Alicia Good, a casting director based in Los Angeles, recently shared on Instagram that her car had been totaled, allegedly by a person who was supposed to fix it. She claimed that she dropped off her Audi Q5 for two minor leaks at a German car mechanic shop in Santa Monica. Good told her viewers that she was informed the repairs would require keeping the vehicle for one extra night. However, as she showed in her posts, her car never came home.
She has, thus far, made four posts about the situation. First, she uploaded a video of the damage to her car. Then she uploaded two posts around the location of the crash site. It is in her fourth video that she provided information about the event. Good alleged, “ Apparently, after the shop closed on Friday, the manager took my car without my authorization. At 8.15 PM, two hours and 15 minutes after closing, he crashed it into a 20-foot concrete barrier in Pacific Palisades.”
According to Good, the crash site was around “nine miles from the mechanic shop.” She continued, claiming, “A crash expert who saw the damage said that he was probably driving 90 to 100 miles an hour. The impact split the engine in half and totaled my car. The shop owner knew by 9:15 PM. but didn’t call me. I kept calling Saturday, yet they didn’t tell me until almost 18 hours later.”
Good claims that the garage didn’t take accountability
The Instagrammer alleged, “I have heard four different stories. My car had low mileage and was otherwise in excellent condition. Why was it nine miles away after hours and traveling that fast? And why did they wait nearly 18 hours to tell me?” She ended her storytime by asking her viewers what they would do. It should be noted that these are her claims, which cannot be verified at the moment, and the shop has not publicly responded.
Many of her viewers came to the comments section with advice and sympathy. One user suggested, “That’s bananas. Outside of the obvious filing a police report and calling your insurance company, you can always file a report/ complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the California Bureau of Auto Repair. They mediate without you having to pay for an attorney.”
One user claimed that the garage was “liable either way. Make them pay to replace it with a similar year/miles.” Another commenter chimed in with, “OMG!! Looks like they owe you a brand new car!!!! No exceptions!!!”
Interestingly, the comment section also saw a heated debate. One Instagrammer jumped in, claiming, “STORY TIME. The manager is my friend, and he was in the emergency room for two days. He is a father of young children and a loving husband. He has people who depend on him. If you have any common sense, you would understand that a man in his position would never intentionally crash a 14‑year‑old car into a concrete wall. Please have some morals and dignity.”
They further wrote, “This is not an episode of the Kardashians — this was a real life event, and it is miraculous that he survived. I am reading all these comments, and I refuse to believe that we, as human beings, can be so vicious to each other. A 14‑year‑old car worth about $7,000 — basically two months of rent in LA — is being treated as more important than a human life.”
This defense did not sit well with many. One reply argued, “Being a good person, a loving husband and a father doesn’t mean he didn’t make a really bad decision. I’m glad he survived, but taking a customer’s car out after hours and driving it way over the speed limit was incredibly irresponsible. The value of the car isn’t the point. It wasn’t his car. You can have compassion for him and still hold him accountable.”
In California, auto repair shops are licensed and regulated by the state’s Bureau of Automotive Repair, which accepts consumer complaints against repair businesses and can mediate disputes at no cost to the customer. Repair disputes are not uncommon, as another California woman found when a mobile mechanic’s $300 fix left her car looking worse.
Published: Sep 27, 2026 08:00 am