Recently moved to Long Beach, CA AND after much searching bought an 03 EV (in pristine, as new cond. with only 11,000 miles on it) from Pop Top Heaven in Yucaipa, Ca. On 09/10 at 2 am people in this part of LB (Ocean Avenue @ 2nd Place were awakened by a loud noise. By the time I got outside,the source of this noise was undergoing a field sobriety test after crashing -HARD- into 3! vehicles parked in front of our residence. She failed four attempts and was accorded the temporary use of two SS bracelets, and given a ride in a LB B&W to ? The vehicle owners (of a Mitsubishi SUV, a 1950 Ford and a 2003 EV (me) were left with no contact info.-driver was kept incommunicado by LBPD to cope with this mess as best we could.
Since much of my financial worth is tied up in this vehicle-the thinking was that I would have a place to stay wherever I chose to go and if necessary I could rent out my beachside studio for income-it is vitally important to me that the repair be done correctly.
To that end I chose a shop well recommended by many, including a close family member, in San Gabrial, town some distance to the north of here. After a long ride on a flatbed a week ago I got a prelim., eyeball estimate of $8500. to put Humpty Dumpty together again. (State Farm, thankfully, has been very supportive re the choice of a high end repair shop.)
Unfortunately, this body shop in whom I had heavily vested my hopes for a good outcome for my expensive replacement of a 71 Bubble Top VW camper bus** called a few days later to inform me that they could not put Humpty Dumpty together again after all. Too many camper parts with which they are unfamiliar have to be removed and replaced to fix it properly.
SO HERE I SIT CARLESS IN LB WHILE MY EV LANGUISHES IN AN EXTREMELY TENUOUS POSITION IN SAN GABRIAL. Does anyone have any suggestions for a shop, preferably in So Cal, which does a good job on EVs??
**(Adventurer pkg.-wonderful configuration which I drove daily, and solely, for 17 years. It was with great reluctance I finally had to admit that I needed a new vehicle-I was spending too many weekends fixing something on my beloved van and had shoved too many rebuilt motors into its rear end. Although its white fiberglass "attic" space above the driver and passenger helped keep the temp.inside below broiling, even I had to admit it was past time for air conditioning. In short, an aging, air-cooled 48 hp vehicle needed restoration-which I couldn't afford at the time or -retirement. So I defected to the Honda camp for a few years and put the bus out to pasture. Unbelieveable as it sounds, it was stolen off the street just a few months ago in the town from which I just moved !)This entry probably ranks amongst the longest ms. ever posted here. My apologies and my thanks to any who took the time to read it.