Superstition Body & Paint

We had a front end repair job done on a 2014 Chrysler convertible and everything seemed fine at first. The hood and latching mechanism was replaced along with the majority of the front end. Eight months later my wife was driving down the road and the hood blew up and hit the windshield. Luckily it did not cause a traffic accident, but only scared the heck out of her and totally damaged the hood. The claims adjuster agreed that this should go back under the original claim and be taken back to Superstition Collision Center (Superstition Body and Paint) since they would guarantee their work.

We spoke to the manager and he said that because he could not "reproduce the failure of the latching mechanism", do to the hood being so damaged it could not be closed, therefore, he could not verify that the latching mechanism was at fault. I said that if you look at the hood it is clearly damaged due to flying up and hitting the wind shield and there is only one way for a hood to fly up and that is if the latching mechanism fails. He did not agree and insisted that the hood damage may have been caused by some other mechanism other than failure of the latching mechanism, but could not provide any other plausible scenario. Looking at both of our other cars it is impossible for the secondary latch not to engage, as the weight of the hood let down, even as gently as possible, would trigger the latch as long as the latch was aligned properly.

The paint wear markings on the hood latch receiver indicated that the secondary latch was mal-aligned. The paint in the location on the latch receiver where the hook would rest and wear consistently if the latch engaging properly, was new with no wear as if the secondary latch had never engaged. Instead the paint was scratched along the top of the receiver and the side as if the position had changed do to mal-alignment of the hook being in the wrong position and bending do to pressure/vibration.

This is a serious error because the hood flying up could have resulted in serious bodily injury. I would have expected that at least they would have accepted responsibly and fixed the error. I was very disappointed. So if they replace a latch on your vehicle don't expect them to guarantee that it will work correctly and especially don't expect them to fix the damage that is caused if the latch fails. And drive the car at your own risk.

This business does excellent work. The car looks better than before the front end accident. They were very conscientious in making sure that my seat belt and airbag were functioning properly to the point of taking it to a Honda dealer for proper analysis and parts ordering. I highly recommend them.

We had a front end repair job done on a 2014 Chrysler convertible and everything seemed fine at first. The hood and latching mechanism was replaced along with the majority of the front end. Eight months later my wife was driving down the road and the hood blew up and hit the windshield. Luckily it did not cause a traffic accident, but only scared the heck out of her and totally damaged the hood. The claims adjuster agreed that this should go back under the original claim and be taken back to Superstition Collision Center (Superstition Body and Paint) since they would guarantee their work.

We spoke to the manager and he said that because he could not "reproduce the failure of the latching mechanism", do to the hood being so damaged it could not be closed, therefore, he could not verify that the latching mechanism was at fault. I said that if you look at the hood it is clearly damaged due to flying up and hitting the wind shield and there is only one way for a hood to fly up and that is if the latching mechanism fails. He did not agree and insisted that the hood damage may have been caused by some other mechanism other than failure of the latching mechanism, but could not provide any other plausible scenario. Looking at both of our other cars it is impossible for the secondary latch not to engage, as the weight of the hood let down, even as gently as possible, would trigger the latch as long as the latch was aligned properly.

The paint wear markings on the hood latch receiver indicated that the secondary latch was mal-aligned. The paint in the location on the latch receiver where the hook would rest and wear consistently if the latch engaging properly, was new with no wear as if the secondary latch had never engaged. Instead the paint was scratched along the top of the receiver and the side as if the position had changed do to mal-alignment of the hook being in the wrong position and bending do to pressure/vibration.

This is a serious error because the hood flying up could have resulted in serious bodily injury. I would have expected that at least they would have accepted responsibly and fixed the error. I was very disappointed. So if they replace a latch on your vehicle don't expect them to guarantee that it will work correctly and especially don't expect them to fix the damage that is caused if the latch fails. And drive the car at your own risk.