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Car (Body) Trouble- Update P1
Darkewolfe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Over the weekend I drove my car into a snowbank and cracked the grill and bumper up. The accident wasn't serious, if it hadn't occurred on ice I imagine nothing would've been damaged. As it is, the bumper is cracked in three pieces on the left side, and about a half-inch out of place. It seemed to pull itself back to where it wanted to be after the weight of the car was no longer pinning it against the snow/rock it hit. The grill is smashed all to hell and is no longer performing it's function. Additionally, it looks like a flat piece of plastic that runs from the edge of the bumper, back about three feet under the car has come loose. My best guess is that this is a random piece of plastic that keeps rocks from bouncing up under the vehicle and possibly colliding with the radiator. This is a Mazda 3, and every piece of the engine anywhere has some sort of plastic box around it.
No biggie, I figured. I just lowered my deductible to $250, so I can probably knock this out without too much trouble. Unfortunately, my insurance rates are pretty spectacular because I am completely accident free. I called the insurance company, and the lady I spoke to said she couldn't compute exactly what effect filing a claim would have, but at the least I would lose $100 a year in accident-free claimage. That puts the cost to fix with insurance at, minimum, $550 if we take into account the rate hike over the next three years till I'm accident free again. I'd expect there'd be at least a little bit more hike than that, since I'm life-time accident free and probably in some really low risk bracket.
Now, I can also try paying some of this out-of-pocket. The insurance lady said that I might expect to pay up to ~2 grand in body work. I assume this is because body shops like to make money, and need to do so by violating the seat of my pants. To keep things on the cheap side, I might try just getting/replacing myself the grill, and ripping the plastic underneath the car off (it is currently dragging on the ground). I think paying for the bumper replacement out of pocket would be too much, but at the same time it doesn't look like any serious damage was done to the bumper, it's just aesthetically cracked in three places.
Can anyone make any recommendations? Thanks!
No biggie, I figured. I just lowered my deductible to $250, so I can probably knock this out without too much trouble. Unfortunately, my insurance rates are pretty spectacular because I am completely accident free. I called the insurance company, and the lady I spoke to said she couldn't compute exactly what effect filing a claim would have, but at the least I would lose $100 a year in accident-free claimage. That puts the cost to fix with insurance at, minimum, $550 if we take into account the rate hike over the next three years till I'm accident free again. I'd expect there'd be at least a little bit more hike than that, since I'm life-time accident free and probably in some really low risk bracket.
Now, I can also try paying some of this out-of-pocket. The insurance lady said that I might expect to pay up to ~2 grand in body work. I assume this is because body shops like to make money, and need to do so by violating the seat of my pants. To keep things on the cheap side, I might try just getting/replacing myself the grill, and ripping the plastic underneath the car off (it is currently dragging on the ground). I think paying for the bumper replacement out of pocket would be too much, but at the same time it doesn't look like any serious damage was done to the bumper, it's just aesthetically cracked in three places.
Can anyone make any recommendations? Thanks!
What is this I don't even.
Darkewolfe on
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Posts
Depending upon how hard you hit the bumper itself is likely damaged and is not going to provide you much protection in another accident. These things absorb impacts well up to a few mph, but much past that and they break easily; any impact that tore the bumper cover I'd be concerned the bumper itself was damaged.
2 grand might be high or not. 1st, front end hits often make nearby pieces move (headlamps, radiator, hood, etc.) so if you want it to look perfect some time will need to be spent making sure everything lines up and replacing things that got damaged which weren't obvious from the initial inspection. Then is the parts, bumper wll be a couple hundred, bumper cover will be another couple hundred, grill too, then there are various connectors and other pieces of trim that got damaged and needs to be replaced. Then there's labor to R&I (remove and inspect), fix anything that can be fixed, install, prep and paint. Your car paint job is likely 2 phase (base and a clear) and they will need to blend the hood and at least one fender (possibly both).
If you want to get the repair done but economize a bit you can source all the parts yourself and then have them do the install and paint.
Though if I were in your situation I'd probably just have insurance take care of it, if $2k+ is a reasonable estimate that is. Assuming the car is driveable get a few estimates from shops.
But of course, there is no good reason not to go into a body shop and get an estimate. At least they'll let you know what you're dealing with. Post your location and I'm sure someone will chime in with a reputable establishment.
I have one shop that is guaranteed by the insurance company. If I'm just going to have everything fixed, I'll just use them, because the insurance company will deal with any hassle if anything gets fucked up on their side or anything, and no matter what I'm just paying the $250 plus any rate hikes I get.
So, I'm thinking I'll just take it by that shop, have them do an estimate and ask them for a serious answer on whether I'm running any safety risks, rust risks, etc. by not getting some things repaired. If I think I can get away with it, I will pay for just the grill to be replaced out of pocket. If not, I'll just suck it up and watch my insurance rates go up.
(I work in the wholesale end of the business, they are just as good as the "real thing")
Edit: There are exceptions, but the Mazda 3 isn't one that has problems in my experience.
that should help you decide how much it'll cost to fix it out of pocket.
I located the insurance company recommended body shop on a map. It was walking distance from my place, so I took my car over and walked back after leaving it with them. When I got there, I said, "Hey, (my reputable insurance company) told me to come by here and get you to give me a repair quote. Then I'm going to decide whether to file a claim or pay you out of pocket. The inspection was quick, the guy quoted me a $700 figure, and recommended I just pay out of pocket, which made sense. I trusted him on all of it, since it was the (reputable insurance company) certified place. They called today before I went to pick it up to say I'd blown an o-ring and all of the oil had been leaking out of my car. I can't change oil myself because I live in a dense city and park in a garage, so I just agreed to the $80 to repair the o-ring and change the oil. I knew it was an expensive figure for that service, but I figured that was the "body shop changing your oil" tax. I wasn't going to be able to just drive it somewhere else anyway.
So, I go to pick the car up. Since I'm walking this time, I come at the building from a different direction than when I was driving. It's a building literally on a corner, with what looked to me like the office facing one street and the garage facing the other. When I'd dropped the car off I'd only been on the garage side. I go in, tell the guy my name, and he can't find my car. I panic a little bit, look around, think, and suddenly comprehension dawns.
"Is there a body shop literally next door to you, in the same building, with almost the same name?"
"Oh, yeah. They're really shady. They steal our customers all the time. They're not (reputable insurance company) certified, either."
Fuck.
So, I go over, steaming, and pick up my car. I yell at the guy when he tries to charge me more than they'd estimated, get him to give me the original price, check the oil on my car, feel out the bumper and figure there's not much I can do other than pay the guy and hope they didn't steal my car's kidneys and leave it in a bath tub full of ice or something.
I'd wondered why the repairs were only $700, when I'd been expecting 1.5k. I hadn't questioned it at the time, because all service at the CORRECT location are certified by my insurance company. My guess is that they just puttied over the shattered parts of the bumper, repainted and replaced the grill.
So now my question is this: what are the various ways I have probably been fucked? What things should I check? Am I now driving a death trap with a bumer made of paper mache?
I'm probably going to take it to the LEGIT place soon (everyone was closing when I dropped by today) and ask them to look it over and make recommendations. I'm just so fucking pissed off, and I don't really see what I can do other than be more careful next time. I also feel like a complete moron.
tl;dr
Got duped into taking my place to a less reputable body shop, posing as my real body shop. Probably got shoddy repairs. What could go wrong, and how badly do I need to try to fix it?
Really, even a shady place could only screw you by doing a poor job affixing the bumper or by just removing the undercover entirely and claiming it was replaced.
If you park in an enclosed garage, you could put some cardboard down under the engine compartment to see if you have any oil leaks, but honestly, that o-ring wouldn't have blown from the accident anyways.