I’m picking up the repaired Tesla today. It ended up costing the insurance company (theirs, not mine) over $7,000 for a very minor accident.
I can’t believe it.
A little back story. Years ago I was reaching back to pet a dog that was anxious and wanted to jump into the front. I was on our gravel road, with no one around, but the car drifted to the right and I hit a t-post. I stopped short, but it damaged the lower front right fender. I’ve lived with it, but when we thought about selling, I knew this needed to be fixed.
The front panel is about a $800 part from Tesla. Still needs paintint, but I went to a local body shop I’ve used before. He said he could likely repair it with epoxy for a minimal amount. About $1200. I agreed since I was selling it.
In a couple of days, he repaired it and it looked great. He did tell me one of the headlight brackets was damaged and he glued it rather than replace. I now know why.
A few days later I went to the volleyball gym and stopped in the lot to let someone back out to my left. Unfortunatley a 16 year old on my right got in her car, didn’t look, and backed into the front of the Model Y. Damanged the fender where it was repaired and popped the headlight out of the bracket.
The kid was upset, and I was annoyed, but I didn’t tell her that. I’ve been in accidents, my kids have, and this wasn’t a big deal. Got her insurance, talked to her Mom, and went to practice. I called both insurance companies and talked to them. Theirs said this car had state minimums and I might want to file myself. My agent agreed, so I did.
We wanted a Tesla shop, since we still have a loan. I have a $1k deductable, and my agent said I might have to pay that and get reimbursed after they had gotten money from the other insurance company. I did an online estimate for the claim, which came back around $1500. Great, easy.
Shops are busy, so it took a few weeks to get into one of the official shops. They did an estimate and said they’d get my company to approve it. Then they ordered parts. All in all, it took about 2 1/2 weeks to get fixed, and then 5 more days since I was out of town.
My insurance company hadn’t kept me in the loop, so I called them. They reached out to the other company and said the Colorado min is $15000 and this was fine as it was a $7000 repair
I was shocked, but they were happy. I got a note they were sending $6k+ to the shop and a link to click for them to send me $1k. I clicked and got the money.
Of the $7k, it was about $3200 for parts. The $800 fender, a $1600 light assembly, which is crazy. Also some minor replacemnt fasteners. Crazy. The rest labor.
It looks great, but we’re in a weird place when a very minor fender bump and replacement costs more than $2k at the high end. No way a headlight and bracket should be $1600 and labor.
Insane.
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