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Rear Ended After Installing Mods

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Collision center said that State Farm is an absolute pain to deal with when fixing Tesla vehicles (90% of this shop's business is Tesla so I trust them) Apparently they don't authorize all parts necessary to perform a certified repair so I am opening a claim on my insurance and having them reimburse my insurer once complete.

They also stated that the car looked to be around $15-20k to fix but I won't have a formal estimate until the beginning of next week. I'll keep you all posted.
 
UPDATE: The collision center has given me an estimate and ordered the parts. So now it becomes a waiting game, once they arrive we can schedule a day to drop off the car for repair. Hoping the wait isn't too long, but I'm not getting my hopes up given what I've seen from other people waiting on replacement parts from Tesla.

For those wondering, the estimate total came out to $12,560.18. It is less than I thought but the shop will probably add to it once they start physically working on the car.
 
It's going to be closer to $20k when it's all said and done. I suggest going exclusively with the third party as your own insurance may not fully cover the body shop's hourly rate.

And look into filing a diminished value claim. They may need to cut and weld a new frame or panel piece.
 
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Just wanted to share my experience from this past weekend, unfortunately I was rear ended by a girl in a Jeep not paying attention to traffic at around 30-35mph. Of course the Jeep had a bull bar front bumper and absolutely decimated the rear bumper, trunk lid, and trunk. 😞 The real kicker is that she only had state minimum insurance ($25k coverage) so I'll need to use my own if it exceeds that, which based on my research it definitely could. They did already assume 100% of the fault for the accident at least.
Sue her for any excess that her insurance doesn't pay.
 
It's going to be closer to $20k when it's all said and done. I suggest going exclusively with the third party as your own insurance may not fully cover the body shop's hourly rate.

And look into filing a diminished value claim. They may need to cut and weld a new frame or panel piece.

I am already going through my own insurance and they will subrogate with State Farm, the shop already warned me of that. I should get my deductible back as long as all of the costs are under her coverage limit ($25k). This quote does include new rear frame rail pieces as well. Diminished value might be hard as the car already had a minor accident on the record. Plus with used values being so high (even cars with reported accidents) I'm not sure that I would get much after all of the effort.

Sue her for any excess that her insurance doesn't pay.

Fortunately even if the amount increases, it shouldn't reach her limit. I was worried at first but it appears that I should be alright.
 
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I also noticed that because of her Jeep's bumper being so high up, the rear crash bar is untouched and in perfect shape. I have a feeling that if the crash bar was utilized there would have been a lot less damage. My car being lowered and her Jeep being lifted definitely made the situation worse. :confused:
 
Sue her for any excess that her insurance doesn't pay.
His insurance will cover the difference, then his insurance company will pursue the additional costs from her individually. There's no reason for him to do anything other than let the insurance companies deal with everything.

Really wish people would understand how this works, before they select the minimum coverage on their policy. It's like they have a false belief that anything above their coverage limits just magically goes away. NOPE. You're responsible for it. I'd much rather pay a few dollars more per month for a $250k or $500k policy than worry about getting personally sued later for $50k.
 
i absolutely HATE crash bars on trucks and Jeeps. they will use *your* vehicle as crumple zone and even worse...if they hit you it's usually by default their fault as it's a rear ending accident.
I agree completely, the only thing it does is damage the other vehicle more. In certain circumstances where they aren't at fault that could be a good thing, but in this case it was very bad given the value of the Jeep vs my Model 3. Would've rather had the Jeep absorb some of the impact as intended by the manufacturer.
His insurance will cover the difference, then his insurance company will pursue the additional costs from her individually. There's no reason for him to do anything other than let the insurance companies deal with everything.

Really wish people would understand how this works, before they select the minimum coverage on their policy. It's like they have a false belief that anything above their coverage limits just magically goes away. NOPE. You're responsible for it. I'd much rather pay a few dollars more per month for a $250k or $500k policy than worry about getting personally sued later for $50k.
Exactly, I don't have to do anything other than sort out the repair location. Fortunately I look out for myself and have the appropriate coverage for these scenarios so my insurance can handle it without my involvement, that's the whole reason I pay for such coverage. I was glad that the damage was lower than her limits though, I feel like the process would draw out much longer if that wasn't the case.



Also, I wasn't aware that I cannot track the parts ordered from Tesla by the repair shop anymore. I was informed by Tesla today that they are no longer doing that and to check in with my collision center early next week on the status. I'm hoping that's their way of telling me that the parts are arriving soon but I'm not getting my hopes up.
 
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I agree completely, the only thing it does is damage the other vehicle more. In certain circumstances where they aren't at fault that could be a good thing, but in this case it was very bad given the value of the Jeep vs my Model 3. Would've rather had the Jeep absorb some of the impact as intended by the manufacturer.

Exactly, I don't have to do anything other than sort out the repair location. Fortunately I look out for myself and have the appropriate coverage for these scenarios so my insurance can handle it without my involvement, that's the whole reason I pay for such coverage. I was glad that the damage was lower than her limits though, I feel like the process would draw out much longer if that wasn't the case.



Also, I wasn't aware that I cannot track the parts ordered from Tesla by the repair shop anymore. I was informed by Tesla today that they are no longer doing that and to check in with my collision center early next week on the status. I'm hoping that's their way of telling me that the parts are arriving soon but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Hope it progresses quickly and you have good results!
 
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His insurance will cover the difference, then his insurance company will pursue the additional costs from her individually. There's no reason for him to do anything other than let the insurance companies deal with everything.

Really wish people would understand how this works, before they select the minimum coverage on their policy. It's like they have a false belief that anything above their coverage limits just magically goes away. NOPE. You're responsible for it. I'd much rather pay a few dollars more per month for a $250k or $500k policy than worry about getting personally sued later for $50k.
It also depends on your own insurance coverage. If you don’t have rental car coverage, you won’t get the coverage unless go directly to the other party’s insurance (third party claim). Your own insurance will also try to pay out the least possible. Just because they will subrogate won’t change their claim process. And you gotta pay deductible and wait months for the other party’s insurance to pay before you even get your deductible back.

And some body shops will negotiate and/or accept insurance rates whereas others won’t. I’ve known several people that needed to pay out of pocket because Tesla’s own collision center’s rates were higher and the insurance would not pay. As for the me personally, I went to an Tesla authorized body shop and they ended up agreeing to the reduced hourly rate.
 
It also depends on your own insurance coverage. If you don’t have rental car coverage, you won’t get the coverage unless go directly to the other party’s insurance (third party claim). Your own insurance will also try to pay out the least possible. Just because they will subrogate won’t change their claim process. And you gotta pay deductible and wait months for the other party’s insurance to pay before you even get your deductible back.

And some body shops will negotiate and/or accept insurance rates whereas others won’t. I’ve known several people that needed to pay out of pocket because Tesla’s own collision center’s rates were higher and the insurance would not pay. As for the me personally, I went to an Tesla authorized body shop and they ended up agreeing to the reduced hourly rate.
Since I initially went through their insurance I already have a rental through them, even though I don't have rental coverage on my policy.

I will gladly pay my deductible if the process goes smoother for the shop to get the repair done sooner, I will get the money back eventually. Seems like my insurance has already dealt with this shop many times before so there are no issues thus far, just waiting on parts now...
 
It has been a while, but the car still remains at the collision center awaiting parts from Tesla and they have no ETA or completion date. The total is now around $17k in damage and I am driving around a 2020 Dodge Durango :rolleyes: (great for a 70 mile commute).

Good news is that State Farm already paid my deductible so I will owe nothing when I go to pick it up, whenever that may be.

I will update more once they actually get the parts and fix it, the process has been super frustrating thus far...
 
Just another update: After telling my insurance company that they would be done on June 28th, they just pushed the date out again to July 6th.... they feel like this is a "firm" date for completion so I guess we'll see. This collision center's work is supposed to be fantastic, but their communication has been pretty horrible. I have had to email them multiple times just to get a response. I even waited a week in between my messages to give them time to respond.

For reference, below is the timeline for my scenario:

March 26th 2022 - Accident occurs around 1pm, called different collision centers for estimates

April 1st 2022 - Traveled 4 hours to my chosen collision center for a "same-day" 30 minute estimate, took 3 minutes and did not leave with any estimate

April 12th 2022 - Finally received the estimate, parts were ordered

May 4th 2022 - Confirmed that parts will arrive by the end of the week

May 9th 2022 - Drop off car for repair after hours (was driving it in the meantime)

May 10th 2022 - Signed work authorization to begin repair

May 13th 2022 - Supplement paid to collision center from insurance, given completion date of June 6th

May 25th 2022 - Additional parts needed ordered for repairs, no ETA on when they will arrive

May 26th 2022 - Emailed asking about completion date estimate and if June 6th was still feasible, no response

June 1st 2022 - Emailed again asking for an update and completion date estimate (if they could provide one), they responded that they still did not have tracking information for the additional parts.

June 10th 2022 - Emailed asking for an update because my rental was due back, no response

June 13th 2022 - Called collision center and they confirmed a completion date of June 28th

June 20th 2022 - Emailed again asking if June 28th was still good, they replied and said that it was now estimated to be July 6th

I totally understand waiting for parts, but am I crazy when thinking that this is a bit much?
 
UPDATE: I finally got my car back and have been enjoying every minute of it, the repairs appear to have been done very well. Unfortunately the new trunk lid has more panel gap on the driver side than my original one did, but I know that isn't the collision center's fault. This is probably the cleanest the car has ever been. 😅

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