cost of damage repair

Coming home from an afternoon of unsuccessful deer hunting a vengeful deer committed suicide on my Forester. Looked like a fawn and I only hit it in the head at maybe 30 mph.

Body shop had to replace cracked bumper, head light, quarter panel and other stuff and insurance, which paid all, cost $2,000.

Year or so ago, insurance company says it cost them more in Forester accidents. I know the Forester is a very safe vehicle but apparently that is to the occupant, not the vehicle.

Reply to
Frank
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Some 4WD vehicles are also used in rougher terrain than just the local high street / kids' school run - it's "easier" to hit a tree in the middle of a forest. :-)

Then again, the supermarket carpark can be just as bad - like the moron who backed into my car. A small ding, but it wil cost about $700 to fix it (and the moron doesn't insurance) ... and it happend less two weeks after the car had just been in to have some rust spots fixed! :-(

Reply to
Your Name

My first Forester was totaled by a PT Cruiser. I did not think the damage was that bad but found out that if initial estimate is about 70% of the book value, the insurance company prefers to pay the book value rather than discover they will need to pay more when car is worked on.

My deer damage was originally estimated at $1,300 but when they got the bumper off they discovered more damage and a 2 day job became a one week job getting in extra parts.

My '03 has a black colored bumper and side plastics but wife's '08 is painted color of the Forester and costs more to fix. I dinged mine once and they buffed it out to cut repair cost nearly in half.

I remember the days when bumpers were bumpers, to get a car with a low battery started, you'd get another car to push you up to 25 mph to get the engine started. Not today.

Reply to
Frank

Yep, my car has same-coloured bumpers too. The problem is that they can't just re-spray the bumper because it may well look a different colour, so they have to "blend" the new colour into the surrounding panels too.

The plastic bumpers are an issue too. With small hits they can "pop" back into shape, but it often flakes off the paint too, so needs repainting anyway.

My car's maker has stopped selling touch-up paint bottles (which were quite expensive), which means even little stone chips are going to cost a fortune to get fixed. :-(

Not sure I'd do that even with older cars / more substantial bumpers (at least not without some extra padding. Usually people used to either let the car run down a hill or get a few people to push it. These days it's usually some car-to-car jumpstart cables or one of those glovebox battery booster packs.

Reply to
Your Name

When wife's Forester was near new it got splattered with paint from road crews line painting. I would have tried to take it off with acetone but was afraid to use it on the plastic parts since the paint might be attacked more readily because it is more flexible. Clean up in body shop cost insurance $600. If it were my older Forester I could have cleaned the black color sealed plastic at no cost.

I'm just lamenting that our Subaru's should be a little more hardy as they might get rougher treatment with awd taking us to rougher places although the problems we've had were on normal roads.

Reply to
Frank

I bought some for the high safety rating thinking my guys would be safer in an accident. It's probably true but we haven't had any accidents to test it out yet. Then I was told that safety rating is also a measure of the survivability of the person and property you might hit. To achieve this they sacrifice the vehicle with those plastic fenders and tin foil panel crumple zones. So even minor dings are expensive.

We used to fit bush-bars to protect the vehicle against animals etc but now those are frowned upon in case they hurt someone or some thing. i guess the logical thing to do is to buy something built strong but with a low safety rating. I mean you would survive a crash driving an M1 Abrams tank with minimal damage to your vehicle but I wonder what safety rating its got in terms of the survivability of the passengers in the car you ran over?

Reply to
5wethers

I instinctively yell "Dear!" when I see one on the road or even pointed in that direction. I'm used to being with hunters who know when you yell "Deer!" that their instinct is to check the rear view mirror to see if they can immediately mash the brakes. They don't go peering around trying to find the deer themselves and they don't mistake that I'm getting overly familiar. Alas, a buddy and me were driving back after downing a few, he lives in the sticks (well, it used to be decades ago but not anymore), I yelled "Deer!", and he goes rubbernecking trying to find the animal. Sure enough, BAM, he hits it. It was off the road but peering out the trees and toward the car and road. As we approached, it decided to play chicken with us, and lost. Out of season so we called the DNR for a pickup.

Did they list the costs for just the parts? Other than "other stuff" which I don't what that is, what you listed is pretty easy to replace. Bumper comes off and on with bolts as does the fender/side panel and the headlight is a quick change. Then comes the labor for the painting and headlight alignment. I bet more than half the cost was for parts since the only labor intensive task was the painting.

You didn't mention year or model for your Forester. I just picked some values, like 2010 Forester X. $130 fender panel, $220 headlight, $30 fender flare, maybe $390 bumper, but all probably more expensive from Subaru than other suppliers so probably $1200-1400 in parts from Subaru. The body shop might charge anywhere from $50-$90 per hour. So what was the book time for all of your repairs?

By the way, I've seen some cabbies replace their front and rear bumpers with 4x4's figuring they're cheap to replace and can inflict more damage than they receive. Ain't legal, though.

That is unclear as to whether it means replacement parts have come down in price, there's been some enforcement in maximum hourly rate charges or a reduction in book times, or there were more accidents involving Foresters a year ago. Could also mean they changed their rates so insurance on Foresters have resulted in more owners selecting higher deductibles (so the insurer pays less). The statement doesn't say WHY a particular insurer happens to pay out less a year ago any only with regard to Foresters.

Cars have long (decades) been designed to take the damage instead of transferring the collision to the occupants. The idea is that the crush zone is *outside* the passenger compartment. Yep, they don't build cars like they used. Now the occupants have a much better chance to survive and even incur far less injuries in what would be fatal accidents in the old cars. Would you prefer to total your vehical or be crippled for life from the neck down? Tanks are supposed to survive crashes and hard impacts. Ever ride in tank? Know what a tank costs? You could buy over 300 new Foresters for the inflation-adjusted cost of an M1 Abrams tank. With the Forester, you can easily find existing parking spots. With the Abrams, you can make your own.

Reply to
VanguardLH

Regardless, the plastic is likely to not look the same as the steel when it is repainted - I do not let anyone blend on my vehicles if there is a panel break between the damaged part and the rest of the vehicle. EVERY time I've had a car that was "blended" the clearcoat peeled in the blend zone. Think about it - they have to SAND the finish before they recoat - and then they spray the clear -blending IT over the old clear that has NOT been properly sanded - so it doesn't stick. I think it is POSSIBLE to do it so it doesn't peel - but I have not seen it done.

And virtually NOBODY uses the flex agent in the paint any more for repaints. Repairs done without flexible filler, primer, and paint will crack if it is bent again.

No aftermarket supplier?

Pushed many a metal bumpered car with an old tire between the bumpers

Reply to
clare

That would about over the air bags, damage to my cavalier. Air bag=cracked windshield.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

The rust repairs were done a couple of years ago now and so far it's all fine. (Although I think they refitted new rubber stoppers inside the boot / trunk lid which are slightly higher than the original ones, and now the boot / trunk has an issue where the electronics don't think it's closed properly.)

The paint flaking on my car's plastic sections is the original paint, but then it is approaching 20 years old. :-)

Not that I know of, or at least not with any sort of guarantee that it will be the same colour (not that the original car maker's touch-up bottle were actually the exact same colour either). The best option is probably to go back to the rust repairer and they might have the colour codes on file and be able to make up a touch-up bottle ... no doubt expensive as well though.

Then again, it will need a full respray at some stage, and that will be expensive. :-(

As long as the tyre (or whatever padding) is strapped on to one of the cars. It would be really "great" if you got the other car started and then damagaed the pushing car by running over the buffer tyre / padding.

Reply to
Your Name

My Forester is an '03 and they could not find good used replacement parts. I've got the detailed list somewhere but candidly did not pay a lot of attention to it as insurance covered it all. My only out of pocket was 20% of the rental car rental. As and aside, thinking car was only going to be in the shop a couple of days, I took an on-line defensive driving course which qualified me for a $70/year reduction in my car insurance.

There was no avoiding that deer. It came out of a bank parking lot near a golf course and state park area into a crowded road. I was making a left turn at a light when it just shot across the road. No chance to get my foot off the gas and hit the brake. Years ago I was a passenger in a car that hit one broadside and I had yelled at the driver to watch out. Probably should have yelled, "Deer". He hit it head on broadside, hood flew up and radiator broke. Car was out of commission. My Forester was completely functional until I got it repaired.

I had a five year old '98 Forester that was totaled in a head on collision with a PT Cruiser. Woman had made a left turn in front of me. The Forester completely protected me. I went into the hospital to be checked out as I had a bruise from the seat belt and am on blood thinners. I was fine. The woman driver had to stay in the hospital with back injuries.

Reply to
Frank

I've had great results ordeing touch-up paint for my Subarus from

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I get the Premium Repair Kit along with the paint.

Here is a great tip I learned from the "door-ding" repair guy at my local auto detail shop: Use a wax pencil to circle the spots you are going to work on, so you can find them as the process progesses.

I neglected to do that the last time I touched up some chips and had a really hard time finding my repaired spots as I sanded and polished; the colors matched and filled in so well there were "camouflaged" before I finished the final polish.

Reply to
Ben Jammin

Reminds me of a christmas eve we were driving home through the Cluanie Glen in a snowstorm in a Commer when in a cutting there was the most horrendous crash from the heavens and a stunned pointer stag slid down the windscreen and onto the hood. Of course we stopped immediately and rendered all possible assistance like cpr and mouth to mouth etc but it still survived so we tossed it in the back and took it to the gillies house who helped with its salvation over a wee dram or two. It was a good christmas that year as far as i can reemember.

About the PT Cruiser - I watched an episode of Top gear where they did the full pedigree of the cruiser from design to production. Seems it started out life as a new Fiat 500 and went through various company name changes and reworks of the design. So i guess that makes it a recycled Bambina?

Reply to
5wethers

I thought PT Cruiser was essentially a Dodge Neon but is now defunct and no Italian heritage. Neon I had as a rental when my '98 Forester was wrecked was a piece of crap. I do like the looks of the PT Cruiser though.

Reply to
Frank

Ah, so you're the one person on the planet. ;-)

Reply to
Your Name

The PT Cruiser had NO Fiat DNA. It had some Mercedes DNA which showed up in things like the dash mointed window switches. It shared the same "platform" as the Neon - and I believe the early Sebring.

I owned a 2003 PT - and it was a pretty decent vehicle - but a bit heavy for it's size and a bit thirsty. It is the only Chrysler vehicle that used the Mopar 2.4 liter engine when all the rest switched to the "world engine" 2.4 shared by Hyundai/Kia and numerous other companies.

Daughter had a 96 Neon Twin Cam coupe - and other than having a distinct tendancy to be stolen, it was not a BAD car. Had some paint and rust issues by the time she got rid of it with 240,000km on it -

Reply to
clare

Thanks. I've had a quick look there (I'm on a dial-up connection). The Scratch Fix could be the solution. Being an American website it doesn't list my car's local model name and the closest matches don't list the correct colour - possibly why the manufacturer didn't even get the exact matching colour. There's probably something similar down here in New Zealand though, so I'll check that.

Yep, they do that at most panel repair shops for small dings. There's also a local paint chip specialist that does it to. Forget world hunger and poverty, or curing cancer and aids ... the scientists should really be working on unchippable / undamageable paint for cars. ;-)

It's also handy in other places. I do something similar with small pet "accidents" on the carpet - we often use a sheet of paper towel with the centre torn out as a marker around the area needing cleaning.

Reply to
Your Name

Looking back at this talking to my brother today, he tells me that parts for US cars are much more expensive. Just like the US cars they are overburdened with labor and union costs.

Reply to
Frank

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