Our adjuster out here (State Farm) has a very nice hand held system and it shows him the cost of parts and the time and material estimates for repainting things.

After he gets done, he plugs it all in the computer, then they issue a check. Then, if it is more, the BODY SHOP puts in a supplement form for the extra $$$. A lot of times, the body shop has to call the adjuster, but most of the time, they work out the deal.

Make sure they repaint the entire door. It will not look right if it is blended, trust me. And make sure you tell the adjuster that you want the entire doors painted. He should already know that, but sometimes they try to "blend" to save money. Honestly, in this case, they might save $100 or so, but it isn't worth it.

 

You might want to visit the two shops, see their work first-hand. Look up both shops under BBB and see if they are rated and if so, what they got.

Look and ask for references. See if they do body work for other dealerships.

Sorry to hear about the troubles and to work so hard to have your dream car messed up.

Just know that the scumbag(s) will have their own karma messed up one day and have to face that. I truly believe in what comes around, goes around.

G/L

 

I got really upset over a small paint chip that I got on my month old clubman and I can't even imagine how you feel. Keep your chin up and go through your insurance. I'm sure she'll be good as new in no time.

 

Too bad you can't track down the stupid s$%# and kill then to make the wolrd a better place for everyone else.

 

My experience with Farmer's has been very positive. My wife hit a deer, it only left a fist sized dent in the hood and broke the grill. Farmer's sent an adjuster out to the house. He recommended a local shop, but we went with a family friend who has a body shop. The body shops work on the flat rate i.e. They get paid the same number of hours for each repair.

Our friends shop rate was close to the recommended shop's rate and Farmer's covered the difference, no problem. The adjuster was very pleasant and called a few times to be sure everything was alright with the repairs.

You can't tell the car was ever damaged.

Dave

 

Morning all, just came across this thread and thought I'd put my input in.

Once the adjuster writes up the estimate, it should be for the full amount to do the car correctly. I personally, don't care what the "numbers" are, I'm more interested in that they are paying to do the job.

Here's a few thoughts.

1) take it to a reputable bodyshop. Period. Taking your car to a "pro-shop" for an insurance company is not for Mini people. "Pro-shops" are usually production shops that crank out cars like Hershey makes candy bars. I want someone that will take the time and treat it like they owned it.

2) take it to a reputable bodyshop. Period. Find a shop that has a good reputation and is well recommended. Search for reviews on the internet, talk to other "mini" type friends (anotherwards, **** people... bmw owners, S2000, etc, etc) Check out car clubs.

3) take it to a reputable bodyshop. Period. A good bodyshop will make sure the insurance estimate covers the work to be done CORRECTLY... not DECENTLY. I personally don't want "decent", I want it done CORRECTLY.

Sooooo, you see the theme... take it to a reputable bodyshop...lol. The problem with poor workmanship in a bodyshop is it's your baby, it will be something that you will see over and over and over. NOTHING kills the love relationship with a car like the disgust you get when you look at your baby and you know it's not right.

Now, if I could just find a bodyshop to fix Oscar....


HTH's,

Mark

 

Your Mini cooper dealer has access to a body shop that will probably do it the best. I would say they also do the BMW dealer's body repairs as well as Mini Coopers.

These cars do get damaged in transit on the trucks that bring them to the dealers and they do get correctly repaired or the dealer could not sell them.

The insurance company should honor the dealers estimate or I would ask why not. I'm pretty sure that your insurance company is already familiar with your dealers body shop.

 

No disrespect Ronnie, but definitely not. I've been in this business for over 25 years and THIS is SO typical.

The problem is, most bodyshops are what is called a "pro-shop" for an insurance company. Basically, the bodyshop tells the insurance company "if you send us cars, we'll give you a discount".

That's all fine, that's their business... the problem is, when you become inundated with work from 20 insurance companies, the shop becomes a production shop with a "get it in, get it out" mentality.

One of my shops has been word of mouth and referally ONLY. We're in in the phone books, we don't advertise and we're not a "pro-shop" for any insurance companies. My main shop is 10,000 sq.ft. with 7 guys and we stay busy.

We're not a huge shop but when the big shops dry up from work, their employees come to us looking for work because we stay constant.

I think she needs to find the same type shop in her town. (though we had 2 guys bring their corvettes from Maryland down last year, a customer from Texas and another from Virginia just to have us do the work.... and yeah, and don't forget Deborah that drove up from Alabama... Hi Debbie)

I don't think people should settle. It's hard to fix a car in the bodyshop industry. If you're a mechanic and assuming you diagnose the problem correctly, you're then replacing parts... I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen? Broken bolts or studs? You're replacing a part.

But, in the bodyshop business, it's so ambigious. You have bodywork to make sure it's straight, sand scratches, color match, tints and hues change at different angles, trash in the paint, orange peel, lines/gaps, overspray, blah, blah, blah...

Fixing a car isn't just replacing a part, it's a LOT of work to do it correctly and I personally would tell them to find a shop they can trust.


Just my .02 worth....


Mark

 

White Lightning from Bermingham that you refered to said:

I guess the big problem now a days is "Who can you trust to repair your car?" If not the Factory Dealer who can you really trust to fix a car?

 

The problem is it might not be as bad if at least the mini dealership had a mini bodyshop.

What happens is these "conglomerate corporations" who own dozens or hundreds of dealerships typically have a bodyshop that does the work for all their brands. (obviously, it much more cost effective to open 1 huge bodyshop than each dealership having it's own)

At least if the mini dealership had it's own bodyshop, they wouldn't give crap like "well, that's just how they are from the factory" because they would know it's not.

It doesn't really matter, unfortunately, a huge bodyshop that is a pro shop typically stamps out work like a factory.

We have a shop in town that has 8-9 bodyshops owned by the same person. The one down the street from me isn't much bigger than my shop. We do about a million a year in sales, that bodyshop does 900,000 per MONTH!!!

Apparently it takes my shop a year to do what they can do in a month.

Yeaaaah, riiiight, we're just slow.

OR

They're super fast and never have problems...

I think I'm going with the latter.

So, back to your original question... you have to find a shop that has good referalls. You as a customer have a much better chance of getting something repaired correctly.

Mark

 

It's probably like a Chevy dealer here (Not mentioning the name) that is way too big because the guy that owns it has many different brands of dealerships. He has the worst non-mechanics in the country. I'm guessing he does not want to pay professionals. I got charged over $1,600 plus to fix my drivers side window when I had my Corvette. $125.00 to change a bulb that burnt out in the dash a few years ago. $225.00 to replace the oil sending unit. He quoted me $3,500 or more to repair the two actuators and condenser on the A/C. I never got that done. I traded the car in. As I sat in the lobby waiting for my Window repair I noticed the Rep's coming out and telling people they needed this & that. It seemed everyone there needed something other then what they were there for. I was told I needed front brake pads and I knew I did not at 45,000 miles.

I think He also has a body shop and you are probably correct in that he probably hires untrained uncaring people that will do anything wrong for Min-Wage.

There is a small independent body shop in Port Orange that did some work on my neighbors 1967 Mustang convertible that took out some dents & some rust and matched up the old off white paint so good that you would never noticed it was ever done. They are small and work on anything with wheels. A bunch of old guys work there.

At my age I just always remember the chevy dealers or Ford or Dodge/Chrysler dealers were a single family owned business. I worked at George Miller Ford in Newark,Delaware and We were small but had our own body shop. I don't remember anyone that had more then one dealership. They all had names like Porter Chevrolet, (Porter family) Frank Diver a GM dealer (Diver family) On & on. They all had a body shop.

Now it seams like giant corporations own a lot of business's and really do not care if their customers are happy. They just don't care. All they want is to make a bunch of $$$$ and if their reputation gets to bad they just change the name of the business and go on with what they were doing in the first place.

My Mini dealer in Orlando is owned by the Fields auto group. They own BMW, Rover, and many more franchises all over this country. They are huge. I really like my Mini Dealer and the way it is run. The Mechanic that always works on my car for service is always very through and does everything on his check list. Nothing is shrugged off. They have never tried to sell me something I do not really need. The Management big-wigs are super friendly and the top guy always asks if everything is all right. I don't know if all of the Fields Group dealerships are good but I can say their Mini dealership is tops. I have had my JCW for two years in October and the same Mechanics and salespeople as well as the office people are all the same ones that were there when I bought my car. The Chevy dealer I mentioned never had the same people every time I ever needed to go there.

---------- I guess I'm spoiled with my Mini Dealer-----------------

 

And just to reiterate... not all dealer bodyshops are like that. Just most... it's kind of like when people use to speak about the gov't spending 400 for a hammer.

I highly doubt anyone saw a 400 per hammer price and said "ohhh, there's a great deal"

However, if you buy enough crap, I'm sure the truth of the matter is some stuff just slips through.

I'm glad your dealership is above and beyond, I know most aren't.

Mark

 

We've got a bodyshop that recently expanded cross-town. Their bus advertising has a big sign plastered across saying "BWM and MINI Certified Bodyshop". I wonder if that really designates a higher level of quality? I'm sceptical

 

"Now, if I could just find a bodyshop to fix Oscar.... "

Well if you wouldn't go around abusing him, he'd not have to be fixed ... the very idea of beating the poor little guy up like that.

 

Not really... there is some "training" involved (basically filling out paperwork), the requirements are minimal and I know we're an approved Honda shop based on the quantity of parts we've bought.




I'd rather think of it as conditioning him... rather than abusing.

 

grrrrrrr

this site's poor server has once again eaten a long thought out reply.

So now you get a very condensed rewrite

1. A very good blend job can cost less than a full panel repaint for no other reason then the fact that a red or green metallic paint can cost the shop $100+ a pint. Less material cost (should) mean less cost to you {but because some shops also rip customers off on this angle .... don't count on it}

2. A blend is much safer on new paint; that is, new paint can color match better. This is especially important on colors that fade bad. Never try to blend old red paint. The computer mixes to original colors .... not faded colors. The newer the paint the higher the probability of a great match

my hundred vs thousands comment was not intended to be a recommendation to spend thousands. You WILL get a crap job for $100. B4 spending a thou or more, do some research cuz you CAN get crap for several thousand dollars.... or, find a reputable shop . . .

maybe the rewrite is better . . .

 

Ok,I can relate to this post.I went to my car after getting off work today and guess what!?!?!?!?my mini was keyed on hatch straight across by lisence plate.And guess what!?!?!? 3 cars parked next to me same thing.I called police to make a report and guess what!?!?!?!? he told me he had numerous calls this week on keyed cars.The auto body I called this afternoon said there was a rash of keyed cars he was seeing some with very extensive damage.I hope they find this thug or thugs and lock em up

 

Must be like fire fighters starting fires - Bodymen keying cars.....

 

I swear to God I have an alibi

Seriously though... guys, sorry to hear that. I'd rather total my car than have to repaint a few panels due to vandalism.

Mark

 

So now the truth comes out about what you did to poor Oscar. For shame!

 

That would be too kind. Watch the "movie" (too horrible to be called a movie!) On deadly ground where the bad guys try to interrogate Steven Seagal's buddy. They pulverized his fingers by using a whale tooth as a hammer! That's what I'd like to do to the ***** who rammed my car with a shopping cart just cuz he hates MINIs. There's no way it was an accident because the back of my car was too close to the curb for a shopping cart to hit at that angle. The only way was for someone to slam the cart into the car as hard as possible. I'd like to hook up a septic pipe so that the waste from a public bathroom empties into that jerk's car.

 

I've always had this plan to do in anybody I didn't like -- But I have to win a lottery to make it happen.

I'm going to spend $100K.

I'm going to stash $50K in cash in the poor guy's house, somewhere obvious.

Then I'm going to fly to Columbia.

I'm going to wire another $50K anonymously to his bank account.

I'm going to notify DEA that he's receiving payments from Columbia.

I'm going to notify IRS that he has secret earning stashed in his house.

What do ya think???

 

Or you could just kill him and save the 100K.

Much more satisfying...

 

You could tell him you was gonna give him $100,000 but you decided to give it to "ME" instead.

That will really fix him!!!!!!!