Model 3 Rear Ended: Repair Journey

[Kcharwood]

Well my new car lasted 4 days before I was rear-ended while sitting at a stop sign.

Started the repair journey this morning. I figured people would be interested in timing, parts, and cost.

I'll document everything in this thread.

Luckily, I believe it's just cosmetic damage to the bumper. There is one dent/crease, so anxious to see if they have to order new parts or if they can work with what they have here. Appointment with body shop on Monday.

Could have been worse, but still frustrating. First round of conversations and looks like the guys insurance is pretty terrible.

 

[N5329K]

It's the job of the other guy's insurance to be terrible. Hope you get it cleaned up quickly.
Robin

 

[SigNC]

Dang this sucks! That being said i'm pretty interested in the process.

 

[dhu1]

Well my new car lasted 4 days before I was rear-ended while sitting at a stop sign.

Started the repair journey this morning. I figured people would be interested in timing, parts, and cost.

I'll document everything in this thread.

Luckily, I believe it's just cosmetic damage to the bumper. There is one dent/crease, so anxious to see if they have to order new parts or if they can work with what they have here. Appointment with body shop on Monday.

Could have been worse, but still frustrating. First round of conversations and looks like the guys insurance is pretty terrible.

Sucks...but still better than what I am dealing with. My parts have been ordered and won't arrive until the 19th of March. So it took about a month to get parts and to start the repair process.

Model 3 rear ended

 

[SMAlset]

So hard to see OPs and @dhu1's damage so soon after getting a car they waited so long for and for such a stupid avoidable reason too. But maddening all the same even if they had had theirs for sometime. Something similar happened to me a few years back where we were all stopped and I still got rear-ended by the vehicle behind me who was distracted and thought cars had started to move into traffic so hit the gas. Yes, parts for a new car that is still struggling to get cars out of production is a concern. dhu1 hope your wait is almost over and @Kcharwood hope yours isn't as long. Will be following.

 

[canyondrive]

Our S had similar damages to OP, sightly worse as the bumper had noticeable crease. Tesla policy last year was to reuse the parts as much as you can, to reduce wait time. I wouldn't be surprised if model 3 had the same reuse policy. A certified body shop should be able to bring that back to decent condition. I say decent since bumper repaint never as good as original. Nobody else except you notice though.

Good thing you didn't have your HOV sticker yet -if you're in CA etc. Our body shop screwed up process and took a while to get them back.

I told myself, body shops are not Tesla service, so their service and attention to detail will not be as good.

 

[Zaphod]

Well my new car lasted 4 days before I was rear-ended while sitting at a stop sign.

Started the repair journey this morning. I figured people would be interested in timing, parts, and cost.

I'll document everything in this thread.

Luckily, I believe it's just cosmetic damage to the bumper. There is one dent/crease, so anxious to see if they have to order new parts or if they can work with what they have here. Appointment with body shop on Monday.

Could have been worse, but still frustrating. First round of conversations and looks like the guys insurance is pretty terrible.

Guess you should be glad the other guy even had insurance. Can't really tell in the pictures, but looks like you just need a new bumper cover? I don't see anything else damaged so shouldn't be too bad as far as repair process. But Tesla does tend to make things more complicated than they should.

 

[dhu1]

So hard to see OPs and @dhu1's damage so soon after getting a car they waited so long for and for such a stupid avoidable reason too. But maddening all the same even if they had had theirs for sometime. Something similar happened to me a few years back where we were all stopped and I still got rear-ended by the vehicle behind me who was distracted and thought cars had started to move into traffic so hit the gas. Yes, parts for a new car that is still struggling to get cars out of production is a concern. dhu1 hope your wait is almost over and @Kcharwood hope yours isn't as long. Will be following.

As much as it sucks, the key thing to keep in mind--nobody was hurt and everything can be fixed!!!

 

[Kcharwood]

As much as it sucks, the key thing to keep in mind--nobody was hurt and everything can be fixed!!!

That's what I keep telling myself as well.

 

[likeafox]

I bought my first car new out of college. 2 months after buying it, I was driving home on Mopac when I got caught in a 5 minute hail storm. Cracked the front windshield, dents everywhere. Nothing as expensive or nice as a Tesla, but it hurts the soul. Good luck to you.

 

[dhu1]

Sucks...but still better than what I am dealing with. My parts have been ordered and won't arrive until the 19th of March. So it took about a month to get parts and to start the repair process.

Model 3 rear ended

Actually...let me be a bit more precise. Half the parts took two weeks to get and the other half is taking 4 weeks. Hopefully if you require parts, it will be much sooner than my experience.

 

[david_42]

I bought my first car new out of college. 2 months after buying it, I was driving home on Mopac when I got caught in a 5 minute hail storm. Cracked the front windshield, dents everywhere. Nothing as expensive or nice as a Tesla, but it hurts the soul. Good luck to you.

Got knocked off the road by an uninsured, unlicensed driver while in college. Car was six months old. USAA set me a check and found me a replacement within two weeks. Still with them 46 years later.

 

[Kcharwood]

Appointment scheduled for Monday at 11:30 AM with the body shop and the claims adjuster.

 

[run-the-joules]

Got knocked off the road by an uninsured, unlicensed driver while in college. Car was six months old. USAA set me a check and found me a replacement within two weeks. Still with them 46 years later.

From all the positive things I hear, I sure wish I could be a USAA customer. Oh well.

 

[Dave B]

Got knocked off the road by an uninsured, unlicensed driver while in college. Car was six months old. USAA set me a check and found me a replacement within two weeks. Still with them 46 years later.

I've found that it's really easy to shut insurance sales people up just by saying "I've got USAA."

Only 26 years in for me, but I wouldn't trade them for another insurance company. (or bank)

 

[david_42]

I've found that it's really easy to shut insurance sales people up just by saying "I've got USAA."

Only 26 years in for me, but I wouldn't trade them for another insurance company. (or bank)

My wife worked at a call center briefly, and "USAA" always got a "Thank you for your time." Click.

 

[svp6]

I think it depends on both company and agent assigned. I had great experience with other insurers (Traveler's, Liberty Mutual).

 

[Kcharwood]

Any advice on a diminished value claim?

Meeting the adjuster and body shop over lunch today for first pass estimate.

 

[Kcharwood]

Initial estimate has the repair at just over $1700. There are two cracks in the bumper, so it will need to be replaced.

Looks like there is a fair amount of dis-assembly to get the bumper off as well.

New bumper part looks to be $430.

No word yet on timelines. Need to have it approved by insurance first.

 

[dhu1]

Initial estimate has the repair at just over $1700. There are two cracks in the bumper, so it will need to be replaced.

Looks like there is a fair amount of dis-assembly to get the bumper off as well.

New bumper part looks to be $430.

No word yet on timelines. Need to have it approved by insurance first.

That's not bad. Yes, most of my work is the labor in disassembling and reassembling things, which is being charged at $125 per hour, so definitely jacks up the total bill. Taking my car in this week since they are getting parts this week. We'll true up the costs once they take everything apart.