If Katherine Applegarth had known a flood was going to submerge her beloved Honda Civic, she would have arranged to have had someone pick it up from the dealership’s repair shop before the New Year’s weekend.
But the Petaluma flight attendant was on a work assignment. A day later in a Chicago airport, she watched in shock as TV news footage showed the same dealership under water.
While her insurance company has sent her a check for the flooded car, which was declared a total loss, she’s still stuck with a $2,144 bill for her repaired transmission and an unresolved dilemma about who should be held responsible for the repair.
“I never thought for a second my car was in jeopardy,” she said. “I didn’t know there was a potential for that flooding.”
Hansel Honda officials said the flood damaged hundreds of cars on Industrial Avenue, including 83 at the dealership itself. They said they had no warning about the flood, which struck in the early morning hours on New Year’s Eve. By the time employees got to the store – on the back of a flatbed truck through floodwaters – the damage had been done.
“If the building had fallen on it or if it was something we were negligent on, we’d have no problem paying for it,” said Luke Ammann, the service director at the dealership. “The flood was not under our control.”
Ammann said Applegarth was notified the car was ready to be picked up at least two days before the flood. Instead, the car stayed in the parking lot over the weekend and got caught in the deluge, which caused an estimated $56 million in damage throughout Petaluma.
Applegarth’s insurance company should have paid the repair bill, Ammann said. Instead, the dealership is unfairly getting the blame, he said.
Applegarth, 50, said she was paid $4,900 by the California State Automobile Association for her car, which she’s owned since it was new in 1997 and had driven 153,858 miles. The car now sits in a Vallejo scrapyard, she said.
But insurance didn’t cover the bill for the transmission repair, and she thinks the shop ought to cover it. She paid the bill under protest, leaving her with $2,756 from her car settlement, she said.
“That was my expectation. When you leave the car with the dealer, it is under their custodial care and they will do everything in their power to protect the car,” she said. “I thought they’d say, “That’s unfortunate, we’ll waive your bill.”
Ammann said if there was anything the dealership had done wrong, he would agree to cover the damage and waive the repair bill. But it was just as much a victim of the flood as Applegarth, he said.
A total of 70 new and used cars were totaled at Hansel Honda from the flood.
Another 13 vehicles were cleaned and repaired. But the dealer didn’t want to risk its reputation, so they were sold at a discount to a wholesaler.
The company’s insurance only covers the cars on the lot for sale and didn’t cover the entire loss, Ammann said. The repair shop’s insurance doesn’t cover “acts of God” like a flood, he added.
Despite the conflict, she’s had a good history with the dealership and won’t buy any other car than a Honda. She considered asking for a discount on a new car, and the dealer said he’d be “willing to get the best deal she could get in the United States.”
But after filing a complaint with the Bureau of Automotive Repair to pursue a resolution, she said she she now plans to buy it somewhere else.
“I still love Honda. It’s a great car. They’re nice people. That’s why I’m kind of disappointed now,” she said. “I’ve been a loyal customer.”
