Another day, another dent
09-15-2006, 07:09 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 12-18-2005
Location: Middle Village, NY
Posts: 1,780
Another day, another dent
I stopped by a fire plug to let my wife get out to pick up our daughter from Pre-K. Sadly, there were 2 grey posts on each side that I did not notice, and my wife found them with the door. Boy, our doors dent easy. The only consolation is that I haven't brought the car in yet to fix the dent from the Chevy dealer, so I will add the new one to the mix. My hood has several dents also, aparantly from either someone leaning on it or a ball hitting it. The metal on our car is rather thin, plus the huge panals show every imperfection. I wish the car was plastic like my old Saturn
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09-15-2006, 08:15 PM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: 08-15-2006
Location: NC
Posts: 223
Find a good Pdr guy in your area. Don't just listen to the Dealers they use the cheapest. Try to find one with over 5 years exp. Too bad you are not here. I got 15 years exp and have already done a lot of hhrs along with everything else. So far I haven't had to do mine. Call several different body shops in the area and find out who they use. Don't just call one shop or 1 chain of shops.
09-15-2006, 08:53 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: 05-05-2006
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Posts: 233
Originally Posted by tomdent1
Find a good Pdr guy in your area. Don't just listen to the Dealers they use the cheapest. Try to find one with over 5 years exp. Too bad you are not here. I got 15 years exp and have already done a lot of hhrs along with everything else. So far I haven't had to do mine. Call several different body shops in the area and find out who they use. Don't just call one shop or 1 chain of shops.
In case I ever need you where are you located in North Carolina?
09-15-2006, 08:57 PM
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: 04-19-2006
Location: Arvada CO
Posts: 5,065
Originally Posted by john 11
tomdent1
In case I ever need you where are you located in North Carolina?
In case I ever need you where are you located in North Carolina?
I'm in Gibsonville (between Greensboro and Burlington). Hope that helps John11.
09-15-2006, 09:10 PM
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: 04-19-2006
Location: Arvada CO
Posts: 5,065
No problem John...that's what forums are for...to gather and exchange information and make friends who have a common interest.
Lee...so sorry to hear what happened to the HHR. Please keep us updated on how things go with repair.
Lee...so sorry to hear what happened to the HHR. Please keep us updated on how things go with repair.
09-15-2006, 09:48 PM
#8
Senior Member
Join Date: 05-01-2006
Location: New London, CT USA
Posts: 2,507
Hi Lee. Sorry to hear about the dent ( S) 
These cars do dent easily. The more I look at my front the more small lean dents, etc I see in the hood. Thankfully the shine outweighs the sdents at this jucture. But I'm sure as the paint fades more dents will accumulate. So it goes with daily drivers....
The first week I had my Safari AWD van a friend opened the passenger door hard into a heavy metal trash receptacle in front of my store. It was a deep dent from a friend being careless.... I just shook my head and gritted my teeth. He had a lot on his mind with a sick almost dying son, etc. It kind of put it in perspective when I put my self in his shoes that time......
The first day I brought home our new-to-us Voyager mini van we got keyed in our apartment complex.
I never dented my SHO except when a tow truck hit me broadside at a five way intersection in Boston
And then at the end of its time with us, I pulled too far into my drive way and a tree limb dented the hood. I was parking the car a certain way to allow a snow plow to get our driveway and I got sloppy with the tranny. I'm just stupid like that when it's late and I'm driving a standard.
That's when I should have given up driving manual transmissions
I'm getting too old for them. Manual trannys are for the young
I have the Chevy extra warrantee on the body dents and tires/rims.
They covered one rim that had a dent in the bead area, but not the other one which I scratched up as it is not detrimental to the operation of the car ....
They PDR'd a dent near my gas cap, but a real interesting dent in the passenger front fender I have to cover. There is a bracket under the center of the fender and if someone puts too much pressure on the outside of the fender, the fender will bend around this bracket. For us it looks like someone took a hammer and a leather punch and hit upward from beneath. It is quite bothersome when you know where to look for it.
I must have missed it when we bought the car. It was used, five grand off for 8k miles and I got sloppy. The dented wheel they optional insurance covered was on the same side as is a fold in the wheel well lip. Seems it was in an undeclared accident. I did a search of accidents with an accident data base company before buying it. Oh well. Nice car though. No leaks, or electrical problems.
Hey we had a Saturm L300 wagon. 2001. Loved it....sorta........... Liked the body. Great car decent MPG. Excellent engine. Bad electrical. and The O2 sensor went way too early, I thought. So it stranded my wife and child a couple of times in traffic with the bad O2 sensor. Could not get it diagnosed at any GM dealer. The symptoms told all of us it was an O2 sensor. No one could get me the O2 sensor 'cept the Saturn dealer.
We bought the Saturn near our in law's house 100 miles from where we live. Saturn was building a showroom near us so we felt safe... STUPID US! The show room still has a sign , "coming soon"....
. Saturn shut down the dealership we bough it at, never built the one next to where we live, and then shut down the nearest one to us!
Now the nearest is fifty miles away. Too far for a proprietary car. , so we got rid of it. If a car cannot be fixed by me, or a local dealer, I do not want to own it.
Now it is back to mainstream GM for us. We own a Buick and a Chevy.
. Saturn should shut its doors. It is a disgrace. Utter foolishness to NOT let another GM dealer work on its cars. Stupid business decision form my perspective. I can't see how it can help the company grow? It made us fleee..
I mean, few GM platforms are unique to the point of everything being proprietary. They share a number of bits with each other. Saturn is no different....
Back to topic. Dents are inevitable and bad. Perhaps Chevy should do what Saturn did and make more of its panels plastic. Heck, they use such thin metal in search of light weight. Might as well use a proven polymer design.
These cars do dent easily. The more I look at my front the more small lean dents, etc I see in the hood. Thankfully the shine outweighs the sdents at this jucture. But I'm sure as the paint fades more dents will accumulate. So it goes with daily drivers....
The first week I had my Safari AWD van a friend opened the passenger door hard into a heavy metal trash receptacle in front of my store. It was a deep dent from a friend being careless.... I just shook my head and gritted my teeth. He had a lot on his mind with a sick almost dying son, etc. It kind of put it in perspective when I put my self in his shoes that time......
The first day I brought home our new-to-us Voyager mini van we got keyed in our apartment complex.
I never dented my SHO except when a tow truck hit me broadside at a five way intersection in Boston
And then at the end of its time with us, I pulled too far into my drive way and a tree limb dented the hood. I was parking the car a certain way to allow a snow plow to get our driveway and I got sloppy with the tranny. I'm just stupid like that when it's late and I'm driving a standard. That's when I should have given up driving manual transmissions
I'm getting too old for them. Manual trannys are for the young I have the Chevy extra warrantee on the body dents and tires/rims.
They covered one rim that had a dent in the bead area, but not the other one which I scratched up as it is not detrimental to the operation of the car ....
They PDR'd a dent near my gas cap, but a real interesting dent in the passenger front fender I have to cover. There is a bracket under the center of the fender and if someone puts too much pressure on the outside of the fender, the fender will bend around this bracket. For us it looks like someone took a hammer and a leather punch and hit upward from beneath. It is quite bothersome when you know where to look for it.
I must have missed it when we bought the car. It was used, five grand off for 8k miles and I got sloppy. The dented wheel they optional insurance covered was on the same side as is a fold in the wheel well lip. Seems it was in an undeclared accident. I did a search of accidents with an accident data base company before buying it. Oh well. Nice car though. No leaks, or electrical problems.
Hey we had a Saturm L300 wagon. 2001. Loved it....sorta........... Liked the body. Great car decent MPG. Excellent engine. Bad electrical. and The O2 sensor went way too early, I thought. So it stranded my wife and child a couple of times in traffic with the bad O2 sensor. Could not get it diagnosed at any GM dealer. The symptoms told all of us it was an O2 sensor. No one could get me the O2 sensor 'cept the Saturn dealer.
We bought the Saturn near our in law's house 100 miles from where we live. Saturn was building a showroom near us so we felt safe... STUPID US! The show room still has a sign , "coming soon"....
. Saturn shut down the dealership we bough it at, never built the one next to where we live, and then shut down the nearest one to us!
Now the nearest is fifty miles away. Too far for a proprietary car. , so we got rid of it. If a car cannot be fixed by me, or a local dealer, I do not want to own it.
Now it is back to mainstream GM for us. We own a Buick and a Chevy.
. Saturn should shut its doors. It is a disgrace. Utter foolishness to NOT let another GM dealer work on its cars. Stupid business decision form my perspective. I can't see how it can help the company grow? It made us fleee..
I mean, few GM platforms are unique to the point of everything being proprietary. They share a number of bits with each other. Saturn is no different....
Back to topic. Dents are inevitable and bad. Perhaps Chevy should do what Saturn did and make more of its panels plastic. Heck, they use such thin metal in search of light weight. Might as well use a proven polymer design.
09-16-2006, 01:00 AM
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: 08-15-2006
Location: NC
Posts: 223
Originally Posted by Harpozep
I have the Chevy extra warrantee on the body dents and tires/rims.
They covered one rim that had a dent in the bead area, but not the other one which I scratched up as it is not detrimental to the operation of the car ....
They PDR'd a dent near my gas cap, but a real interesting dent in the passenger front fender I have to cover. There is a bracket under the center of the fender and if someone puts too much pressure on the outside of the fender, the fender will bend around this bracket. For us it looks like someone took a hammer and a leather punch and hit upward from beneath. It is quite bothersome when you know where to look for it.
What DEb said on where I'm at.
09-16-2006, 02:47 AM
#10
Senior Member
Join Date: 05-01-2006
Location: New London, CT USA
Posts: 2,507
Originally Posted by tomdent1
Are you sure thats a GM warranty? If you would do me a favor and look on your paper work and see if you can find a company name on it.
What DEb said on where I'm at.
What DEb said on where I'm at.
No , it is not a GM warranty, it is a second party one offered by my Chevy dealer. I usually don't go for them, but this seemed ok for $500.00 for the life of the loan. It has already paid for itself ( actually within a month of ownership
)I can get the company name for you if you wish.