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EricUSC
Member
I would try paintless dent removal. Usually around $100 per ding.
I am sorry for your loss.
My current car was hit when a younger pregnant girl backed into it with her $1,000 junker. Her boyfriend tried to claim the dent was already there until I pointed out the car was 5 days old with 150 miles on it. He made me get 5 quotes with the lowest being $900. She agreed to meet me at the repair place to pay for it after it was finished. I was planning on meeting her there and telling her to buy baby stuff with that money and to not worry about the repair bill. I get there and it turns out her boyfriend went there earlier trying to get an additional discount that they got so annoyed with him that they gave him a $50 discount to get rid of him. Moral of the story is that some people are just jerks especially when it comes to nice cars.
My current car was hit when a younger pregnant girl backed into it with her $1,000 junker. Her boyfriend tried to claim the dent was already there until I pointed out the car was 5 days old with 150 miles on it. He made me get 5 quotes with the lowest being $900. She agreed to meet me at the repair place to pay for it after it was finished. I was planning on meeting her there and telling her to buy baby stuff with that money and to not worry about the repair bill. I get there and it turns out her boyfriend went there earlier trying to get an additional discount that they got so annoyed with him that they gave him a $50 discount to get rid of him. Moral of the story is that some people are just jerks especially when it comes to nice cars.
Man, you are quite the nice person. In such situations, I say, I'm taking it to the dealer to repair. You can pay the bill, or I'm calling my insurance who will call yours. (I sure ain't spending MY time to save you money.)
rtanov
Member
I got this on my driver's door after 2 weeks of ownership. Would cost $850 to fix and the whole door needs to be repainted. A paintless ding repair specialist would not even give me a quote as the door is aluminum and the ding is right over the crease. You might have a better luck with your ding and the quarter panel being steel.
Zaphod
Galaxy President (former)
Careful as those could possibly make it worse by having it pulled too far out. I can't imagine paintless dent repair couldn't fix that. Should be accessible either through the trunk or through the fender well I assume.
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
That is super painful. I sure hope that "ding" wasn't unclaimed by the performer....that would be awful. As much as I HATE repainting stuff due to the inferior cure and, thus, durability, I don't think I could let that one go.
Ouch! Hope you get it resolved soon.
I think we need access to our AP camera footage to see how it happened.
Heck, with some open source code we could probably detect door dings based on how far other cars doors are opened towards the AP cameras.
WileyTheMan
Peanut Gallery Member
I had to deal with something like that before. I pretty much ignored the bluster and kept going back to "Hey man if you feel wronged, call a cop. Otherwise we are letting insurance deal with this."
RyanS
Ka-chow
+1. So so true and wise. None of my cars are garage queens. Cars were meant to be driven and enjoyed. I am going to enjoy them fully. Life is too short for worrying about little dings. You can always get another M3. Possibly all wheel drive, air suspension, P class... Let the next owner worry about those dings.
rtanov
Member
The person who did it was decent enough to leave a note - their insurance is going to pay for it. Still upsetting though... And I can't blame them - these things happen. I usually park the TM3 in the empty area but that day was raining and I parked nearer to the entrance.
I have a decent dash cam with parking mode I bought earlier this year that is sittings in a drawer - now I'm thinking of installing it. Not sure how much that would help in a situation like that- seems to me that even the best dual camera set ups don't see what's going on by the sides of the car. Maybe we need access to all the TM3 cameras.
rtanov
Member
Don’t mess with it. It may make it worse. Find a qualified paintless dent person in your area. One with Tesla experience. Might find references here or see if the mods will change the title to include “- need referrals for xxxx, CA”
You might want to give these guys a call. Saw a number of TMC people happy with their service so made a note of them in case we ever needed this service. $69 Dent Discount Mobile & Body Shop - Paintless Dent Removal / Bumper Repair
Years ago when this guy rear ended my little Civic when he wasn't paying attention and all the traffic had stopped, I let myself get talked into taking my car to this guy's friends shop as he said he didn't have much money to fix the car and felt bad about the damage. Learned my lesson. Instead of genuine Honda parts got a chrome bumper that ended up rusting within a year. Had the car for a few more years so was constantly reminded how you can end up regretting doing something like that.
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Ouch, sorry to see that
My first nice car was an E46 M3 (it was nice for me!). Every time I would go to the mall, dinner or wherever, I couldn't relax because I was always afraid of this happening. I ended up selling it and drove beaters for the past 15 years until Tesla got me back in the game with a Model X. Now I'm back to worrying again.
No point to my post other than I can totally empathize.
My first nice car was an E46 M3 (it was nice for me!). Every time I would go to the mall, dinner or wherever, I couldn't relax because I was always afraid of this happening. I ended up selling it and drove beaters for the past 15 years until Tesla got me back in the game with a Model X. Now I'm back to worrying again.
No point to my post other than I can totally empathize.
If you have a minor dent with no paint damage, try this...........Heat the dent with a hair dryer, then hold the sharp corner of an ice cube against the center of the dent. This will suck the deformed metal out. You may need to repeat this a few times.
