Expensive door repair...

9048 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by trandinhhoang, Oct 8, 2019

carkarl

Discussion Starter · Oct 18, 2017

I dented the driver's door in a parking garage after getting a little too cozy with a concrete pillar while reversing. It was a small area of damage but in a bad place, scraping both the door handle and the lower crease where the sheet metal sticks out the most. The dent was quite shallow and the scrape only an inch or two long, but since the dent was at the crease, it basically inverted the crease from a "V" to a "W" cross section. I can imagine it would be difficult to straighten this without having ripples.

I originally got an estimate for $2-4k and decided to make an insurance claim. The insurance adjuster went to the shop and they produced a revised estimate around $1.5k, assuming they'd straighten the panel and repaint just that door and the rear door to color match. Now, after a week, the shop has upped their estimate to over $6k and many more weeks to completely replace the door shell and handle, and to repaint the rear door and front fender to color match. I have the Glacier White paint color, so it's also going to be interesting to see how well they can match the blue pearl effect.

It's kind of crazy that such a small cosmetic problem can turn into a repair worth over 1/6 of the new car price. I wonder how a Q3 would look with canvas doors like a trail-ready Jeep... ;-)

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carkarl

Discussion Starter · #2 · Nov 26, 2017

After 6 weeks and my insurance paying out almost $8k on top of my $1k deductible, we have our Q3 back! They did end up replacing the door shell and painting into the surrounding panels for color matching. I have to admit it looks brand new. I have looked very carefully under different lightly conditions and do not see any color variation to reveal the repair. But, I still cannot wrap my mind around a small dent turning into 25% of the new car value. The final repair bill is a huge amount of labor and many single-use mouldings, seals, etc. in addition to the door shell itself. These things are really expensive to repair by the book.

We were stuck with a Chevy Equinox rental for the duration of the repair. I was very happy to return that and get back into the Q3. The Equinox is supposed to be a "compact SUV", but it felt so huge and clunky to drive. I also managed to spin the FWD Chevy's tires from a dead stop when trying to turn through a gap in traffic, which caught me by surprise since I've been driving cars with quattro for so long and never lose traction is such conditions.

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peterthomas

· #3 · Oct 5, 2018

Insurance is necessary as it can help in managing the damage claims with your door in the end, whether you go for then sliding door repair or for replacement. It can help you in both.

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rosstaylor

· #4 · Oct 6, 2018

Thanks all for your thoughts, i will surely think about insurance after installation so that while doing sliding door repair cost will be paid through claims.

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trandinhhoang

· #5 · Oct 8, 2019

Tôi tin rằng những chiếc xe mới hơn có tất cả các hồ sơ dịch vụ trực tuyến, vì vậy có lẽ không có một cuốn sách dịch vụ. Như Rob175 nói có những miếng dán ở nơi khác trên xe - cái của tôi có một cái ở dưới đáy của cốp (cốp xe) nếu điều đó có ích.

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trandinhhoang

· #6 · Oct 8, 2019

Thật là điên rồ khi một vấn đề mỹ phẩm nhỏ như vậy có thể biến thành một sửa chữa trị giá hơn 1/6 giá xe mới. Tôi tự hỏi một chiếc Q3 trông như thế nào với những cánh cửa bằng vải như một chiếc xe jeep sẵn sàng ... ;-)

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