2019 M3, LR..original owner. I have taken my car through the same automatic carwash many times. I prefer to put the car in neutral myself, along with turning off the wipers and folding the mirrors. It works for me, I don't use CW mode. A few months ago I was in said car wash. Towards the end, (no cars remaining in front of me), I felt the drive roller go under the front wheel. The car was now stationary. The wash stopped for a few minutes, restarted and I finished the wash and exited. The attendant asked me "what did you do". My answer at the time was nothing, it's the same answer I have now. The attendant told me he thought it was because the car in front of me exited early. I didn't touch the brake pedal, open the door, take off my seatbelt or put the car in park.
Recently I received an aggressive letter from our provincial insurer demanding to know why I hadn't filed a claim. I called, apparently there was a multi car collision, involving me and the three cars behind me. I felt no impact, and there was no damage to the rear bumper of my car. Fast forward to now, the claim has been settled, (only one car filed, the last in the 4 car chain), and I am deemed to be at fault. Apparently there is video from the car wash showing my car with brake lights on and stationary.
In an amazing coincidence, I had coffee with a friend who was in the same carwash behind a MY, same thing, MY stopped, my friend contacted the MY. He never got a chance to speak to the MY driver, but he's filed a claim. Speaking to the adjuster, it's evident that this is a fairly frequent occurrence in automatic car washes.
So, my question is, what if anything, other than driver error, may have caused this? All I can come up with is the car behind me made contact, which activated the ebrake, causing brake light activation. I would not have felt it due to the noise, the brushes etc. It would have been a light tap anyway, there is no visible damage. Complicating it is the fact that the other two cars involved have not made claims. I obtained the cars data from Tesla, nothing shows on that date. Tesla cam footage has long been overwritten. (we've tried restoring the overwritten footage, but it's too far back). My already very expensive insurance will take a hit, since I'll lose my safe driver discount. I'll also be speaking to a lawyer this week. Something does not add up. Would free roll in CW mode have prevented this? Anyone any thoughts?
Many thanks in advance!
Recently I received an aggressive letter from our provincial insurer demanding to know why I hadn't filed a claim. I called, apparently there was a multi car collision, involving me and the three cars behind me. I felt no impact, and there was no damage to the rear bumper of my car. Fast forward to now, the claim has been settled, (only one car filed, the last in the 4 car chain), and I am deemed to be at fault. Apparently there is video from the car wash showing my car with brake lights on and stationary.
In an amazing coincidence, I had coffee with a friend who was in the same carwash behind a MY, same thing, MY stopped, my friend contacted the MY. He never got a chance to speak to the MY driver, but he's filed a claim. Speaking to the adjuster, it's evident that this is a fairly frequent occurrence in automatic car washes.
So, my question is, what if anything, other than driver error, may have caused this? All I can come up with is the car behind me made contact, which activated the ebrake, causing brake light activation. I would not have felt it due to the noise, the brushes etc. It would have been a light tap anyway, there is no visible damage. Complicating it is the fact that the other two cars involved have not made claims. I obtained the cars data from Tesla, nothing shows on that date. Tesla cam footage has long been overwritten. (we've tried restoring the overwritten footage, but it's too far back). My already very expensive insurance will take a hit, since I'll lose my safe driver discount. I'll also be speaking to a lawyer this week. Something does not add up. Would free roll in CW mode have prevented this? Anyone any thoughts?
Many thanks in advance!
