I had a fender bender last month and I was finally able to talk to the adjuster of the "at fault" driver.. His estimate is $916. I must admit it was way below i initially expected since i read most rear bumper damages are around $1,500.

However, I do agree with the estimate. I don't think anything else is damaged underneath. I am not trying to work the insurance around to pocket the $$$ money..

My concern is this.. I really want to get an aero II bumper (i will upgrade the rest ie front bumper, side skirts in the future) and the body shops around me are the ones not cooperating LOL.. They all want me to spend extra money out of my pocket because the plastic trims are more expensive than the oem cooper S bumper. This, after the fact that their labor is $40 per hour on the estimate lol.

Should i just get the bumper + trim pieces and have a body shop paint it (I only have $916 to spend) or let them do it and i will spend money out of my pocket to buy the lights and trim? It sucks because if i was to get the OEM i will not spend a penny BUT that wouldnt make sense since i am planning to buy the aero kit to begin with..

Sorry for the long read.

 

well to be fair, the Aero bumper IS going to be more expensive than the stock bumper, so you can't expect to replace your OEM bumper for the same price. As to how much a difference, I'd expect it to be anywhere from $175-$350 depending on the shop's markup. $40/hour labor though is way off the standard shop rate, so that is pretty unfair if your shop doesn't honor that rate after having listed that on your estimate. Honestly though, $916 seems like just barely enough to cover the bumper and paint, not including the installation (which you could easily do yourself).

 

A couple of years ago a guy crunched the corner of my rear bumper and it was $2K when all was done. If you want the aero bumper, tell the shop you'll pay the incremental cost for the aero parts over the cost of replacement.

 

Thank you for the replies

 

Too bad you weren't looking for this a month ago when MINI was having a fire sale on Full Aero Kits, for around 700 bucks or so.. think you could even get them already painted for around $1600.. course they went fast

 

I never heard of anyone quoting a fixed number for any type of accident repair.
Depending on the velocity and direction of the hit, much more than just the decorative plastic bumper is likely to be damaged (bumper shocks, body mounting points, frame, etc).

How can you tell?
Have you taken the bumper off to inspect the damage behind it?

The body shop's position sounds perfectly reasonable. If anything, their hourly labor rate is suspiciously cheap.

Parts will cost more, and no body shop will subsidize that additional cost. However, if you tell them that you will pay for the delta over stock bumper parts, they will paint and install whatever parts you want back on your car. You will have to cover the extra out of your pocket.

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When my MINI got bumped into, I received a check based on their adjusters estimate but if my shop found something else along the way the two of them would have gotten together on it. My shop didn't bat an eye as to the insurance price as he knew he could get a discount on the parts needed compared to the adjusters "book" price. Plus some shops that do insurance work, take it to stay busy even if they aren't making a big margin on it, it keeps the shops guys busy and money coming into the shop.. In my case the insurance was paying for both bumpers so I bought the full aero kit at our club discount from MINI dealer for not much more then 2 stock bumpers and I just paid the difference plus the extra in paint to do the skirts and wheels arches I had painted..