Attempting to Repair Front Collision Salvaged Tesla

[Yaro]

Here is the pyrofuse you need. NEW OEM Mercedes, Tesla Crash Fuse pyrofuse pyroswitch PSS-1 N000000006967 | eBay

It should be on top of the battery right below the air filter. Passenger front side underneath the window by the FireFighter cutloop. If it's an AWD car it's in the middle by the fusebox underneath the windshield aswell.

 

[albatore]

Hello,
I am also looking for a similar project but scared about the expensive cost of the aluminum body shop work.
What is your plan to tackle the body shop work?

 

[RogerHScott]

What is your plan to tackle the body shop work?

Stock piling Reynold's Wrap as we speak!

 

[desoukya]

What is your plan to tackle the body shop work?

Stock piling Reynold's Wrap as we speak!

lool yah as @RogerHScott can tell you from experience, it will not be cheap if you go through a Tesla-certified body shop. Honestly, my plan is to get the body parts (either from ebay or directly from tesla) and install them myself. I have no intention of taking this car to any shop except for sanding/buffing/painting. As @Btr_ftw has said a few times in his videos, if you plan to own a salvaged tesla, you have to learn how to work on the car yourself, especially considering they will be out of warranty and cost of repair is astronomical.

I'm not going to lie though, I'm in no way, shape, or form, a "car" guy. I have never considered myself to be mechanically-inclined nor do I have any past experience fixing cars. However, I do love this car and have serious motivation to learn and see it through. Also, the people on this forum are extremely knowledgable and willing to help, which was the main motivating factor in deciding to purchase the vehicle. Had it not been for this forum and the community, I wouldn't have done it.

I guess we'll see how it all works out though; I'll keep you posted.

 

[CuriousG]

If you can't coax a 12V battery out of Tesla you can try this route.

Tesla Lithium 12V Battery, Model S or X

But for $395 they aren't cheap. They are however Lithium and supposed to last 3X longer than the standard battery.

 

[albatore]

lool yah as @RogerHScott can tell you from experience, it will not be cheap if you go through a Tesla-certified body shop. Honestly, my plan is to get the body parts (either from ebay or directly from tesla) and install them myself. I have no intention of taking this car to any shop except for sanding/buffing/painting. As @Btr_ftw has said a few times in his videos, if you plan to own a salvaged tesla, you have to learn how to work on the car yourself, especially considering they will be out of warranty and cost of repair is astronomical.

I'm not going to lie though, I'm in no way, shape, or form, a "car" guy. I have never considered myself to be mechanically-inclined nor do I have any past experience fixing cars. However, I do love this car and have serious motivation to learn and see it through. Also, the people on this forum are extremely knowledgable and willing to help, which was the main motivating factor in deciding to purchase the vehicle. Had it not been for this forum and the community, I wouldn't have done it.

I guess we'll see how it all works out though; I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for your reply! I am looking forward to read your progress. May I ask you how much you bought the salvage Tesla for? Including auction fee and transportation?

 

[desoukya]

No problem, good luck!

I will do a cost breakdown once I'm finished with the project. However, before I bought the car, I scouted the auctions for about two weeks to get a general idea about the cost, and I noticed similar cars range between 14k - 28k, depending on multiple factors, of course.

For transportation, I used a service called "uship.com" which allowed me to create a listing for truck drivers to bid on; so it ended up costing a few hundred dollars.

 

[RogerHScott]

similar cars range between 14k - 28k

This is a 2014 P85? Does anyone know offhand what those are going for either CPO or in the private market, assuming "normal" condition for that age?

 

[desoukya]

This is a 2014 P85?

2014 P85+

Does anyone know offhand what those are going for either CPO or in the private market, assuming "normal" condition for that age?

I'd be interested to know

 

[demundus]

This is a 2014 P85? Does anyone know offhand what those are going for either CPO or in the private market, assuming "normal" condition for that age?

My 2013 base S (rooted to P85) with 100k miles is worth about 35k. I've seen P85's for about 43k with those miles. The + config is a suspension configuration, does not change the speed. I'd venture a guess anywhere between 40k-45k depending on condition etc;

 

[RogerHScott]

2014 P85+

Mileage?

 

[desoukya]

Mileage?

44k

 

[RogerHScott]

Ok, that's reasonably low mileage. A used 2014 P85+ with ~45k miles from Tesla is $55-60k. Let's say that's pretty high and knock it down to $50k. If we then take off a salvage value, from above, of $14-28k, that leaves us with $22-36k to fix it and break even. Unless there's something really serious wrong that's not evident in your photos it is hard to see how even a pricey shop couldn't fix it for that price range.

 

[desoukya]

Ok, that's reasonably low mileage. A used 2014 P85+ with ~45k miles from Tesla is $55-60k. Let's say that's pretty high and knock it down to $50k. If we then take off a salvage value, from above, of $14-28k, that leaves us with $22-36k to fix it and break even. Unless there's something really serious wrong that's not evident in your photos it is hard to see how even a pricey shop couldn't fix it for that price range.

I was able to get my hands on the estimate today. Evidently, the car value was appraised at $61k (as you had predicted) and the repair cost at $27,844 (parts/labor/tax).

So the cost of repair is roughly 45% of the total car value, which is no where near the 70-75% required to declare the vehicle a "total loss".

 

[RogerHScott]

I was able to get my hands on the estimate today. Evidently, the car value was appraised at $61k (as you had predicted) and the repair cost at $27,844 (parts/labor/tax).

So the cost of repair is roughly 45% of the total car value, which is no where near the 70-75% required to declare the vehicle a "total loss".

Facts. Gotta love facts
So this just really doesn't add up. This isn't even a case of an estimate being inflated to hoodwink the insurer -- apparently they knew these facts and declared it a total loss anyway. Why would they choose to eat $~30k like this?

I'll bet with all the info you have, with a little bit of internet sleuthing, you could find the original owner and maybe get the whole story. You might even find out something you'd be glad to know...

 

[desoukya]

Yeah something does not add up, that is for sure.

I'll bet with all the info you have, with a little bit of internet sleuthing, you could find the original owner and maybe get the whole story. You might even find out something you'd be glad to know...

Well, I do have the car, which has all their contact information Just saying ...

 

[MP3Mike]

I think the issue has a few parts:

• DV: Diminished value pushes up the cost.
• Long repair times: long rental for higher end vehicles push up the cost.
• Some insurance companies got burned by the extra costs once they actually got the car totaled taken apart and they find a lot more that needs to be done. So rather than deal with ballooning costs they just set the percentage to total to a lower value.

All that together raises their cost above the repair cost itself and it got too close to the threshold so rather than take a risk they just cut their losses. (Which they reduce through selling the totaled car.)

 

[desoukya]

Aha I see, that makes more sense.

 

[albatore]

From who did you get these repairs estimate?

 

[demundus]

From who did you get these repairs estimate?

Sounds like he got them from the insurer? Even so, he could pay a Tesla approved shop to do an estimate as well and hopefully get the same outcome.

It's illegal for insurance companies to "save money", a dirty phrase. They are only allowed to "save time". @MP3Mike makes very valid points. Plus the insured (owner) can also put pressure on the insurance company to total the car as a personal preference, threaten litigation etc etc.