Damn!

And you've been given phone privileges in jail after whooping his butt? At least that's going for you.

 

I was certainly pretty pissed. It’s a large company, not a local one truck guy. Owner was out quickly, super nice and offered to cover it. We’ll see how that goes.

 

That stinks! I'm sorry to see that. I had something similar happen to mine only a month into my ownership. It should be easily fixable, at least.

 

Might be able to PDR that with no trace, and without needing a respray.

 

pdr?

 

Paintless dent repair.

That's a new hood, because that dent is on a complex bend. New hood and paint/matching.

The hood is around $900-1,000 new, plus prep and paint. Their insurance is likely looking at a $2,500 bill all in.

 

At that price might be time to go carbon fiber hood. Haha.

Plus, body work won't be in the car history.

 

I realize we’re digressing from the point of the thread, my apologies.

The company owner texted me later saying his insurer told him, based on his photos, that it’d be less than his deductible…..ok
Then he asked me to go to the local Maserati dealership and see the manager, he will have him take care of it, he “has an account there.”
I still have questions, but if the Maserati place, or whomever is the authorized Maserati paint and body, should be able to do a stellar job. That bend/fold is a concern and one I will address.
I did a DIY ceramic job, using Adam’s Polishes system (works well, looks good) so I think I am going to ask them the re-treat the whole front end, so it’s even, of course. All the Maserati’s on the lot have it done, can see it and it’s on the tab…Damn are they expensive.

EDIT TO ADD: My nearest authorized Lexus body shop is an hour away. Is a nearby Toyota, but Lexus is a long way away.

 

How much is one? A recommended one? Might be a cost alternative. Will still need to do the fender, but that could be easily repaired, even possibly “PDR” (thank you) as mentioned above.

 

I must have misread the fenders need work too. In that case i would work to fix the oem panels and hood. I actually don't like the look of a carbin hood, but some do.

But a seibon cf hood should be around 11 - 12. Tons of dealers on the forums and if you're on the is500 Facebook groups hit up peter chen. He'll set you up with a great deal on a hood.

I dont know if this is dishonest or not, but i would also push the Maserati dealer to not report this on your car history, especially with it being minor damage. If you sell the car, it may show body damage repair and make it harder for you to sell. Sucks to be punished for damage on your vehicle that you didn't do.

 

You're relying FAR too much on the "friendly owner" guy of the company. DON'T do this.

You need to go to an authorized Lexus body shop (DON'T go where the guy tells you to go ... if he has a "buddy" there (or an account as he says) the folks there are going to be looking out for HIM, not YOU).

Go to a Lexus body shop. And maybe another reputable shop that knows Lexus and how to do Lexus paint and body work (installing panels, etc.). Get multiple estimates for all of this work. Authorized Lexus shops are going to know the ins and outs of Lexus paint, and how to screw and unscrew the cars apart/together.

We had a very tiny parking lot hit last summer in our IS500, pushed the drivers's side of the bumper in about 1/2". No dents/cracks/breaks to fender, headlamp, hood (other than a very slight paint rub-off on the edge of the hood above the headlamp), grill, etc. Front bumper cover was creased on driver's side, moderately. On casual glance one would not have even known there was any damage to the bumper.

What was a small tiny parking lot hit ended up being a $12,000 repair. New hood, front bumper cover, black air grill trim, new grill, new headlight (that part is $3,000 by itself), and such. We didn't have the car for about 5-6 weeks while the parts were being ordered and the repair being done. Body shop (as did we) went to the mat with the insurance company, who initially estimated it as a $6,500 job. It was nearly double that. We ended up paying about $750 out of pocket on the total repair.

Trust me, DON'T half-*** this and DON'T try to do it on the cheap. And especially, DON'T trust anyone other than yourself and people that YOU engage/hire to do the repair work for YOU.

You want the car to be as good as it left the showroom. As did we with our repair. It is telling that the insurance company (Erie Insurance, which is generally very highly rated) missed the job's total cost by nearly 50%, not to mention that they tried like HELL to steer us away from using our nearest Lexus certified body shop, and go to an "all marques" body shop locally that has a poor reputation (and who honestly is also on their "kickback" list for steering a lot of repair business to this shop and others).

TRUST NO MAN. Get a couple of proper estimates, and give the car the repair that it deserves!

P.S. Any work you have done at any body shop WILL be reported to CarFax/AutoCheck and listed on the car's history. As long as you take photos of the damage, if it ever comes time to sell you have that documentation for a prospective buyer, as well as invoices. Of course it doesn't matter a whit if you intend to keep the car.

P.P.S. I can GUARANTEE you that any estimates that you get, will be above that company owner's deductible. An insurance company looking at a couple of photos is not the same as a professional adjuster visiting the car in person to examine the damage, or a body shop who specializes in these things. If you engage a body shop, they will prepare their own estimate and haggle with the insurance company over the repair costs, what is and isn't covered, etc. That's what they do, and good body shops are good at it. DON'T trust what the owner's insurance company says -- they are simply doing everything they can to avoid having a claim filed and having to pay out becuase of the business owner's employee's negligence.

 

I agree that you are going to take a hit with CARFAX; maybe the photos will help but you need to get compensated by the offender or you never will recoup it. When I sold my truck to buy the IS a CARFAX showed up on the truck. I was flabbergasted-there had never been a scratch to the truck. Turns out it was an incident where I forced a guy out of his lane( I was towing an Airstream on a narrow mountain road) and he made a claim to my insurance company that I hit him. My insurance company came to my house to inspect my vehicles and concluded there was no contact because there was no damage and the investigator called it an erroneous claim. But the insurance company gave him a token amount to make him go away and it ended up on a CARFAX/CLUE for my truck. No way to get rid of it and the consequences.

 

gerryvz, my plan at this point is to listen and see what the plan may be. I do plan to have Lexus give me an estimate and then see where it goes from there.
Good thing I have on my side is that I live in a very nice country club where they have a large work force on the non-golf course landscaping, if he tries to screw me, I’ll have a talk with the board members who live on my street.

 

 

I just had to get out and get some snow photos.