Body damage repair costs

[virgoavant]

An insurance adjuster is coming to look at my vehicle on Tuesday to give me a quote on how much it will cost to fix the damages to my car. My beautiful car got hit while parked which dented in the rear quarter panel and tore through both passenger and driver door. It also messed up my driver side rear suspension and may have bent my wheel. I'm trying to figure what a realistic number would be for a shop to fix all this.

[IMG][/IMG]

[FromS60toB61.8t]

really depends on what happened to the suspension down there and what you need to replace.

i honestly think insurance will total the car from what i see

[texasboy21]

Probably totaled unfortunately.

[imnuts]

I don't see a year for your B6, but I'd also guess totaled, and if it isn't, then it is close to it.

[FromS60toB61.8t]

i had a 2001 golf and i hit a racoon then swiped the side on a guard rail and got $3200 from insurance from it but the rear quarter was nowhere near as bad as that. If it werent for that rear quarter being so bad it might not be totaled but with where and how its hit there is atleast $4000 in paint, parts, and labor on that quarter pannel alone. Now i have a guy who would probably fix it for like $500 but the way insurance sees it, it will be ALOT more.

[virgoavant]

Not sure if I'm willing to accept it as totaled after doing all the work to it that i did. I have a shop that specializes in foreign cars and is willing to do the job. The accident was not my fault at all so as far as i'm concerned they are going to fix it.

[FromS60toB61.8t]

Not sure if I'm willing to accept it as totaled after doing all the work to it that i did. I have a shop that specializes in foreign cars and is willing to do the job. The accident was not my fault at all so as far as i'm concerned they are going to fix it.

doesnt matter who does the work, the way it works is insurance gives you an estimate and writes you a check for that estimate. If the job turns out to be more than the estimate and you get it done at a certified shop the insurance will give you more money as long as that shop has all reciepts of parts and labor. Insurance will only cover up-to the value of the car so if the repair ends up costing you over let say... over $6500 (not sure what they value the car at) you would have to pay out of pocket for the remaining amount

honestly you should be happy if its totaled, you get money for what its worth and you can buy it back for ~$500-1000 and get it all fixed and have the extra money for more mods or part it out completely and get something better.

only thing you'd have to do is run thru a salvage inspection once its all fixed and then you get a rebuilt title for it.

i got my last 2001 golf TDi with a salvage title for $2800, needed to replace front rad frame and dash/airbags. put $1000 into it, passed inspection and had a 01 tdi with 100k miles for under $4k. year later hit a raccoon which shattered my bumper and ran across a guard rail and made $3200 from insurance. fixed/modded the car with that money and ended up selling it for $6800

before:



after insurance:

[Spike00513]

Who needs a certified shop - hole in the wall mom n' pop shops must surely know all this stuff, who doesn't?

Clicky

The rear fender looks screwed. I wonder how well it would turn out, if you just got those parts from a part-out (rear suspension, wheel, rear fender, door shells, bumper) from another same-color Avant, and swapped them on. I believe the rear quarter/fender is spot-welded onto the car - I'm not sure how this would be done. But I'm sure it's been done before.

I might know where to find such a car - PM me.

[FromS60toB61.8t]

Who needs a certified shop - hole in the wall mom n' pop shops must surely know all this stuff, who doesn't?

Clicky

The rear fender looks screwed. I wonder how well it would turn out, if you just got those parts from a part-out (rear suspension, wheel, rear fender, door shells, bumper) from another same-color Avant, and swapped them on. I believe the rear quarter/fender is spot-welded onto the car - I'm not sure how this would be done. But I'm sure it's been done before.

I might know where to find such a car - PM me.

im saying if they quote you for an amount and it goes over what they quoted you they wont reimburse you the money unless it was at a certified shop

like i said in my case i got 3200 for my accident in the golf and with that money i:

painted the entire car, black roof also
shaved the hood
shaved the entire trunk
bought an r32 front bumper and shaved it
bought an r32 rear bumper
bought an r32 wing/lip
bought bora R replica skirts
shaved the side mouldings
bought r32 aristo reps and got them painted black
bought bilstein shocks/struts with eibach springs
tinted all windows
uni stage 2 tune
custom dual exhaust
and some other small things

its really a blessing in disguise

[bagged00]

Insurance have caps on what they'll pay versus the value of the car. So if they cap out at 80% value and the estimate goes over the 80% than the car is totaled regardless if you want it to total or not. At that point they're going to give you a check for the value of the car if the car has no liens. From there you can buy the car back with a salvage title rebuild it and get it inspected per your state. Like stated you'll probably pocket some money if you have connections. As far as the quarter is concerned you can buy a used quarter panel but they are welded on in the door jamb and behind the bumper. You'll have to repaint door jamb and rear body panel and the whole quarter panel to where the fender meets the a pillar. IMO the car is totalled

[Audi 4 Life]

Time to shop for a new car, if the damage adds up to 60% of the cars value then its considered a total loss. I'd take a guess that's probably 2500-5k worth of damage right there. Not sure what your car books at but I"m sure its not much more than that. You'll probably make out a little better in the end with the money they give you, you can buy a better B6 or add some money to what they give you and upgrade to B7 or whatever it is you want.

[bagged00]

eh id be surprised at the insurance company that totals at 60%. that's barely half the value of the car. I know at the shop I work at, it was around 80 to 85%. there isn't a regulation that im aware of that makes it be a certain percentage. most insurance companies set their own percentage.

[imnuts]

Insurance companies decide when to total a car, and it is different for every company out there. Usually it's around 75%, and given the age of the B6, it doesn't take much anymore.

Sent from my Moto X

[virgoavant]

I was thinking if I could fix the rear suspension myself maybe the body work would be within range of what they are willing to do but I need to pull the wheel and see what needs replaced. The wheel is presently rubbing the shock because it's bent inward. I assume it's because the upper control arms are Bent.

[FromS60toB61.8t]

I was thinking if I could fix the rear suspension myself maybe the body work would be within range of what they are willing to do but I need to pull the wheel and see what needs replaced. The wheel is presently rubbing the shock because it's bent inward. I assume it's because the upper control arms are Bent.

I'm pretty sure they'd total it on the body work alone. Just to repaint the whole side is probably around $1800 and then probably 8 hours of labor for fixing the doors and I'd say another 10 or so for that quarter.

The only option for that quarter pannel is really to cut the whole section out and re weld a new one in because I don't think anyone would be able to straighten out that corner/gap between the door and quarter pannel. If you got someone to try to straighten out the quarter as it is on the car it would probably be like 3 days labor because they would have to weld studs into it and use a hammer pull bar to straighten everything out but that can only be done on the straight/flat edges so there would still be a lot of headache trying to straighten that corner out where the quarter meets the door jamb

My best advice would be...
Let insurance total it
Buy it back for a cheap amount
Part out everything that you don't need, keep things you want if you plan on getting another a4
Or part the whole car out and get something nicer.

If this happened to me I could tell you that I'd buy a b6 s4 avant with a blown motor for ~$3-5k and put another $3-5k into a 2.7 swap. I'm guesstimating that you can get upwards of $10k if not more from insurance money/full part out

[virgoavant]

There's a junkyard near me that deals in only foreign cars. If I could get the suspension parts and a new door would that be enough to lower the repair costs to a more reasonable level? Im thinking my car is probably worth about $5k so just enough to fix that rear quarter panel is all im concerned about right now.

[bagged00]

Talk to shop manager tell him you wanna keep the car alive if possible. The shop can order all used and aftermarket parts for your car to keep cost down

[FromS60toB61.8t]

just out of curiosity, what is the main concern for you not wanting it to be totaled? Do you plan on selling it? either way there will be an accident on record the only difference is if they total it you get more money and will just have to do a salvage inspection ($80 in CT so probably less in PA)

honestly you dont even know if theres frame damage or not back there so even if you fix everything and theres still frame damage thats pretty much an insta-totaled

also if you get new doors the colors will never match exactly to your oem color (theres like 8 different shades/metalic flakes of each paint code) so it might just make it look suspicious and they might make an affair out of it.

only reason i know is because for my golf i bought a new door and fender in the same paint code and i had 3 different colored pannels on my car.

if u can repair most of it then go for it, do your thing lol. Hope which ever route you choose turns out good for you.

[Audi 4 Life]

I know how we all get attached to our cars trust me I'm the last one to let go. But you should really consider letting go of yours it's not even a USP and no offense but it is kinda a odd color there are much better B6's you can buy with the insurance money that will get you far ahead of where you are now with that car maybe even find a tastefully modded B6 to save yourself some money on a few mods. So IMHO you should let the car go, don't bother with buying it back or parting out thst shit is a PITA, just take the money and shop good for a nice clean tastefully modded USP B6

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[virgoavant]

Because I've only had the car for a few months so I'm not ready to move on. 100k miles, 6 speed manual 1.8T Avant with a new timing belt...why would I get rid of that? I got under it this evening and what I saw was a bent rusted upper control arm. Lets face it by the time I decide I no longer want the car it wouldn't be worth anything anyways so I really don't care if there is an accident in the record. Its my first Audi and its exactly what I wanted...even the color.

[imnuts]

Given the damage that you describe, it is totaled. I also feel that doing repairs before the insurance adjuster looks at it is very sketchy. I understand getting attached to the car, as I'm not sure what I'd do if mine were totaled, but I'd rather have a known safe car than something I patched together that could be a potential hazard should it be in another accident.

[virgoavant]

And its a quattro.

[virgoavant]

So this part totals the car?

http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/audi...4-s4-3r0505323

[FromS60toB61.8t]

well lets break it down this way

Quattro - common
color - uncommon
6spd - common, 2004.5+ are all 6spd
100k miles - good
avant- less common than sedan

you have literally the same car i do except yours is avant and beige(?)

but yea if you dont care about selling it then why do you care if it gets totaled? im confused... doesnt make sense to me to put money into fixing it just to get less money from insurance and risk them possibly classifying it as a fraudulent claim.

So this part totals the car?

http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/audi...4-s4-3r0505323

no one ever said anything about a control arm totaling a car... its the quarter and all of the labor and supplies it'll take to fix it.

i think im done here... not much more i can add to this thread. If you dont understand why it'll be totaled or why its a good thing for it to be totaled all i can say is to re-read the posts.

good luck

Edit: one last thing i can add... I've owned 3 cars with previous accidents / salvage cars and i can tell you its never the same as it use to be. Luckily my current audi is clean so its been the best car ive had yet but if it got into an accident id let it go in a heartbeat and just buy another one.

[bagged00]

if you plan on keeping the car forever then a salvage title doesn't matter. but if you wanna sell the car and it has been totaled that drastically decreases the value. no a control arm is going to total the car, its the fact that the estimate is going to exceed a certain percentage of the value of the car that will total it. and like stated its very hard for a car that's been in a hard hit like that to be fixed right again. of course the body shop will tell you that we can get it back to normal. but whether it be wind noises, panel gaps, alignment issues etc. the car probably wont be the same again. I work at a Chevrolet dealer in the body shop as a painter for 5 yrs, most people who's shit got hit so hard it was on the verge of being totaled, they didn't want the car back.

[meisladrs]

if you plan on keeping the car forever then a salvage title doesn't matter. but if you wanna sell the car and it has been totaled that drastically decreases the value. no a control arm is going to total the car, its the fact that the estimate is going to exceed a certain percentage of the value of the car that will total it. and like stated its very hard for a car that's been in a hard hit like that to be fixed right again. of course the body shop will tell you that we can get it back to normal. but whether it be wind noises, panel gaps, alignment issues etc. the car probably wont be the same again. I work at a Chevrolet dealer in the body shop as a painter for 5 yrs, most people who's shit got hit so hard it was on the verge of being totaled, they didn't want the car back.

I'm going to say Totaled
moms 2 day old beetle was hit kinda like this and the repair bill was close to 10k all said and done and the car still isn't right ( done at a certified vw/ audi shop)
her driver quarter panel was not as bad as the OP

[virgoavant]

Total cost for all repairs $4640.96. Including all new rear suspension parts and new wheel. "Not Totaled"

[virgoavant]

and a new passenger door.

[PreciseD]

/thread