In August 2020 my BMW X3 2018 was hit while parked by a drunk driver. Had my car towed to the BMW dealership, they explained that they worked with a local collision shop to cover this work and the collision shop ended up towing my car to their facility. The BMW dealership didn’t give me any paperwork and told me the collision facility would take care of me.
Collision facility doesn’t appear as an authorized BMW collision center, however it is for Mercedes and a bunch of insurances. They did a fantastic job on the car (20,000 worth of damage), the rear was destroyed, and the front was pretty bad too as my car was pushed into another.
When the collision facility finished up, they told me all paperwork would be sent to the dealership and i was all set. My insurance paid for everything (except deductible) and I was on my way. I noticed a few weeks later this small gap on side of my hood compared to the other side. Its not too large, and it doesn’t bother me too much, but my lease return is due in 2 months and now I am worried that I may have issues when returning the car?
The issue is compounded because I am in NYC, and apparently the local BMW dealerships here according to BMWFS are not licensed to do an inspection (they confirmed when I called them.) So BMW told me that I can complete the AutoVIN inspection within 60 days of return as my final inspection. But if I want a pre-inspection, I gotta drive it all the way down (on a weekday mind you) to a BMW shop in Long Island or NJ to do it.
I really don’t want to take a day off and waste my time. I only have 10k miles on the car, I barely drive, everything is in perfect shape, tires are fine, etc I am not worried about wear and tear. I am however terrified about this gap. Should I go get a pre-inspection done to see if they care about it? Should I go back to the body shop and get it fixed, or is this within limits? I’ve attached the images below for you to see - notice how one side of the hood has a larger gap with the bumper than the other side. Its not extremely noticeable, but it is to me - will AutoVIN / BMW care? My concern is only increased because this was repaired by a non-official BMW collision center and I have no paperwork - although the dealer did send have them grab my car and told me they have them do this work for them.
Am I just insane, or should I be worried? BMW said they will treat the AutoVIN inspection as the final inspection, since the local BMW dealer will only ground the lease, not inspect it. So if I have a problem, I need to get it fixed before the AutoVIN inspection.
