Hit and Run!

[youngmcdonald]

Higher than average insurance collision premiums for the Model 3 appears to be justified. I find these threads fascinating and hope I am never in an accident.

And I hope more and more people read these threads and make an informed decision whether they really need to / afford to buy this headache. While risk of getting into an accident is fairly low, it materializing can be brutal.

 

[VT_EE]

It was a misunderstanding. It was not two weeks but four. I dropped the car off on June 28.

I am at the four week mark this weekend but no car yet. Most of the repairs are done but the glass roof did crack while removing the quarter panel assembly, so they had to order it last week. They haven’t gotten it yet. My realistic guess is that I won’t get the car back until the end of August. There is zero suffering as my daily commute is negligible and their insurance is covering unlimited rental. The cost of repairs has now exceeded $10,000. Add to that the cost of XPEL re-wrapping and rear window tinting that I am going to bill the insurance for.

That said, I will duly post before/after photos here.

The glass took about 2 weeks to come for me. It wasn’t a problem since they had plenty of other stuff to do while waiting for the glass

 

[Sky-Pilot]

Update:
$2,900 in parts, $11,000 in labor.
I'm three weeks into this. My Tesla certified auto body shop has told me "Sir, in our experience, we have waited 5-6 months for parts".

Check these youtubes out. This guy bumped his rear corner and his bill was also ridiculous:

And we wonder why insurance on a(ny) Tesla is so high...

 

[Atari2600]

But if a really safe car requires a design that is hard to work on then so be it. I'll pay the premium.

Waiting on parts and labor is BS though.

 

[youngmcdonald]

But if a really safe car requires a design that is hard to work on then so be it. I'll pay the premium.

Waiting on parts and labor is BS though.

I think it should be the other way around. If this is the safest car, then the risk of collision/vandalism is lower given the safety features inside, risk of injuries/death is the lowest, and then you’re only left with fixing the metal and glass. Premiums should go down and not up.

Just because the bodyshops want (because they can, given the Tesla Certified rarity) more time and money does not mean that the premium should skyrocket. The number of Teslas getting into an accident is supposed to be the lowest if the car is the safest.

Either insurance companies are ignoring this and using older algorithms to determine risk/payouts and setting the premium. Or, despite being the best safest car, there has been no apparent reduction in the number of Teslas in accidents.

 

[Sky-Pilot]

But if a really safe car requires a design that is hard to work on then so be it. I'll pay the premium.

Waiting on parts and labor is BS though.

Let me put this into perspective. Turning to tight, I clipped the corner of the curved median and damaged the driver's side rocker panel, no other body damage. The Tesla approved/recommended body shop quoted $7,200 in paint/body to fix it. To this day, I cannot fathom $7,200 to fix the rocker panel. And my insurance company paid it. If I had taken it to other than a Tesla approved body shop, I'm positive the bill would have been but a small fraction of the Tesla bill. That said, if there was other more unique damage, say, battery, motor, drive line components, suspension, items totally unique to a Tesla, then I might agree that Tesla trained mechanics would be beneficial, but for simple body work, I just can't agree, and when all was said and done, my insurance went up 40%. And this was my first accident and claim in over 40 years of driving.

 

[Atari2600]

Well the safest is getting into an accident and not being injured or killed. Does not mean your car will not be smashed up.

The last FIVE!!! accidents my cars were in (Chrysler, Honda(three same car) and Infiniti) my cars were stationary so no technology in the world would have avoided any of those. With the Chrysler and one Honda hit nobody was in the car and both of those were extensive. Driver broke their drive axle when hitting my parked Chrysler and could not flee. Another driver drove down the side of my Honda in a parking lot - front and rear fender and both doors. I like Sentry Mode!

And if I reach back many years I had someone back out into a one way road (they were looking the wrong way) And backed into the side of my pickup truck and hit the extended cab section and bed. There was a driver on the right side of me so I could not avoid those idiots. That driver came back to the accident and gave a statement there was no way I could have avoided it. No way Tesla could have avoided that either.

So that's 6 accidents no technology in the world could have avoided that I have personally experienced.

I'm over 50 years old so my sample size of "real life" is larger than a lot of people.

 

[Atari2600]

Let me put this into perspective. Turning to tight, I clipped the corner of the curved median and damaged the driver's side rocker panel, no other body damage. The Tesla approved/recommended body shop quoted $7,200 in paint/body to fix it. To this day, I cannot fathom $7,200 to fix the rocker panel. And my insurance company paid it. If I had taken it to other than a Tesla approved body shop, I'm positive the bill would have been but a small fraction of the Tesla bill. That said, if there was other more unique damage, say, battery, motor, drive line components, suspension, items totally unique to a Tesla, then I might agree that Tesla trained mechanics would be beneficial, but for simple body work, I just can't agree, and when all was said and done, my insurance went up 40%. And this was my first accident and claim in over 40 years of driving.

For that type of repair, yes. Unless a window breaks out during the repair or something that is not obvious? But on the surface I agree with you on this case.

 

[youngmcdonald]

Well the safest is getting into an accident and not being injured or killed. Does not mean your car will not be smashed up.

The last FIVE!!! accidents my cars were in (Chrysler, Honda(three same car) and Infiniti) my cars were stationary so no technology in the world would have avoided any of those. With the Chrysler and one Honda hit nobody was in the car and both of those were extensive. Driver broke their drive axle when hitting my parked Chrysler and could not flee. Another driver drove down the side of my Honda in a parking lot - front and rear fender and both doors. I like Sentry Mode!

And if I reach back many years I had someone back out into a one way road (they were looking the wrong way) And backed into the side of my pickup truck and hit the extended cab section and bed. There was a driver on the right side of me so I could not avoid those idiots. That driver came back to the accident and gave a statement there was no way I could have avoided it. No way Tesla could have avoided that either.

So that's 6 accidents no technology in the world could have avoided that I have personally experienced.

I'm over 50 years old so my sample size of "real life" is larger than a lot of people.

Oh I don't disagree with you at all here - I was not in the car when it happened as it was hit in a parking lot as well. But let's play that scenario out -- I was able to rush to the scene within seconds (Sentry alert) so the person who did it couldn't run away. They are now going to be held accountable for being a bad driver by the insurance company. My thinking is that this is "better" for the insurance companies than say, deal with a hit and run scenario that could have occurred otherwise?

The more we discuss it, the more I believe that the policy holders are shelling out higher premiums simply because a) body shops are few in number that want to touch a Tesla (hopefully this problem will go away on its own with time) and b) Tesla's less than desirable supply chain for parts (hopefully the company (or the brand) stays afloat despite the losses and becomes a commodity soon, thanks to us early adopters )

 

[Atari2600]

Yes, we are 100% on the same page.

Keep in mind if both you and the person that hit you had State Farm the money comes from the same pot.

 

[Jeff32]

VT_EE,
Would you be willing to share with us your car's outcome? Does it look perfect (showroom condition at repair sites) and does it drive perfectly? I am really hoping for good news. My car is in the midst of the exact same repairs.