Posted on 01/10/2014 6:48:28 PM PST by rawhide
At 580 hp and a starting price of $55,000, the Chevy Camaro ZL1 ranks as the top dog of the Camaro lineup (at least until the Z/28 hits the track.) For Camaro enthusiasts like John Hooper, author of six books on the history of Camaros, it's a dream car — or at least was a dream car, until an employee at a Chevy dealership totaled his ZL1 on an unauthorized joyride. Nearly a month later, Hooper and the dealership have yet to agree on how much that particular top dog was worth.
According to Hooper's posts on the Camaro5 forum, he had taken his 2012 Camaro ZL1 to First State Chevy in Georgetown, Del., for warranty work on a paint issue. On Dec. 15, a Sunday, one of the dealer's employees took the keys from the closed dealership and went for a spin — that ended when the ZL1 sheared off a telephone pole.
The next day, the dealership told Hooper about the incident, and by the end of that week, the car had been declared a total loss. Since then, Hooper and First State have been unable to reach an accord over how to replace the ZL1.
To First State's credit, it immediately fired the employee who took the car and tried to pursue charges against him — but local officials said since the car was in the dealership's legal possession at the time of the crash, no crime was committed. Hooper's ZL1 had about 10,000 miles on it, and while First State has offered other used ZL1s as replacements, Hooper has said those cars were not worth as much as his example was pre-crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Doesn’t look that bad. A new headlight, a few plastic parts, some sheet metal work, and some bondo, and should be almost as good as new. Shoot, it had probably been dinged before he even bought it. Touch up paint would explain the problem that brought it back in to the dealer.
I did some more reading.. the replacement had 13,000 on it. Even more reason to question the new tires.
It is possible the dealership does NOT use carfax. I read that they offered a report that showed the car had 1 owner and no accident history. I don’t know who it came from.
I have used autocheck and carfax on the same car and got different results. So in the dealerships defense, they may not have known.
Once presented with proof, the dealerships should have handled it much differently.
I completely expect this car to hit the salvage market.
If anything, someone will get a hold of a base model and transfer all the go fast parts (including VIN tag) or they could really hack it and repair what is there. I have seen worse fixed that is for sure.
watch the salvage auctions, it’ll turn up.
Nice pics. Do you own one?
ooooooh yeaaaaaah…...
No, but I used to have a Hot Wheels Camaro when I was a kid. Does that count?
:)
Certainly not as expensive! I would have one now if I were a wealthy man.
Nice Alfa.
Ooh, baby!
Front page of autos.yahoo.com with this story. Nice work. Spectacular F-up. A million plus gearheads now loathe this dealership and the Internet has no remorse.
Just ask that Jim Zumbo character from Field & Stream who proposed banning ‘assault rifles’. They couldn’t hustle his ass out of the building with his final check fast enough for the publisher’s liking after the Internet reactor went into meltdown mode.
You’re going to be sorry now First State Chevrolet of Georgetown Delaware. Brace yourselves, fools.
My sister was having some minor work done on her Toyota. We were across the street by a fast food restaurant when we saw her car in the drive through. She called the Service Manager asking when her car would be ready. He said it was in the service bay and there were finishing up. She said, My car in your service area? He said YES. She said... THEN WHY IS MY CAR IN THE CHICK FIL A DRIVE THRU?
And the excuse he gave is worse. A customer needed a ride to get some lunch.
There were some fireworks when we got back, let me tell you.
Well hell, that easily explains it. They're morons that have absolutely no taste.
That crap isn't even music.
Great picture. That’s back when the Camaro was a *real* car.
Light as hell, from what I understand.
My father had an Volvo P1800 getting work on many many years ago. Some secretary told it out to get some lunch. She wrecked it, not too bad, but when my dad came by later, he was so mad he took his fist and hit a gas pump, knocking it off it’s concrete platform. The dealership fixed everything for him and overlooked the damage he did to their pump.
There ya go. Nice.
I’m not a Camaro fan, but that’s not the point. This is an outrage. I’m beginning to think that people in that industry are among the most unethical.
I needed to check again to see if this place is indeed a dealership and it is. There’s something seriously wrong with the judgement of a lot of people at these places. Coincidentally today on another thread I discussed the case of a seriously mentally ill man and a car dealership in West Seattle.
When I lived in Bozeman I had been without a car for 2 1/2 years and was finally in a position to buy one. They let me test drive it for 2 days. The story had a happy ending. Nothing bad happened to the car and I ended up buying it. But not long after that another one didnt have such a happy ending. Four carpet layers (that’s what the news accounts said) stopped by there to test drive a vehicle and they had had a little to drink. They got into a collision with a family in a van. All 4 carpet layers were killed, the mother in the van was killed. I don’t remember how seriously the rest of the family was hurt. They couldn’t sue the carpet layers—they were dead. A bartender isn’t supposed to let an inebriated person drive, but a car salesman can? Of course I don’t suppose they walked to the dealership.
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