Guy driving a mobile home hit a van and the van hit me. I need a new rear bumper. Progressive is coming out to my job tomorrow to give me an estimate and a check.

Any idea what I'm looking at in terms of an estimate? My friend does autobody work, and he will be doing the repairs. He said his shop found the factory rear bumper for $400.

By the way, its a 2004 G35 MT

 

pics or it dident happen.

 

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3239/imag0517h.jpg
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5965/imag0520nx.jpg
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7294/imag0521e.jpg

Its not ridiculously bad, just a few holes, scratches, and its dented. Hard to see the dents with the glare(just buffed and waxed it this weekend too!)

 

so are you getting an aftermarket bumper?

 

If I go through a shop, I have to use what they get and I can't bring my own in. My friend can get me a deal for around $315 without labor for an OEM rear bumper.

I have progressive, and they are coming out to me to do the estimate...Not sure if this is good or bad. convenient wise its great, but I don't want a low bullshit estimate since they are the ones doing it.


Has anyone had this done before?

 

Best bet is for you to ask the sales department at an Infiniti dealership what the cost of the rear bumper is. Then ask your buddy about how many man-hours it would take to do the work. Then just assume $/hr is about $90 and use that as an estimate. If the insurance agent is way off then try to argue with the research.

 

Will do, so far my buddy has said it will be $700 to $800 ish without any of his discounts. I'm going to call infiniti now and see what they say.

 

Why wouldn't you be able to bring in your own bumper to a shop? Once you get the check, you can buy whatever you want with it.

What state are you in? If you're in Cali, you have the right to go to any shop of your choice.

 

I think its just his shops policy. If its really a lot cheaper for me to just buy something online and then have it painted somewhere else I might do that.

Was also thinking of buying it somewhere else, and just installing it unpainted and bringing the whole car in like that. I will find out more details from him.

 

Yup ^ truee..what Fab said

i got rear once in my 03 also all the guy did was leave 2 small dings in my rear bumper that his front lincense plate screws left. and i got a 1k check .. and deceided to buy coils then the rear bumper since it was not as noticeble . bahaha

 

You could get a Chargespeed rear, but I'd only get it if you have aftermarket sides/front to go with it. Otherwise, stick with the stock bumper.

 

Haha. I have a big chip in my windshield so I'm hoping to get enough so I can fix the rear bumper and get a new windshield. Also could use a new front bumper as well, lots of paint chips....

 

Wheres the best place/brand/price to get a stock bumper from online?

 

lol .. Do it try to work your way around it and if you end up getting that check trust you'll find the front and rear at a fair price and paint work well if your in cali i will take it to RN&J .. if not . hopes you can find a good place to get it painted. might have to add a couple buks but wont be as far. you knw

 

HAHA everytime i see the comment, "pics or it didnt happen", it still cracks me up, don't know why. but man that sucks to be rear ended, but at least that damage is minimal and you'll get paid. for that damage they'll pay you pretty big minus deductible. Insurance quote will give you a new bumper (hopefully its not repairable), labor for painting removing clearcoating, and most importantly, blending your trunk and maybe rear quarter panels. thats the extra parts that you MIGHT not have to do depending on what shop you bring it to.

my opinion, say you'll bring it to your own shop, just name a damn shop doesnt matter ONLY because you are SURE there is no underlying damage behind the bumper (i'll get into more detail in a sec). they issue you check minus deductible, cash it and bring it to whatever shop you want whether it be hookup or not, get a quote, DON'T say you're going through insurance because they might ask for the estimate and its a freaking rip off sometimes because you'll be able to do the work for a lot less most of the time and it'll be just as good. no matter how much you want to save though, bring it to a reputable place. pocket the rest of the money.


as for the part where you tell the body shop you don't want to go through insurance, if you tell them that and there IS underlying damage behind your bumper, they'll tell you and they'll charge you for it, but the insurance company won't know about the underlying damage and you can't tell them to go to the shop to look it over again because you told the body shop that you're not going through insurance. lol complicated much? unless the shop you go to is just charging you less and knows that insurance is paying you out.