I had a car I bought in 1999 that was in 3 accidents between 2000-2006. The one thing that all three accidents had in common is that I had lent the car out and I wasn't the one driving. After the 2006 one, that was it for me. Never again. Hand people the phone number for Enterprise rental car and tell them to work out their own business.

 

Over 4 decades ago we lent our newly repainted Ford Pinto to one of my BILs to perform some "errand of mercy". Afterwards he dropped the car off at about 4am behind our apartment. The next morning I went to use the car and it was missing the driver's side door. It had been ripped right from the hinges.

My wife calls her brother and he says not to worry. It seems that after his mission of mercy he used it for his friend's bachelor party. When they were leaving the last bar he opened the door in front of an oncoming truck. But not to worry, he has the door.

Sorry about your truck.

 

Like the old saying goes, "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your relatives".

 

I always attempt Defensive Parking trying to anticipate what might happen. I feel better by assuming I have avoided incidents.

 

I backed up into my own trailer and poked a hole through the quarter panel. The cost to replace the whole panel + paint was around $1800 (or $1000 ded) total from the body shop or $1000 out of pocket to fix the hole with a low temperature copper wedder that won't warp the galvanize steel. I went with the latter because my deductible is $1000, and I didn't want to risk increasing my premium plus the shop has lifetime warranty on the paint.

I think it's a good deal for what you paid to get the quarter panel replaced + paint. I also have a silver ridgeline, and I was worried that silver would be hard to match, but it came out perfect.

 

Your brother in law sounds like a real peach. You make my case for why I never lend anything to anyone. Been bit before.

 

Spark ol buddy, one bit of advice......stay away from Vegas till your luck changes.

 

Now I feel terrible complaining about the minor scratches on my G2. My son's WRX was parked in front of our residence last night and someone hit his car in the middle of the night. No witnesses, no note, nothing.

The front of the car was pushed over about 6 inches into the curb. It looks more like someone backed into it than sideswiped it due to the large dent in the fender. The driver's side wheel was turned inward. The passenger's side wheel is still straight. No idea what would be damaged to cause that.

Very irritating on a car with 8,500 miles. No diminished value available since we have to go through our own insurance.

We did wonder why the car alarm did not go off since the car was pushed 6-8" and the fender was crushed. Certainly that would be enough force to set off the alarm. I am guessing that is not how the Subaru alarm system is setup.

 

Update,. I got my Ridgeline back from the paint shop and it looks great. A little white residue on the black trim where they touched it while they were polishing/waxing the new paint.

My son's WRX repair is not going so well or so quickly. The force of impact must have been so great that it bent the front frame rail. The shop has to order in a completely new frame rail and that takes time. Hopefully they will be able to pull out the engine (turbo), replace rail, and get everything back together correctly. If not, my son will be pretty disappointed. On the bright side at least the shop determined a replacement rail was necessary and did not just attempt to repair/straighten the old one. The car may have never been right. They said his car will be in the shop for about one month.

 

Sorry to hear about your RL. Your BIL should be paying for all the repairs out of his pocket. All the people I borrow things from and people I lend thing to have an understanding, you brake it you pay for it. Had a new Kawasaki bike once, buddy borrowed it dumped it he paid for the repairs. As I would if I broke something of his.

 

In my experience, people will sometimes avoid responsibility for damages they caused by offering a form of restitution they know won't be accepted (e.g., an inferior aftermarket taillight replacement for a new truck). Could this be case here? I also wonder how your sister has reacted to her husband's lack of accountability for his actions.

If I were in your situation, I would be very tempted to privately hand the BIL a copy of the repair bill and cheerfully say "You might want to frame this because it's going to represent my birthday present to you for the next ten (or more) years." IMO, it's not you who caused this friction in the family -- your response has been very gracious, to say the least.

 

I know that if I borrowed somebodies truck and damaged it, I would pay whatever it cost to replace it to the original condition. On the other hand, if I lent it to someone, a relative especially, I wouldn't feel right having them pay for it.

 

I received the estimate from the body shop this morning! The cost for the side panel is $800 and the cost for the tailgate is $500. They deducted $140 from that total on the panel because I already ordered a taillight. The entire cost at the body shop will be around $1,160.

Evidently, they want to paint the entire panel and the tailgate to eliminate the possibility of it peeling later and to make certain the paint matches perfectly. They offer a lifetime paint warranty against fading and/or peeling.

I would just live with the damage, but it would continue to bug me to no end. I will just pay for the repair and be done with it. At least every time I open the tailgate I will not be reminded of this expensive lesson.

I have used this shop (Caliber Collision) for 3 previous repairs and they always do a great job, so I don't believe they are just trying to empty my pocketbook. I used Abra once and they painted right over the VIN sticker on my daughter's Elantra.

Thank you for all the comments. Maybe I could just bill my BIL quarterly or monthly to recoup the cost.:grin: over time. He is a great guy, so I will just eat the cost and not risk causing friction in the family. Life goes on!!

 

He is a great guy, so I will just eat the cost and not risk causing friction in the family. Life goes on!!

Wow, you are a better man than me. I would be livid. It would affect my sleep, my work, and my joy. I would simply make a copy of the bill and send it to him with a note reading "Net Due: 30."

The fact that he offered a half-assed solution only makes it worse in my opinion. He KNOWS he screwed up and STILL won't man up and resolve it properly.

I'm glad that my guesstimate was way high. I'm certain you will post photos after the repair. I hope that it's better than new upon completion!

 

...

..........:crying:

 

Tough situation. There are times when it pays to be an only child!

 

And, it may come up in Carfax if you pay for it via insurance.

 

Good point!

 

It's just a "thing". The only value it has is what you have given it.

 

Hey can I borrow your RTL-E for the day to try out the Honda Sensing Suite? I hope you don't mind if I test out the automatic braking.

 

17 year old neighbor borrowed my small shop-vac to clean his car. When he was done, he washed my shop-vac & then returned it to me!

 

Time for you to move to Texas. Everyone here already has a truck so no need to borrow one.:wink:
Sorry for your pain Spark.

 

Or Southwest Georgia.

 

you mean EX Brother In Law...?>

 

I am going to order the taillight assembly from Bernardi but I cannot determine the difference between the taillight that ends with part #A01and #A02. Any suggestions? My Ridgeline is an RTL-T AWD.
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Genuine Honda OEM Automotive Parts Catalog - Bernardi Parts

What a drag! No good deed goes unpunished. As a way to try to help out, I spent some time researching the taillights. I did verify that both parts fit your specific model of Ridgeline. I have to guess that the A02 was a minor tweak of some sort. It's not a different look or something like BE versus RTL-T. I guess I would probably pick up the A02. To be 100% sure, you need to call the parts department of your local dealer and get them to explain. I worked for a year in the parts department of a Volkswagen dealership, but some things are just very specific to the manufacturer. And yup, that's pretty much like saying yeah, I stayed at the Holiday Inn. Seriously, if I get a few minutes tomorrow I'll call my local dealership, which happens to be Bernardi, just because I'm curious.

 

I did email Bernardi last night and they confirmed (this morning) the proper fitment for my RTL-T is the A02 light. Thank you for taking the time to investigate, Phineas.

On a side note, my brother-in-law did call me last night apologizing for the driving snafu on his part. He said he was not used to driving with a backup camera and his son was not paying close enough attention when watching him back up. He also offered to replace my light with a replacement one, "I know of a place where I can get an aftermarket light for a discount. It won't look exactly like the Honda one, but it will be pretty close and it will fit fine." I politely declined his offer.

 

Maybe I'm odd but I have never in my life even contemplated asking someone to borrow their vehicle (I imagine truck owners get this request more than car owners). It just has always seemed like a taboo thing to ask (especially when it costs what, 20 bucks to rent a truck from home depot).

Maybe a good answer, if I were ever asked, would be to say, no, but if you're really that short on money I can loan you 20 bucks to rent one from home depot.

 

Repair cost guess: $1100 including tail light, not sure if they will be able to tweak things to correctly align "the factory way" again. Should be able to get it close though.

 

My mantra is if I can't afford for it to break and me fix it I don't loan it. My RL is one thing I would not loan.

 

I only have a daughter so her and my son-in-law are the only ones to touch any of my vehicles. No other relative or even friend will never borrow or even drive one of my three cars.

Harsh yes but I don't have to worry about some nimrod damaging my vehicles.

 

Ouch... good luck. Hope it can be made flawless again.

When people get close to asking to borrow my truck, I usually say maybe I can get some time to drive it where you need, but there is sheep and chicken manure all over the bed and not sure if I have time to clean it out, so if we find the right time, you'll want wrap your items real well because poop smell is hard to get out... Haven't been asked yet! And the poop isn't a lie.

 

That is the downside of having a minivan or a truck. I feel your pain but it's family so I guess you have to walk the tightrope. Years ago I lent my borther in law my Ranger and when it came back, the tailgate was bashed in. Off to the junkyard for a replacement for a different year but it was never the same but it was family. Sorry that you have to deal with this.