A&Q about Lotus
Q:
I had a lady back into my Lotus. In return I recieved a deep 4 inch scratch on the bumber about a 4in x 4in scuffed up area around the headlight and broken headlight. The insurance company only gave me 1610.00 for the repair work.
1276.63 for the headlight
body labor 4hr @ 38.00 an hour 152.00
paint labor 2 hr @ 38.00 an hour 76.00
paint supplies 2hr @ 20.00
1544.63
tax 65.83
total 1610.46
does this sound right??
A:
Originally Posted by estcoastsuporter
I had a lady back into my Lotus. In return I recieved a deep 4 inch scratch on the bumber about a 4in x 4in scuffed up area around the headlight and broken headlight. The insurance company only gave me 1610.00 for the repair work.
1276.63 for the headlight
body labor 4hr @ 38.00 an hour 152.00
paint labor 2 hr @ 38.00 an hour 76.00
paint supplies 2hr @ 20.00
1544.63
tax 65.83
total 1610.46
does this sound right??
The labor rates are way low in my area.
A:
Did the clam (fiberglass body) crack at all? That will make a huge impact on the cost. also, the headlight is comprised of a number of separate pieces. It would seem hard to break all of them without a whole lot of damage to the rest of the car, and I'd assume that the $1,200 price is for all of them.
Either way, the only real way to find out is take it to a good body shop. Good luck with it.
A:
no just a real deep scratch... for the headlight replacement wont the clam need to be removed? I am located in VA by the way
A:
Originally Posted by estcoastsuporter
for the headlight replacement wont the clam need to be removed?
Don't think so. The clear cover and black surround come off and leave all the guts exposed for replacement.
A:
Your claim sounds fair and nothing seems out of whack. As a basis of comparison a clam replacement (without headlights) runs in the neighborhood of $5-6K.
A:
I had my car repaired by a "service first" shop. That way they got their money directly from the insurance company, for whatever work they thought necessary. I never had to deal with estimates, etc.
A:
Originally Posted by FlyLo
I had my car repaired by a "service first" shop. That way they got their money directly from the insurance company, for whatever work they thought necessary. I never had to deal with estimates, etc.
You don't have to deal with estimates, etc. anyway in TX.
I just dropped the Evo off and the bodyshop will file supplements for whatever difference there is between what the insurance company thinks it should cost and what it actually costs.
The "offender's" insurance company will pay the bodyshop directly and it's not one of their contracted shops. I've always had the shop paid directly and never used a contracted shop.
A:
The headlight can be replaced easily. You may just consider doing that part yourself.
A:
Do you have StarShield? If so, it will have to be replaced, it's expensive and there will be installation time also.
I just had a few small scrapes repaired in front of the rear wheel where a piece of road debris smacked into it. The repaired area was about the same size as yours, but there were no parts other than the StarShield. The total was a bit over $600 - half of that was the cost of the StarShield plus installation. BTW, the repair was done in Richmond, VA and labor rates were $40/hr (3 hrs body work, 3.4 hrs paint work), paint and supples were $28/hr (3.4 hrs).