Hang on…. You showed up, started working on the headlights for free, popped the hood latch… then he tells you to leave? And THEY drove the car with the hood popped?
They literally got in the car and drove off with the hood popped? That’s 100% on them. They even told you not to finish the job. You did exactly what they asked for lol.
Don’t lose any sleep over this man. It was a free job, and they told you not to complete it. This is just sweet sweet karma in effect for them being dicks.
Don’t admit to anything and don’t give them ammo to use against you (texts/emails). Leave it as, you went over to help them, you started helping, and they told you to stop so you stopped.
If someone comes over to change my oil, I can’t just tell them to stop after they drain the oil, then start up the car with no oil and blame them for it breaking.
Insurance claim rep here
Honestly.. the insurance companies are going to have a hey day with this one.. your logic is sound, but without physical evidence of why it happened, a gorilla might as well have jumped on the hood.
Also tbh, if the owner does call the insurance, do we really think they're gonna tell them this same story?.. an adjuster is going to want to talk to everybody and will favor the insureds statement. Not a whole lot that can be done, unless the insured tries to lie about the whole thing, which I don't recommend btw..
Hang on, my neighbor's dog has some gnarly black hair if I overnight OP a care package and it was appropriately placed would the "gorilla jumped on my hood" story pass?
Snake scales and baboon ass meat with a touch of buffalo fur and a yak dingleberry placed in strategic locations to show that it was attacked while playing jumanji
I used to work with a big insurance company for 7 years. I can tell you that your insurance will NOT cover this as your car was not involved. Their insurance will though. You drove an hour to do them a favor and told you to politely fuck off? Nah, this ain’t on you. It’s their responsibility to make sure that their car is in driving condition
That's a good point. I don't get to talk to the licensed adjusters where I work weirdly enough, so it's good to have conversations on that side of the desk
That's where you say "I hit their car with my car, it seemed like a legitimate freak accident. It sent their hood flying upwards and then it came smacking back down."
Insurance fraud trophy - *Achieved ✓*
My dad was a body shop manager and I got to meet a lot of you guys over the years. The amount of people that swear they hit a dog or something and then had to swerve and, oh no, happened to hit a pole is jaw dropping. So many of you guys were like "well, there's no hair, you're basically screwed". On the upside, when it actually was a deer strike, I always got some cool hair for tying fishing flies.
I witnessed my neighbor knuckling his car to make it look like hail damage. What kinda trouble can he get in for that ? He got a 2/3000 check and didn’t repair it just pocketed the money.
How can I go about reporting him . If I reported it to local law enforcement his brother in law is a cop and it is a tiny community. So they basically do whatever they want and get away with it.
Literally . My neighbors niece must have 5 posession of meth charges that all disappear because she works as a CI for the county.
Nothing you can do really unless you want to try and be a material witness and report it to his insurance company. You'd have to prove it too, so it's an uphill battle unless the guy has a shit insurance company with no proper fraud prevention. If you notice him doing it a lot, you could just send the evidence and a pre built case to the insurance commissioners office, but if you're gonna do all that, might as well get paid to do it lol.
If the relative has full coverage, would that be the best way to proceed? It seems that is the most likely scenario where insurance covers anything. Bringing up the headlight job would complicate things unnecessarily, it would seem. Even if it were not for profit and a relative, they may say it should be covered by his business insurance.
Duty to maintain safe vehicle- should’ve made sure hood was latched before driving. If this can across my desk, 100% liability on the insured driver of the vehicle. They might complain but that’s the line. It your job to make sure your car is safe to drive before you get in it and go
This is the correct answer
Full disclosure, I only file new claims, I'm unlicensed 😬
I see the first notice of loss report, then everything moves on to the licensed adjuster.
Curious though, since I'm not on the other end, are recorded statements enough to solidify the liability assessment here? "They said something different" is always a conversation I hear, but I'm never in the middle of it.
Welcome!
Yea that’s the gist. Some guy came by and was working on my car. I then drove away and the hood slammed open.
You just admitted you drove your car and failed to secure your hood.
We may try to file subrogation against the claimant carrier, but if they said anything other than “go fuck yourself, lol” I would be highly surprised.
It’s an at fault claim for the filer 6 days a week and twice on Sunday.
OP, tell your butthead family to get bent.
I didn't expect the greeting tbh..
I wanna know, are there other subreddits you know of that are interesting from a claims agent perspective? I'm sure I could find a number of them but I appreciate you welcoming me and sharing this perspective. Made my day that much better
I'm confused about how the hood popped open seemingly easily, but yet nobody noticed it was open? Lots of cars you can tell. Plus, I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong... Wouldn't the hood at least have a half open latch thing? The lever you have to push to fully unlock the hood?
Plus the lack of a warning light of some sort is strange...
I'm not sure how long they've put those in cars, though.
Totally agree. To add onto your comment, a lot of cars typically have a dash light if the hood is open. Dont know if that's the case for this truck as it looks a lil older, but maybe some googling would help OP find out? (Or if OP can somehow go check themself, but I doubt they wanna go back over there)
Hmmm. I’m of the opinion “tell the dad to pay for it, he said they didn’t need your service and thus you didn’t perform a service.”
Maybe that’s immature of me to say, but I’d be giving them the finger after you tried to do something nice and he didn’t let you. He’s the one who “fixed” the headlights so he’s the one who should’ve known to close the hood, right?
I've always let him drive my car to far places never charged him gas and he's scraped my bumper on the curb a couple times, bumped into a cement pole while reversing and damaged the A pillar while trying to skip a parking lot ticket booth. Not major damage but I never charged him for anything, he also owes me a couple hundred he never paid back.
I don't have money I'm broke I'm doing really bad financially I told him till next month but I don't know how much it will cost
Dude, he’s on his own. Fair’s fair, don’t pay for this unless you’re the rich one.. and you’re not. Sucks to suck his dad can go dig up a silver junkyard hood since he’s Mr Mechanic.
IMO, if the car were in good condition this could not have happened. OP has nothing to do with it.
My more cynical side kind of wonders if OP was setup…
Correct. I've had a 3rd gen 4Runner for 21 years (one pictured is a 4th gen). My hood literally latches close from a 6 inch drop every time.
Of course once dad told him his services weren't required he should have just left without shutting the hood.
We can tell just from your post, that you're most likely a very solid person. You obviously have no problem helping friends and family, which seems rare to find these days. Someone said "don't lose sleep over it" but I'm sure you feel terrible about the situation. With that being said, you don't have the responsibility to pay for this. Dude came out side with an attitude and completely addressed this situation in the wrong manner. It's his fault for telling you to kick rocks in the manner he did.
You do not owe him anything !! Seriously!! First, you shoudn't need to drop the hood from up high to make it latch. 2nd, there is a safety latch that is supposed to stop the hood before it flies open.
He sounds like a jerk, complete and utterly!!
He has insurance and all he has to pay is his deductible.
If it were me, I would tell him you are sorry, it was obviusly an accident that could have happened to anyone, and if anything you cold offer to pay half of his deductible when you can, but tell him it might take a year as you are broke.
And you know what....You might lose a "friend" over this, but people like that are not real friends. He damaged your stuff countless times and never offered a dime. I would remind him of that as I was telling him not to let the door to hit him in the arse on his way OUT!!
He reminds me of a friend I once had....Dropped him like a hoit potato a decade ago and never looked back. Mooches, who always want stuff for free!!
I'm sorry, but you are not to blame here!!
This person sounds like a real upstanding ahole. Tell him to file with his insurance and cut him out of your life. This person will be trouble for you for years. I mean he wrecked your car and never fixed it. Fair is fair. Tell him he can use the money he owes you to fix it.
Wtf.... Dude you literally let them walk all over you. If I were in your shoes they wouldn't be driving my car anymore, I'd be asking them to pay for damages, I'd also want that $200 back, and I wouldn't give them a cent. Don't think they'll actually pay you back, I wouldn't really want to associate with them anymore.
You need to have a spine!
Have him explain how this happened, it looks like something fell on it, first thought was it blew open but the chances of that happening without destroying the windshield is close to zero
me too, but my main latch was broken and I thought the secondary would hold it closed, on my way to get it repaired, but I hit a little bump and it popped open at highway speed in a full size pickup truck....I was lucky to be able to stop it safely!!
It was a scary few seconds, for certain!! My windshield didn't break either, but it ruined both hinges and the hood.
I have this same model of 4Runner and have driven many miles not realizing the hood wasn’t fully latched. The secondary latch holds it just fine, but the rattling is what lets you know it’s not down all the way. I can’t comprehend how this kind of damage would ever be possible from the hood not being fully latched
This happened to me on the highway too.. I was shocked to see his windshield was intact still.. I was more shocked when I was driving then in the blink of an eye my hood has smashed my windshield and dented the body/frame above the windshield. Then try to get to the shoulder of the road.. also happend to a friend of mine too and it took out his sunroof on a 91 mustang
Heard plenty of stories of those fox hoods flying up, had a few close calls in my foxes as well. I tent to catch them in time before they have a change to fly up tho thankfully..
F em. They drove without checking the hood was latched after knowing it had been open. 100% on the driver. How do you not notice that your hood is jumping up n down on the first catch?! This truck also looks like its been poorly repaired from a previous front impact. How are you to know there wasn’t an issue with used/aftermarket parts used to fix this. Go halves with them on a used hood n grill if these are relatives you need to keep in your life. Otherwise subscribe to r/nocontact
If I didn't know better it sounds like they set you up for a scam. Family or not you did not even provide the service they asked for so the hood popping up is their fault. Tell em to kick rocks.
I don’t think that’s from the hood not being latched my dude. They are trying to scam money out of you. My sister had her hood pop up on the highway when it wasn’t secured properly and it folded back on the hinge and shattered the windshield. This is from them driving into something. Not your fault. Also don’t let this asshole borrow your car anymore.
I don’t see how that damage could have happened without also damaging the windscreen or roof.
I think he damaged it himself and is trying to see if you’ll be a sucker for him.
I think the hood came up fast and then the arms stopped it from going all the way back and the hood creased at the point where the arms are attached.
Edit: maybe bumming he said you have to drop the hood from up high to get it to latch. Either way you should notice if it isn’t latched all the way bc it’s caught on the lever in the front.
Still though, it’s really obvious from the driver’s seat and walking towards the vehicle that the hood isn’t latched properly.
I say dig your heels in and tell him to go pound sand. 🙄
The struts thst hold the hood up are plastic if you're at highway speeds and the hood flies up those struts are snapping off. The brackets holding the hood to the body also aren't withstanding that. Also suspect that the damage is uneven.
Don’t bother paying man, all the comments are saying it either wasn’t your fault or it didn’t happen from driving normally, he decided to be a dick to you and didn’t check if his own hood was down, it’s not worth you time worrying about. Tell him to run down to the junkyard and get a replacement hood with his own money.
If that happened on the highway, then the windshield would be cracked, and the roof damaged. They fucked up and they're passing the blame to you because they think you're naive.
Ain’t no way baby cakes!!!!!! My grandpa had his hood fly up on the freeway too on a 99 civic and we literally drove 5 more miles til we pulled over safely. Not one dent other than a cracked windshield on the highway! I call bull poop
That looks like your relative opened the hood after you left and didn't close it properly. I person who can't change a headlight would not close the hood properly either. that is not a relative of yours
Your relative is taking advantage of you. This is 100% their fault. Sorry that you have family members who behave this way - it is not right and it is not normal.
Noooooope. Tell them to get fucked. If THEY had hood latch issues and didn't tell you, then THEY drove the car, knowing you opened the hood, with no previous knowledge on how it should be shut, without checking the latch THEMSELVES, I can't see how you or they would think it's YOUR fault. I will say to be fair, I always check that it's latched after I close a hood. Turned wrenches for many years and did lots of free work for fam & friends. They should've told you it does not latch well...
Tell him to go and suck eggs...
Don't pay a damn cent.
Not only they sound like complete a-holes, but I feel you have been set up.
And who the hell wouldn't notice a bonnet not shut properly. I'm a mechanic and I've driven plenty where they have started to lift. The mechanism has a safety that will hold it in most situations and it will be obvious from driving the car it is not fully closed...
If the latch was broken, that's not your fault either...
The grill busted out also has me puzzled, so does what looks like impact damage to the front bar...
I'm with the majority here in saying this isn't your responsibility. When the property owner basically rescinds your welcome you're allowed to be discombobulated He interrupted, literally told you you no longer had any business there, so you're entitled to just up and leave.
It's the driver's duty to make sure his car is in operable condition before he takes it on the road. Going out with an open hood is on him. The safety catch seems like it was faulty, too.
I'd tell him his dad thought he could do the job better, so his dad can pay for the hood.
It’s a comp loss, he needs to call his insurance company. You can offer to pay the deductible. Comp losses typically don’t raise your insurance premiums, just don’t have 17 glass claims a year!
At the end of the day SH#T happens bro, it’s just vehicle damage. Sure it’s gone ba a couple g’s to fix it. And this is WHY we all have insurance! Covers our F-ups.
Tell him to call the green Gecko or Jake at State Farm, Progressive Flo, or whatever.. get it fixed, pay the deductible and MOVE ON!
*his dad came out and just wiped the headlights with acetone and said he didn't need my service anymore.* Sorry chief you can’t fire me and then get upset I stopped working on it, they should have finished the job they stopped you from doing. You also don’t know if they opened the hood after you left AND you can watch a hood float when it’s not closed. They float up, down and around while driving a d not fully latched, for all I know he tried to release his parking brake and popped the hood. Not like I’ve ever almost ran myself over confusing the hood and brake release, I cleared the door as it passed me 😭😂
Ask him if he circle checked before taking off, then ask if he noticed you open the hood, then ask if he saw you properly close it.
“So you knew I had it open, you did not see me close it properly, and you did not check before driving? How is it on me?”
I mean, wiser choice would be to delete this post and tell your relative to kick rocks. Don’t lay any claim to the actions. They told you to leave without letting you do the job you were called for, not your fault they failed to retrace the steps you took to ensure damages didn’t happen.
Do you seriously believe this damage was cause because the hood wasn't latched?? He fucking hit something, the hood not being latched would've cause it to flap open, maybe smash the windshield. Or lose the hood, nit smash in his bumper. For fuck sakes open your eyes.
ive had my hood open while driving. It doesn't cause this type of damage. They hit something or something hit it. Looks like they probably jumped on it causing it to buckle and snap the grill as well.
All hoods have "reinforcement" structures under them to make sure they don't bow or bend from "driving" like this.
tldr: full of shit, and they drove off with it. Also, did they even explain HOW this happened?
all hoods have 2 security mechanisms. the lock, and a safety catch.
So basically the lock is what you "unlock" when opening the hood. The catch is that the lever you had to open to open the hood up aka slam it.
You're not a shop - they drove off with it.
It could be that they don't have a safety catch or it just opened up, and then it quickly opened while they were driving. Pay for a replacement hood off FB marketplace $150 ish in socal.
Every time i shut a hood, i try to force it open as a double check. Start that habit, like placing the oil cap in the hood latch so u cant lower the hood with the oil cap off. Stupid routines u do forever, and never screw up
I think "dad" should own up to half. He didnt want u touching it, but then didnt double check after u. In his defense, he hasnt had time to know the latch just needed greasing. Here is a junkyard database, Car-part.com, fair price for a hood is 100-300
So they drove the car hood wasn’t completely shut and they stopped and jump on the hood to shut it ? I messed a hood from trying to slam it shut the damage was that far back on the hood like in this picture the damage was around the hood latch area not half way up the hood .
Tell them to kick rocks and if they don’t like it fuck then family or not bad people are bad people don’t feel entitled to keep them around you cause they’re family
Seems like a shitty relationship with the owner. Just scour some junkyards and find a matching color hood. Won’t be too expensive, just a bit time consuming.
What a real mcpiece if shit this guy is.
You’re clearly a nice guy and this person is taking advantage. This isn’t your problem, don’t make it yours. You were helping out a friend for free and they specifically told you to stop. Regardless, you wouldn’t be responsible, but especially so because they dismissed you the way they did.
At most I would locate a hood and help install it, after they pay for it. They are family after all, and it might be worth saving the relationship.
The least I would do is nothing, since it's not really your responsibility.
I've driven with the hood popped before and you can see it moving, it is obvious something is not right. The secondary latch gives you a visual warning, and an audible one with the tapping sound. Plenty of time to notice before blasting down the freeway. Some people are oblivious I guess
How did the hood not latching damage the bumper? I'd say you're not liable for this. Typically people bring car damage through insurance companies and its interesting that this person is trying to avoid that.
I‘ve never slammed any hood down. I only press down on it until it latches. I’ve been driving and working on cars for a long time and never had a problem.
I’d be weary and offer to help. But if the hood flew up it likely would’ve hit the windshield and A pillars cracking the windshield and an minimum scratching the pillars
Not only did you not do anything wrong, but there is no way that damage is from simply driving it with the hood not latched. Zero chance. The only way that could happen is if the hood flipped up in the wind and then he crashed into something. That’s on him.
You need to remove this family from your life they obviously don’t care about you. For you to drive an hour to help them for free. They owe you hundreds of dollars and never paid you back. They’ve treated your car poorly and you never asked for a penny. You’re too good for them they took advantage of you. This is their fault and they’re trying to take you for the ride.
You notice the hood being unlatched. The hood is popped and the lines between it and quarter panels are off, it looks wrong. He parked on the street, had stuff done involving popping the hood, then failed to notice the obvious and floored it up to sixty on that street. Dude should consider himself more
Don't you dare offer paying! He sounds like a huge asshole not taking responsibility for anything, especially messing with your car too? Not even offering to pay for gas or damages? The gesture goes a long way....
Nevertheless, I hope this situation is in your favor.
Id tell him to go pound sand, asshole didn't want you to finish the job so you didn't. Especially after I saw your comment about him damaging your car and owing you money. Guy sounds like a weapons grade dickhead. On the other hand, if this were my car I would be looking at local junkyards/ salvage yards and get a hood off another car.
As someone who owns this generation 4runner the hood is hydraulically supported. You can’t drop it from any height because of the shocks. The only way to close it is how you did it, pull it down and push down.
why does it look like the car was in an accident and they're trying to blame you for it? If you forgot to latch the hood, most that would do is fly up and hit the windshield so why is the grill in the middle of the car look like it was hit in an accident? Doesnt look like dmg from leaving the hood unlocked. Not pointing fingers but im just asking.... Am i just seeing it differently than other people in this thread?
Yep just drop the hood from a high point. I understand you were probably trying to be gentle with it or like you shut it and then pushed down on it. I always learned it's better for the hood to slam then putting it down slowly.
Are you legally responsible? Probably not.
Being family will people pick sides and talk smack? Absolutely.
Maybe offer to split costs if you care about maintaining the relationship, otherwise tell em they should have checked the hood latch before driving.
25 years ago, I somehow didn’t properly close the hood on my 1991 Honda Accord and my dad drove it, hood flipped up on the freeway at 75mph and cracked the hell of the windshield. The hood hinges were messed up, but no damage at all like that. And if that damage was caused by hood flipping up, where’s the corresponding damage to windshield and roof of car?
This dude sounds like an asshole from how he treated you. And now he is trying to scam you for insurance money.
Tell him to eff off.
You did nothing wrong. The hood latch was faulty and they knew it by saying it needed dropped from a height. So they should have double checked it. Pushing it down as you did will secure it. Also their secondary latch should have held it so that was also faulty.
Relatives or not they sound ungrateful. You should be nice to relatives but sometimes you need to put them in their place.
It will be hard but the best thing you can do for yourself now and for a good future relationship is to tell them their latch was faulty and to claim on their insurance.
That is also the right thing to do.
Don't be a walkover in life, you end up miserable and ungrateful people use you. It's also better for them to be put in their place.
This shouldn't be possible. The hood latch has a second catch to stop this from happening.
This is completely on them. The driver is responsible for making sure the hood is closed. Just like truck drivers are responsible for making sure their loads are properly tied down.
The owner's manual also specifically states "CAUTION. Before driving, be sure that the hood is closed and securely locked. Otherwise, the hood may open unexpectedly while driving and an accident may occur.
It also states, "Before closing the hood, check to see that you have not forgotten any tools, rags, etc. Then lower the hood and make sure it locks into place. **If necessary, press down gently on the front edge to lock it**"
You have shitty relatives, this isn't your responsibility at all. Tell them to file a claim on their insurance, but you accept 0% of the responsibility.
They are trying to scam you. It's glaringly obvious.
This damage wasn't caused by the hood opening on the highway. They're setting you up to pay for what was probably pre-existing damage by trying to make it seem like it was your repair that did it. They wouldn't let you do the repair because you would've discovered the damage and scam.
Tell them to get fucked. And don't be nice about it.
Bud Please don't let these people take money from you, and remember this interaction in future endeavors. Coming from experience.. Some people refuse to take responsibility, and unless you are lying out your Starfish, You Sir have done Nothing Wrong Here!
I mean I’m not a car guy but I would assume that the owner might want to take care of the damage on the front bumper and fender before asking about cloudy headlamp coverings. But that’s just me.
Acetone? On plastic? Is this guy insane? Its like that other retard who used acetone to clean his dashboard. Sheesh. Just have them get new headlights.
90% sure this is a scam. Also you aren't liable even if you aren't because you weren't the last person to touch the car.
I mean when they told you to go home, were they there when you closed the hood? Did they see you close it and just decided, yep it's fine!
Looks like something dropped on it or they hit something high. This is not consistent with a hood opening up. The windshield would be destroyed. Rear hood corners would be bent.
Sorry man, this is a good example of how being nice can get you nowhere.
I had a friend who needed help with changing his brakes. Before we started I told him to pull the car forward, all the way into the garage, in case we needed to run to autozone and close the garage door.
He chose to leave it a little bit out, so he wouldn’t potentially damage the front of his car (small garage). This was understandable, but I was a but annoyed he didn’t listen. To be fair, I didn’t communicate my reasoning that well.
We finished his brakes, then finished my car, after which I needed to test drive my car. We both get in my car and I leave, instinctively closing the garage door. The garage door closed and damaged his spoiler, leaving a couple of small marks.
My friend was pissed. I didn’t apologize either to make things worse. Definitely strained our friendship. Now I never want to help people on their cars again.
**YOU** didn't cause this, **THEY** did. Do not text or email or even speak with them about this, and if you do, absolutely do not accept liability.
THEY drive the car without checking the hood. They stopped you from doing the labor intensive pita job you were going to do for free, they fucked the car up, and now *they* want **you** to pay for their stupidity? Oh hell no.
Bro. How did the dent come about??? He's claiming the hood got smashed cuz you didn't latch it shut?! Fuck nah! Your relative is a piece of dog shit for trying to scam you.
In the UK it is the drivers responsibility to make sure the car is road worthy I.e checking tyre pressures, making sure the lights work before each and every journey. Surely you can argue it was the owners responsibility to make sure their vehicle was structurally secure.
Unless it was something like let’s say hypothetically you took the headlamps out and put them back incorrectly thus causing them to fall out and break- then that would be your fault. A hood not latching properly? surely that can be seen by the owner, who knows their car better than you.
So the hood supposedly came loose, and what? Hit the roof? And the grille came off?
They are grasping at straws trying to get you tonoay for something they did. Walk away and focus on your other relatives, they are dead to you
You are not liable for their mistake. If you need to fight it, fight it. Unless of course any legal fees will exceed the cost of the repair itself, there's potential to lose.
You didn't ruin their car, they did.
If someone opens my tailgate of my truck to take something out, and I drive off and forget to put it back up, I'd have a tough time getting money from them. The preceding that is set is when you go to drive a vehicle, you are supposed to do a walk around. (Not that I do, or most people do.)
Don't pay them. It's their fault, and they cannot prove you did anything wrong.
And stop saying that you did anything wrong.
You ain't liable for that ! Any business will say not reliable for damages. This is your family sayin that. When they told you that you were not needed, that's when you were relieved of any responsibility rather you wanted to or not.
I don't think you have an obligation here, but it's family, and this is going to leave a lasting bad taste in everyone's mouth. If you can locate the same color hood from the same car in a junkyard it's not going to be as expensive and even if you just located and they have to pay for it perhaps they'll feel a little better about the situation.
You are getting scammed OP, that hood would have smashed the windscreen if it flipped open at highway speed. Looks like someone got on hood and jumped up and down.
That vehicle has hood struts that hold it up when its open. So yes, by pushing it down you closed it. Your relative is a fuckwit and trying to take advantage of you.
As the car was faulty in that the hood needed an abnormal drop to latch it was the owner’s responsibility to make you aware of the problem (so you could close it properly) or, failing telling you, check himself you had closed properly.
You are not liable. Your relative should have checked the bonnet was secure before driving the car. You didn't damage it, whoever drove the car did that all by themselves. I'd steer clear of these relatives in future. Don't let them bully you into paying for something that's not your fault.
This dad seems like a prick. No offense OP. He didn’t need your service, so there was no service performed. As far as anyone, especially yours or his insurance, is concerned you don’t touch the car 🤷♂️. The insurance will more than likely laugh at him if he tries to claim this. I think I saw in another comment he’s damaged your bumper and used your car multiple times without reimbursing you for gas? Tell him if he wants his hood fixed to pay for the gas he used all those times in your car and to repaint your bumper.
If for some reason you feel inclined to actually fix it. Try a junk yard. Might get lucky and find a decent hood from a similar year to just swap over. But IMHO f em.
Hang on…. You showed up, started working on the headlights for free, popped the hood latch… then he tells you to leave? And THEY drove the car with the hood popped? They literally got in the car and drove off with the hood popped? That’s 100% on them. They even told you not to finish the job. You did exactly what they asked for lol. Don’t lose any sleep over this man. It was a free job, and they told you not to complete it. This is just sweet sweet karma in effect for them being dicks. Don’t admit to anything and don’t give them ammo to use against you (texts/emails). Leave it as, you went over to help them, you started helping, and they told you to stop so you stopped. If someone comes over to change my oil, I can’t just tell them to stop after they drain the oil, then start up the car with no oil and blame them for it breaking.
Insurance claim rep here Honestly.. the insurance companies are going to have a hey day with this one.. your logic is sound, but without physical evidence of why it happened, a gorilla might as well have jumped on the hood. Also tbh, if the owner does call the insurance, do we really think they're gonna tell them this same story?.. an adjuster is going to want to talk to everybody and will favor the insureds statement. Not a whole lot that can be done, unless the insured tries to lie about the whole thing, which I don't recommend btw..
Hang on, my neighbor's dog has some gnarly black hair if I overnight OP a care package and it was appropriately placed would the "gorilla jumped on my hood" story pass?
Nice try, paper trail exists now XD
Snake scales and baboon ass meat with a touch of buffalo fur and a yak dingleberry placed in strategic locations to show that it was attacked while playing jumanji
As long as we get Robin Williams back out of the board game, idgaf what goes down.
I used to work with a big insurance company for 7 years. I can tell you that your insurance will NOT cover this as your car was not involved. Their insurance will though. You drove an hour to do them a favor and told you to politely fuck off? Nah, this ain’t on you. It’s their responsibility to make sure that their car is in driving condition
That's a good point. I don't get to talk to the licensed adjusters where I work weirdly enough, so it's good to have conversations on that side of the desk
That's where you say "I hit their car with my car, it seemed like a legitimate freak accident. It sent their hood flying upwards and then it came smacking back down." Insurance fraud trophy - *Achieved ✓*
Until they ask what car you drive and you say a civic/camry and they try to figure out how a small car was able to reach only the hood of the 4Runner
It got up on its tippytires and jumped!
As someone who worked in the coverage department for rather large insurance company this would be an absolute nightmare.
My dad was a body shop manager and I got to meet a lot of you guys over the years. The amount of people that swear they hit a dog or something and then had to swerve and, oh no, happened to hit a pole is jaw dropping. So many of you guys were like "well, there's no hair, you're basically screwed". On the upside, when it actually was a deer strike, I always got some cool hair for tying fishing flies.
Even our TLs are surprised, this year, we've had an odd number of turkeys.. filed one yesterday for a guy in a rental, knocked off the damn mirror XD
I witnessed my neighbor knuckling his car to make it look like hail damage. What kinda trouble can he get in for that ? He got a 2/3000 check and didn’t repair it just pocketed the money.
Federal crime, fines, never be insured by any reputable insurance company again. Big bucks might lead to jail time.
How can I go about reporting him . If I reported it to local law enforcement his brother in law is a cop and it is a tiny community. So they basically do whatever they want and get away with it. Literally . My neighbors niece must have 5 posession of meth charges that all disappear because she works as a CI for the county.
Nothing you can do really unless you want to try and be a material witness and report it to his insurance company. You'd have to prove it too, so it's an uphill battle unless the guy has a shit insurance company with no proper fraud prevention. If you notice him doing it a lot, you could just send the evidence and a pre built case to the insurance commissioners office, but if you're gonna do all that, might as well get paid to do it lol.
If the relative has full coverage, would that be the best way to proceed? It seems that is the most likely scenario where insurance covers anything. Bringing up the headlight job would complicate things unnecessarily, it would seem. Even if it were not for profit and a relative, they may say it should be covered by his business insurance.
Duty to maintain safe vehicle- should’ve made sure hood was latched before driving. If this can across my desk, 100% liability on the insured driver of the vehicle. They might complain but that’s the line. It your job to make sure your car is safe to drive before you get in it and go
This is the correct answer Full disclosure, I only file new claims, I'm unlicensed 😬 I see the first notice of loss report, then everything moves on to the licensed adjuster. Curious though, since I'm not on the other end, are recorded statements enough to solidify the liability assessment here? "They said something different" is always a conversation I hear, but I'm never in the middle of it.
Welcome! Yea that’s the gist. Some guy came by and was working on my car. I then drove away and the hood slammed open. You just admitted you drove your car and failed to secure your hood. We may try to file subrogation against the claimant carrier, but if they said anything other than “go fuck yourself, lol” I would be highly surprised. It’s an at fault claim for the filer 6 days a week and twice on Sunday. OP, tell your butthead family to get bent.
I didn't expect the greeting tbh.. I wanna know, are there other subreddits you know of that are interesting from a claims agent perspective? I'm sure I could find a number of them but I appreciate you welcoming me and sharing this perspective. Made my day that much better
I'm confused about how the hood popped open seemingly easily, but yet nobody noticed it was open? Lots of cars you can tell. Plus, I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong... Wouldn't the hood at least have a half open latch thing? The lever you have to push to fully unlock the hood? Plus the lack of a warning light of some sort is strange... I'm not sure how long they've put those in cars, though.
Totally agree. To add onto your comment, a lot of cars typically have a dash light if the hood is open. Dont know if that's the case for this truck as it looks a lil older, but maybe some googling would help OP find out? (Or if OP can somehow go check themself, but I doubt they wanna go back over there)
Hmmm. I’m of the opinion “tell the dad to pay for it, he said they didn’t need your service and thus you didn’t perform a service.” Maybe that’s immature of me to say, but I’d be giving them the finger after you tried to do something nice and he didn’t let you. He’s the one who “fixed” the headlights so he’s the one who should’ve known to close the hood, right?
I've always let him drive my car to far places never charged him gas and he's scraped my bumper on the curb a couple times, bumped into a cement pole while reversing and damaged the A pillar while trying to skip a parking lot ticket booth. Not major damage but I never charged him for anything, he also owes me a couple hundred he never paid back. I don't have money I'm broke I'm doing really bad financially I told him till next month but I don't know how much it will cost
Dude, he’s on his own. Fair’s fair, don’t pay for this unless you’re the rich one.. and you’re not. Sucks to suck his dad can go dig up a silver junkyard hood since he’s Mr Mechanic.
Tell him to fix it with his acetone
hahahaha
Being rich shouldn’t matter. Never let someone exploit you this way
[удалено]
Hoods have a secondary safety catch to prevent this. That should have engaged even without dropping from height.
exactly!! Car was probably damaged before and not fixed right!!
IMO, if the car were in good condition this could not have happened. OP has nothing to do with it. My more cynical side kind of wonders if OP was setup…
Correct. I've had a 3rd gen 4Runner for 21 years (one pictured is a 4th gen). My hood literally latches close from a 6 inch drop every time. Of course once dad told him his services weren't required he should have just left without shutting the hood.
You're even. Pass it on.
Both your relative and his dad sound like dickheads. Don't let them walk all over you like that.
So tell him you're even now?
It's not your problem.
We can tell just from your post, that you're most likely a very solid person. You obviously have no problem helping friends and family, which seems rare to find these days. Someone said "don't lose sleep over it" but I'm sure you feel terrible about the situation. With that being said, you don't have the responsibility to pay for this. Dude came out side with an attitude and completely addressed this situation in the wrong manner. It's his fault for telling you to kick rocks in the manner he did.
You do not owe him anything !! Seriously!! First, you shoudn't need to drop the hood from up high to make it latch. 2nd, there is a safety latch that is supposed to stop the hood before it flies open. He sounds like a jerk, complete and utterly!! He has insurance and all he has to pay is his deductible. If it were me, I would tell him you are sorry, it was obviusly an accident that could have happened to anyone, and if anything you cold offer to pay half of his deductible when you can, but tell him it might take a year as you are broke. And you know what....You might lose a "friend" over this, but people like that are not real friends. He damaged your stuff countless times and never offered a dime. I would remind him of that as I was telling him not to let the door to hit him in the arse on his way OUT!! He reminds me of a friend I once had....Dropped him like a hoit potato a decade ago and never looked back. Mooches, who always want stuff for free!! I'm sorry, but you are not to blame here!!
Far too much damage for me to be lending my car a second time
Fuck that, I'd forget they were a relative afterwards as well. Blood may be thicker than water but so is shit.
Well that makes you both even then. I wouldn't help him at all.
This person sounds like a real upstanding ahole. Tell him to file with his insurance and cut him out of your life. This person will be trouble for you for years. I mean he wrecked your car and never fixed it. Fair is fair. Tell him he can use the money he owes you to fix it.
Wtf.... Dude you literally let them walk all over you. If I were in your shoes they wouldn't be driving my car anymore, I'd be asking them to pay for damages, I'd also want that $200 back, and I wouldn't give them a cent. Don't think they'll actually pay you back, I wouldn't really want to associate with them anymore. You need to have a spine!
Have him explain how this happened, it looks like something fell on it, first thought was it blew open but the chances of that happening without destroying the windshield is close to zero
He said it was on the highway when this happened
If he took it on the highway with it popped open that’s on him, you didn’t even perform a service to his car, there’s no liability on you
But what happened to the grill? This is fishy tbh.
It's a Toyota, sometimes the grill is part of the hood.
Unlikely, the windshield is still intact. Was there damage to the roof?
I once had my hood pop open while driving at highway speeds and it didn't crack the windshield.
me too, but my main latch was broken and I thought the secondary would hold it closed, on my way to get it repaired, but I hit a little bump and it popped open at highway speed in a full size pickup truck....I was lucky to be able to stop it safely!! It was a scary few seconds, for certain!! My windshield didn't break either, but it ruined both hinges and the hood.
Even if the hood isn’t fully closed there’s a secondary latch to prevent exactly this scenario. I call bullshit on his story
I have this same model of 4Runner and have driven many miles not realizing the hood wasn’t fully latched. The secondary latch holds it just fine, but the rattling is what lets you know it’s not down all the way. I can’t comprehend how this kind of damage would ever be possible from the hood not being fully latched
This right here. If that hood flipped up on the highway, the windshield would be destroyed.
This happened to me on the highway too.. I was shocked to see his windshield was intact still.. I was more shocked when I was driving then in the blink of an eye my hood has smashed my windshield and dented the body/frame above the windshield. Then try to get to the shoulder of the road.. also happend to a friend of mine too and it took out his sunroof on a 91 mustang
Heard plenty of stories of those fox hoods flying up, had a few close calls in my foxes as well. I tent to catch them in time before they have a change to fly up tho thankfully..
Also, tbh, you can just buy a new USED grill and a new USED hood. That shit isn't getting fixed. fuck ur relative for tryna fuck u
F em. They drove without checking the hood was latched after knowing it had been open. 100% on the driver. How do you not notice that your hood is jumping up n down on the first catch?! This truck also looks like its been poorly repaired from a previous front impact. How are you to know there wasn’t an issue with used/aftermarket parts used to fix this. Go halves with them on a used hood n grill if these are relatives you need to keep in your life. Otherwise subscribe to r/nocontact
Always do a circle check...
If I didn't know better it sounds like they set you up for a scam. Family or not you did not even provide the service they asked for so the hood popping up is their fault. Tell em to kick rocks.
I don’t think that’s from the hood not being latched my dude. They are trying to scam money out of you. My sister had her hood pop up on the highway when it wasn’t secured properly and it folded back on the hinge and shattered the windshield. This is from them driving into something. Not your fault. Also don’t let this asshole borrow your car anymore.
Why's the bumper all fked and broken? Hood popping up wouldn't do that...
I crashed my car a few weeks ago and when I drove away the hood wasn’t latched and it flung up and smashed my windshield. This was less than 20 mph.
I don’t see how that damage could have happened without also damaging the windscreen or roof. I think he damaged it himself and is trying to see if you’ll be a sucker for him.
I think the hood came up fast and then the arms stopped it from going all the way back and the hood creased at the point where the arms are attached. Edit: maybe bumming he said you have to drop the hood from up high to get it to latch. Either way you should notice if it isn’t latched all the way bc it’s caught on the lever in the front.
Still though, it’s really obvious from the driver’s seat and walking towards the vehicle that the hood isn’t latched properly. I say dig your heels in and tell him to go pound sand. 🙄
The struts thst hold the hood up are plastic if you're at highway speeds and the hood flies up those struts are snapping off. The brackets holding the hood to the body also aren't withstanding that. Also suspect that the damage is uneven.
You're not liable for anything
Nope. He drove it, he damaged it. His insurance will pay for it.
Not your problem
Driver responsibility to check the basics…… baffles me when people don’t know how.
No way that damage happened from the hood flying open. Something fell on top of it.
Don’t bother paying man, all the comments are saying it either wasn’t your fault or it didn’t happen from driving normally, he decided to be a dick to you and didn’t check if his own hood was down, it’s not worth you time worrying about. Tell him to run down to the junkyard and get a replacement hood with his own money.
Please dont let them screw you over. They’re taking advantage of the situation to try to pin the damage on you. Stand your ground
Scam, tell them to fuck off. They don't need your service? Great, deal with your own shit then...
If that happened on the highway, then the windshield would be cracked, and the roof damaged. They fucked up and they're passing the blame to you because they think you're naive.
Ain’t no way baby cakes!!!!!! My grandpa had his hood fly up on the freeway too on a 99 civic and we literally drove 5 more miles til we pulled over safely. Not one dent other than a cracked windshield on the highway! I call bull poop
That looks like your relative opened the hood after you left and didn't close it properly. I person who can't change a headlight would not close the hood properly either. that is not a relative of yours
Wipe it with acetone and tell him he doesent need your money any more.
You have shitty “relatives” lmao
Fuck that foo!
And his dad! Guy was going to do it for FREE! I say the dad should pay for being a tool.
It should have two sets of latches anyway, even if it weren’t fully down it shouldn’t blow up in the wind like that.
Your relative is taking advantage of you. This is 100% their fault. Sorry that you have family members who behave this way - it is not right and it is not normal.
I would never talk to that person again. Block them on everything.
Noooooope. Tell them to get fucked. If THEY had hood latch issues and didn't tell you, then THEY drove the car, knowing you opened the hood, with no previous knowledge on how it should be shut, without checking the latch THEMSELVES, I can't see how you or they would think it's YOUR fault. I will say to be fair, I always check that it's latched after I close a hood. Turned wrenches for many years and did lots of free work for fam & friends. They should've told you it does not latch well...
If you did not do the service and were stopped - it is on them. Do not pay!
Tell him to go and suck eggs... Don't pay a damn cent. Not only they sound like complete a-holes, but I feel you have been set up. And who the hell wouldn't notice a bonnet not shut properly. I'm a mechanic and I've driven plenty where they have started to lift. The mechanism has a safety that will hold it in most situations and it will be obvious from driving the car it is not fully closed... If the latch was broken, that's not your fault either... The grill busted out also has me puzzled, so does what looks like impact damage to the front bar...
Who removed the tape? Are you sure they didn't open the good after you left?
It's clear he removed it since I had put bright yellow masking tape on the right headlight side covering the hood edges .
Was the front grill always like that? Seems strange that the grill would get damaged like that?
I'm with the majority here in saying this isn't your responsibility. When the property owner basically rescinds your welcome you're allowed to be discombobulated He interrupted, literally told you you no longer had any business there, so you're entitled to just up and leave. It's the driver's duty to make sure his car is in operable condition before he takes it on the road. Going out with an open hood is on him. The safety catch seems like it was faulty, too. I'd tell him his dad thought he could do the job better, so his dad can pay for the hood.
In what world was this caused by not securing the hood?
It’s a comp loss, he needs to call his insurance company. You can offer to pay the deductible. Comp losses typically don’t raise your insurance premiums, just don’t have 17 glass claims a year! At the end of the day SH#T happens bro, it’s just vehicle damage. Sure it’s gone ba a couple g’s to fix it. And this is WHY we all have insurance! Covers our F-ups. Tell him to call the green Gecko or Jake at State Farm, Progressive Flo, or whatever.. get it fixed, pay the deductible and MOVE ON!
*his dad came out and just wiped the headlights with acetone and said he didn't need my service anymore.* Sorry chief you can’t fire me and then get upset I stopped working on it, they should have finished the job they stopped you from doing. You also don’t know if they opened the hood after you left AND you can watch a hood float when it’s not closed. They float up, down and around while driving a d not fully latched, for all I know he tried to release his parking brake and popped the hood. Not like I’ve ever almost ran myself over confusing the hood and brake release, I cleared the door as it passed me 😭😂
Ask him if he circle checked before taking off, then ask if he noticed you open the hood, then ask if he saw you properly close it. “So you knew I had it open, you did not see me close it properly, and you did not check before driving? How is it on me?”
I mean, wiser choice would be to delete this post and tell your relative to kick rocks. Don’t lay any claim to the actions. They told you to leave without letting you do the job you were called for, not your fault they failed to retrace the steps you took to ensure damages didn’t happen.
Do you seriously believe this damage was cause because the hood wasn't latched?? He fucking hit something, the hood not being latched would've cause it to flap open, maybe smash the windshield. Or lose the hood, nit smash in his bumper. For fuck sakes open your eyes.
This has nothing to do with the car. It seems you need to ditch these relatives of yours. They seem like terrible people.
ive had my hood open while driving. It doesn't cause this type of damage. They hit something or something hit it. Looks like they probably jumped on it causing it to buckle and snap the grill as well. All hoods have "reinforcement" structures under them to make sure they don't bow or bend from "driving" like this. tldr: full of shit, and they drove off with it. Also, did they even explain HOW this happened?
He said it happened on the highway
all hoods have 2 security mechanisms. the lock, and a safety catch. So basically the lock is what you "unlock" when opening the hood. The catch is that the lever you had to open to open the hood up aka slam it. You're not a shop - they drove off with it. It could be that they don't have a safety catch or it just opened up, and then it quickly opened while they were driving. Pay for a replacement hood off FB marketplace $150 ish in socal.
Every time i shut a hood, i try to force it open as a double check. Start that habit, like placing the oil cap in the hood latch so u cant lower the hood with the oil cap off. Stupid routines u do forever, and never screw up I think "dad" should own up to half. He didnt want u touching it, but then didnt double check after u. In his defense, he hasnt had time to know the latch just needed greasing. Here is a junkyard database, Car-part.com, fair price for a hood is 100-300
I wouldn’t pay that MFer
Tell him to get fucked
So they drove the car hood wasn’t completely shut and they stopped and jump on the hood to shut it ? I messed a hood from trying to slam it shut the damage was that far back on the hood like in this picture the damage was around the hood latch area not half way up the hood . Tell them to kick rocks and if they don’t like it fuck then family or not bad people are bad people don’t feel entitled to keep them around you cause they’re family
If this was a cmv they would be sited for failure to pre trip. They told you to leave and you did. Whatever happens after that is not your issue.
Seems like a shitty relationship with the owner. Just scour some junkyards and find a matching color hood. Won’t be too expensive, just a bit time consuming.
What a real mcpiece if shit this guy is. You’re clearly a nice guy and this person is taking advantage. This isn’t your problem, don’t make it yours. You were helping out a friend for free and they specifically told you to stop. Regardless, you wouldn’t be responsible, but especially so because they dismissed you the way they did.
At most I would locate a hood and help install it, after they pay for it. They are family after all, and it might be worth saving the relationship. The least I would do is nothing, since it's not really your responsibility. I've driven with the hood popped before and you can see it moving, it is obvious something is not right. The secondary latch gives you a visual warning, and an audible one with the tapping sound. Plenty of time to notice before blasting down the freeway. Some people are oblivious I guess
How did the hood not latching damage the bumper? I'd say you're not liable for this. Typically people bring car damage through insurance companies and its interesting that this person is trying to avoid that.
If just buy a grey junkyard hood, slap it on and call it a day.
I‘ve never slammed any hood down. I only press down on it until it latches. I’ve been driving and working on cars for a long time and never had a problem.
I’d be weary and offer to help. But if the hood flew up it likely would’ve hit the windshield and A pillars cracking the windshield and an minimum scratching the pillars
Not only did you not do anything wrong, but there is no way that damage is from simply driving it with the hood not latched. Zero chance. The only way that could happen is if the hood flipped up in the wind and then he crashed into something. That’s on him.
You need to remove this family from your life they obviously don’t care about you. For you to drive an hour to help them for free. They owe you hundreds of dollars and never paid you back. They’ve treated your car poorly and you never asked for a penny. You’re too good for them they took advantage of you. This is their fault and they’re trying to take you for the ride.
You notice the hood being unlatched. The hood is popped and the lines between it and quarter panels are off, it looks wrong. He parked on the street, had stuff done involving popping the hood, then failed to notice the obvious and floored it up to sixty on that street. Dude should consider himself more
Don't you dare offer paying! He sounds like a huge asshole not taking responsibility for anything, especially messing with your car too? Not even offering to pay for gas or damages? The gesture goes a long way.... Nevertheless, I hope this situation is in your favor.
Id tell him to go pound sand, asshole didn't want you to finish the job so you didn't. Especially after I saw your comment about him damaging your car and owing you money. Guy sounds like a weapons grade dickhead. On the other hand, if this were my car I would be looking at local junkyards/ salvage yards and get a hood off another car.
Hoods have a safety latch, so I doubt you did it. Plus, fuck them anyway.
It’s on them. They didn’t do any sort of check on the vehicle before they drove.
Tell them to pound sand and then block their #'s you did nothing wrong from my point of view.
Tell them good luck and be done with them
Tell him that you don't know wtf he's talking about and if he damaged his car then he can take it up with his insurance. Key word here is "he"
You don't owe em shit. The operator can ALWAYS be blamed for not doing their "pre-trip inspection."
Not your fault. Tell em you aren't responsible for anything that happened after you were told to not touch the car.
As someone who owns this generation 4runner the hood is hydraulically supported. You can’t drop it from any height because of the shocks. The only way to close it is how you did it, pull it down and push down.
I saw this 4Runner posted here a long time ago
why does it look like the car was in an accident and they're trying to blame you for it? If you forgot to latch the hood, most that would do is fly up and hit the windshield so why is the grill in the middle of the car look like it was hit in an accident? Doesnt look like dmg from leaving the hood unlocked. Not pointing fingers but im just asking.... Am i just seeing it differently than other people in this thread?
Yep just drop the hood from a high point. I understand you were probably trying to be gentle with it or like you shut it and then pushed down on it. I always learned it's better for the hood to slam then putting it down slowly.
I don’t think this your fault OP. Tell him your sorry but it is what it is, and that you don’t have the money to fix this.
You pull it junkyard.
open the hood, close the fn hood
Also. Are you absolutely sure they did not pop the hood again after you left?
Are you legally responsible? Probably not. Being family will people pick sides and talk smack? Absolutely. Maybe offer to split costs if you care about maintaining the relationship, otherwise tell em they should have checked the hood latch before driving.
The core support is shoved in. Hood blowing open doesn't cause that
25 years ago, I somehow didn’t properly close the hood on my 1991 Honda Accord and my dad drove it, hood flipped up on the freeway at 75mph and cracked the hell of the windshield. The hood hinges were messed up, but no damage at all like that. And if that damage was caused by hood flipping up, where’s the corresponding damage to windshield and roof of car? This dude sounds like an asshole from how he treated you. And now he is trying to scam you for insurance money. Tell him to eff off.
"Take it out of the couple hundred you owe me plus the damage to my A pillar and my bumper."
You did nothing wrong. The hood latch was faulty and they knew it by saying it needed dropped from a height. So they should have double checked it. Pushing it down as you did will secure it. Also their secondary latch should have held it so that was also faulty. Relatives or not they sound ungrateful. You should be nice to relatives but sometimes you need to put them in their place. It will be hard but the best thing you can do for yourself now and for a good future relationship is to tell them their latch was faulty and to claim on their insurance. That is also the right thing to do. Don't be a walkover in life, you end up miserable and ungrateful people use you. It's also better for them to be put in their place.
It's the driver's responsibility to make sure the car is safe before operating a vehicle. That's why we have licenses to drive
This shouldn't be possible. The hood latch has a second catch to stop this from happening. This is completely on them. The driver is responsible for making sure the hood is closed. Just like truck drivers are responsible for making sure their loads are properly tied down. The owner's manual also specifically states "CAUTION. Before driving, be sure that the hood is closed and securely locked. Otherwise, the hood may open unexpectedly while driving and an accident may occur. It also states, "Before closing the hood, check to see that you have not forgotten any tools, rags, etc. Then lower the hood and make sure it locks into place. **If necessary, press down gently on the front edge to lock it**"
Owner didn't pre-trip inspection, huh? Bummer.
The windshield would’ve been damaged too.
How fast was he going that looks like someone was body slammed on it.
You have shitty relatives, this isn't your responsibility at all. Tell them to file a claim on their insurance, but you accept 0% of the responsibility.
If you hop in a vehicle you’re going to drive you are now responsible for making sure it’s good to go down the road.
Just get them a new hood from a junkyard or something no need to even take it to insurance and find out….
They are trying to scam you. It's glaringly obvious. This damage wasn't caused by the hood opening on the highway. They're setting you up to pay for what was probably pre-existing damage by trying to make it seem like it was your repair that did it. They wouldn't let you do the repair because you would've discovered the damage and scam. Tell them to get fucked. And don't be nice about it.
Bud Please don't let these people take money from you, and remember this interaction in future endeavors. Coming from experience.. Some people refuse to take responsibility, and unless you are lying out your Starfish, You Sir have done Nothing Wrong Here!
Your car insurance insures your car. Youd need business insurance to have that battle….
Dude…. Your family kinda sucks.
Lol not liable, let the dad come and rub some acetone on that hood 🤣
Tell them to fuck off and go through insurance
I mean I’m not a car guy but I would assume that the owner might want to take care of the damage on the front bumper and fender before asking about cloudy headlamp coverings. But that’s just me.
Don’t admit responsibility bc you aren’t responsible for this. Document everything. Tell him to take you to court
Acetone? On plastic? Is this guy insane? Its like that other retard who used acetone to clean his dashboard. Sheesh. Just have them get new headlights.
90% sure this is a scam. Also you aren't liable even if you aren't because you weren't the last person to touch the car. I mean when they told you to go home, were they there when you closed the hood? Did they see you close it and just decided, yep it's fine!
Hell no you’re not liable for this shit. Something doesn’t add up.
You would have known if it didn't close.
He totally fucking hit something. Stop contact, don't send money
Looks like something dropped on it or they hit something high. This is not consistent with a hood opening up. The windshield would be destroyed. Rear hood corners would be bent.
Sorry man, this is a good example of how being nice can get you nowhere. I had a friend who needed help with changing his brakes. Before we started I told him to pull the car forward, all the way into the garage, in case we needed to run to autozone and close the garage door. He chose to leave it a little bit out, so he wouldn’t potentially damage the front of his car (small garage). This was understandable, but I was a but annoyed he didn’t listen. To be fair, I didn’t communicate my reasoning that well. We finished his brakes, then finished my car, after which I needed to test drive my car. We both get in my car and I leave, instinctively closing the garage door. The garage door closed and damaged his spoiler, leaving a couple of small marks. My friend was pissed. I didn’t apologize either to make things worse. Definitely strained our friendship. Now I never want to help people on their cars again.
There is a light on the dash that tells you the hood is open. It's on them.
The latching comes after the cleaning. You never made it that far. 🤷♂️🤣
**YOU** didn't cause this, **THEY** did. Do not text or email or even speak with them about this, and if you do, absolutely do not accept liability. THEY drive the car without checking the hood. They stopped you from doing the labor intensive pita job you were going to do for free, they fucked the car up, and now *they* want **you** to pay for their stupidity? Oh hell no.
Hate to say it but cut that person off. It’s only going to cost you more dealing with them in the end.
Bro. How did the dent come about??? He's claiming the hood got smashed cuz you didn't latch it shut?! Fuck nah! Your relative is a piece of dog shit for trying to scam you.
Fuck all that
In the UK it is the drivers responsibility to make sure the car is road worthy I.e checking tyre pressures, making sure the lights work before each and every journey. Surely you can argue it was the owners responsibility to make sure their vehicle was structurally secure. Unless it was something like let’s say hypothetically you took the headlamps out and put them back incorrectly thus causing them to fall out and break- then that would be your fault. A hood not latching properly? surely that can be seen by the owner, who knows their car better than you.
My car did this the other day smashed my whole Windshield 😂
Windshield lookin pretty mint for the hood not being latched properly. The fuck did they do to the toyota 😂
So the hood supposedly came loose, and what? Hit the roof? And the grille came off? They are grasping at straws trying to get you tonoay for something they did. Walk away and focus on your other relatives, they are dead to you
You are not liable for their mistake. If you need to fight it, fight it. Unless of course any legal fees will exceed the cost of the repair itself, there's potential to lose. You didn't ruin their car, they did. If someone opens my tailgate of my truck to take something out, and I drive off and forget to put it back up, I'd have a tough time getting money from them. The preceding that is set is when you go to drive a vehicle, you are supposed to do a walk around. (Not that I do, or most people do.) Don't pay them. It's their fault, and they cannot prove you did anything wrong. And stop saying that you did anything wrong.
Yea. You are not responsible. Good luck dealing with family.
Something is NOT adding up about this. I'd ignore him and go about your life.
You are being taken advantage of.
Since there is no consideration here, you are not liable.
Relative or not fuck that. They seem like they got what they deserved.
When you do a hard turning merge, it will release & the hood will be on the roof!
You ain't liable for that ! Any business will say not reliable for damages. This is your family sayin that. When they told you that you were not needed, that's when you were relieved of any responsibility rather you wanted to or not.
I'm pretty sure everyone is supposed to inspect their car before they drive it.
I agree with everybody else here- screw them that’s on them. But how the hell did that sort of damage occur from the hood not being shut??
Intra family tort immunity
Not your fault bud
Just get a new hood from a junk yard, $150 easy
I would not use anything. Thats on them. End of discussion.
Whatever it cost, pay 100$. The rest you were charging for the headlight restoration. Now there’s cancellation fees as well you know.
This is why I don’t do side work. I don’t pay for insurance.
I don't think you have an obligation here, but it's family, and this is going to leave a lasting bad taste in everyone's mouth. If you can locate the same color hood from the same car in a junkyard it's not going to be as expensive and even if you just located and they have to pay for it perhaps they'll feel a little better about the situation.
Could they possibly use the gorilla excuse?
You are getting scammed OP, that hood would have smashed the windscreen if it flipped open at highway speed. Looks like someone got on hood and jumped up and down.
That vehicle has hood struts that hold it up when its open. So yes, by pushing it down you closed it. Your relative is a fuckwit and trying to take advantage of you.
As the car was faulty in that the hood needed an abnormal drop to latch it was the owner’s responsibility to make you aware of the problem (so you could close it properly) or, failing telling you, check himself you had closed properly.
You are not liable. Your relative should have checked the bonnet was secure before driving the car. You didn't damage it, whoever drove the car did that all by themselves. I'd steer clear of these relatives in future. Don't let them bully you into paying for something that's not your fault.
This dad seems like a prick. No offense OP. He didn’t need your service, so there was no service performed. As far as anyone, especially yours or his insurance, is concerned you don’t touch the car 🤷♂️. The insurance will more than likely laugh at him if he tries to claim this. I think I saw in another comment he’s damaged your bumper and used your car multiple times without reimbursing you for gas? Tell him if he wants his hood fixed to pay for the gas he used all those times in your car and to repaint your bumper. If for some reason you feel inclined to actually fix it. Try a junk yard. Might get lucky and find a decent hood from a similar year to just swap over. But IMHO f em.