Aston Martin Owner Crashes Car Then Refuses To Pay The Repair Bill
Buying a exotic car such as the Aston Martin DB9 is like getting married to a model, you have always got to keep her looking beautiful and in shape no matter how much it drains your wallet so when you don't have funds or back funds in case shit hits the fan, well, sorry my dear friend.
A Canadian Aston Martin owner Jessica Liu found herself the subject of controversy yesterday, when she went public with the news of her Aston Martin DB9's repair bill, with allegations that the repair shop, Burrard Autostrasse, was holding her car and her bank account essentially hostage to the tune of $130,000 Canadian Dollars, which is just about ₦31.1 million.
According to Richmond News she is demanding that she be cleared of any liability for the Aston’s damages that occurred when she inexplicably ran off the road and hit a large stone in December of 2015, just imagine!!
To put things into perspective, a pot of the car’s silver paint, which is named after Bond movie Skyfall, chimes in at $900 and a single headlight registers at $7,000.
Neither of those items, however, form the crux of Liu’s contention, with her focus trained on the cost of a pair of brake rotors ($30,000, plus labour) and a completely new subframe ($25,000, plus labour).
Liu bought the car, which can cost $300,000 brand new, for a “bargain” $200,000 (about ₦48 million) in June 2015 from Vancouver-based, luxury car dealer MCL. After the accident a few months later, she called the dealership and was directed to BA, where the car was towed to.
An initial repair estimate a few days later rang in at around $24,000, before rising, under closer inspection to nearer $100,000 in January of last year. Not happy with the estimate, Liu took the car to a Richmond repair shop, where she obtained a much cheaper quote for the subframe. However, she discovered the subframe can only be bought by an Aston Martin-approved technician and the only approved facility in B.C. is BA. In July 2016, she felt she had no choice but to take her car back into BA, where it has been since.
Unhappy with the subsequent bill, she sought legal advice in October and lawyers for each party have been duking it out ever since.
“I’m not going to pay a cent; I don’t even want the car back anymore; I want a refund (from the dealer),” Liu, told the Richmond News via email from China.
“I don’t think it’s safe to drive. I just drove it for two weeks; I don’t trust the car, I don’t trust the dealer and I don’t trust the autoshop’s invoices.”
Liu, who told BA to stop working on her car last fall, questioned the need to buy a pair of rotors (brakes) when only one of them is chipped and claims she can get the subframe for $10,000 less somewhere else.
To compound her misery, Liu is being charged $200 a day by BA for storage of the Aston Martin and that fee now stands at $18,000.
“I shouldn’t be paying storage fees for a car that isn’t finished,” she added.
Unfortunately for Liu, her insurance coverage was basic and wouldn’t cover the six figure bill and upping insurance coverage is relatively inexpensive.
“This is a car that can go 250 kilometres per hour; we can’t take any chances, it has to be 100 per cent,” said Van Pykstra.
As for needing a pair of rotors and not just one, Van Pykstra said, “When you’re braking in this car, in any car really, the brakes need to be balanced. You can’t replace just one.”
The subframe, he said, is a “restricted part,” meaning only authorized shops can buy it. “I’m not sure how (Liu) could get the subframe for that price; it would have to be from a damaged car or something or from someone using the kind of certification that only a very few people have.”
However as a show of understanding, Van Pykstra said he’ll waive the storage fees if the matter resolves soon;
“We’ve done everything we can for this customer,” he added.
“We’ve made her an offer, which is valid until this Friday; we will take $5,000 off her bill and waive the storage fees.
So while you are sipping on your TGIF drink, thinking of that super exotic car you want to get your hands on, let this story be a cautionary tale, to always make sure you understand what you are getting into especially when the cost of fixing a broken part of the car you want to buy car costs more than half its value.
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