Girl was a little tipsy and hit me turning on a two lane turn (guess she didn't like her lane and thought mine was better? ) Called the cops and got that all sorted out (her fault), and insurance should take care of it (seeing them Monday), but I'm wondering what sort of repair do you guys think i'm looking at? Broken tail, scraped/dented bumper and fender. Hoping they'll just get a new factory tail and (maybe?) bumper, but i'm at a loss on the fender.

I'm meticulous about my car and don't want some hack job, so i'm trying to educate myself a little bit before they start throwing out body shops. Any thoughts?

 

Talk to your family and friends and find a body shop that does quality work, by law you have a choice of where your cars going to be repaired. Your fender and the wheel arch are really wasted, I'd want that along with the rear bumper replaced with new parts. A good body shop will be able to match the paint too, hope you find one....Gary

 

omgg kill the woman

 

Insurance probably won't go far a new quarter panel (fenders are on the front). Replacing a whole quarter involves removing glass, undoing welds under the trunk, door sills, roof, etc.. Plus, it doesn't look too bad. $2000 repair before supplimental.

 

Thanks for the replies. Asked around and found a good quality body shop, and it just happens to be one recommended by her insurance co, so when they call up it ought to go pretty smoothly.

Guy quoted me $1800. Tack weld and pull the dent. Still wondering how it's going to come out... I don't want to deal with any bondo issues. One of the dents is iffy with a crease. Debating if i should scream and get a new quarterpanel (thanks speedracer), but as you said, that's a lot of work and I don't know if the insurance will go for it. Plus they'd probably get the recycled/remanuf parts and that might be worse than pulling the dents.

 

What do you care if replacing the rear quarter is a lot of work? You want it perfect, I doubt if anyone can make it look like it was never touched! You have an insurance company, tell them what you want and where you want it done....that's why you pay them and it's not going to effect your premiums. Her insurance should also pay you for declining value since an accident will lower the value of your car....how bout a rental car while you're waiting?
Gary

 

That's not how insurance works. You can take it wherever you want, but estimates are written by industry standards set up by icar. They will never pay to have the quarter replaced and you will never be able to get them to do it. However the repair is done, you will have body filler, but a good shop should be able to do repair that is undetectable. The option you do have, if you've never had body damage is a diminished value claim. You can only file for diminished value after your claim is settled, but you can try and use that to try and offset whatever it would be out of pocket to get the quarter replaced. BTW. Replacing a quarter is probably around $2.5k in parts and labor without paint. Replacing the quarter also requires blending paint into the roof, trunk and doors, so tack on another $1.2k. Not worth it in my opinion. Just make sure the shop does a good job and put the diminished value check in your pocket.

 

Learn something new every day. I've never heard of diminished value claims before. Makes sense, however I'm going to have to do some investigation to see if this would affect the value of the car.

I figured I'd be paying the difference for the quarter panel. Did not know it was up that high for parts. Little more research I've done with some folks in the body shop world have cautioned me against it. From their view, cutting on the car opens you up for more headaches with leaks and fitment. Sounds like I am going to go the route of letting the shop get it perfect with dent pulling.