Crashed after 4 days!

If the body shop is certified to work on Tesla cars they will know the special needs of both aluminum body parts AND the paint both temperature limits of an EV battery. Others not certified will claim they do but will likely damage your battery and do a poor job.
 
EvenSteven21 said:
Finally after almost a month, I finally got my estimate. $7319.63 was the initial adjuster estimate. He expects a large supplemental. I dropped it off immediately after the adjuster estimate with the place I am getting it fixed. They sent me an estimated completion date of 5/24! Almost two months without the car!
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My accident was also on 4/3 and I still don’t have the car back. Honda dealers have told my body shop that getting parts for the Clarity are a nightmare. With that said, I’m hoping it will be completed next week.
 
The Gadgeteer said:
If the body shop is certified to work on Tesla cars they will know the special needs of both aluminum body parts AND the paint both temperature limits of an EV battery. Others not certified will claim they do but will likely damage your battery and do a poor job.
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Last sentence above is sensationalist and frankly an uninformed opinion that is not based in fact. Every Ford dealer is now aluminum certified. As are most major chain body shops and large established independents. It is not magic. And certainly not Tesla exclusive. And Hybrid cars with these batteries are now a decade and a half into production, and temperature restrictions for batteries are well known, and actually printed on the car...not a secret. There are several small independent body shops I know of that I would trust to do a far better job than the few Tesla body shops I am aware of, and I visited body shops for a living for my entire 25 year career and I know them ALL within 100 mile radius of Indianapolis.

I spent my career dealing directly with collision repair shops daily. If my Clarity gets in an accident it sure as heck isn’t going to my nearest Tesla certified shop. That’s a certainty. It is ok, but not an overly impressive place, and ludicrously overpriced. Clarity doesn’t need it. Any quality mainstream shop can do a fine job on it. Clarity just needs a part supply stream, and this is where I see Honda already beginning to fail its customers.
 
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I meant no disrespect to those in the auto body industry. I think the cluelessness of dealerships has made me very cynical to other parts of the auto industry that may not deserve it.

All that being said I would still remind/point out that The Clarity is a hybrid to the shop. The shop that fixed a scratch for me was great and I would trust them with my Clarity. However, they were amazed they had not only never had one in their shop but hadn’t even heard of the Clarity even though it had been out for more than a year. Several of the staff came out to look at it.

By the way, unlike most magazine reviewers the guys at the shop thought the car was sharp looking....and so do I.
 
I talked to the shop last night and the supplement takes the total to $12400 to repair. Still planning on getting the car back on 5/24 but I really doubt it. He did say he has most of the parts already though so that's confidence inspiring.
 
I think the days of scarce parts are over. The body shop had all the Honda parts in just a couple of days. However, there aren't aftermarket parts yet. All OEM Honda.
 
My Clarity also had an unfortunate happening, front end damage which looked very minor but added up to quite a lot. It took about 2 weeks for the bodyshop to get the parts from Honda, which I didn't think was too bad. I was expecting a much longer wait judging by some of the reports I'd heard. From the date of my accident, including the insurance company taking forever to send the adjuster, it took a month to get my car back.
 
Good to hear body repair parts are starting to flow in.
I remember I had an accident with the first year Toyota Tundra in 2000 and they had to order a frame from Japan - took over 2 months by ship to get to the body shop!
 
All fixed. I got it back on Friday. One of the wheels didn't get refurbished despite saying it did in the price quote. I pointed it out during the pickup and they need me to drop it off again when I have some time so they can send the wheel out. Also they didn't clear coat a small 6 square inch area under the trunk lid near the tail light. They are going to take care of that then as well.

Another problem, the side camera that comes on with the blinker is not set up so I have this wack message that pops up "Aiming Not Complete" then some japanese characters every time I use the blinker. I need that fixed also. Overall they get a C+.
 
Thanks. I might sell it instead. I got an offer for exactly what I paid for it so I'd be profiting the state rebates ($2500) on the sale. I have a few days to think about it.
 
EvenSteven21 said:
Thanks. I might sell it instead. I got an offer for exactly what I paid for it so I'd be profiting the state rebates ($2500) on the sale. I have a few days to think about it.
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You appear to be in California?
If so, and you keep the car less than 30 months, you are required to repay the rebate (prorated for the time of ownership).
 
DucRider said:
You appear to be in California?
If so, and you keep the car less than 30 months, you are required to repay the rebate (prorated for the time of ownership).
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Thank you for that information. That will definitely help me make my decision on selling it or not.
 
Geez if I had an offer to sell this car for $8k less than I paid for it, I’d jump all over it with zero thought. And my car has never been wrecked.

TAKE THE DEAL!
 
As DucRider pointed out, I'll lose my $1500 state rebate. The federal rebate was lumped into the lease deal. My lease buyout is $26k and my offer is $26k. I still get $1k in rebates from the electric company but that's it. Then I have to buy another car right away and may not get as good of a deal as I got on this one. Zero money factor lease, zero money down, and $379/mo taxes included.
 
Oh it’s a lease. Didn’t know you could sell a car you don’t own. I have no idea what’s best and have never leased. I assume that takes the loss of value from the wreck out of the equation so maybe that changes things.

Different world for me...happy decision making!
 
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