Deer hit - how long will it take to get fixed?

[armendzh]

Few days ago, I was driving down to Houston on State Highway 75 S when a deer jumped and landed right at my left headlight. I was going about 50 mph. Both of us are safe and actually I didn't even feel such a strong impact when we hit the deer (felt almost nothing). Deer was already in air when I hit him. Tesla did not attempt to break and probably did not detect anything.

My headlight is destroyed, left front side panel is cramped, part of it goes over driver door and it takes effort to open driver door. This in turn slightly damages my driver door whenever I try to get in or get out. Bumper is damaged and partially hanging. Hood also has small imprint - maybe from hitting the hoove (very small, it didn't get cramped like side panel). Car is drivable but the wheel was initially rubbing against the broken bumper.

I already called insurance, I am covered just will have to pay deductable. But wait time to get to collision body shop is only around Jan month at Dallas area! I do not know how long will it take to get them fix this too. Any ideas? How is this damage? Will a lot of parts have to be changed?

I believe I can get a rental covered with my insurance, but with such long delays on getting into body shop I am not sure for how long insurance will cover the rental.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Sorry for you your damage. It’s unfortunate, but none of us are estimators or adjusters.

 

[rlsd]

It's good that you didn't get injured.

 

[rwiegand]

Only your body shop can give you a reasonable estimate of time to repair. Just ask them. There is no generic answer beyond "weeks to months".

 

[LowlyOilBurner]

It must be different around the country. I too hit a deer (67miles after I took delivery of a new Y last week), the shop doing the work said they can turn it around relatively quickly, as long as they don’t have to wait on parts. They said if Tesla has stock on the parts, they usually see them in 3 days, and they would start working on it then. It took a week for insurance to do their estimate, I also had an estimate done at the body shop.

What really sucks is driving a 2011 Silverado work truck in the mean time. Paying for gas sucks.

 

[armendzh]

Just want to see other people experiences who had to deal with some similar damages. At least my car is relatively old (from 2018) and this is first time something like this happened to her. I guess I got lucky that car is still drivable.

 

[karkrazy]

You’ll probably want to call around for earlier body shop availability in nearby cities. Once they start the tear down, the estimate is just going to go up. And don’t forget the spray painting required to blend in all the body parts (and there are quite a few impacted). My SWAG is 3 months from the body shop getting it till it’s back in your hands. (Again, total SWAG from an Internet stranger)

 

[armendzh]

You’ll probably want to call around for earlier body shop availability in nearby cities. Once they start the tear down, the estimate is just going to go up. And don’t forget the spray painting required to blend in all the body parts (and there are quite a few impacted). My SWAG is 3 months from the body shop getting it till it’s back in your hands. (Again, total SWAG from an Internet stranger)

Yes. The only Tesla Collision body shop that can do it sooner is only in Houston (November). Every other Tesla body shop in Texas can only do it in January. I will have to check with other Tesla approved body shops.

 

[RayK]

No video? Sorry for the damage to your car but I'd say the deer probably got the worst of it.

 

[cbdream99]

If the certified body shop can scheduled you in November, take it. Last time I filed on first week of August, all body shops around Dallas areas were booked till late October but then Tesla CC changed the schedule to late August and then it took them 5 weeks to fix a minor damage, 3 weeks were actually waiting for parts, wrong parts, missing parts etc ... the usual. The do say 3/Y parts has more availability though, they will tell you the estimated time once you turn your car in.

 

[gtgarner]

Few days ago, I was driving down to Houston on State Highway 75 S when a deer jumped and landed right at my left headlight. I was going about 50 mph. Both of us are safe and actually I didn't even feel such a strong impact when we hit the deer (felt almost nothing). Deer was already in air when I hit him. Tesla did not attempt to break and probably did not detect anything.

My headlight is destroyed, left front side panel is cramped, part of it goes over driver door and it takes effort to open driver door. This in turn slightly damages my driver door whenever I try to get in or get out. Bumper is damaged and partially hanging. Hood also has small imprint - maybe from hitting the hoove (very small, it didn't get cramped like side panel). Car is drivable but the wheel was initially rubbing against the broken bumper.

I already called insurance, I am covered just will have to pay deductable. But wait time to get to collision body shop is only around Jan month at Dallas area! I do not know how long will it take to get them fix this too. Any ideas? How is this damage? Will a lot of parts have to be changed?

I believe I can get a rental covered with my insurance, but with such long delays on getting into body shop I am not sure for how long insurance will cover the rental.

My estimate would be 2 months.

Which includes 1 week for the estimate and acceptance by the insurance company.
Which includes 2 weeks for the parts to arrive from Tesla to the certified repair facility
Which includes 3 weeks for the breakdown and repair.
Which includes 1 week for paint.
Which includes 1 week for incidentals during the previous 7 weeks.

Thats my rough opinion.

 

[cbdream99]

If the certified body shop can scheduled you in November, take it. Last time I filed on first week of August, all body shops around Dallas areas were booked till late October but then Tesla CC changed the schedule to late August and then it took them 5 weeks to fix a minor damage, 3 weeks were actually waiting for parts, wrong parts, missing parts etc ... the usual. The do say 3/Y parts has more availability though, they will tell you the estimated time once you turn your car in.

In the past, once the shop has all the parts, it's pretty fast.

1) Replace bumper and light - a little more than a week, at that time Dallas TCC has to take the car to another shop for paint so slightly longer
2) Replace rear quarter panel, rocker panel, rear door skin, repair wheel (actually not related to the parking accident but they refinish the rash), repaint the doors and panels , actual work is only 2 weeks.

To me waiting in line and parts are usually the longest and also unpredictable, they are not going to dissemble your car until they know they have everything, otherwise it will will use up rack or space inside the shop. Amazingly I lost only lost around 30% of the battery for the whole 5 weeks duration which is also right on the advisor estimates. Good luck.

 

[allentx46]

I damaged my Model 3 rear bumper on June 19th. Scheduled appointment with approved repair shop in Frisco for August 15th (earliest available date). Picked up my car on September 20th. The shop didn’t start work until about a week and a half before I picked the car up due to waiting for new bumper cover delivery.

 

[toolman335]

3 months would be a very common timeline for the fix. I had it happen to me and I talked to the Tesla certified shop that I went to about it.