Victim of a hit and run—again

Just one of life minor annoyances for me. The vandellas are the ones that really tweak my nerve endings.
'as always MMV and usually does'.

 

I don't have these problems shopping at Amazon?

Don't ask about the tire tracks on my lawn though...

But seriously, good luck fixing it up!

 

Sounds reasonable. Aren't there a couple of online Toyota dealers that sell parts at a significant discount? That is the kind of dealer you should find now.

 

Sorry to hear that…. It really sucks to deal with this with a nearly-new car.

Do they give you the opportunity to get your own quotes before accepting the settlement? Hope so. Also hope you can get the body shop to commit to a price before accepting the job (and the settlement)…? The damage is fairly superficial (only body work and a light or two?) so the chance of “surprises” should be minimal, I would hope…

Good luck!

 

rear bumper removal and reinstallation is not easy, but not extremely difficult. The taillight is really tricky to get out, but easy to reinstall.
When I did the work, I also found one of the mounts for the taillight was torn away a little bit on the inside of the bumper. A bit of epoxy and a days drying time and was almost as good as new.

Not sure how "perfect" you want your bumper to look. If it were me, I'd be looking into youtubes on how to do touchups from some legit body shop owners. They give a lot of great tips. But, I really can't see how deep the scratches are just looking at the pics.
Plus - don't forget Toyota uses waterborne paint, only a few body shops have the knowledge and equipment to spray waterborne presently, even if they assure you they do and will use it..
It's even fairly difficult to find, both waterbore touchup paint and ready to spray cans for spray gun use.

If the xratches don't go all the way through the primer coat, I'd recommend keeping the sanding to the absolute minimum, as that sfuff (OEM Primer Coat) is as good as gold.

 

It's really unfortunate that auto makers are making the most often hit areas (corners) so expensive to repair.

Hope you find the loser that hit your car

 

What color is the primer? The plastic itself is black.

 

Probably depends on the top coat color
It's gray under our cars Steel Blonde Metallic

 

I got an estimate from my insurance by virtual inspection by photos only. I also drove to the nearest Toyota Certified body shop and got an independent estimate by inspection. I also have 3 additional local body shops estimates by inspection and 1 national body shop which did the virtual estimate by photos. The Geico number is right in the middle of the estimates I got from area body shops.

Geico virtual estimate from photos: $1,693 (parts $148, labor @$48/hr 28hr $1344, paint supplies $207, +misc&tax)

Local Bodyshop1 inspected: $3,271(parts $781, labor @$52/hr 39hr $2028, paint supplies $358m +misc&tax)
Toyota Certified shop inspected: $2,838 (parts $476, labor @$56/hr 35hr $1960, paint supplies $378 +misc&tax)
National Bodyshop1 virtual estimate from photos: $2,212 (parts $433, labor@$55/hr 27hr $1485, paint supplies $246, +misc&tax)
Local Bodyshop3: $1,055 (parts $41, labor @$50/hr 16hr $800, paint supplies $202 +misc&tax)
Local Bodyshop4: $848 (parts $0, labor @$44/hr 15hr $660, paint supplies $176 +misc&tax)

The insurance estimate is not the final settlement. I can take my car to anywhere and the shop will work with the insurance company to get the final cost settled. Since I have no-deductible coverage, it will not cost me anything, but the settlement will be between the shop and the insurance company, so I want to make sure the repair is done correctly. In this case, the cheapest shop is not the best choice for me. Even if I had to pay for the repair out of my pocket, since most of the costs are related to labor for painting and finishing, it is not something I can DIY and save money anyway.

Even though it is over one hour drive, I think I am going to take my car to the one and only Toyota Certified body shop in our area which happens to be at the dealer I purchased the car from. The only thing is that they are booked full till January. I guess I will just have to drive a blemished PP for a while.

 

mistake's been buggin me all night.
did I say top coat color? Top coat is usually clear. Base coat is first color coat. Primer colors I'm aware of currently are White, Black, Gray, Red oxide - which when I was learning auto body was the best primer for filling in imperfections.
I have 2 tiny spots on the passenger front door that are sharp dent with top and base coats scratched off, leaving only the primer showing. They are too small and sharp to pull with the smallest PDR (paintless dent repair) tabs I have. But the primer is still holding up well, fingers crossed, until I can get at those dents and push on um instead of trying to get them all the way out by PDR pulling and knocking down.

@Gokhan as I was looking at some PDR tools I'm going to need to repair the deer vs my prime, I got a thought about keeping sanding to a minimum. If you have a low speed waxing / buffing wheel or even by hand, you might want to use some fine grained polishing compound on the bumper scratches. That will give you a much better idea about how deep the scratches actually are. It might even be enough to touch up on top of.

The other thing you can take into account if going with the body shop repair is that both insurance co. and body shop will negotiate a price during the repair process, which may or may not be anywhere near the actual estimates the body shop or the insurance adjuster arrived at initially. Knowing what a body shop service advisor is talking about when they change a work order and charge insurance more than their original estimate for a new work order that costs the shop less for them to do, can be a real sore issue.

 

That is true, but paying the same deductible does not guarantee the job is done with the same quality and more importantly done correctly. It is in the best interest of the owner of the car to shop around to find a shop where the repair is done at a reputable body shop with a lot of experience. If this was 10 years old car and if I am paying out of my pocket, I may have taken it to the local body shop that gave me an $850 estimate, but since I am going through the insurance, I will pass any of those "cheap" body shops and stick with a reputable Toyota Certified body shop for my repair. BTW, the body shop I am talking to is a Toyota Certified shop and is a part of the Toyota dealer management, but it is also a Nissan, GM, Ford, and Chrysler certified Body shop and they repair any make and model of cars.

 

I guess, having choices is good, but having too many choices may create another problem. For my situation, I have one and only Toyota dealer within a reasonable traveling distance. If that dealer did not have a body shop, I would have probably taken my car to a local body shop, making sure it has good reviews.

Don't you have a rental policy on your insurance? I probably would not need a rental, but since the shop is over an hour drive, I will likely arrange a pick-up and drop-off of a rental car at the shop, that way, I don't have to arrange for my wife to come with me. I could do without my car for a while, but since it is going to be paid by insurance, I will take that option.

Can't do the swap not yet. That is even if there are cars to swap to. I can't use another tax credit for this year. Besides, I am sure with damage on the body, any trade-in deal is going to make the price very low that I would not want to take the deal. I am just afraid of what this repair is going to cost me when it is time for me to trade in the car. The record will show up on CarFax which may lower the resale value of the car.