In one of my less then finest moments, I did $7K of cosmetic body damage to my 2020 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali. I scraped up the driver side front bumper, front quarter, both doors, both wheels, rear quarter/bed and rear bumper. Nobody else was involved in the incident and there was no damage to any property so I called the police and they said go on my way. Vehicle has no drivability issues.
Trying to figure out how much I care about how it’s fixed. I took it to a GM certified body shop and they are saying: Two new door skins, new plastic molding, but all other bodywork will be done as repairs. It’s about 54 hours of bodywork and 24 hours of paint.
With the “I will just return it at lease end” mentality, as long as the repairs pass the final lease inspection, maybe I don’t care. But I have never taken a lease to maturity before… With the, “what will happen to the vehicle value” and any equity… I was $10K upside down anyway on a $72K truck pulling $55K offers. Not sure how this will look on carfax, assume not good.
If I owned this thing the concept of door skins and 54 hours of bodywork would pain me. Any pointers?
Are you looking to get this fixed? If so, what was the estimate? Take it to a body shop in Paterson, they’ll do it much cheaper. Quality might not be quite as good, but good enough for a leased GMC.
More about how it’s fixed. if this was not a lease I would be insisting on a new door, and not just skins, new front and rear bumpers, new quarter panels… etc… Fixing it with new parts and less bodywork will be much more expensive.
I haven’t seen the damage, but if the structural elements are fine and they come separately, it wouldn’t worry me.
Can always take it to another shop, not so much for price but approach, and see what they recommend. Like you said, you have insurance you want it to look ok and be safe.
In addition to getting a proper job done, be a little conscious of the price. Even though there’s no out of pocket expense to fix the vehicle, the real expense comes in the in the premium surcharge which can all depend on how much All State has to spend today, and recoup over the next few years.
Allstate has this accident forgiveness, which just means they overcharged me up front, so my rates don’t raise when I get in 1 accident every 20 years. I guess I will find out.
If placed on SAL, disclose the accident and provide documentation that it’s all repaired by certified GM shop. If you don’t disclose it, the prospect could easily run a CarFax and detect it.
99% of the time it’s cheaper to turn the car in with damage. Just make sure you get your inspection done. They will give you the exact, not an estimate. Just make sure to get it done far enough in advance so you have time to fix on your own if need be.
I’ve been there. Thousands upon thousands in bodywork damage on a Q50 after hit a pole and scraping a rear wheel well, exposing the metal. I never fixed it and was charged literal pennies on the dollar at turn in. I think like $650 or so.
Even in the rare case that it’s cheaper to fix yourself, I would just pay the premium to not have to deal with it.
Get it fixed, then turn it in. I got t-boned once, frame damage, front airbags deployed, lots of paint hours. New door, new door skin, new dash, all new airbags. Insurance fixed it to spec, and no issues at turn in. As long as there are no glaring workmanship issues, it’s good to go
I’ve been in a few not-at-fault accidents, had the vehicle professionally repaired with insurance, and nothing was reported on the CarFax.
However, of those few, one of them involved a police report. That one was reported on the CarFax.
So, it’s my understanding that accidents are reported when a police report is filed and neither the insurance company or body shop reports accidents in general. I could be wrong. I don’t think I answered any of your questions though, haha.
since it’s zero deductible. Get it repaired and be glad someone else will have to worry about it when you turn it in. Why pay for Inspection fees when it’s free?
I managed to convince the estimator to replace the front and rear bumpers, versus the original recommendation which was to repair. Final approved quote is $9800 and they will have the vehicle for the next 3 weeks. Unfortunately I do not have rental car coverage, so I picked up a Camaro LT1 to drive in the meantime.
Got the truck back today from the body shop. Final bill came in just under $11K. Quality of work looks pretty good. Body shop claims they don’t report repairs to carfax without customer consent, so I denied consent. Should be interesting to see if this shows up.
I had a 2013 leased M37 State Farm paid to paint all over due to damage from “road debris”. The pea gravel the state uses here in GA when spreading salt destroyed the well documented brittle OEM black base/clear paint job.
Unlike OEM, the paint job was impeccable with not a spec of orange peel anywhere and I had the shop use a “black black” base coat vs the brown cast blacks Infiniti and other non-exotic brands use.
After the inspector looked at the perfect car, I said you didn’t even notice it was painted all over, did you? He said no. I said that is in part because the car was done correctly with every piece of glass and trim removed.
Infiniti never said a word and the next owner got the sharpest black M37 around.
