Aston Martin DB9
Canada

Jessica Liu from Canada was the proud owner of an Aston Martin DB9 for a few months before she “inexplicably veered off the road and hit a large stone” in December 2015 as reported by the Richmond News. Liu, who had paid CA$200,000 for the Aston Martin in June 2015, called the Vancouver-based dealership after the accident and got directed to Burrard Autostrasse, an Aston Martin-approved repair shop. The repair shop then gave the unlucky owner a repair estimate, at CA$132,000 (US$100k in current exchange rates), as the car needed, among other things, a pair of new carbon brake rotors (CA$30k, plus labor) and a new front subframe (CA$25k, plus labor). “To put things into perspective, a pot of the car’s silver paint, which is named after Bond movie Skyfall, chimes in at CA$900 and a single headlight registers at CA$7,000”, reports Richmond News. The owner’s insurance coverage was basic and therefore didn’t cover the huge repair bill. Instead of going ahead and fixing the car though, Liu has been at odds with the repair shop for almost a year now over the bill. “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 Richmond News. “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 even questioned the need of buying a pair of rotors when only one of them is damaged, and claimed that she can get a subframe for CA$10,000 less from somewhere else. And on top of everything, Liu is charged CA$200 per day by the shop for storage of the crashed DB9, with the fee at this moment being CA$18,000. She did try to get a cheaper quote from another shop, only to find out that parts like the front subframe are handled only by an authorized shop like Burrard Autostrasse and felt that she had no choice than to take the car back to them in July 2016, with the DB9 remaining there since then. Burrard Autostrasse on the other hand have given the owner the option of a CA$5,000 discount on the repair bill and have the entire CA$18k storage fees waived if the matter is resolved quickly and within this week.