Ravill

Sorry about your car, but atleast you got an honest person over there.

I hope your A/S8 never needs rear body work like mine, you'll see how a delicate procedure it is in our cars. In a strange way, it kind of adds to the mystique of owning the Audi flagship.

Ravill

Official estimates are in.

$20,399 damages.

2 months to fix it.

Oy vey.

jakematic

Well that sucks.

And my colleagues wonder why I'm not chatting away and ignoring traffic when I pick them up at the airport....

HouTexAudi

Holy crap! Did your insurance company agree to that amount? Sure seems high for the amount of damage, even with the aluminum body. I had a front left quarter panel replaced on an aluminum body Jaguar XJR a few years ago and it was fairly reasonable and the body shop was a Jaguar certified shop with all of the correct tools for the job.

derfA8L

"...front left quarter panel..." Not so fast.

It's either a front fender, or it's a rear quarter panel --- two very different parts.

Replacement of a front fender is a piece of cake in terms of labor and cost---unbolt to remove old panel and bolt in new panel, while replacing a rear quarter panel (aka rear fender) involves a lot more detail work: cutting, matching up the replacement panel correctly and cutting to fit, aluminum welding, smoothing, etc.

From Ravill's photo, it appears that they have to cut into, and repair, the wheel well structure and whatever underlying structure elements are underneath there. Add in the door repair, wheel repair or replacement (and I'd likely look at replacing that tire, if it took some of the impact) and I can see the cost approaching $20K. I would have bet a minimum of $15K.

I can't wait to see what the estimate is to just repair the ding on my car's hood and repaint it. But that's another story.

Ravill

Don't forget all the paint work that will have to go into "blending". I could not accept anything less than a perfect job.

Like derf says, this part of our cars is like the worst part to need replacing.

HouTexAudi

Yes, it was a left front fender and did not require any cutting or splicing of aluminum, but $20K, really?! That's a lot of extra body work labor because the parts cost is probably no worse than replacing a fender and the painting would also be pretty straight forward.

Of course, it is what it is--that's why I asked if his insurance company agreed with the estimate. They're the ones that keep the body shops honest.

uberwgn

When these repair charges approach this level, isn't anyone looking for video camera info, etc.?

xradman

Might be cheaper to total the car and get a new one if that really is the final repair cost.

Ravill

I asked around to the shops that were open and around, nothing, zip, nada. The movie theater I was at didn't have a camera (that they admitted to me) that looked that far down the street.

What more due deligence can I do? I don't want to loose my cash that I have to pay for my deductible either!

Hmmm, three week old $130k car and $20k of damage... I was under the impression that about 1/2 the value of the car in damages was the approximate number.

Even with (3 weeks and 1100 miles later, sheesh) of depreciation, the car is probably still "worth" $100k?