How bad is this damage; what are my options

[KneeCola]

So it finally happened :-( after years of keeping my S spotless my wife backed up my beauty into a parking lot pillar.

The damage seems to be limited to rear brake light outer cover and the metal part just below it. the brake light still work.

Can the metal part be pushed back into its original shape and touch up paint applied to fix this? OR the whole part needs replacement?

Regarding the light, is the outer cover replaceable OR do I need to replace the whole brake light assembly?

Any one with similar experience? and approximate cost and is it advisable to go to local body shop instead of service center (I heard they have a huge backlog).

:"(

 

[dpodoll]

Sorry guy! Looks like you need a new quarter panel. Cost me $10K to replace mine.

 

[David99]

Yes that's not fixable. You need a new quarter panel. With everything it's $9k.

 

[ShadowR55]

Are you guys serious about the cost?? That's ridiculous!

 

[Jason S]

Aluminum. Wouldn't be any cheaper to fix that on an NSX, would it?

 

[Snowstorm]

You don't "have" to fix it I suppose... It is aluminum so it wont rust. Some clear packing tape over the light and it would still be 100% road worthy. Just looks bad...

Is insurance claim an option?

 

[KneeCola]

wow! replace the whole quarter panel. thats a very poor design. I observed other cars have their rear bumper extend all the way up there so that typical rear dents do not cause so much damage. well I can go thru insurance route if the damage is so much, will put a dent on my premium and resale of this car for sure plus so many days of wait. (OR live with this and use this to win/end any future argument with my wife ;-)).)

how about the rear brake light? Can I just replace the outer cover or the whole assembly needs to be replaced?

 

[SMAlset]

For all the wives out there, I can sympathize with what your wife must be feeling. The price involved in mishaps like this (as minor as they are and thank goodness not involving any personal injury) do stick in the back of my mind. One of the reasons I've held back driving our S, but once I got inside can't help wanting to take it all the time and leave my car behind in the driveway.

Hubby says, "Oh it's just a car, drives like one, don't worry about driving it". Hopefully neither one of us will have to tell the other about the car getting damaged. Somehow it feels like more than a car, especially since we named it and joke about it telling the other person things like "no beverages in the car!" Anyway sorry to hear about your beauty being crunched like that. I was reading the post to my husband and showed him the photo and read him the comments about the repair cost and he said something like "well at least no one suggested getting a new wife". Let us know what you end up doing (absorb cost or file a claim) and $wise how it pans out.

And all kidding aside from another wife here, I do think Tesla should do something to get the cost of parts down. Maybe when we have a huge fleet of these vehicles out there but hopefully sooner. When you have what is a minor accident like this it's easy to see why the IIHS rates cars like ours high cost for loss coverage and jacks up the rates. With so many M3s expected to hit the roadway in the next few years I can't help but wonder what kind of insurance claims they will have.

 

[Skipdd]

You could ask the body shop if they could repair this w/o replacing the quarter panel. I don't have enough experience with damage types to know if it's possible or not. I side-swiped a car in our driveway (fortunately it was one of ours) while backing up (yes the camera was working...I just have a mental blind spot about backing out of the garage...it's not the first time. But now I move any other car before I back out..) and learned about the lovely rear quarter panel early in my ownership. The repair shop agreed to work with me on it as I didn't want to have to use insurance for something stupid, and risk worse in the future. They did a great job. It was still expensive, but instead of $10k it was $3800. Search on rear quarter panel and you will get all the detail on why it is expensive. And according to the body shop repairs on Audis, Porsches, and other aluminum cars are just as expensive. Again, I don't have experience to say if that's right or not.

Oh and I gave all the detail about what I did so you can show your wife and have her not feel so bad. Mine was pretty understanding

 

[Buster1]

Asking the the obvious, but doesn't the back-up camera and parking sensors help avert this kind of calamity?

Honest question, cause I don't know.

 

[jdw]

I know the tail light is a complete assembly and don't believe the lens is available separately. You might get lucky on the quarter panel as there doesn't appear to be a tear or hole in the aluminum and there is access for a paintless dent guy to give it a try. Hard to tell from a picture, but best of luck with the repair.

 

[FlatSix911]

wow! replace the whole quarter panel. thats a very poor design. I observed other cars have their rear bumper extend all the way up there so that typical rear dents do not cause so much damage. well I can go thru insurance route if the damage is so much, will put a dent on my premium and resale of this car for sure plus so many days of wait. (OR live with this and use this to win/end any future argument with my wife ;-)).)

how about the rear brake light? Can I just replace the outer cover or the whole assembly needs to be replaced?

The previous repair estimates are financial nonsense ... get a recommendation for a local Paint-less Dent Repair shop.
The PDR guys can work with Aluminum panels and the results are excellent. Give it a try before you go to a body shop.

 

[KneeCola]

For all the wives out there, I can sympathize with what your wife must be feeling. The price involved in mishaps like this (as minor as they are and thank goodness not involving any personal injury) do stick in the back of my mind. One of the reasons I've held back driving our S, but once I got inside can't help wanting to take it all the time and leave my car behind in the driveway.
Hubby says, "Oh it's just a car, drives like one, don't worry about driving it". Hopefully neither one of us will have to tell the other about the car getting damaged. Somehow it feels like more than a car, especially since we named it and joke about it telling the other person things like "no beverages in the car!" Anyway sorry to hear about your beauty being crunched like that. I was reading the post to my husband and showed him the photo and read him the comments about the repair cost and he said something like "well at least no one suggested getting a new wife". Let us know what you end up doing (absorb cost or file a claim) and $wise how it pans out.
And all kidding aside from another wife here, I do think Tesla should do something to get the cost of parts down. Maybe when we have a huge fleet of these vehicles out there but hopefully sooner. When you have what is a minor accident like this it's easy to see why the IIHS rates cars like ours high cost for loss coverage and jacks up the rates. With so many M3s expected to hit the roadway in the next few years I can't help but wonder what kind of insurance claims they will have.

My wife is a very safe driver but parking lots have always been her weak spot :-((. she has been reluctant to drive MS for the reason that it is a bit big for her to handle even with cameras and she prefers smaller car to drive. Unfortunately we have delayed getting a car for her as we have M3 booked and expect to get by end of this year (if EM delivers the numbers he has committed). Disclaimer: I love my wife very much (getting a new one will be more expensive ;-)) ). But on a serious note she now wants a used Nissan leaf instead of M3 as she doesn't want to deal with the guilt of expensive repairs for such minor dents. (Her decision went from Model X -> Model 3 -> New Nissan Leaf -> Used Nissan Leaf)

The previous repair estimates are financial nonsense ... get a recommendation for a local Paint-less Dent Repair shop.
The PDR guys can work with Aluminum panels and the results are excellent. Give it a try before you go to a body shop.

Thanks will try getting this patched up from PDR guy and a will post the outcome if fixed.

 

[Xminus6]

Sorry guy! Looks like you need a new quarter panel. Cost me $10K to replace mine.

Yep. $11k for ours but caught a bit of the door as well.

 

[KneeCola]

Asking the the obvious, but doesn't the back-up camera and parking sensors help avert this kind of calamity?

Honest question, cause I don't know.

Buster, thats a $11K question I don't want to ask my wife right now. .

 

[Buster1]

Lol, sorry!!

 

[Skipdd]

Asking the the obvious, but doesn't the back-up camera and parking sensors help avert this kind of calamity?

Honest question, cause I don't know.

Parking sensors - no, because by the time they go off its too late. Back-up camera - yes, provided that you look at it first, vs start back first and then look. Like I said, I used to have a mental block about backing out of the garage, aka, "ready, fire, aim." Now, I move whatever is there first. We are all creatures of habit, sometimes bad habits...

 

[CarsForLife]

The previous repair estimates are financial nonsense ... get a recommendation for a local Paint-less Dent Repair shop.
The PDR guys can work with Aluminum panels and the results are excellent. Give it a try before you go to a body shop.

No offense but that is WAY beyond anything a paintless dent repair shop can do. They won't even touch it. The edges of the body panels are creased and appear to even be cracked. Aluminum is not like a steel. Even the best aluminum repair guys would probably rather replace that panel than try and work it. Just a fact of life with expensive cars...

 

[FlatSix911]

No offense but that is WAY beyond anything a paintless dent repair shop can do. They won't even touch it. The edges of the body panels are creased and appear to even be cracked. Aluminum is not like a steel. Even the best aluminum repair guys would probably rather replace that panel than try and work it. Just a fact of life with expensive cars...

My experience has been different ... YMMV

 

[MikeBur]

For all the wives out there, I can sympathize with what your wife must be feeling. The price involved in mishaps like this (as minor as they are and thank goodness not involving any personal injury) do stick in the back of my mind. One of the reasons I've held back driving our S, but once I got inside can't help wanting to take it all the time and leave my car behind in the driveway.

Hubby says, "Oh it's just a car, drives like one, don't worry about driving it". Hopefully neither one of us will have to tell the other about the car getting damaged. Somehow it feels like more than a car, especially since we named it and joke about it telling the other person things like "no beverages in the car!" Anyway sorry to hear about your beauty being crunched like that. I was reading the post to my husband and showed him the photo and read him the comments about the repair cost and he said something like "well at least no one suggested getting a new wife". Let us know what you end up doing (absorb cost or file a claim) and $wise how it pans out.

And all kidding aside from another wife here, I do think Tesla should do something to get the cost of parts down. Maybe when we have a huge fleet of these vehicles out there but hopefully sooner. When you have what is a minor accident like this it's easy to see why the IIHS rates cars like ours high cost for loss coverage and jacks up the rates. With so many M3s expected to hit the roadway in the next few years I can't help but wonder what kind of insurance claims they will have.

Well, I'll confess right now. I've done the same to my wife's car, and she coped with it a lot better than I did when she did this to my previous car