Collision. Bumper, left fender and AC compressor damage. Got $29k quote from Bed-red Auto in Bellevue.

[ashishmh]

Hi, I live in Seattle and recently got into a collision which damaged my front bumper, fender alignment and lining and damaged my AC compressor. The car is drivable but AC is not working. Damage photos attached.

I called Lucid and asked for certified repair shops. Was quoted Pacific Auto Body in Seattle and Bel-Red Auto Rebuild in Bellevue. I called Pacific Auto and they said they cannot begin work before Sep 2nd. So I booked an appt with Bel-Red Auto Rebuild and took my car for inspection and asked for a repair quote. The guy initially asked me if I will pay out of pocked or through insurance. I told him insurance and he started to check the car for damage. I was with him the whole time and kept asking questions on the damage he was seeing. I felt that he was adding a bit more repair work than required just because the money is coming from insurance. For example, the fender near the charging port needs to be aligned and painted again. He said that we would need to paint the hood as well to make sure the color matches. I have full body PPF and that would have meant losing the PPF on the hood as well. I asked him that I do not want to get the hood painted again.

A week later, he sent me the repair estimate at around $29k and told me the repair would take approx. 2 months. That is almost 1/3rd the cost of the car itself. Out of $29k, 10k is for parts, 2.5k is tax and labour is $16.5k. Does the labour rate seem justified or is it just Lucid tax? I have attached the detailed estimate provided by the shop? Should I try Pacific Auto too?
Labour rates:
Body Labor - $160.00 /hr
Paint Labor - $160.00 /hr
Mechanical Labor - $280.00 /hr

 

[Bus Driver]

Yes, Yes, and Yes. It can’t hurt to get another estimate, most especially if you feel you’ve witnessed “padding” by the estimator. That’s something you should probably tell your insurance company and Lucid. I chose not to hover over the estimator when it came to getting my car inspected, preferring not to know, and preferring to just “go along with the experts”.

Just prior to starting his work, my auto detailer and tinter called me, and reported a small crack on my rear window shield. My car was two months old at the time. The “star”and the hairline crack couldn’t have been more than 1.5 inches long, and had I been less particular I would have let it go. No one at Lucid wanted to declare definitively what the origin of the crack was, nor did the detailer admit to having damaged my car. In the end it was left to me to pick up the cost of the repair. The body shop I worked with replaced the rear windshield, the bezzle across the top rear of my roof, the two C-pillar trim pieces, and a few other otherwise perfectly fine pieces that I can’t rememer anymore. It all seemed so wasteful. Total cost to my insurance, over $8000.00. My car was with the shop for about three weeks, awaiting the arrival of needed parts.

One thing no one tells you about is the expense incurred insuring a new, little known, not-very-popular, premium EV car make. It becomes even more expensive after you’ve had to use that insurance.

 

[joec]

The front of the car is where most of the expensive bits (minus the battery) live. I am not surprised at that estimate at all.

Just getting the passenger door replaced and some panels painted recently cost almost $20k.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Sounds low.

A deer hit me on 16 July. Went to Lucid service center in King of Prussia and they recommended a place on the Main Line, across from the McLaren dealership. Bunch of Ferraris, etc., and a couple of Lucids parked out front. Still waiting for them to call me to come in and look at the car. Fortunately everything seems to work...have put ~500 miles on the car since. It looks so easy to fix (new hood, new bumper, new brightwork), but the senors scare me.

Car smells like death now. FU to wild herbivores.

 

[ashishmh]

Just went to the other shop in the morning today [Pacific Auto Body in Seattle]. Told the guy I'll be paying out of pocket for this and he took a look at the car. I also told him all essential things that the other shop mentioned that needed to be repaired/replaced (like the AC compressor). After taking a close look, he told me that it will cost me around $10k to repair or $13-14k worst case in case more things surface when he opens that car. The repair will take around 2-2.5 months as parts etc take some time to arrive and their availability to start work. He also told me that AllState (my current insurance company) sometimes tries to fight back on their labor rates ($160) on Lucid and other stuff. But their approval rate is still 80-85% on what the shop quotes. In-case I end up paying 15-20% out of pocket, I can talk to some guy (he shared the contact) who can work with AllState to get the remaining money out based on the loss to me due to insurance not paying the whole amount.

All things considered, the first shop seems to be charging a lot for some unnecessary things just because the payment is coming from insurance (see my example of needing to pain the hood above). I am a software engineer and I do tend to ask details on WHY things needs to be done. Not everything is rocket science and can be boiled down to basic principles of engineering. Most likely I'll will go with the 2nd shop (with lower estimate) as both of them are certified by Lucid for repairs.

I guess some shops are just trying to extract as much money as possible because there is not much competition in repairing Lucids right now.
My suggestion for folks in this forum will be to ask a lot of hard questions to the shop handling their repair and use their best judgement to determine whether a certain things is really needed or not.

Apart from this, I will keep posting the updates here when the car actually gets opened and what the insurance [AllState] actually approves.

 

[ashishmh]

After talking to the guys at the two certified body shops, it is also apparent that Lucids are much better made in terms of build quality than Tesla.

 

[kae02]

Sounds low.

A deer hit me on 16 July. Went to Lucid service center in King of Prussia and they recommended a place on the Main Line, across from the McLaren dealership. Bunch of Ferraris, etc., and a couple of Lucids parked out front. Still waiting for them to call me to come in and look at the car. Fortunately everything seems to work...have put ~500 miles on the car since. It looks so easy to fix (new hood, new bumper, new brightwork), but the senors scare me.
View attachment 22618
Car smells like death now. FU to wild herbivores.

If you are referring to a body shop named Karosserie (https://karosserie.com) in main line, I would recommend that you stay away from it instead try other body shops in nearby NJ, some have good reviews. Guys at Karosserie are very rude, workmanship quality is very very poor, charges excessively high and adding salt to wound, take LONG I mean VERY LONG time for simple repairs. My experience has been worst there and never came across such poor body shop with zero customer service in my life. If you are a Ferrarie owner, things may be different as I have seen how they treat those customers vs others.

 

[SteveR]

@Cosmo Cruz it is to wash your car now...that blood could alert anyone hearing about a hit and run, eh?

 

[LucidPure92660]

now you know why the insurance was so expensive

 

[pjdcorp]

Sounds low.

A deer hit me on 16 July. Went to Lucid service center in King of Prussia and they recommended a place on the Main Line, across from the McLaren dealership. Bunch of Ferraris, etc., and a couple of Lucids parked out front. Still waiting for them to call me to come in and look at the car. Fortunately everything seems to work...have put ~500 miles on the car since. It looks so easy to fix (new hood, new bumper, new brightwork), but the senors scare me.
View attachment 22618
Car smells like death now. FU to wild herbivores.

I went to a shop in Wayne, PA that I would warn everyone away from. Yes, lots of higher end cars there but their customer service was abysmal, and the owner lied to me. I took my car away from them.

 

[kae02]

I went to a shop in Wayne, PA that I would warn everyone away from. Yes, lots of higher end cars there but their customer service was abysmal, and the owner lied to me. I took my car away from them.

It's Karosserie... they are very rude and poor quality body shop. I would highly recommend everyone in Philly or nearby areas to stay away from this shop.

 

[WildRide47]

Hi, I live in Seattle and recently got into a collision which damaged my front bumper, fender alignment and lining and damaged my AC compressor. The car is drivable but AC is not working. Damage photos attached.

I called Lucid and asked for certified repair shops. Was quoted Pacific Auto Body in Seattle and Bel-Red Auto Rebuild in Bellevue. I called Pacific Auto and they said they cannot begin work before Sep 2nd. So I booked an appt with Bel-Red Auto Rebuild and took my car for inspection and asked for a repair quote. The guy initially asked me if I will pay out of pocked or through insurance. I told him insurance and he started to check the car for damage. I was with him the whole time and kept asking questions on the damage he was seeing. I felt that he was adding a bit more repair work than required just because the money is coming from insurance. For example, the fender near the charging port needs to be aligned and painted again. He said that we would need to paint the hood as well to make sure the color matches. I have full body PPF and that would have meant losing the PPF on the hood as well. I asked him that I do not want to get the hood painted again.

A week later, he sent me the repair estimate at around $29k and told me the repair would take approx. 2 months. That is almost 1/3rd the cost of the car itself. Out of $29k, 10k is for parts, 2.5k is tax and labour is $16.5k. Does the labour rate seem justified or is it just Lucid tax? I have attached the detailed estimate provided by the shop? Should I try Pacific Auto too?
Labour rates:
Body Labor - $160.00 /hr
Paint Labor - $160.00 /hr
Mechanical Labor - $280.00 /hr

Whatever you do, do not let Bel-Red repair your car. They did an excellent job on my car, but the job took twice as long as they said, they refused to speak to me directly once my car was in their facility(stated they would only speak to my insurance agent) and there is no doubt they padded the bill. If you look back at some prior comments on this forum others have also warned Lucid owners to stay away from Bel Red. Others have actually had had a worse experience than I did, because at least my car came back in perfect shape, but they were rude and uncooperative except when they asked for my $500 deductible before they released my car.

 

[ashishmh]

An update on my issue: I ended up giving my car to Bel-Red Auto Rebuild (in Bellevue) due to following reasons:
1. Earliest appointment for Pacific Auto Body was 9/23 and that would be when they open the car and start making detailed estimate. My accident happened on 8/3 and Bel-Red was ready to work on my car asap.
2. Bel-Red Auto said that they'll work with AllState and get whatever needs to be approved. I will not have to spend any time on it. Pacific said that AllState might not approve their labor rate and they'll help me work with a 3rd party to get any out of pocked expenses. Pacific Auto Body said they'll also help with filing diminished value claim later.
3. My POC at Bel-Red Auto is a guy named Dominick and so far he has been pretty responsive and helpful. He even explain all the damage to me clearly.

In all both body shops were saying repairs will take approx 2 months for me. And it took 2 weeks for Bel-Red Auto to prepare detailed estimate and AllState to approve it. Total approved claim is $38.5k.