $500. But they might then go after the garage to recover the damages and get your $ as well. Alternative is small claims court. PITA no matter how you look at it. If you lived in town it would be much easier.

What garage? Probably owned by large corporation and talking to somebody there might be preferable to dealing with guys on that site.

[BigJS4]

My brother has a similar incident with a NYC garage. The were bring his car back to him, and they heard tires screaching, and a crunch. Screeching tires in a garage is not unheard of, but the crunch wasn't such a good sound.

Sure as heck, they basked the rear driver's side 1/4 panel into a concrete support.

My brother yelled and screamed, and spoke to everyone there including the "owner". They finally agreed they were at fault (after hours of yelling), but would only offer to have it fixed at "their" shop. My brother said no and stated he would bill them.

Somehow... luckily we sent a bill to them a few days later and got a reply with partial payment. We fought some more and they paid the rest, but they required that my bro sign a letter stating we would not seek further legal action.

NYC garages suck... they are usually company owned, so you need to contact the main office and file the complaint there. You can also file a complaint with the city too... I do not know which division however.

Glad the car is ok for the most part.

[NYCS4Avant]

Garage Location? Depending on the operator/management company I may be able to help. Please contact me via PM.

[mcb001982]

As everyone else said find out who owns the garage and pursue that way.

By the way I'm guessing this happened yesterday or sometime over the weekend.... Why didn't you just park on the street? I park my S4 on the street every week night and over the entire weekend due to these issues....

[Lugi20]

Why didn't you just park on the street? I park my S4 on the street every week night and over the entire weekend due to these issues....

For every issue that happens in a garage, there are probably 50 issues that happened while street parking... he probably though he was protecting his car by not parking on the street.

Here is one rule that I strictly fallow if I'm driving a car that means anything to me: I am my own valet. I've tipped the 'real' valet $5 to stay away from my car more than once.

[$4c@b]

sorry to hear about your headaches.

how was the rest of nyc?

[mcb001982]

For every issue that happens in a garage, there are probably 50 issues that happened while street parking... he probably though he was protecting his car by not parking on the street.

Here is one rule that I strictly fallow if I'm driving a car that means anything to me: I am my own valet. I've tipped the 'real' valet $5 to stay away from my car more than once.

I've parked every kind of vehicle we have at my dealership (Porsche, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Bentley along with other exotics) on the streets over night at some point and time and I've never had an issue. Just make sure you park on a main street (not a side street) and there is never an issue. For the most part people respect a nice vehicle and rarely vandalize it. If you park on a main street then you’re normally fine - there is also a guy in my hood that parks his Bentley GTC every night in front of his building and his building is not the type where a doorman is always outside.

To each is their own - I would take my chances on the streets anytime rather than let someone else drive my car.

[fitzS4]

same thing hapend to my dad except they wrapped his truck around the pole........

[rsquattro]

Yikes, and I thought valets in NYC garages killing my clutch was bad...sorry man.

Generally speaking now I part on the street like the advice above or park at friend's places outside NYC and take the Metro North.

[RAudi Driver]

Sorry to hear about your car and the lousy day that it gave you. Loved your McGyver techniques on getting that car back on the road.

[likewater]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Seems like a giant headache. Lesson learned I hope... NEVER EVER let anyone, especially a shit bag Valet douche drive your car. Period!!!

Best of luck with everything.

[$4c@b]

If I am going to garage my car, I try to find a one in a good part of town. My S is often on the low-end of the car scale so I expect those valets to be a little more careful than the valets on random lots around the fringe of the city.

[S4J]

Wow, what "suck" that is. I feel for you. Hopefully all will work out. I too prefer to park in garages whenever possible and fortunately here in Vegas, parking is plentiful. I valet every time I visit the strip and have yet to suffer any damage <fingers crossed>. Part of it is convenience, and part of it is my addiction to hearing and seeing my car pull up. It just sounds so cool in those enclosed spaces and that's the only time I get to hear my car from the outside :). Silly I know, but I just love that V8.

[GameBreaker]

I have had a long line of heavily modified and nice cars ranging from the S4 to an 800hp Grand National and there is no way in hell I would ever hand the keys over to a Valet. I've seen what they do and knew a couple guys who used to do it back in college.

I say definitely look up the owner, as well as the local better business bureau. If I really need to park somewhere, I will always self park or as others have metioned park on the street. I live in the Chicago loop, and on my block there are two Continental GTs, and a billion Range Rovers, so if they can park on it I would do it if I really had to.

[rsquattro]

If I am going to garage my car, I try to find a one in a good part of town. My S is often on the low-end of the car scale so I expect those valets to be a little more careful than the valets on random lots around the fringe of the city.

I've had things stolen from my trunk when I left my car with the valets in Trump Tower...so I think it mostly depends on the valets, not necessarily on location.

[$4c@b]

I've had things stolen from my trunk when I left my car with the valets in Trump Tower...so I think it mostly depends on the valets, not necessarily on location.

good point

[Beelzeebub]

sorry to hear of your troubles in the city. Yeah, pretty much, if you want to drive into the city, its usually better to drive in a vehicle that you dont have much attachment to. but since you're coming from CT, i dont think you didnt have much choice. And btw, about the street parking thing, there are thousands of things which may and usually will go wrong with your car. Everything from being broken into, to being stolen, to vandalism, and even dumb people who like to "bumper kiss" cars behind and in front of them while parking (fine if you dont mind dings, dents and scrapes on your shiny, waxed bumpers). To those who say nay, its all just a matter of time. Believe me.