Dude I would make him buy me a new Vette and install all the parts on it. If a car gets in a wreck there is no way to return it to how it was from the factory.

ALTHOUGH the Vette owner should have contacted the Police and tried to get the driver on an Auto Theft charge. The car was being driven without permission by the owner, and I don’t think the shop owner had any legal footing in the matter as a result, unless the owner had signed approval for his employees to take joy-rides, beforehand.
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Yeah, it was technically Auto Theft.

It’s only reasonable to side with the OWNER, although I guess the only resolution under the circumstances would have to involve the business owner’s insurance, since it was one of his employees who mangled the poor ‘Vette, and it was during his watch.
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The balance of the value not covered by insurance would have to be covered by the business owner, but not necessarily BY the business owner.
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Personally, I would be SO FREAKING LIVID with this guy and his irresponsible little wrench monkey that if it were me, I would take the cash from the totaled car and demand the difference to cover the value.
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Since, however the car was probably financed, no matter what… the owner got hosed royally.
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I hope Carolina Auto Masters is out of business. This shit is not tolerable. Not even once.

I guess now’s a good time to remind everyone that if you allow someone to drive your car, your insurance is on the hook for it. Insurance follows the car, not the driver. That also means it goes on your insurance record and counts against you.
Think twice before you hand your keys to someone.

i would have killed him. i’m with melissa. f*** creech and his shop, i’d be seeing him in court.

I agree, she’s pissed and sticking it to him… and personally I would react the same exact way, if someone totaly destroys my car like that I will make them replace those aftermarket parts with new ones. If I spent $40-$60K on a car I think I would be absoloutely ripping that guy a new one. Who knows if the guy had the car redlined in a low gear or something like that. I hope she runs him out of business for his lack of responsability and the lack of a brain.

I’m sorry, its not the owner’s fault that some dumbass at the shop took the Vette out for a joy ride and wrecked it. Its the shop’s fault no doubt and the ownner shouldn’t have to come out of pocket for anything.

That’s crap. If you entrust your car to a shop and it comes back looking like THIS, that shop is not entitled to negotiate. The Corvette owner hits the nail on the head when she says: “My only intent was to get my car back in the shape that is was prior to delivering it to Jeff Creech.” Why should she be blamed for wanting to have a different shop handle the work, rather than this guy who’s proven himself to be obviously inept, irresponsible, and melodramatic (“put a bullet in my brain…”? WTF?). Some liar who wants to pull precision parts off a wrecked Corvette and slap them on her new car? I’ve worked in plenty of shops and understand that shit happens sometimes, but this? Come on. I wouldn’t even trust such a place to change my oil unsupervised after they let one of their flunkies go joyriding in my project car. If you get your car totalled through no fault of your own (her only mistake was in giving it to this guy in the first place), you’re entitled to have your car put back exacly the way it was before this moron came into your life. And if you feel this means re-equipping it with new parts rather than burned, warped, or marginal ones salvaged off a wrecked vehicle at the discretion of the person who let it get totalled in the first place, that’s 100% your call.

I just read both sides and 5 or so pages of the flaming… I get the feeling that Melissa didn’t adequately do her part, and I don’t understand why she is so reluctant to take parts off the old car. It appears to me that the shop offered far more than what insurance will provide, and it looks like Jeff is genuinely sorry for the incident, and is willing to take full responsibility. In the end, it looks to me like Melissa wants far more than the resonable reward, and that Jeff is willing to be reasonable, but not pay more than that. I side with Jeff at this point.