Clearly you've never watched an R-rated movie on network television. :smile:
(Yes, off-topic. Sorry.)
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Cost of repair crazy high
- Thread starter murraypetera
- Start date
Clearly you've never watched an R-rated movie on network television. :smile:
(Yes, off-topic. Sorry.)
jcaspar
Member
Seems cheap compared to my 97 Dodge Viper. Similar accident was 38,000$. Hood was 14,000$ for part alone!
MoeMistry
Former Vendor
CaptDaveHowe
Member
You are correct in that auto body repairs that require any parts can be very expensive. I had a minor dent in the wheel well that occurred from a parking lot mishap. The dent was about 1/32 " deep by about 5 " long. According to the auto body shop, a part needed to be replaced that supported the section. Total fix: $3,000.
I received a noticed from my insurance company (State Farm) that my insurance on the Tesla was now cancelled. Reason noted was the claim.
You cannot compare this to Audi or BMW though. Simply put, the amount of Model S's in productions is far less. Less parts, etc. Lower production equals higher cost.
I received a noticed from my insurance company (State Farm) that my insurance on the Tesla was now cancelled. Reason noted was the claim.
You cannot compare this to Audi or BMW though. Simply put, the amount of Model S's in productions is far less. Less parts, etc. Lower production equals higher cost.
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Thanks for the insight! I actually had what I would call a "minor" (but long) scratch on my Tesla made by a Prius (what do Priuses have against Teslas???) and, based on my experience in other countries I've lived in I expected a quote of under $1000 (very minor deflection of the aluminum plus paint used to cost that in my less-fancy but still aluminum car a few years ago in Argentina). To my surprise, the shop to which I was directed by Tesla gave me a quote for $10K, which I found terrifying. After checking the reviews of this shop I noticed the words "crooks", "inept", "unprofessional", "late" and "lame" kept coming up, so I decided to ask for quotes right across the road at another shop that had much better reviews. Their estimate came up at $3000. Given the disparity I went ahead and asked for two other estimates, which came up at $2700 and $2900, so the later three seemed to be in-sync. I later drove to the Tesla offices to talk to a customer rep and told them about the crazy quote and bad reviews of the shop they were sending people to and they told me they would review the situation since they agreed that a bad partnership could damage their relationship with customers.
Now, one thing I noticed in all the shops is that the Model S didn't come up in their quoting system so they had to do all estimates manually. They all commented it was infrequent that a car wouldn't come up in the system, that it was generally very complete. I presume the fact that the estimate has to be done manually drives the price up as well since the shops would have to be a little bit more cautious with quoting since there may be some surprises once they start working. Also, such a limitation is likely to add variation between shops which in turn may mean that different shops have less of an incentive to go with the lowest possible cost estimate. This was all about one month ago since I need the car right now and the damage, which is barely visible, can wait to be repaired.
So my question is, is this normal? Did others find that their estimates had to be done manually? Is the Model S going to show up in the repair estimate systems anytime soon so we get more systematic and presumably lower estimates and repair costs?
There was a NJ owner that had an accident last week with a cop that was speeding. I don't really know the details but it look like the cop pulled out in front or cut off the MS owner and the impact kinda looks like a tboned but very minor. The damage to the Tesla front end didn't look that bad (I know he's active on these forums, maybe he'll see this and post details & photos).
I am posting this to bring awareness that I really think some Tesla "certified" shops are possibly exhibiting fraudulent behavior. The quote that he got from the 'certified' Tesla shop in NJ was $45,000. Yes that's right. No typos there. That's $45k. For minor front end damage. It's not like the battery pack needed replacement. We're talking about a hood and front fender. Probably headlight assembly too. But there's without a doubt no way in hell that replacing those should cost $45k. Not even half that.
I think we're running into cases now that these repair shops know that nobody else can do the work and they are fraudulently quoting just under the amount that an insurance company would declare it totaled. They make out huge amount of profit and laugh all the way to the bank. The actual quote probably should have been around $10-15k. Not 3-4x that. Tesla needs to do something about this. And owner's need to be aware that prices this high are NOT NORMAL. If nobody says anything about this, and these shops get away with this, it hurts EVERYONE. It hurts the Tesla brand name because they'll get a reputation of high cost of repair. And it hurts every owner because insurance companies will either not insure these cars anymore or just hike up the insurance rate to something absurdly high to the point people won't want to buy the car as they'd end up paying $5k/yr insurance and that will put it outside of their affordable range.
If this happens to you, I recommend you contact Tesla immediately for them to investigate and put a stop to this kind of fraudulent activity and also to push them to start certifying more reputable shops so that people have a choice on which shop to go to (apparently that's currently the only shop in NJ and they know it which is part of the problem in the first place).
I am posting this to bring awareness that I really think some Tesla "certified" shops are possibly exhibiting fraudulent behavior. The quote that he got from the 'certified' Tesla shop in NJ was $45,000. Yes that's right. No typos there. That's $45k. For minor front end damage. It's not like the battery pack needed replacement. We're talking about a hood and front fender. Probably headlight assembly too. But there's without a doubt no way in hell that replacing those should cost $45k. Not even half that.
I think we're running into cases now that these repair shops know that nobody else can do the work and they are fraudulently quoting just under the amount that an insurance company would declare it totaled. They make out huge amount of profit and laugh all the way to the bank. The actual quote probably should have been around $10-15k. Not 3-4x that. Tesla needs to do something about this. And owner's need to be aware that prices this high are NOT NORMAL. If nobody says anything about this, and these shops get away with this, it hurts EVERYONE. It hurts the Tesla brand name because they'll get a reputation of high cost of repair. And it hurts every owner because insurance companies will either not insure these cars anymore or just hike up the insurance rate to something absurdly high to the point people won't want to buy the car as they'd end up paying $5k/yr insurance and that will put it outside of their affordable range.
If this happens to you, I recommend you contact Tesla immediately for them to investigate and put a stop to this kind of fraudulent activity and also to push them to start certifying more reputable shops so that people have a choice on which shop to go to (apparently that's currently the only shop in NJ and they know it which is part of the problem in the first place).
I agree with Yobigb20. you have to be extra careful with Tesla authorized's shops sometimes taking advantage of the situation and the excuse of saying "this is a special expensive car". I had a minor scratch and dent on my car and the local authorized shop wanted to charge me $7,000+ (no parts needed). After second opinion, it was about $2,200 through a reputable shop doing AL work. I did let Tesla ownership know. They got back to me and asked about the names of both shops. Hope they check into it and authorize more shops so that they become competitive and dishonest ones more honest.
chickensevil
Active Member
Just so I understand this correctly. I only need to go to a "certified" shop if there is structural damage, right? Seems like it would be in my best interest then to go somewhere else otherwise, or at least get a couple quotes.
At the OP, you really shouldn't jump to conclusions about blaming Tesla here since it seems like their parts costs are about as normal as you could expect them to be. Having had to do three separate repairs on a car from an auto body shop, and having 2 out of the 3 be bad experiences (the one that wasn't was really hard to mess up, since it was a long scratch down the side of the car where some jerk thought my car deserved to be keyed), I have to put the blame on the shops more than anything.
At the OP, you really shouldn't jump to conclusions about blaming Tesla here since it seems like their parts costs are about as normal as you could expect them to be. Having had to do three separate repairs on a car from an auto body shop, and having 2 out of the 3 be bad experiences (the one that wasn't was really hard to mess up, since it was a long scratch down the side of the car where some jerk thought my car deserved to be keyed), I have to put the blame on the shops more than anything.
Seven7
Member
When my car was hit the repairs seemed to be way less money than I expected. The work was done by a certified Tesla repair shop and totaled $44k, that was to replace the front fender, drivers door, rear passenger door, both wheels & tires on the drivers side and all the suspension components on that side. I think the fact that there was no frame damage and no air bag deployment saved $ big time. The wheels probably could have been repaired as they weren't that bad but the shop changed them out as well as the pressure sensors. If any part of the car was even remotely questionable it got replaced.
The car runs perfect and has no leaks and looks and drives like it did when it was new.
Point of impact was the drivers door by a guy that ran a stop sign but had great insurance (and I caught the crash on a dash cam)
The car runs perfect and has no leaks and looks and drives like it did when it was new.
Point of impact was the drivers door by a guy that ran a stop sign but had great insurance (and I caught the crash on a dash cam)
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
It may have been a coincidence but when I went to speak to the newly appointed Tesla authorized repair shop in WPB, FL I asked about their shop rate and was told it was $90. That is high for other areas of the country but about what the market routinely bares in S. FL for aluminum car repair (Ferrari, Audi,,). When I got the estimate five days later the shop rate was $115. I did not say anything at the time as I fully intended to sell the car as was and not repair it. However, it did seem there was a Tesla premium. Perhaps they were just trying to recoup some of the certification costs associated with Tesla in particular (just a guess on my part).
If the insurer feels that good about the rates in Dallas, have them transport the car to/from Dallas and have the repars done there!
Larry
Member
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
Larry
Member
Stupid-driving with socks only. Foot slipped off the stop and hit the go at the most inopportune time accelerating me into a tree.
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
Those turned out to be some expensive socks!
Seriously though, sorry to hear. Did they get it fixed up right?
Larry
Member
Chiltons Body Shop in San Carlos. Took 2 1/2 weeks but they did a nice job although I just noticed today they didn't replace one of the scratched lenses. Lost my HOV stickers and had to get new ones which takes about 6 weeks-biggest pain of the entire episode. Nobody to blame but me.
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