Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Collision - who wants to play guess the damages??

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
So. I was driving home the other night on a 4-lane road in the right hand lane at night, in the rain. The car in the left lane was driving rather slow (in fact under the speed limit, as is often the case here in TX), so I began to pass by them on the right. It seems that as I passed them, they suddenly realized that they were about to miss their exit, and without looking, made a sharp right turn. Into me. The damage begins at the very distal part of the drivers door where they first struck, then along my passenger door and to my rear bumper, as they rotated my car out of their way. They were driving a 2004 Ford Escape with a large brush guard on the front. I really could not see any damage on their vehicle. My poor Ohmar was not so lucky...

IMG_1849.JPG

IMG_1847.JPG

IMG_1848.JPG


So. Any guesses on the damages?
It is a 2013 60 kWh, all options but rear facing seats, 35K miles and flawless (minor one small paint chip on the hood, that is before this happened)
Curious to see how close that the guesses are. I estimate the value of the car to be 50-55K, so anything approaching this would be totaled.
 
Similar damage two years ago (when shops were a bit more expensive doing 1/4 panels) and it was going to be $24K plus. A similar rear quarter only was $22K then I added $950 and $975 for the two door skins. My estimate did not include labor to swap out or finish the two doors.

Parts pricing has come down (from what I am told) and shops have gotten more reasonable with rear 1/4 panel replacements depending upon where you live.
 
Yeah, maybe my personal estimate is a little high at 25-30K, but the damage includes:

Front door
Rear door
Rear quarter panel (bottom portion)
Rear bumper
Rear wheel is tilted about 20 degrees and air suspension compromised, rim cracked
Tows to service center and body shop 70 mi away

Oh and don't forget about that multi-coat white paint!

And yes, I think that the Ford Escape is the SUV equivalent of the Ford Mustang, in that it seems to select out a younger population with maybe a little less frontal lobe myelination...
 
Last edited:
Similar damage two years ago (when shops were a bit more expensive doing 1/4 panels) and it was going to be $24K plus. A similar rear quarter only was $22K then I added $950 and $975 for the two door skins. My estimate did not include labor to swap out or finish the two doors.

Parts pricing has come down (from what I am told) and shops have gotten more reasonable with rear 1/4 panel replacements depending upon where you live.

Indeed. In another thread someone got quoted $9k for a rear quarter. Still really expensive, but no longer to the point where a tear in both quarters essentially totaled the car.
 
Sorry you got hit, it's not a good feeling!

Given that Tesla has created an intentional monopoly on the "Tesla Authorized" body shops, I'd say close to $35k.

Apparently they only grant Authorized status to only one body shop in each area, so there's no competition and they can then charge whatever they like. Most estimates are insane, and they are usually marking the parts up around 100% over what you'd pay at the SC.

You have no choice, because Tesla will not sell parts to non-authorized body shops. They also will not support any cars that have been in accidents unless they are inspected (at your expense) at the authorized body shop.

I'm not happy about this policy. (if you can't tell)
 
I think that is just it - it really depends on the suspension. I was surprised as well; I was hit by someone in the lane next to me going roughly the same speed (~35-40 MPH). It could not have been (and didn't feel like) that great of an impact. I wonder whether some of what we are seeing is wheel rim damage and not the suspension. I am still amazed at how hard they must have cut the wheel to hit me and do so much damage.
 
A couple of anti Tesla trolls always bring up cracked rear axles. Is there any truth to that, or its just common with cars of this weight?

Hard to say because even if I ignore the trolls I can't help but see a pattern within the pictures where some suspension/drive element seemed rather weak.

But, the pictures don't indicate the forces involved.

One person had a picture where a suspension element failed when he/she hit a pot hole. From the pic the pot hole didn't seem all that big, or all that different then what I hit on occasion.

In my driving history before the Tesla I've hit all kinds of things even times where I was sure I bent something without any damage at all.

I've hit curbs with a VW Jetta (not on purpose), and ran over curbs (again not on purpose).
I've hit pot holes that were physically painful to me as the driver (in a Cayman S with pretty stiff suspension)

To my knowledge there is no rating system, or any known way to indicate just how strong/weak the suspension/axle components are.
 
A couple of anti Tesla trolls always bring up cracked rear axles. Is there any truth to that, or its just common with cars of this weight?
yobigd20 is no troll, he's just from New Jersey so you should understand. Or is it New York ? Once you get east of the Mississippi River, it's all the same ... how's THAT for trolling?! (I have been going to snippiness more than usual lately)