Fixing The Wagon, or Absence and Disappointment, Part 6

Continued from 10 Days In May.

The last time I saw my Dodge Dart it was loaded on the deck of the recovery vehicle and taken away to a storage facility, awaiting an appointment for repairs.

With all the limited visual angles I had available to me at the time, it was hard to gauge how much overall damage the boulder has caused to the car, aside from the obvious loss of oil through a puncture in the oil pan and unsightly tearing of the plastic underbody molding. All of that would be revealed a week and a half later.

Fast-forward to May 15th 2017.

I received a phone call from the dealer that not only sold me the car, but I had chosen to do the repairs (since it was being financed and still under a warranty, I thought it made sense on all fronts to let them do the work) telling me the Dart was ready to go.

My wife, happy to finally get her Honda HRV back, took me down to collect my car, without delay. I entered into the front end portion of the shop and talked with the repair manager. We discussed the damage, the insurance deductible and to my surprised, shared with me pictures taken of the damage when the finally received the car, put it up on the hoist and started the disassembly process.

The front section of the plastic molding, that starts underneath the bumper...

 

....the rear section that closes in the underside of the engine and those components.

With the covering removed, the outside damage to the oil pan and filter, from the front looking back....

 

Same as above, but looking back towards the front.

 

Then the story gets much worse. Apparently the boulder managed to punch through the oil pan with enough force to cause damage the oil pump as well. Unreal.

So, you would think that my problems would now be all over with, since the dealer I bought the car from would have fixed the obvious issues, might have spent a few extra minutes looking for any other surprises and turned the car over to me in a near-factory-new state?

Until next time.