J. Patterson

caranddriver

You should get an estimate from a body shop that you pay "cash." You may not want to utilize your insurance depending on your deductible and possible rate increase. It will also keep it off Carfax if that is important to you. It is probably more important if you own your car and want to have a clean Carfax when selling.

Sorry to see the damage, good luck and keep us updated.

buickfunnycar

LOL!

Waggin

Excellent idea, but currently, I'm running far to the right, reversing to swing the front end around, then driving out. Not getting near it.
Meeting with concrete contractor tomorrow to remove it and hopefully leave a 2" stub left over to serve as a warning curb. I'll rebuild the wall so the first thing that touches will be the tires, in any direction.

In the meantime, I sprayed the damage with some gloss black paint I had around so it wouldn't look so nasty.. You actually have to look for it now. Added advantage is that it's much easier to see how the sheet metal is wrinkled without all the white scrape marks masking it.

Waggin

Already put in a claim, and meeting them tomorrow to take a look, or put off the appointment until next week, and get the price from the shop first., I'll ask if they can hold off processing it until I get a price from the body shop. Deductible is 1K.

caranddriver

I'm guessing as long as you haven't approved the insurance to pay out for a repair you are okay to cancel. I'm sure they would be happy not to pay out. I also have a $1K deductible so have to do the numbers on minor damages/fixes.

Waggin

Visited the body shop the dealer recommended today, with a lot full of cars far more expensive than mine. Rep took one look at it, and said it would cost around 9k! They would have to replace the door, repair the rear quarter panel and rocker panel, and then paint the rear quarter, the whole roof, and right quarter. and would require removing headliner, rear window (or hatch?),. and so on.. I could pay it, (with insurance), but I really don't want anyone tearing the car up that much and painting over a lot of perfectly good paint.

Personally, I think all it needs is the door, fix the rocker panel (fiberglass), and the wheel arch, then do a paint blend in the narrow section between the wheel and rear door, where any mismatch will be barely noticeable, but this shop refuses to do that, claiming "warranty issues" ?? It's not like the car is going to require extra service if the paint doesn't match up perfectly. In fact, it's more likely to have issues if they tear it apart like they want to. Hell, I painted over the whole scraped area with gloss black from a rattle can, and I can't see a mismatch from 10 feet away.

I have a new insurance estimate scheduled for Monday. In the meantime, I'll visit the other two on Saturday (if open) and see if they'll agree to doing a less extreme job.

buickfunnycar

caranddriver

That is outrageous. Why would such minor damage result in so many things painted and repaired that didn't even get touched? It just reeks of overcharging and doing more work than necessary so they can use you as an ATM. I would leave that place and never come back.

I hope you live in an area where are there multiple body shop options - sounds like it.

Waggin

Two other Audi certified shops, one in a dealer, other independent (within 20 miles each) If they do the paint transition in the 12" of narrow space above the scratched area, it should be barely visible.
I just hope all the shops don't insist on doing the same as the first. If they do, then I'll find a non-Audi shop to do it. Perhaps the one that replaced the rear quarter panel on my A3 some years ago.. That was an undetectable job, and didn't cost an insane amount as I recall. Worst thing about it was having to drive a cheap rental for a week.
Now, if someone else was at fault, I'd insist on having it put back to perfectly original condition, but I'm not going to screw myself over any more than I already have by hitting the wall in the first place