Drove into the garage with my bike on the roof rack...tell me how the damage looks (mainly to my wallet)

[SpencerR]

Well, the thing I never thought I would be "stupid" enough to do finally happened to me. After a 2 hour drive, thinking 1000 miles per minute about some stressful stuff I have going on, I pulled into the garage and heard the blood curdling noise of shattering glass and crunching of bike handlebars against my garage fascia board. Anyone have a guess on cost? I have good insurance through state farm. Any advice, recommendations, estimates on how long my car will be sitting at Tesla shop, etc. all appreciated.

Glass shatter is front driver side, small dent is front passenger side.

 

[N54TT]

The glass itself can be replaced in a day….question is what damage underneath is there…to the welded brackets(that the J hooks mount to) and fixing the dents.

What kind of bikes were on the roof? One of my worst nightmares too. Sometimes I’m carrying over 15k worth of mtn bikes on the roof...can’t imagine damaging the car, bikes and garage.

 

[3sr+buyer]

What kind of bikes were on the roof? One of my worst nightmares too. Sometimes I’m carrying over 15k worth of mtn bikes on the roof...can’t imagine damaging the car, bikes and garage.

Put the garage door opener in a box that says "check roof before opening garage door". (If you use Homelink or some such in the car, turn it off when you have stuff on the roof that will not clear the garage.)

 

[stopcrazypp]

Older prices is the roof glass is about $1000:
Cost of Model 3 roof glass replacement

Some policies have zero deductible glass replacement, although they may not necessarily cover roof glass (or your specific incident). Your deductible is also likely different between comprehensive vs collision (yours would probably be collision).

As for the dents, I'm guessing they out source it to a body shop, hard to tell how much that will cost. If you want to save money and thinking about out of pocket (not under insurance), you may want to look for PDR and see if dents can be repaired that way, and then the paint maybe can be touched up. However, if you are going insurance anyways, you might not bother.

Hitting the garage door some day is also a concern of mine even though I don't have roof racks (mainly fear some day I forget about the trunk or not pulling in the car in enough to clear the garage door and opening it). Not sure if there is a better way to prevent this like a sensor of some sort (perhaps as mentioned above have a note as a reminder to check roof before opening garage door).

Edit: found this article, although this one seemed to have died off in development:
Raacked protects roof racks from impact w/ wireless ultrasonic alarm
There's another here:
Veloroof Says Is the Guardian Angel of Your Bike, Protects It While It's on Your Car Roof
Both developed specifically for the situation of the OP.

 

[SpencerR]

The glass itself can be replaced in a day….question is what damage underneath is there…to the welded brackets(that the J hooks mount to) and fixing the dents.

What kind of bikes were on the roof? One of my worst nightmares too. Sometimes I’m carrying over 15k worth of mtn bikes on the roof...can’t imagine damaging the car, bikes and garage.

Yeah, I'm not worried about the glass at all, I know that's simple. I'm worried that the A-pillar has enough damage to be a structural concern. And with my $62,000 car dropping in value $20k a few weeks ago with the price cuts, I'm scared of turning that $20k drop into a realized loss sooner rather than later.

Luckily just my $2k aluminum gravel bike and not my 2022 carbon mountain bike or 2023 carbon tri bike

Put the garage door opener in a box that says "check roof before opening garage door". (If you use Homelink or some such in the car, turn it off when you have stuff on the roof that will not clear the garage.)

As annoying as that would be, it's a good idea. I think an even better idea is never using a g-damn roof rack ever again and getting the stealth hitch installed after getting this damage fixed.

 

[oneformula@gma]

i think i would cry. my condolences.

 

[SpencerR]

i think i would cry. my condolences.

I consider myself a pretty tough guy, emotionally strong, physically as well. But I damn near did. I called my wife very upset/shocked/enraged and she talked me down. "It's just a car, we aren't broke, we have insurance, it'll be fine" type stuff. I still feel like an absolute moron and am ashamed of myself. Never thought I'd be the "idiot" that did something like that. If it wasn't for my wife I'd probably have been in tears because the second you hear that crunch you just die inside.

 

[derekmw]

I consider myself a pretty tough guy, emotionally strong, physically as well. But I damn near did. I called my wife very upset/shocked/enraged and she talked me down. "It's just a car, we aren't broke, we have insurance, it'll be fine" type stuff. I still feel like an absolute moron and am ashamed of myself. Never thought I'd be the "idiot" that did something like that. If it wasn't for my wife I'd probably have been in tears because the second you hear that crunch you just die inside.

It can happen to any of us. It's so easy to be distracted with other thoughts as you get home and easily forget. So sorry this happened with damage like that. I know how painful that is.

I've done it myself recently in my truck with my surfboards mounted on top. I always park it first, then unload the surfboard from the racks, but a car was coming while I was backing into my driveway and I totally forgot about the board, trying to rush out of the way into my garage. Thankfully in my case, the truck height was lowered enough to where the fin on the surfboard barely hit the door bottom itself and no damage was done except a slight scratch on the rubber seal on the garage door itself. but it would have been so much worse!

 

[KenC]

Ouch, I feel your pain. I did that, but it wasn't in my Tesla, but my Saab many years ago. Couldn't believe how stupid I was, but it happens exactly as you laid it out; your brain is thinking about something else, when you do something that you did 1000x before.

 

[eglove]

Ouch, I feel your pain

 

[Sambub]

Poor guy…. Gosh, the stupid stuff we do!

Good luck. I hope it is fixable. Let us know the outcome.

Your wife seems really awesome!

 

[PianoAl]

Humans just aren't good at this stuff. I recently flagged down someone who'd forgotten to strap down her surfboard.

Spencer, be glad it wasn't your wife that did that!

 

[SpencerR]

Humans just aren't good at this stuff. I recently flagged down someone who'd forgotten to strap down her surfboard.

Spencer, be glad it wasn't your wife that did that!

It is actually a good thing it was me and not her. Seeing how easy it is for the "all powerful" me to do this, moving forward I will now be less critical of her potential mistakes. I do worry that, knowing myself, I would have been very upset with her if she had done this. A good lesson learned, for sure. "A slice of humble pie" as they say. Though my gut has been heavy as if I ate the whole bakery after this one.

 

[jamesbretz]

I had a nearly identical mishap last week, do you have a followup on your resolution? Curious how long I am going to have to wait for a repair.

 

[SpencerR]

I had a nearly identical mishap last week, do you have a followup on your resolution? Curious how long I am going to have to wait for a repair.

It's April 24th now and my Tesla is still in my driveway with broken roof glass and dented frame rails waiting for Tesla to deliver the new glass to the shop. *Supposedly* the new glass got to the shop on March 8th but arrived broken. Not sure if truthful or the shop trying to buy more time on their end as well. Given Teslas service reputation, I'm betting the shop is honest and Tesla is just this damn slow at providing them the glass.

My insurance called it a collision and it will all be repaired under my $100 (one hundred) deductible. My agent said because it happened on my own property it will not have an impact on my premium or history.

 

[Altes]

can’t imagine damaging the car, bikes and garage

the Trifecta of disasters

 

[Arthur31]

Always a huge fear of mine. Especially since I use a roof rack on my 3 but a hitch mount on the Y soI got this on Amazon and I have it attached to the inside of my door so when the door is open it hangs down and I’m staring right at it.

 

[JohnnyMa]

I consider myself a pretty tough guy, emotionally strong, physically as well. But I damn near did. I called my wife very upset/shocked/enraged and she talked me down. "It's just a car, we aren't broke, we have insurance, it'll be fine" type stuff. I still feel like an absolute moron and am ashamed of myself. Never thought I'd be the "idiot" that did something like that. If it wasn't for my wife I'd probably have been in tears because the second you hear that crunch you just die inside.

I recently put a very small dent in my door. Like you, had 69mil things on my mind and when we got home, everyone exited out of the car before I pulled it in (super tight garage space.) Lo and behold my 8 yr old never closed his side of the door, and as my garage is super tight anyways I've unfortunately tuned out all the bings and bongs and proximity warning noises as I pull in. Sadly one of them was the Door Ajar warning. It wasn't till I heard a crunch and the door slam behind me as I pulled in that I sat stunned for a couple seconds, realized what happened, then quickly backed up. And what's worse is, it's so light a dent (but broke paint) that it's not worth going through insurance, yet I'll always know it's there because of my dumbassery and distractedness. Can't even blame my son as it was me who pulled it in without checking. Anyways, misery loves company, good luck to you.

 

[vickh]

the Trifecta of disasters

Could be worse

 

[vickh]

My insurance called it a collision and it will all be repaired under my $100 (one hundred) deductible. My agent said because it happened on my own property it will not have an impact on my premium or history.

Good for you only $100 OOP but curious why it will not have an impact on premiums since they're paying out regardless and you're " at fault". I hope USAA would be similar