The buggy owner is COMPLETELY at fault and should (must) pay for all of your out of pocket expenses. If he refuses to do so, take him to small claims court - the judge will b1tch-slap him about 1 minute after hearing the facts.

 

ok, so got my car back, took about 2.5 days to get fixed, etc.. body shop says they sent car in for alignment, etc. and fixed the rim as it was a tad bent in outer rim area...and replaced two black moldings, the one over driver side rear and the rear bumper balc modling and rear side light....looks pretty good.................. so I've had the car back for almost a week and still not sure all is well... ther is a loud noise.... a perfectly patterned noise, kinda like droning, tire was my original thought...but not sure.... once I get like over 25+ mph and up to hwy speeds, just a loud drone!..... as I was looking/reading around, someone (rally@stancedesign) in antother thread described almost perfectly the noise that i hear..:
quote
"whhuuurrrrr.................. whhuuurrrr.................. whhuuurrrr" spaced evenly and the pattern quickens as your speed increases....so at highway speeds it sounds like "whur whur whur whur whur"
It's like a low/deep droaning wwhuuurrr noise....almost sounds like a humming
unquote

anyone experience something similar????

insurance stuff: so it sounds like the persons homeowner insurance is going to pick up the tab, just waiting to see and make sure all is picked up, total tally right now is at just under $440...but if this drone issue is part of problem, then not sure if warranty or what...

 

You might want to have the shop re-check the alignment or at least ask for the alignment printout when they did it. A bent rim could mean anything from a simple alignment or wheel balance to something as serious as steering (tie rod), CV joint, or suspension issues (control arm, knuckle,etc). It is very common for suspension damage to be missed the first time (like me: when my front wheel was hit: drove around in a busted strut for 4 years).

 

I use the highest octane I can find.
There's a major brand "secret" little station
in West L.A that has 1 pump
in the back with 100 octane
racing fuel! It is pricey..but awesome!

 

OK. JUST a quick follow up for those that may want to be in the know!

Took my justaclubman in for 8000 oil change (yes I know, I know...don't even want to start this debate, just let it be known that I think at a MINIMUM of 2 oil changes should exist for this car per year, at least...but just my 2 cents)... anyways, got tire rotation (yes I know.......I know...) and because the car still wasn't 'feeling' right, requested ANOTHER wheel aligment (remember the body shop had already done it).
The dealer came back initially and stated that they couldn't pick anything out during the drives, but woudl keep at it (I advised to drive on 'smooth' roads to incur the wrath of the noise!.....LOL!... anyways, coupe of days later (yes, I have a loaner thewhole time: COOPER S/MANUAL and will follow up on my review of teh LOANER CAR in a few) they call and state that they were able to track down teh noise to a 'bad' bearing in teh left rear (where car was hit by dune buggy)...and what I heard at the time on my cellphone was $130........ anyways, call insuracne company and relay this to them, they say to go ahead and cover it and then submit for reimbursement and no big deal...
go in today to get car and the bearing stuff came in at $530, not $130 like I thought I heard!... ... anyways, I paid the tab plus my charges.... so now I've submitted my reqeust for reimbursment for the BEARING issue which comes in just under $530.... so hopefully they don't get all mad that I told them 130 versus 530..?... I mean, I"m sure they will send my request to an accident guru to gauge the potential of the bearing going bad based on impact is plausible or not..which let me tell u is definitely plausible.

BECAUSE I do not hear that annoying "whurr...whurrr....whurrr" noise anymore, all i hear now is the runflats and wind noise!.....just like I was used to!.....so as far as I'm concerned, my issue is addressed and my car feels like it did prior to accident. NOW, I just hope all goes ok w/ insurance company and they reimburse me full........OH! not sure if I annotated above or not, the 'mother' of the teen got denied under HER HOmeowners policy, so my insurance is going full throttle to get it's money from her!.... and since no insurance on dune buggy, my deductible moved from $500 to $250 based on UNInsured Motorists deductible!......

hopefully all works out ok. but my car is back to normal (SO FAR!)

 

As ur aware, I own the above 09 justaCLUBMAN w/ AT, so while waiting for diagnosis and pursuit of wheel bearing issue I had a green MINI Cooper S w/ manual transmission for 5 days.

FREAKIN AWESOME!..ok, got that out of my system: now as much as I just loved the heck out of the COOPER S, the manual trans is very, very good, I was very impressed and satisfied with it. The POWER is addictive!....and that is just about all that I really liked about it..... now with MY concerns, again, this is just my view and for the most part I"m a pretty conservative and realistic guy so having said that.

I would love to own an S car if i could really enjoy it fully in a city setting or maybe curvy open area......( I commute 80+miles every day, so 99% hwy miles...no difference in S or justa, still have to follow the letter of the law)........and i think the manual is very, very good, but having to spend at times bumper to bumper traffic on the San Antonio/i-35 corridor in texas can make driving a clutch just exhausting at times....

The engine noise and or muffler noise, not sure which, had a pretty rough time trying to fully guage where the loudest ambient noise came from., but definitely 'louder' than my justaclubman and understandibly so...

The S Cooper had the high end leather lounge carbon....to me, these seats do not breath very well (texas @ 87 degrees w/ A/C on, still made me feel damp on my backside, etc), I felt the seats were very 'thin' and lacked some 'padding' I felt like I was sitting on cardboard and somewhat 'thin' leather vs. the 'cloth' seats which to me breath easier and in comparison (to me) were more comfortable. The leather seats, they were ok, but I felt are overpriced and not as comfortable or thick leather as for example on my wifes FOrd Expedition EL...

The radio/speaker...... I configured the audio settings on Cooper the loaner the same as my clubman and noticed different audio sound.... I think maybe because the speakers are positoined different in the cooper vs. the clubman, and by positoin I mean the rear speakers which I htink seem to affect the overall sound... I did not achieve the same sound I was used to in my clubman w/ the Cooper....and belive me I tried, nearly 2 hour commute everyday, I got enough time to fiddle w/ the audio!........

The stick shift, personally, i feel that the ball is just a tad too BIG, I just couldnt get comfortable 'gripping', wish it was just a tad smaller...just personal view

The realist in me says as much as I would love the S, I just don't have a need for it in my dirving habits, and man o man do i wish I could have one..... JUST AWESOME TURBO and boy does that HOOD GET HOT!!!! yowzer! great car! if I could get my hands on a JCW, I would love to check it out!...

now, heres the stage where sometimes u wonder out loud to yourself if another cooper has the same 'quirks' as yours, etc:

* u ever notice when u roll down ur windows (especially if u have tint), u ever notice 'streaks' in the inside window from the rollers inside the door...?.. well my car does it and the loaner car did it as well...annoying as heck, especially if u have very expensive ceramic tint!

* the COOPERs had manual a/c as does my clubman, the coopers dial to change vents, it clicks as you move it, mine on the clubman does not click at all, just moves...

* 3 miles off on speedo vs. GPS (well documented issue in forums), yes.. both did it verbatim!..

* when it rains slightly and ur driving on the freeway, u ever notice as teh wipers go up, you can literally HEAR the WIND FLOWING and then wind noise dissipates as the wiper goes down, both cars do it, I alwasy just thought it was just me or the clubman quirk...

* my clubby and the COOPER S both had the same wheels and tire sets (continentals) and drove and literally sounded the same, so that was comforting to hear the road noise! loud runflats!...

and due to the excessive urge to push the "S" car a bit, just a tendancy to suck down more fuel!.......I think overall I was averaging maybe HIGH 20's, maybe just maybe at 30mpg overall in the S....... very acceptable...

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