Really? I fear it's really long and detailed and risks derailing this thread. Would it be better if I were to post separately with an more appropriate title, like "A Detailed Narrative of My Diminished Value Claim" or some such?
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Got hit by another car, how bad is this kind of damage?
- Thread starter vww12x
- Start date
Really? I fear it's really long and detailed and risks derailing this thread. Would it be better if I were to post separately with an more appropriate title, like "A Detailed Narrative of My Diminished Value Claim" or some such?
Tesla's take longer to fix due to multiple bottle necks in the repair process:
- Relatively few body shops that are certified to work on Tesla's, and can source spare parts from the OEM
- Tesla's is sloppy and inconsistent supply chain management of the repair parts
- Needless intermixing of aluminum, steel, and bonded plastic structural components, that require more time, money, and parts to repair.
Nice!
Two similar, but totally different cars.
One has linear and immediate acceleration, but an over-intrusive traction control that can't be disabled, and 4100 lbs of weight that can't be ignored. That weight handicaps the speeds you can carry through turns (e.g.: slaloms, high-speed sweepers), and requires way bigger tires to support it.
The other handles brilliantly, has nearly linear acceleration, weights ~600 lbs less and is, therefore, a lot more fun and more rewarding on track. Interior quality is way better, seats are way more supportive, and it has an awesome car club behind it to extract the most from the ownership experience, if one is so inclined. Yet, I hardly ever drive it now.
You know which one is which.
a
Sigh. I really wish Tesla would give up on the in-house seat production if they aren't going to do it right. Almost every product in these market segments does it better.
My kingdom for adjustable thigh support and a wider general range of adjustments, especially base tilt angle.
superbaka
Member
A good body shop can match it perfectly. With cars other than Tesla at least, you use the BASF paint formulations which are published in a book which comes from the car cmopanies.You add each component of the exact same chemicals that the car company did onto a scale until you reach the correct formula. You can then blend the paint flawlessly. The paint will chemically bond together forming a single indistinguishable layer. I know because I used to spray cars back in college. A lot of body shops don't match perfectly, though, not because the process is flawed, but because their skills are. Matching paint and clear is quite simple if you know what you are doing. Its not rocket science; the paints are designed to be resprayed and chemically bonded seamlessly, and the formulations are standardized from manufacturers and the paint companies (basf, glasurit, etc).
I had Audi respray a fender they scratched during service and it was 110% flawless and better than before, because it was 5 years old and now I had brand new clear on it. I also had a Dodge back in college that a body shop did a bad job on.
Even with metallic paints? From my understanding, those are what make it hell and supposedly make it difficult to even just transplant a body piece from one factory car to another if they weren't painted from the same batch.
superbaka
Member
I don't know the very current situation, but for decades, its all a simple process of adding the paints together on the scale. A quick internet search returns an example. You simply look up the car, find the BASF catalog number, then add those paint components by grams cumulatively on a scale and you get the paint. It all bonds chemically together.
The craftsmanship, however, depends on the people doing it.
superbaka
Member
Its possible Tesla changed their paint process sloppily, and causes mismatched colors. But in a modern car company who sticks to their formula, they should all match. I guess there is some entropy involved, with the millions of cars out there. of course, avoid accidents if you can! But not everyone can.
PS- you spray metallic paint the same as non-metallic usually.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
It doesn't look good.
Not an improvement on the factory finish. $15-20k is my guess.
Best of luck to you with getting the car fixed promptly & back to like-new condition. Plenty of good advice in this thread with recommendations for making sure you are properly compensated for your loss.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
You cannot get a perfect paint match by just following the formula... the shop needs to adjust for UV fade and other environmental factors.
No service center can do that kind of work. check website for Tesla Certified body shop.
Am dealing with something similar, although the damage (hit n run) to my car is not as extensive as yours.
The insurance appraiser gave an estimate of $2,400, using labor rate of $41/hr for paint etc and $85/hr for aluminum. However Tesla certified body shops charge a standard rate of $125/hr for everything.
The insurance company isn't budging on the rate. I am done speaking to two "supervisors" so far. Just today I called their "presidential team" and filed a complaint. And I have been their customer for over 10 years now, 2 auto, home and a motorcycle covered by them.
Hopefully your insurance agrees to pay Tesla's rates, good luck!
The insurance appraiser gave an estimate of $2,400, using labor rate of $41/hr for paint etc and $85/hr for aluminum. However Tesla certified body shops charge a standard rate of $125/hr for everything.
The insurance company isn't budging on the rate. I am done speaking to two "supervisors" so far. Just today I called their "presidential team" and filed a complaint.
And I have been their customer for over 10 years now, 2 auto, home and a motorcycle covered by them.Hopefully your insurance agrees to pay Tesla's rates, good luck!
most of the Tesla owned body shops only fix "light collision" damage (I have no idea what their definition of light collision damage is, but if I had to take to take a guess than as long as the frame of the car is undamaged than it would count as light collision damage) so be sure to check Tesla's website.
Some shops do a great job on that. My wife's ES300's rear passenger door was backed into in a parking lot (the car was 5-10 years old at that point). I thought it would never look the same again given that the paint was silver+color. The repair was perfect.
We used that same repair shop several years later when a teenager in a jacked-up Jeep rearended her one-week-old white LS460. It went over the bumper into the trunk. Total disaster -- 28 days and $25K repair. Still, the paint was well-matched. One month or so later, when I was driving, the damn LS460 was rearended *again* when we were detouring around the I-85 bridge collapse in ATL (the I285 exit onto GA400 north, for locals on here). It was a minivan driver at low speed, directly on the bumper. That was 14 more days in the same shop and a $10K repair. Apparently, they had to do some sort of "stretching" to make the repair and the car has not been the same since -- not obvious, you would only know it if you had it before and after. When we got it back, the car had been in the shop *longer* that it had been in our garage at home. Crazy!
I think you are misunderstanding the Tesla body shop situation. There are only 3 Tesla owned body shops: two in California and one in Chicago. These are full body shops. Some Tesla service centers are now starting to do minor repair to bolt on panels. I don't believe they have any paint capability...they simply bolt on prepainted panels. The other option are Tesla Certified independent body shops. Since the OP is in Houston and his damage is much more significant, his only option is an independent body shop, Tesla certified or otherwise.
Am dealing with something similar, although the damage (hit n run) to my car is not as extensive as yours.
The insurance appraiser gave an estimate of $2,400, using labor rate of $41/hr for paint etc and $85/hr for aluminum. However Tesla certified body shops charge a standard rate of $125/hr for everything.
The insurance company isn't budging on the rate. I am done speaking to two "supervisors" so far. Just today I called their "presidential team" and filed a complaint.
Hopefully your insurance agrees to pay Tesla's rates, good luck!
Ya, my Tesla certified shop said their rates are double for Tesla. Ameriprise covered it. What insurance company do you have?
Am dealing with something similar, although the damage (hit n run) to my car is not as extensive as yours.
The insurance appraiser gave an estimate of $2,400, using labor rate of $41/hr for paint etc and $85/hr for aluminum. However Tesla certified body shops charge a standard rate of $125/hr for everything.
The insurance company isn't budging on the rate. I am done speaking to two "supervisors" so far. Just today I called their "presidential team" and filed a complaint.
Hopefully your insurance agrees to pay Tesla's rates, good luck!
Best of luck. Some panels of the Tesla require special repair techniques and others do not. The certification process to become Tesla certified is likely expensive and perhaps the shop is trying to recoup those costs by building it into the hourly rate. Paint is paint. There really isn't anything special about painting a Tesla versus painting another car so $125/hour seems absolutely ridiculous.
Remember if every shop in town charges $125/hour for repairs then guess what...your insurance price is going up. You will see other threads on here about rising insurance premiums for some and it's an easy parallel to see why when a shop would paint other cars at $41/hour but try for $125/hr because it says Tesla. Multi coat white, red or blue aren't anything special/new as they are on pretty much EVERY other car manufacturers vehicle.
That's good to know. I have Liberty mutual.
Yup, that's the argument, but every Tesla certified charges the same amount.
Agree, there is some price gouging going on for sure. My repairs required nothing Tesla specific but hourly rates were double for everything. Although they did disconnect the HV battery at one point, so I can see that requiring a Tesla trained tech, but for sanding, painting, pounding out dents, installing bumper, etc, no reason labor should be higher. Tesla should take control of this situation and cap rates that their certified shops can charge, otherwise insurance rates are going to continue to climb for Tesla owners.