[placebo]

Purpose of this thread is to get an idea for the process to get a Chevy Volt involved in a minor/major accident or incident repaired and the feasibility.

Idea was based on a recent "viral" blog post from a former tesla owner and employee that was extremely unhappy (and rightfully so) due to the prolonged 8 month wait for his vehicle to get repaired from a relatively simple "repair" due to issues with the service center.

Repairing Teslas seem to generally be a nightmare of a process and it would be good to get an idea of how the repair process works for a Volt given its unique components if one were to ever be involved in such a scenario.

 

[llninja]

I've had 2 body shop visits, both completed at the Chevy dealership, due to a kamikaze deer and a stop sign that materialized out of nowhere. Both took less than a week to fix and both were about $3500. The first one was handled by insurance and the second out of my pocket (after learning first hand how insurance companies jack up their rates when you make a claim)

Lesson learned, use insurance for the big stuff (car totaling, bodily injury/liability stuff). If you have the money in the bank to be able to pay for a fender bender, you are better off paying out of pocket rather than face many years of jacked up rates. After several years of paying up the nose even after shopping around and switching insurance carriers, my rates have finally settled down to something not so insane. I now self-insure the comprehensive coverage on my cars while getting the highest deductible and highest collision/liability coverage they will sell me.

 

[don shaw]

A big truck parked next to me on by leftstarted and steered into my drivers side door and front fender. (High upDriver didn't see my volt). My dealer gave me an estimate the next day, made appointment for 3 days later, and their body shop had it done in another 3 days, the same as a regular car. The trucking company paid the bill, including rental car from the dealer, (They had to get a new door)

 

[placebo]

https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/07/repairing-my-tesla-model-s-has-been-an-utter-night.aspx

Link to original post for those that haven't seen it already

 

[Breezy]

Three years ago, my Volt needed some extensive bodywork after our garage roof collapsed on top of it. Surprisingly, none of the damage was actually that serious, it's just that there was a lot of it. All new glass, hood, roof, outer door panels, hatch, trim pieces. Total $19,000 in damage. It took a little under two months for the repair.

Also a minor deer collision (the deer hit me on the driver's side, and he didn't have insurance). Typical repair of a few days and a couple thousand $.

Early on I needed a new windshield and I had to wait two months for a factory replacement. There were no aftermarket options.

None of the unique powertrain components were affected in any of these cases. They did replace the touchscreen. All repairs were handled efficiently between the insurance company, the body shop, the rental car company and the dealer.

 

[PilotAlan]

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?242409-Volt-can-take-a-hit

Mine took a significant hit (the photo angle doesn't reflect the pushed in bumper and such) to the front and back. About $5k in the body shop to replace all the crush material behind the rear bumper, replace the rear clip and rear hatch, replace the front clip, and replace the backup camera.

No structural damage, no effect on the charging or battery system, all the parts available through traditional GM sources. In and out in a week (including two days for paint to dry).

 

[BAZINGA]

FYI

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/motley-fool-story-tesla-replacement-part-delays.87179/

 

[placebo]

FYI

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/motley-fool-story-tesla-replacement-part-delays.87179/

JonMc said: ↑
Hi everyone –

This week, the service team hit a global customer service satisfaction record. The team has done a fantastic job on what we control currently: our own service centers. We’re now turning our efforts on the centers we don’t control: accident repairs in body shops.

The body shop in the OP article did not begin repairs on the car for three months and then ordered more than 90 parts and took over seven months to repair the car. Neither of those are indicators of competence. To top it off, they blamed their performance on Tesla. We know from complaints that the body shop experience needs to get a lot better – and fast.

What the service team has done so far is a roadmap of how we’re going to fix the autobody experience. Wait times for appointments measured in hours and a handful of days currently. We’re providing same-day service from the Bay Area to Oslo and everywhere in between. In fact, almost 20% of jobs in our flagship center in Palo Alto are handled before the customer can finish their cup of coffee (yes, you read that correctly).

Thankfully, only a handful of our owners experience accidents each year. Since customers schedule and interface with the body shops on their own, we’re largely blind to the service pace.

Most of the customer complaints about body shops mentioned parts, so we focused on this issue. To date, we’ve reduced backlog by over 80%.

Even though we reduced part wait times, we continued to dig into the body shop complaints. What we found was astounding – cars sat at body shops for weeks and sometimes months before the body shops took action and, more often than not, the body shops blaming Tesla for parts delays were the very shops that hadn’t even ordered parts or started the repair.

We are applying brute force to this immediately. We will have individuals on our team personally manage each car on behalf of our customers that are in 3rd party body shops.

We’re also going to increase our approved shop count by 300 over the next few weeks as well as eliminating poor performing shops.

If you have an issue with a shop, please PM me directly and our team will advocate and manage your repair.

Tesla owners will get the service they expect from us – period.

Thanks to the entire service team for their commitment to setting the highest standard for service in the industry,

Jon

 

[placebo]

Now that's what I call customer service done right

 

[emartin00]

Well I'll be sure to let you know how this goes. Someone must have backed into me at the grocery store last night. Nice dent in the hood, and the grill and Chevy emblem are both broken.
Anyone know what a new hood will run me?

 

[turboguy327]

Well I'll be sure to let you know how this goes. Someone must have backed into me at the grocery store last night. Nice dent in the hood, and the grill and Chevy emblem are both broken.
Anyone know what a new hood will run me?
View attachment 131881

Www.car-part.com

Find one the same color and bolt it on.

 

[khalfyard]

The Volt is low enough to the ground that making a too-hard right turn and going over the curb had the vehicle slam down on the curb, snapping a number of clamps on the passenger side molding, and bending the back side panel, while popping out the front corner-panel triangle bit. CAN$225 repair, which is happening, right now as we speak at neighborhood autobody shop.

 

[cjaama]

Might get more responses posting this to the general Volt section.

 

[firehawk72]

My experience was a Large Hail storm while at Church. I was pretty lucky actually. The hail was larger than anything I had ever seen in person. True Golf ball size hail. It damaged the windshield and the hood...nothing else was touched Hood was replaced and repainted. Windshield was replaced with Pilkington (a story in its own right). It was repaired at my local body shop that is simply outstanding. When they are repaired here, no one can ever tell that it was repaired other than a carfax. Anyway, no issues whatsoever...

 

[khalfyard]

The Volt is low enough to the ground that making a too-hard right turn and going over the curb had the vehicle slam down on the curb, snapping a number of clamps on the passenger side molding, and bending the back side panel, while popping out the front corner-panel triangle bit. CAN$225 repair, which is happening, right now as we speak at neighborhood autobody shop.

View attachment 131897 View attachment 131889

In one of those rare 'nice stories' the cost to fix this minor damage and pop back in the parts (the rear 'triangle piece didn't pop back in perfectly, but...good enough), the estimate was $225, but the final repair cost was actually only $71. Mainly due to the clips not being as damaged as the estimator previously thought.

 

[emartin00]

Www.car-part.com

Find one the same color and bolt it on.

Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately the closest one is 500 miles away, and still $600 without paint.

Just got back from the estimate, the hood alone from Chevy is $1300. All told, repairs will be $2700.

 

[hellsop]

Just got back from the estimate, the hood alone from Chevy is $1300. All told, repairs will be $2700.

Lotta money for a hood made out of old Pepsi cans...

 

[emartin00]

Well I'll be sure to let you know how this goes. Someone must have backed into me at the grocery store last night. Nice dent in the hood, and the grill and Chevy emblem are both broken.
Anyone know what a new hood will run me?
View attachment 131881

Well, got my car back on Tuesday, and everything looks great. They even cleaned it inside and out, which was nice since it was kind of a mess.
Final cost was $2800, nearly half of that was the hood. It took a few extra days because they found a couple of bumper brackets that had to be replaced, and it took a week to get them from Chevy.