Advice required re repair

[ryanb741]

Gents

Some swine has heavily opened their door into the side of my 6 week old A3 sportback with the result that not only has paint been removed but there is also a slight ding in the front door panel on the passenger side. Of course they didn't leave their details.....

I am not going to go down the insurance route with this but pay for Audi to do it - however does anyone have any similar experience so I can gauge what the likely financial damage is going to be?


Cheers


Ryan

 

[Phil-1]

Ryan

I feel your pain. I has the same thing with my 3 week old car. I have decided to wait until after Christmas to get it looked at. As for price I have no idea

Phil

 

[hades-]

id say 4 grand

 

[ryanb741]

id say 4 grand

lol! I had £250-£300 as a wild guess - for £4k I would expect a whole brand new side of the car

 

[hades-]

lol! I had £250-£300 as a wild guess - for £4k I would expect a whole brand new side of the car

well i had a guess as you asked
no pic of the damage
no info on the colour etc etc etc
so no info how can anyone on here give you a proper guesstamate on the cost

 

[Daveotto]

Picture would be useful.....but would reckon at least £500 from an audi bodyshop especially if you have metallic or pearlescent paint

 

[ryanb741]

It's Daytona Grey if that helps?

I don't have a pic but the damage is maybe 2 inches of paint scraped off, and the ding is maybe half a centimetre in depth

 

[hades-]

so thats full door
blown into front and rear wing to do a proper job
id say from audi your looking at close to a grand with vat etc.

 

[hades-]

or take it local 500 tops
or maybe a good very good PDR man could sort it,

 

[Leeber]

Where I live a lot of the dealerships sub out that sort of work to the same independent body shop. Not sure if this is the same for Audi but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was. Do a bit of research and find out who they use, go straight to them rather than through the dealership and get a decent price. I reckon 4-500 quid from what you've described.

 

[Croftj]

I had a door ding repaired by a local dent specialist, he came to my workplace and worked his magic, ding gone, no mark and it cost me £45 cash. it was quite a bad one as well, i didnt stop to watch him but whatever he did seemed to work. i think it depends on where the ding is on the door as to whether it can be repaired without the need for new door panels etc.

it might be worth investigating this route first before shelling out for a big dealer job, when i was enquiring the guy i dealt with did say he wouldnt charge if he couldnt get it out.

 

[Leeber]

TBH, I think the ding is least of the problem. In my (admittedly limited) experience it's the sorting out of the paintwork that takes time and attention. From the description of the damage I think Bez101 has it spot on re the sort of work that will be required.

 

[wesmaster]

Most main dealers don't paint cars anyway, they ship it out to a good paint shop. The paint shop then charge Audi the same as they would charge the public then Audi will put their bit on top. So you(the customer) pay more! Find a good indi paintshop.

 

[PilotAudi]

Most main dealers don't paint cars anyway, they ship it out to a good paint shop. The paint shop then charge Audi the same as they would charge the public then Audi will put their bit on top. So you(the customer) pay more! Find a good indi paintshop.

Not around here.

My Audi dealer have one of the best bodyshops I have ever come across!!

 

[Leeber]

I guess that if the dealership is part of a big enough network then a business case could be made for having an in-house body shop.

IIRC PilotAudi, you're referring to Bristol Audi are you not? I think they're part of Mon Motors which is a pretty big network, with VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Ford dealerships. We're actually buying a Tiguan through the Merthyr Tydfil VW dealership, should be here any day now. It would make sense for them to have a body shop or two in the network.

 

[PilotAudi]

I guess that if the dealership is part of a big enough network then a business case could be made for having an in-house body shop.

IIRC PilotAudi, you're referring to Bristol Audi are you not? I think they're part of Mon Motors which is a pretty big network, with VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Ford dealerships. We're actually buying a Tiguan through the Merthyr Tydfil VW dealership, should be here any day now. It would make sense for them to have a body shop or two in the network.

Yes.

I have only had experience of their Bristol VW/Audi body shop and rate them very highly... They are highly professional, competent and no BS!

 

[Broken Byzan]

Biggest problem is Audi like to disallow paint warranty claims if repairs have not been don't by them or their recommended repair network. I'd either do PDR type repair if possible or Audi on a car that new.

 

[97catalunya]

I am getting a big scratch on the bumper done today, thanks to some idiot in a service station car park.

Took it into a friend of a friend who works for national accident repair and they quoted me £160 to sort it out, I was quite happy with that as mine is also Daytona Grey.
They are on the same estate as my local dealer so I thought I would take it there too, told them what I was quoted and was surprised when their quote came back at £150 (prob only taking it to the same place mind you)

Will post before and after pics later.

So they will have it for the day, doing the software update for the 1.8 S-Tronics while it is with them and investigating the lag issue too.

Now what loaner will I get? RS6 maybe? I think not lol

 

[snakehips]

When I bought my car one of the things I was offered was Smart Protection. Would this have covered this sort of damage?

 

[JohnM100]

Ouch on the ding.

Half a centimetre is actually really deep for a ding and think an average dent repair guy would struggle with something that deep. If its on a flat-ish part of the panel then at a push possibly, though some filler would be likely as the metal would have been stretched.

Overall agree with bez101, especially if it is on an edge/fold in the door-blade. Would hope nearer 750 though.

I know it's not the fashion/style these days but the body coloured strips along the length of the doors used to be offer some protection against this sort of thing.

 

[ryanb741]

It's on the bit near the windows where there is a ridge if that makes sense. About 2 inches above the door handle where the contour in the bodywork is. So it's the ridge that has got a ding in it.

Suspect an arm and a leg will be the answer coming back from Audi on the cost

 

[ryanb741]

Ok an independent called Mastertechs in the Kingston upon Thames area local to me quoted £220 plus Vat subject to full inspection. This includes paintwork. That seems more than reasonable to me - just wanted to verify whether anyone had heard of these guys?

 

[Chris28]

Hi Ryanb741

I had a similar experience as only had my audi a few weeks and a nice ding on my passenger door with a nice dint mark. I went to audi and they put me in touch with their repair people and quoted £600-700 3-4 days work and if I wanted the badges put back on the front wing panels £20 each and they said they would have to take the bumper off as well. Weird how this was only in the middle of the door.....

I went to Smart Auto Repairs Mobile Car Body Repairs | Smart Auto Repairs | Manchester and they quotes me £100-200 and a few hours work and they came to you. They used a filler but you can't see the dint and I thought this was the better option as I didn't want to go through the insurance.

I'd give them an email and see what they say. Nice bunch of people and great on alloy wheel repairs too.

Gents

Some swine has heavily opened their door into the side of my 6 week old A3 sportback with the result that not only has paint been removed but there is also a slight ding in the front door panel on the passenger side. Of course they didn't leave their details.....

I am not going to go down the insurance route with this but pay for Audi to do it - however does anyone have any similar experience so I can gauge what the likely financial damage is going to be?


Cheers


Ryan

 

[97catalunya]

This is what Audi have quoted me £150 to repair, was quoted £160 from an independent with no loan car.


This is the "loaner" Audi have given me



Not to shabby I have to say although it's sportier the A3 is a much nicer car, this feels really dated inside, and although it is fitted with Bose the B&O is much much better!!

 

[lotus]

The way I see it is that you can blend paint but you can't blend lacquer. So a small dent (repair) on a panel should be filled if necessary and resprayed by blending the paint because you can never match the colour exactly then the whole panel needs to be lacquered.

For this reason no 'on the side of the road' repair people can do a job that I'd be happy with, lacquer a whole panel on the the side of the road, no way.

A decent spray shop should also be able to match the finish of the lacquer, lets face most manufacturers paint finish is fairly bad, a slight orange peel effect is normal and it's pointless putting a perfectly smooth finish on a panel if all the original panels don't have that.

 

[ddscot]

Its annoying, never had anybody damage my car before I had something so nice but this was what happened to my brand new A3 company car at 3 weeks old when a taxi decided to scrape it parking in front at 3 weeks old while I was sat in it, dented and scraped wing and various scratches on the front splitter, you don't want to hear that noise believe me, thought it would be a lot worse though when it hit me (Vectra saloon) I think the guy knew it was trouble as he said himself he had "did it in style" hitting a 63 plate less than a month old but oh well, he was an older guy and was obviously having a bad day, sorted on insurance for about 350-400 I seem to recall, although I didn't appreciate driving around in the bodyshops C1 for a few days being 6ft 3 should have taken a hire car on him on reflection but it was a giggle, you didn't know a c1 could do 60 in 2nd did you, neither did I it makes you appreciate what you have though driving a ****ter around for a bit.

Insurance co sent it to their place, if I went to Audi probably double the bill not that it would have been my problem on a 3rd party claim but I was happy when I got it back.





After fixing, not sure what they did but you cant tell, this is in a car park so the reflections you see are the lamps inside.

 

[cpettigrew]

I wouldn't be surprised on costs. I had the smallest mark on my rear bumper caused by someone's number plate screw head. Since wasn't my insurance got audi to fix it. I had to point out to the guy the damage. Cost to repair. £450. This was not for replacement rear bumper, just a repair. Prices are INSANE!!!