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Had an Accident.... (Collision work for Model S)

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#63
An update for anyone interested. It took 3 weeks to fix the car while we waited on parts from Tesla. Got the car back last week and it looks excellent! By the way, while Chilton had the car, they ended up putting it on a truck and taking it to Tesla so our windshield wipers and charge port could get fixed since it was sitting at the shop awaiting parts for repair(they offered to do so)....so we got everything taken care of at once. Final bill was about $3,500 and we paid our deductible. No word yet on impact to

Chilton is an authorized repair co and said they had already seen many. A maroon car was there when we went to pick up ours. We would recommend Chilton if you need any repairs in the Bay Area.

- - - Updated - - -

No word on impact to insurance is what I meant to say.
 
#64
doug said:
Well, glad you're ok. Do you have any more photos with a wider shot?
Click to expand...

Here's a wider view...
image.jpg
 
#67
seidste1 said:
I picked up my MS in Chicago and drove it home the 275 miles to Michigan. On day 2 I was rear ended while stopped at a red light. Only $1200 worth of bumper damage but quite disappointed in having an accident within the first 24 hours of ownership.
Click to expand...
So sorry to hear this ... and sorry I didn't have time to stop and chat with you longer.
And you were worried about the long drive home. How many miles did you have when you got home and did you charge along the way?
But so sorry about your mishap. My 10 days have been almost perfect.
 
#68
sp4rk said:
So sorry to hear this ... and sorry I didn't have time to stop and chat with you longer.
And you were worried about the long drive home. How many miles did you have when you got home and did you charge along the way?
But so sorry about your mishap. My 10 days have been almost perfect.
Click to expand...


the drive home was awesome, but a little long. We stopped half way in Portage, MI. We had lunch and watched a movie. The car required about 4 hours to acquire the 70 miles of additional charge needed. The car is amazing and so much fun as we all know. The current charging infrastructure is inadequate for our MS. I can't wait until we get a few superchargers in the Midwest. The trip was 275 miles and I now have 600 miles on the car. The car has had zero issues (except for the rear bumper)
 
#69
Well I “haz a sad” as well. While my pride would prefer me to not post about it, my better half thinks that I should warn others. I got my MS Performance on Jan 7 after the biggest snow storm of the season in Spokane, Washington. Since the Performance comes with 21” wheels, my “plan” was to have the 19” studded snow tires put on the car at the Seattle Service Center but my car did not travel via Seattle. The company shipped the car direct to my home at year end in order to book the sale in 2012. Fortunately, the 21” tires and the traction control did a great job of coping with the snow. What followed was two weeks of bliss, driving this “car from the future”, and life was good. Then on Sunday, 14 days after I took delivery, I parked in a small parking lot behind the Spokane Buddhist Temple. It had snowed the night before and there was about an inch of snow covering everything. What I did not know when I pulled up to the concrete tire stop was that the re-bar used to hold the stop in place protruded about an inch above the concrete tire stop. The inch of snow nicely hid it. I did not notice anything unusual as I shut the car off but I surmise that the air suspension set the car’s plastic rock guard down atop the protruding re-bar. [The property manager later told me that the re-bar was left protruding an inch in order to discourage the “skate boarders” from using the tire stop as a surface to slide across.] Well, when I returned to the car, placed it in reverse and started to back out the re-bar held fast to the plastic rock guard and tore the entire front bumper from the left side of the car. It all happened at less then 1 mph. I was not sure what I was seeing. There was little noise other then the “pop” of a half dozen plastic fasteners that hold the bumper assembly to the front of the car. At this point the car would not have been drivable with the left side of the bumper assembly loose and touching the ground, but I was able to get some Duct Tape and tape the left side of the loose bumper assembly to the frunk interior for my short drive home. Once home it appeared that the only damage was a single plastic bracket on the drivers side where the bumper assembly attached to the frame via a metal screw into the plastic bracket bolted to the frame. Alas, this was a collision in the eyes of the Seattle Service Center’s manager and he was told by the factory that the Rangers were not allowed to do “body work” in the field. I said, “its one little bracket and a couple of fasteners.” They said, “there could be hidden damage." So after two weeks of arguing about it they had me spend $700 to ship the car from Spokane to Seattle. Once at the Service Center I was told that a couple of “tabs” had been torn off and the bumper had to be replaced. Since bumpers are not “stocked” in colors they have to be painted to match the car. The quote for the repair was $1,875.55 plus tax. It is now 30 days from my accident and the Service Center is still waiting on the bumper from the factory. Once the car is repaired I thought that I might fly to Seattle and drive the car home. Looks like I’ll need to use a charger in Ellensburg in order to make the trip. Any advice from those that have made the journey?

My take away advice, use the suspension controls to lift the front end BEFORE backing up when parking atop these concrete tire stops. Better yet, stop short of the tire stop and don’t allow the front of the car to move over the top of one. This seems like a “accident waiting for a place to happen” if you ask me. Maybe I’ll be the only person this happens to, but I kind of doubt it. So to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Image.jpg
IMG_0042.jpg
IMG_0049.jpg
 
#70
Sorry to hear about your accident. Thanks for sharing. I'm guessing your previous car did not sit low to the ground. I follow your last piece of advice on all my cars except for our minivan. Park short of the barriers.

A


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#71
You're not alone, DFBrost. In my first weeks of ownership I started the thread linked below.

Possible air suspension height settings issue

It happened to me a second time where the settling took place in the time it took me to get out and walk to the front of the car to see if I was overhanging the curb. Since I can't count on the suspension not to lower the car onto a curb or a wheel stop after I park, I've become semi-fanatical about not allowing the nose to overhang anything more than about four inches high.
 
#73
RFBrost said:
Looks like I’ll need to use a charger in Ellensburg in order to make the trip. Any advice from those that have made the journey?
Click to expand...
Make sure you check the weather on the pass to make sure it's not problematic when you make your trip. There is a 30A AV charger in Snoqualmie Pass with a restaurant 50 feet away where you can stay warm and burn off an hour+ of human time while waiting for a little extra juice. The 3G coverage there was reliable for my Nokia Lumia 920 (AT&T).

In Ellensberg, near (well a few blocks from) the Motel 6 that I stayed at there's a parking lot with a Roadster HPC and 3 ChargePoint stations that are also 30A. While I really wish we had a Roadster HPC adapter, the ChargePoint worked like a champ (for 7 hours straight with no issues that I'm aware of).
 
#74
RFBrost said:
Well I “haz a sad” as well. While my pride would prefer me to not post about it, my better half thinks that I should warn others. I got my MS Performance on Jan 7 after the biggest snow storm of the season in Spokane, Washington. Since the Performance comes with 21” wheels, my “plan” was to have the 19” studded snow tires put on the car at the Seattle Service Center but my car did not travel via Seattle. The company shipped the car direct to my home at year end in order to book the sale in 2012. Fortunately, the 21” tires and the traction control did a great job of coping with the snow. What followed was two weeks of bliss, driving this “car from the future”, and life was good. Then on Sunday, 14 days after I took delivery, I parked in a small parking lot behind the Spokane Buddhist Temple. It had snowed the night before and there was about an inch of snow covering everything. What I did not know when I pulled up to the concrete tire stop was that the re-bar used to hold the stop in place protruded about an inch above the concrete tire stop. The inch of snow nicely hid it. I did not notice anything unusual as I shut the car off but I surmise that the air suspension set the car’s plastic rock guard down atop the protruding re-bar. [The property manager later told me that the re-bar was left protruding an inch in order to discourage the “skate boarders” from using the tire stop as a surface to slide across.] Well, when I returned to the car, placed it in reverse and started to back out the re-bar held fast to the plastic rock guard and tore the entire front bumper from the left side of the car. It all happened at less then 1 mph. I was not sure what I was seeing. There was little noise other then the “pop” of a half dozen plastic fasteners that hold the bumper assembly to the front of the car. At this point the car would not have been drivable with the left side of the bumper assembly loose and touching the ground, but I was able to get some Duct Tape and tape the left side of the loose bumper assembly to the frunk interior for my short drive home. Once home it appeared that the only damage was a single plastic bracket on the drivers side where the bumper assembly attached to the frame via a metal screw into the plastic bracket bolted to the frame. Alas, this was a collision in the eyes of the Seattle Service Center’s manager and he was told by the factory that the Rangers were not allowed to do “body work” in the field. I said, “its one little bracket and a couple of fasteners.” They said, “there could be hidden damage." So after two weeks of arguing about it they had me spend $700 to ship the car from Spokane to Seattle. Once at the Service Center I was told that a couple of “tabs” had been torn off and the bumper had to be replaced. Since bumpers are not “stocked” in colors they have to be painted to match the car. The quote for the repair was $1,875.55 plus tax. It is now 30 days from my accident and the Service Center is still waiting on the bumper from the factory. Once the car is repaired I thought that I might fly to Seattle and drive the car home. Looks like I’ll need to use a charger in Ellensburg in order to make the trip. Any advice from those that have made the journey?

My take away advice, use the suspension controls to lift the front end BEFORE backing up when parking atop these concrete tire stops. Better yet, stop short of the tire stop and don’t allow the front of the car to move over the top of one. This seems like a “accident waiting for a place to happen” if you ask me. Maybe I’ll be the only person this happens to, but I kind of doubt it. So to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Click to expand...

I did this to my old Mercedes too. The shape of the guard was such that it lifted over the rebar on the way in, and ripped off the air dam on the way back out. At least in the Model S you have the possibility of adjusting the suspension.
 
#78
Collision work for Model S

Hi all. I just received my Model S this Wednesday... and Thursday someone backed into me in a parking lot. The whole passenger side of my car is jacked now (yes, that's the technical term for it).

I've reached out to my local service center (San Diego) and they recommend a local body shop. Does anyone know if there are actual Tesla stores anywhere doing collision work vs going to a body shop? I'd prefer to have someone who knows how to inspect the battery for damage and make sure I get all new parts.... after all the car was 1 day old!

Thanks.
 
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