Deer in the headlights

[Tomaz]

Hit a deer today. Doing 30 mph on a two lane country road in broad daylight. Deer jumped in front of me so fast I never had a chance to hit the brakes. Saw the deer jump up and run away but I doubt it survived. $4,500 estimate from my auto body shop. Damn!

[Bimmer360]

Wow, sorry to hear that hope you are OK and that's what matters for now. $4500 seem right but you are not at fault, so it shouldn't have a huge impact on your insurance no? Is the hood bent too between the headlight and the grille?

[giaka]

Forest Rats.......hate em. Good luck with the repairs. Looks like the headlight was spared. Thats a spendy part.

[Tomaz]

The headlight is cracked and no longer works, the hood is bent, the front fender and bumper is damaged, and some internal structural pieces are broken or bent. The good news is the airbags didn't deploy and the radiator, and other cooling apparatus was spared.

[ard]

That will be 9500+

I had virtually an IDENTICAL deer hit. 10,400 with a DEF tank, my headlight was fine. I think those two are about the same cost, no?

You will need a new fender, hood... buch of interior plastic brackets

They will (or should) blend color into the passenger door and driver fender.

The Price is Right- BF style... - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums


Sorry to hear, but it can be fixed perfectly.

[giaka]

Originally Posted by ard

Sorry to hear, but it can be fixed perfectly.

You would think those plastic fenders would come painted for the price. That hood is aluminum isn't it? Double ouch. Arent those M LED headlights like $3000 each?

Yeap

https://parts.bmwofsouthatlanta.com/...117359371.html

[Tomaz]

I'm pretty sure my headlights are Xenon and I think the hood is steel. Ard is right, there are also many internal pieces that also need replacing. My auto body guy has done excellent work so I'm not concerned that the repair will not look perfect. I wanted to open the hood to look inside but the auto body guy said not to. From experience they don't always close again once damaged.

[ard]

Hood is aluminum, does not straighten well....

Insurance may try to force you to utilize a used part, pretty common. HOWEVER, the shop has some ability to 'manage' costs. The costs insurance uses is more than shops pay.... PLUS, if a shop takes a quote from the insurance that is filled with used parts, BMWNA will often times extend a few % to entice a conversion to new parts. A smart shop will float such a quote to BMW -even if it isnt exactly what insurance really is proposing- in order to trigger better pricing. If you KNOW this, then maybe they use the $ to pay for all OE parts- and sure, they keep any leftover.

My shop was able to squeeze enough out of the entire BMW parts order to cover the $200 delta on a 'recycled' versus new hood.

GL

[Tomaz]

And the estimate;

[ard]

so I assume that is the first estimate, without teardown? Once they get a go ahead from insurance OR once insurance gets there, it will get more accurate.

I see a few differences with mine in terms of the exterior stuff (fog light R&I; repeater R&I; No fender ($900+. then 6 hrs labor)), but a SLEW of missing stuff for internal parts- radiator support OK? dome other brackets, etc...

If you type in the part number for the headlight, ending in 4522, at parts.southatlanta....their price is $1300 Your shop is at $1900. My shop should make something on parts, but not 50% profit. Tell them you expect OE parts, zero 'remanufaturer' or 'used'. Stress that they dont want to do it over if you find waves or defects upon inspection.

Edit: I bet the insurance allowance on the OE parts is less than they are showing you, just a guess

IMO you will be at 10k.