heartbeat91

yup. 2 months into ownership, my 2017 s3 was rear ended. I'll post pics in a bit at home.

my questions for now is, so there are only 2 'certified audi' body shops near me (washington seattle area) and they were both booked until mid august, meaning I really can't afford to get a rental car until then (insurance won't hold out and keep paying for rental just because I want to take it to either body shop).
Am I just screwed? Or are more generalist body shops okay nowadays as long as they are reputable?

also, the grandma that hit me only had state minimum liability (ofcourse..), at $10k. Do you guys think the fix will cost more than that? Barring your answers, my lawyer is already going with my insurance first because I have higher coverage and they thought that the damage might've been more than 10k. But I am still curious what your thoughts are.

I am just super bummed out, and really paranoid that after this collision, my baby s3 is never going to be the same again. I keep thinking I'll have more problems down the line because of the accident, because whether it was a rear end or not, the car was shaken up quite a bit and I know there are a ton of electrical sensors and components that are rather fragile. Please comfort me in saying that I shouldn't worry.. haha.

gamegenie

Have you looked to see if your local Audi dealer have it's own collision repair center?

I have the car get repaired by the dealer that way you'll know it get repair back to factory spec.

19hole

You will need an Audi Certified shop. They will be the only one that can get all the correct parts, Audi has rules on who they can sell body parts too. It will be much more than $10K!. We had our A4 backed into in a parking lot and what looked to be a baseball sized dent below the headlight turned into $9200.

zzcett

My sympathies for your troubles! No other advice to offer than what has already come, so good luck!

Eran Levi

Don't think that anyone can tell you how this accident will effect other parts of the car. Only time will tell. On top of that, you'll never know if a future issue will or will not be as a result from this accident.

Except that I'm very sad for you.

russbert

+1 on both counts! I definitely feel for you but I'm glad no one was hurt. I had my 911 Turbo for a whooping 3 months when a woman hit me and while it didn't appear to be all that much damage, the bill was over $10K and that was in 2005 as they had to replace a lot of unseen items.

You definitely want to find a shop that has a stellar reputation. Mine was a Mercedes collision and repair shop out in the middle of no where and the other insurance company did NOT want me to take the car there due to their higher rates and it wasn't one of THEIR recommended repair shops. I told them I didn't care and I wanted my car fixed correctly the first time. It makes a difference as I kept that car for 13 years after that with no issues so I hope that is what happens for you.

The truck I had repaired was the opposite story. I had just moved here to Tennessee and didn't really know anyone and there wasn't a lot of repair options so I used who Toyota recommended. I had to go back 3 separate times (gone for 2.5 to 3 months) as I kept finding issues that they didn't fix the first 2 times. After the second time, I actually had an independent repair shop exam the truck and they found 2-3 potentially serious issues (one of them was the brake line going to rear wheel was partially severed which wouldn't have been good later on and a crushed electrical connection when they put the bed back onto the truck).

So even after getting it back the third time, I still wasn't happy with it (didn't like the way it handled, front hood wasn't perfectly aligned) so I wound up trading it in for a new truck which didn't particularly make me happy. So the obvious moral to the story is go with the repair shop YOU WANT and believe will do the best time ... the first time.

Again, I'm very sorry this happened as I know how frustrating the whole situation can be. Good luck my friend and please keep us in the loop.

Fixeroh

Heartbeat91; very sorry to learn what happened to your gorgeous car. Also happy no one was hurt. The group has provided you with some great advice. I might add that you have to stick to your guns on things regarding insurance companies. The other insurance company will want this to go away quickly. Keep the claim open to make sure everything is repaired properly AND you get something for your inconvenience. It isn't just your S3 which suffered. Obviously your are affected and your time is valuable as well. Went through this 2 years ago when my wife's Subaru Tribeca was rear ended heavily. We were at a dead stop on a backed up highway exit and someone in a Honda CRV hit us at about 50 mph. Driver was texting. Image that. Anyway, her insurance company wanted to essentially just quickly pay out what the insurance estimate stated for car damage and a few trips to the chiropractor for my wife and I. No serious injuries fortunately. Not even the driver of the offending vehicle. Initially insurance adjustors wanted to repair the Subaru but our Subaru repair center thought that insane and that the Tribeca would never be correct. So it was eventually totaled when the repair exceeded the vehicle value. I had to press the issue however. Once we got the car payout resolved and the medical stuff was covered, I expected to compensated for the frustration of the situation, time I lost from work and the general inconvenience of the whole situation. We certainly didn't ask for that to happen. Insurance companies understand this but they won't offer it to you. Again, don't let the insurance company push you around.

This is not your situation of course and I think your car can certainly be repaired and hopefully you will be comfortable and happy with it. My main point is make sure you get something for your trouble besides just getting the car repaired. Be sure to note things that seem out of sorts after you get the car back. Best of luck to you. You've now used up all your bad luck and you should be fine from this point forward!

heartbeat91

i cannot go to an audi certified shop. i really can't. the earliest they're open is mid august and i literally cannot afford to get rental for an entire month (i don't have rental coverage because i didn't think i need it. first accident..)
so.. i'm going with a shop taht does german cars generalist.

uniqueMR

Sorry for your lose man..

heartbeat91

thanks for your reply. Yes - My dad absolutely insisted that i get a lawyer, so I did. So I believe the lawyer will be the one pressing hard for any 'inconvenience' and loss of work time, etc pay out from that. the other party is underinsured at 10k$ liability, so this ends up being really annoying because we have to use my insurance for the higher coverage, and now I am glad I got a lawyer because I've already lost a near full day of work time just calling and going to the doctor/PT and **** like that. absolutely frustrating.

I just called the body shop (bellevue collision for those wondering), and made sure that they are using OEM parts for the repair. estimates are coming in later today I believe, so I will update you guys when that happens.

Any more tips beyond what me and/or my lawyer can do, let me know!