My Tesla Got Hit — Fix It At A Tesla Certified Repair Or “Regular” Body Shop?

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How is my expertise getting an estimate for a minor restore at each a Tesla Licensed and a “common” physique store?

I’ve written about Tesla collision repairs earlier than right here and right here, about 5 years in the past. This summer season, I bought the possibility to do an analogous restore once more! My earlier restore was to the rear a part of my 2018 Tesla Mannequin 3, and the brand new restore was to the rear a part of my 2022 Tesla Mannequin Y. Final time, my spouse bought confused backing out of the storage and hit the storage door whereas it was closing. This time, the climate was wet and a automobile slid into my automobile with appreciable power. I used to be shocked that the injury was so small. My conclusion 5 years in the past was:

“In my articles on Tesla, I’ve persistently centered on how inexpensive the vehicles are and the way they price much less to personal than different premium sedans, and may even be as inexpensive on a Whole Value of Possession foundation as common vehicles like a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord. I’d say this restore expertise places that assertion in query. If the insurance coverage firms see that it prices twice as a lot to restore a Mannequin 3 as a Honda, gained’t Tesla insurance coverage charges be double? Perhaps, possibly not. Insurance coverage covers much more than simply fixing your automobile. It additionally covers medical payments and the injury your automobile does to others. Perhaps the significantly enhanced security of the Mannequin 3 will decrease bodily damage claims sufficient to counter the upper restore prices. Perhaps the superior lively security methods will proceed to cut back the variety of accidents.

“I do suppose that, as hundreds of thousands of Tesla autos are offered over the following decade, extra physique restore retailers will study to repair the vehicles and competitors will decrease the prices of repairing the autos.

“So, for proper now, Tesla insurance coverage charges are very suitable to Honda and Toyota charges in my state of affairs and I hope they proceed to enhance, however considerably greater restore prices have the potential to be an issue if these prices don’t proceed to go down.”

The remainder of this text will clarify my expertise — how issues have modified and the way I select to take care of it.

Hit By An Underinsured Motorist

With out stepping into all the main points, I used to be hit by a motorist who did vital injury to a number of vehicles and didn’t have sufficient insurance coverage to cowl the injury. I might have simply gone to my insurance coverage firm and had them repair my automobile, however I made a decision to work with the insurance coverage firm of the individual that induced the injury to keep away from a declare on my coverage. It’s unclear to me if that’s essential to maintain my charges low, however that’s what I did. This inspired me to get my restore executed at a cheaper price, since I knew the payout can be comparatively low. I might even have sued the individual that hit me and recovered damages that manner, however I didn’t actually need to do this. Fortunately, the automobile labored advantageous, together with the operation of the rear hatch, so I had loads of time to do the restore once I needed to. So I bought two estimates for the restore, one from a extremely rated Tesla Licensed Restore Store and one from a extremely rated physique restore store.

So, what did I study from this estimate? That although the liftgate labored advantageous, they insisted on changing it, and the physique and paint labor was $95 an hour, the identical because it was 5 years in the past. You would name the labor price a win for customers, since the whole lot else has gone up in value, or you can say it’s nonetheless greater than the speed we might anticipate for a Honda or Chevy restore, particularly now that Tesla autos are MUCH extra inexpensive than they had been 5 years in the past. I feel the $5,140.50 complete may be very excessive for such minor injury on a automobile most likely value $20,000. It’s about half labor and half components and paint.

So, from this estimate, I discovered that if the physique store was simply treating the automobile like a “common” automobile, they’d simply restore the injury. They proposed spending half as many hours of physique labor (6.2 vs. 12.5) as a result of they’d simply restore the dent verses exchange the liftgate. The paint labor was additionally lower than half (4.3 vs. 11.1), since they proposed portray quite a bit much less of the automobile. The price of the paint is a couple of third, at $154.80 vs. $444, since quite a bit much less of the automobile is to be painted. One other huge distinction is the labor price is $54 an hour vs. $95 an hour. The overall price of the proposed restore is $827.54 vs. $5,140.50, a distinction of over 6 instances!

What Ought to I Do?

In deciding what to do, I assumed in regards to the 15 or so different accident repairs my household has been concerned in over the past 40 years and the way issues turned out. A few of these repairs had been executed at top of the range retailers for $5,000 or so, and a few had been executed at extra inexpensive physique retailers for about $750. There has after all been vital inflation within the final 40 years, so I’m doubling or tripling the costs of the older repairs. After all, these older vehicles didn’t have the superior sensors and cameras that exist on a Tesla. Meaning if any of these are affected, you’re going to must get them repaired by somebody who is aware of what they’re doing if you happen to care about Autopilot and FSD working (which I do). Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of accidents my household has been concerned in are these beauty solely ones (knock on wooden). What I discovered from that have is that if you happen to get a high quality restore executed, it can final for a very long time. Perhaps 10 years or extra. I’ve discovered the instances I used a decrease priced physique store, it appeared good for about 3 to five years after which it began to fade or peel or another minor drawback popped up.

This extremely rated “non licensed” store is healthier high quality than among the cheaper locations I’ve used for older vehicles, however I’m assuming the paint may peel or discolor in 5 years. So, the related query is, if this occurs on my 9 12 months previous Tesla (the automobile is 4 years previous now), how a lot will my household care and the way a lot will it have an effect on the resale worth. I can say that when a automobile is 9 years previous and it isn’t some particular restricted version (like an Indy Tempo Automotive), most individuals don’t care that a lot. The Tesla Mannequin Y as the very best promoting automobile on the earth is as distant as attainable from being a restricted version. It’s simply the trendy day Toyota Camry. Will it have an effect on the resale worth? Actually, a seller would most likely knock $2,000 off the worth of the automobile, whereas I feel a personal celebration would most likely knock $1,000 off the value of the automobile. Now, even when the automobile is mounted on the Tesla Licensed Store, you’ll get some discount in worth simply because CARFAX will present an accident.
One other think about my determination is the influence on the surroundings. It looks as if it’s wasteful to spend extra time and supplies to switch the liftgate, which is working completely advantageous. The previous liftgate most likely wouldn’t be reused, since it’s broken. The additional portray has some environmental influence.

Readers most likely can inform that I’m justifying the choice to go along with the cheaper restore. I understand it’s a danger and wouldn’t have made this determination if the FSD cameras had been impacted, since retaining that working is vital to me (each as a author for CleanTechnica and for my private use).

Conclusion

I feel Tesla as an organization has made vital progress coaching plenty of folks in repairing their vehicles, so there isn’t an enormous wait anymore to getting your automobile repaired (not less than in Tampa, Florida). That being mentioned, my expertise says they might be too cautious in changing components that don’t should be changed. This might considerably increase insurance coverage charges. I’ve seen the insurance coverage charges in states the place Tesla affords insurance coverage are very affordable, however in some states that don’t supply Tesla insurance coverage (like Washington state the place my son moved), the charges are many instances greater for Tesla autos versus an everyday Toyota or Nissan. Tesla must proceed to work on all of this to drive down the whole price of possession of its autos. After all, the corporate now appears extra interested by specializing in getting FSD working higher, however I hope they proceed to work on different initiatives as a result of my expertise is that FSD is amazingly nice however nonetheless a number of years away from being unsupervised within the areas I drive in.

If you wish to benefit from my Tesla referral hyperlink to get Reward Credit, right here’s the hyperlink: https://ts.la/paul92237 — however as I’ve mentioned earlier than, if one other proprietor helped you extra, please use their hyperlink as an alternative of mine. If you wish to study extra about Tesla’s new referral program (August 2024), Chris Boylan has written an glorious article on it.

Disclosure: I’m a shareholder in Tesla [TSLA], BYD [BYDDY], Nio [NIO], XPeng [XPEV], NextEra Power [NEP], and a number of other ARK ETFs. However I supply no funding recommendation of any type right here.