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Jeez. Direct hit on wheel and fender. Grazed front bumper but can't see damage.
Lady admitted fault right away and was friendly. Just blind spot as she backed out of her spot as I was going past.
Was it in my head that the car felt less stable on the highway? Right side light was dipped low in aim at night though it looked fine in daylight. I'm sure I'll find out after a check from a few authorized Audi repair shops.
This will be interesting to see if using collision insurance; will they total the car?
Hopefully not as a fender is $1500.00 painted. But, underpinnings, suspension stuff, wheel and alignment of the front structure can quickly take the price to $10k and even 15-20.
Your headlight alignment is almost certainly off, the fender looks like it pushed against the headlight at least a bit. Count yourself lucky it isn't cracked. If insurance tries to total it, I'd say just buy it back, replace the fender, and do a headlight alignment. Pending a check that no serious underpinnings were damaged, of course.
FWIW, there is an aluminum bracket up in that fender and headlight corner, at least on my W12 when the neighbor backed into same area on driver's side. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it cracks. Figure it needs the fender and also headlight if any of the headlight mount points are broken. I expect an ins. co should throw in a suspension alignment too, plus of course headlights.
I suspect it is otherwise cosmetic so would be borderline DIY--or cheap off the books type repair guy--if you want. Especially if you can find a fender in same color from a junkyard. But, if it gets into bumper cover, anything in suspension, broken airbox, messed up belly pan, etc. the costs quickly go up. If it gets totaled, exactly what some wrecking/salvage yard or reseller will do. It will be back on road one way or another.
Yeah. From front view, it looks like entire right side is down 1/8" (hood to grill). Maybe just due to font of the fender, but theres definitely a noise over larger bumps on the right.
Belly pan was already gone and lower lip was scraped a little.
FWIW, there is an aluminum bracket up in that fender and headlight corner, at least on my W12 when the neighbor backed into same area on driver's side. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it cracks. Figure it needs the fender and also headlight if any of the headlight mount points are broken. I expect an ins. co should throw in a suspension alignment too, plus of course headlights.
I suspect it is otherwise cosmetic so would be borderline DIY--or cheap off the books type repair guy--if you want. Especially if you can find a fender in same color from a junkyard. But, if it gets into bumper cover, anything in suspension, broken airbox, messed up belly pan, etc. the costs quickly go up. If it gets totaled, exactly what some wrecking/salvage yard or reseller will do. It will be back on road one way or another.
Do you think the fender can be straightened out as opposed to replacing it? I only ask because I also have damage on the same fender, but not as bad (2007 S8). Hit and run in a restaurant parking lot. Headlight seems to be fine, lower grill sticks out. I've gotten an estimate, but have not been able to take it in yet because a number of other issues with the car I'm trying to get sorted. In any event, just curious if, in these cases, repairing the aluminum fenders is actually an option.
Do you think the fender can be straightened out as opposed to replacing it? I only ask because I also have damage on the same fender, but not as bad (2007 S8). Hit and run in a restaurant parking lot. Headlight seems to be fine, lower grill sticks out. I've gotten an estimate, but have not been able to take it in yet because a number of other issues with the car I'm trying to get sorted. In any event, just curious if, in these cases, repairing the aluminum fenders is actually an option.
On the neighbor hit that slightly bent fender as well as extreme edge of hood, they repaired in both cases. For the rock hit my wife had another time on the other side, the fender metal tore so they didn't even consider repair. In earlier reply, I was suggesting replace as much as anything for the DIY context where if you can find it in same body color, it is so much cheaper than the whole body work plus especially the paint work on top. Also, OP's first picture looked like fender was badly folded at one place (the highest area up) and had some pretty sharp creases in a couple more.
Yeah, there are some tears in the panel. The brackets for aiming the headlight are broken on the headlight as well. Driving a crappy rental now while they do the official estimate.
I got an estimate on my own without any suspension corrections included and it was at $3.5k. There's a definite groan under certain left turn bumps now so somethings wonky.
New official quote is over $7k. I'm guessing it'll be a total loss. Most likely something got bent in the suspension/steering just enough to need replacement. I don't see buying it back if they make an offer.
I might move towards a Q5/Q7/Touareg as a replacement as I like more space for camping and bicycle gear.
07-15-2017, 09:49 PM
Fender bent
