$1200 to repair?

[Chris350]

View media item 122338
It finally happened...

After almost 2 years of ownership, I finally got hit...

Person just back into the car.....

Insurance quotes $1200 in damage..... But body shop claims that won't even come close to covering the labor to repair.

The fun now begins..... Hope to see it back in 2 weeks.....

 

[father_of_6]

I'm no expert, but $1200 does sound low compared to other threads I've read about collision repair on a Tesla. I hope you'll update as the story unfolds.

 

[HelixSpiral]

Is it just the fender damage right behind the door? Or is there more damage behind the wheel? I had almost identical damage to the same location when I hit the side of my garage. Tesla repaired it (the local service center does some body repair) for $800.

 

[Sam1]

Insurance estimates are always lower, because they want it to be as low as possible.

The body shop doesn't care about keeping claims low, so they estimate it more accurately.

 

[richrootes]

I think they might have left off a zero

 

[AGARubberDuck]

I don't see how that is fixed for $1200. Labor to straighten it + paint will definitely be more. Cutting and replacing would be more still.
Beyond that, tesla tax puts porsche tax to shame.

 

[Perscitus]

Depends how this is fixed.

An all too common area for damage on the Model 3.

Non-certified shop of choice:
If they just hammer it out, use filler and repaint - might be a fairly inexpensive fix.
Can be as little as 1-2K, probably 3K if done well.

Tesla certified shop of choice:
Going by the book, they will need to cut and replace a section of the quarter panel with a new part, then weld it in, repaint.
This will easily bring the labor costs north of 5K, with another 1-2K in parts. Conservative estimate.

 

[Watts_Up]

The issue is the aluminum difficult to stretch back, not like steel.

I had a rear quarter panel replaced and the full rear side was cut from the middle of the bottom of the rear door to the roof.

The glass roof had to be removed,,,, and get cracked !!!

 

[Darmie]

Wow, sorry to hear that. Hope it works out for you. My wife, a while back did a little garage door rubbing. I was able to buff most all of it out with just a little damage above the wheel. I felt I got lucky. Your damage will require a bit more body work.

 

[Sam1]

The issue is the aluminum difficult to stretch back, not like steel.

I had a rear quarter panel replaced and the full rear side was cut from the middle of the bottom of the rear door to the roof.

The glass roof had to be removed,,,, and get cracked !!!

Yep, a lot of people don't understand how much more work is required for aluminum than the same work on steel.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Yep, a lot of people don't understand how much more work is required for aluminum than the same work on steel.

this is a steel part. my racing numbers stick to the 1/4 panels. trunk hood and doors are aluminum.
S is 'all' aluminum skin

 

[Chris350]

Most of the damage is behind the rear door.... The door appears to open fine...

Not sure if there are any sensors around this area.... I did get a strange alert when I started to back up.... The car sounded an alarm like there was something behind me.... I did stop the car and got out to look but nothing there...

There is mild scratching on the door also...

Tesla certified shop doing the work.... They are doing the teardown today which means removing the tire and the wheel well panel to see what it looks like under it...

The main concern from the shop was that there appears to be a seam in this area of the car.... Damage to that seal means major bucks to get fixed....

They claim 2 weeks to repair as they didn't need any parts.... Guess I will know tomorrow....

Car is in service mode currently which means I can't check on it....

 

[gaswalla]

you were hit by another party
take it to a certified shop - have the other party's insurance handle the bill
be sure you get a nice loaner (it'll suck to buy gas though)
pick up your car when ready
no need for any emotional concern besides the awfulness of buying gas in a loaner

 

[kpedraja]

I had an old guy hit my Model 3 while it was sitting in a parking lot (the Sentry cam video of him just completely misjudging the trajectory into the parking space next to me, hitting my car, then getting out of his to rub the damage and literally doddering off – is almost funny). Mostly paint damage on the bumper bleeding into the rear quarter panel. Ended up being well over $2K by a Tesla certified shop. They are expensive to fix and the labor rates are higher.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Call this guy. Your dent is child's play to him:

 

[focher]

The issue is the aluminum difficult to stretch back, not like steel.

I had a rear quarter panel replaced and the full rear side was cut from the middle of the bottom of the rear door to the roof.

The glass roof had to be removed,,,, and get cracked !!!

There's no aluminum in a Model 3 body panel. The use of aluminum is significantly less than the S/X and almost exclusively used in the body framing but not in any panels. You can see it here.

That being said, I would tell the insurance company (which I assume is the insurance company of the at-fault driver) that I don't care about their estimate. I'd get two estimates from certified body shops and tell the insurance company to write the check.

 

[tkizzy]

It’s a combination of insurance trying to minimize their payouts but the body shops aren’t all innocent - lot of exploitation of indirect customer situation where they milk the insurance companies. You can generally find someone who will do it for half or less of what a prestigious body shop might charge. Once had a golf rear door quoted at ~2300 by insurance, ~5500 by an in-demand body shop (and then insurance agreed to almost their number but still limited it and I ended up basically having to pay out of pocket for a rental for several days because the offending party had minimum liability, and insurance didn’t take that into account so I ended up getting it fixed for ~1500 by a guy who knew a guy. Probably wouldn’t go such a route for our Tesla though.

 

[Chris350]

Update -

Well the car has been sitting at the body repair location (10 Days)... I checked into the status on Wednesday and was told that the repair would estimate out at around $6500..

The repair shop submitted the adjustment (on Wednesday) to the insurance company and got crickets...... They reached out again on Thursday and got nothing back.... I got involve again on Friday (with both body shop and insurance) and body shop indicates they have reached out on 4 times to no answer from insurance... Insurance indicated that they had never heard from the body shop, so the car has been untouched other that stripping the car for discovery and photos to submit to insurance...

So..... late Friday, the body shop pushed this up to management at the insurance company had submitted everything again... I've been told that I should hear something by Tuesday if they have been given the go ahead to start on the car...

Estimate on length of repair - 3 weeks from insurance accepting the new estimate....

Wonderful....

 

[Timbo2]

In general if you can afford it I think it is better to put the claim through your own insurance company and subrogate against the at fault party's carrier.

Your insurance company is generally much more interested in maintaining a continuing relationship than the at fault party's insurance. That said there is still no guarantee. They all are under pressure to keep claim payments as low as possible and some are much more ridiculous than others. It's part of the reason I don't recommend shopping for insurance strictly on price.

Even knowing the industry and the claims process I've found that it can still take me days and multiple phone calls and emails to both coverage and payment for damage that is 100% insured and being repaired at reasonable and customary rates. If you know what you are doing and threaten litigation you will normally get pushed up to a more experienced rep who has the ability to be more reasonable. However, if you don't know what you are doing at that point they will essentially play hard ball and force you to get representation so you have to be willing follow through on your threat of litigating.

 

[jjrandorin]

Update -

Well the car has been sitting at the body repair location (10 Days)... I checked into the status on Wednesday and was told that the repair would estimate out at around $6500..

The repair shop submitted the adjustment (on Wednesday) to the insurance company and got crickets...... They reached out again on Thursday and got nothing back.... I got involve again on Friday (with both body shop and insurance) and body shop indicates they have reached out on 4 times to no answer from insurance... Insurance indicated that they had never heard from the body shop, so the car has been untouched other that stripping the car for discovery and photos to submit to insurance...

So..... late Friday, the body shop pushed this up to management at the insurance company had submitted everything again... I've been told that I should hear something by Tuesday if they have been given the go ahead to start on the car...

Estimate on length of repair - 3 weeks from insurance accepting the new estimate....

Wonderful....

When I first read your original post and you said "Hope to see it back in 2 weeks", I thought to myself "there is absolutely NO chance OP gets this back in 2 weeks. In fact, if there was a betting pool, I would take the over on 2 months, let alone 2 weeks".