Rear bumper repair.

[Oxstock]

Hi wanted to get some advice. Wife bumped into another car and damaged the rear bumper.

I’ve really struggled to get an appointment with an ‘official’ tesla repair company however I’ve just heard from one in Croydon, called veetec motor group.

They first quoted £2,099 to completely replace the rear bumper. I’ve said it doesn’t need a new bumper it just needs a repair. To my horror, I then received another quote of £1,985 to repair it?

Seems absolutely madness. I’ve attached photos, I think a repair is possible but at £2,000?

Am I best getting another quote from an official repairer? (Which is hard to come by) or do I suck up the £2,000?

 

[SteelmanMFC]

Hi wanted to get some advice. Wife bumped into another car and damaged the rear bumper.

I’ve really struggled to get an appointment with an ‘official’ tesla repair company however I’ve just heard from one in Croydon, called veetec motor group.

They first quoted £2,099 to completely replace the rear bumper. I’ve said it doesn’t need a new bumper it just needs a repair. To my horror, I then received another quote of £1,985 to repair it?

Seems absolutely madness. I’ve attached photos, I think a repair is possible but at £2,000?

Am I best getting another quote from an official repairer? (Which is hard to come by) or do I suck up the £2,000?

Any decent bodyshop should be able to repair that no problem, £2K is taking the wee wee. good luck

If it's going through insurance for other car etc, theres no benefit in you paying to repair your car, id let the insurers engineer argue the cost with the body shop over replacement or repair etc

 

[Oxstock]

Any decent bodyshop should be able to repair that no problem, £2K is taking the wee wee. good luck

If it's going through insurance for other car etc, theres no benefit in you paying to repair your car, id let the insurers engineer argue the cost with the body shop over replacement or repair etc

The other owner said don’t worry about the car and so it’s only my car to repair, you still think I should go through insurance?

I guess my only concern with going privately is a replacement car, it’s not really the money…..doubt I’ll get a car, Even if I go through tesla?

Going through insurance will be easier and im sure I’ll get a courtesy car also but concerned on the premiums.

 

[yessuz]

The other owner said don’t worry about the car and so it’s only my car to repair, you still think I should go through insurance?

I guess my only concern with going privately is a replacement car, it’s not really the money…..doubt I’ll get a car, Even if I go through tesla?

Going through insurance will be easier and im sure I’ll get a courtesy car also but concerned on the premiums.

if it's not your fault - your premiums will not increase. you still SHOULD report an accident to your insurance company as per your policy.

I would go with insurance and let this headache be other driver's.

 

[SteelmanMFC]

The other owner said don’t worry about the car and so it’s only my car to repair, you still think I should go through insurance?

I guess my only concern with going privately is a replacement car, it’s not really the money…..doubt I’ll get a car, Even if I go through tesla?

Going through insurance will be easier and im sure I’ll get a courtesy car also but concerned on the premiums.

Try another bodyshop for a repair quote and ask how long it would take them to do, subject to how busy they are that repair should only be maybe 10-12 hours labour, but it's been a long time since I worked in a bodyshop, no harm in asking for other quotes etc

 

[Oxstock]

if it's not your fault - your premiums will not increase. you still SHOULD report an accident to your insurance company as per your policy.

I would go with insurance and let this headache be other driver's.

It was our fault, was my wives, insurance is aware of the accident, they’re awaiting direction from me.

 

[Oxstock]

Try another bodyshop for a repair quote and ask how long it would take them to do, subject to how busy they are that repair should only be maybe 10-12 hours labour, but it's been a long time since I worked in a bodyshop, no harm in asking for other quotes etc

I’ll try but they’re absolutely rammed, especially the tesla approved shops. Tesla themselves said they’ll look at the repair themselves, I had a very rough estimate from them of £1,000-£1,300 and a 6 week wait for a car which I’m contemplating.

 

[yessuz]

It was our fault, was my wives, insurance is aware of the accident, they’re awaiting direction from me.

ah, then no, no insurance.
just go with literally any bodyshop.

you can wait as much as you want as this is a plastic only, no damage to the car otherwise.

there's national network of places called Chips Away (ChipsAway Smart Repair | Car Body & Car Scratch Repairs) - have had similar damage on one of previous car (on a bumper as well). slightly less, but still a scrath. repair cost me, if not mistaken, 200 pounds or so.

 

[Oxstock]

ah, then no, no insurance.
just go with literally any bodyshop.

you can wait as much as you want as this is a plastic only, no damage to the car otherwise.

there's national network of places called Chips Away (ChipsAway Smart Repair | Car Body & Car Scratch Repairs) - have had similar damage on one of previous car (on a bumper as well). slightly less, but still a scrath. repair cost me, if not mistaken, 200 pounds or so.

But I don’t think they’ll be able to get the paint from tesla, I’m pretty sure they can’t anyway.

 

[yessuz]

But I don’t think they’ll be able to get the paint from tesla, I’m pretty sure they can’t anyway.

you can buy same paint. you can buy smart repair bottles

just enquire - no harm to ask, but I am sure that there is no issues to get the paint. it's not like some alien technology - it's just a paint. they can match basically any paint as I remember.

My mondeo had colour similar to MSM. it was a pain to match and they failed from the first attempt, but then took spectrometer and fixed the issue no problem. white is much easier to match

 

[SteelmanMFC]

I’ll try but they’re absolutely rammed, especially the tesla approved shops. Tesla themselves said they’ll look at the repair themselves, I had a very rough estimate from them of £1,000-£1,300 and a 6 week wait for a car which I’m contemplating.

The bumper is not a critical part that should need a Tesla approved bodyshop to do anything special etc, after all it's just a piece of plastic and the parking sensors just pop out for the repair and repaint etc, obviously if it involved any work to the High Voltage system then go with the Tesla approved shop etc

It's minor cosmetic damage from what the pictures show, at end of day you have to make the call yourself on how to proceed, but get some other quotes and see what they think.

 

[Fred2]

For what it's worth I had what looked like similar damage. I was initially quoted £1000 but it ended up being £2000 because it turned out that the bracket the bumper attaches to had also been damaged - maybe they're just covering their arses

 

[SteelmanMFC]

you can buy same paint. you can buy smart repair bottles

just enquire - no harm to ask, but I am sure that there is no issues to get the paint. it's not like some alien technology - it's just a paint. they can match basically any paint as I remember.

My mondeo had colour similar to MSM. it was a pain to match and they failed from the first attempt, but then took spectrometer and fixed the issue no problem. white is much easier to match

As @yessuz says the paint should not be an issue, paint colours have a set mix formula made up of a range of different colours normally made by adding a specific weight of each of the coloured pigments which gives them the exact factory colour & shade etc

 

[Oxstock]

As @yessuz says the paint should not be an issue, paint colours have a set mix formula made up of a range of different colours normally made by adding a specific weight of each of the coloured pigments which gives them the exact factory colour & shade etc

Fair enough, I’ll get a local quote and see what they say. I’d rather them order the paint from tesla as I don’t think even a spectrometer is completely accurate, especially on pearl paints. Also concerned with a replacement car, doubt I’d get that luxury.

 

[ukmy]

Have a look at RSymons video about front bumper replacement for Model Y. It may work out to be cheaper to replace than repair provided you can order spare parts from Tesla.

 

[SteelmanMFC]

Fair enough, I’ll get a local quote and see what they say. I’d rather them order the paint from tesla as I don’t think even a spectrometer is completely accurate, especially on pearl paints. Also concerned with a replacement car, doubt I’d get that luxury.

Hi @Oxstock I think you'll find that Tesla may supply touch pens etc, but i don't believe they will be supplying paint on a commercial basis ie x litres, manufacturers haven't operated that way for decades now, its all computerised and 99% of bodyshops have their own paint mixing rooms to make the paint to the manufacturers spec etc

 

[yessuz]

Fair enough, I’ll get a local quote and see what they say. I’d rather them order the paint from tesla as I don’t think even a spectrometer is completely accurate, especially on pearl paints. Also concerned with a replacement car, doubt I’d get that luxury.

it's a 1 day job. just so you know.

 

[Oxstock]

Thanks all, went to a local work shop, said they’ll try and match the paint as best as possible but it is challenging on pearl paint. Only sure way is to paint the bumper and rear quarter panels to blend them in.

I don’t really want to take the risk, it’s not too expensive, £400 without the rear quarter panel blending but still, I don’t want to take the risk.

Might just go down the Tesla route directly and at least I can get another Tesla as a courtesy. Think they said it should be around £1,300

I’d hate to spend £400, not be happy and end up forking out another £1,300 to get it done properly

 

[Oxstock]

Just spoke to tesla, they use exactly the same process as the local garage, they said even if they got a new painted rear bumper, the odds of it matching are slim as there’s 13 different variants of the pearl white.

 

[init6]

Might just go down the Tesla route directly and at least I can get another Tesla as a courtesy.

Make sure you can get a car. A lot of tales on here say otherwise. Also when my car was in for body work, it was the body shop that supplied the courtesy car, not Tesla. Again stories in here.