Bodywork quotes

[Ginger2003]

Hello chaps

Some kind soul donated a massive scratch/scuff and a dent to the front right wheel arch of my E46 320Cd Coupe. This was done in the car park at work, and they didn't leave a note.

The local BMW garage has quoted me £600 inc VAT for the work. They reckon the whole panel needs to be resprayed, along with the door. I am not quite sure why the door needs to be done; something to do with the respray paint getting on the door in the process of doing the wing...seems odd to me.

Anyway, I was wondering what your experiences have been....is that the going rate for this sort of thing? Are BMW body shops any better than others?

Your thoughts would be gratefully received.

G.

[jj.]

When my 5-series was keyed (drivers door and front wing), I was quoted £150 a panel to paint. Basically a little rubbing down, quick fill of the keyed area, then a re-spray. So £300 lighter. They did an OK job, not great, the paint match (colour wise is good), but I can see small rubbing marks under/through the paint in some areas.

This was done at Bedford BMW, my local BMW garage doesn't have a paint shop and told me they send all their work to the local Wayside (Audi/VW dealer....?)- eh..?
jj

[BMWBen]

Hexagon BMW in Kentish Town (London) did a great job on my front end damage. Expensive, but very good work. Excellent respray, better than the original paintwork in fact.

[r5gttgaz]

"Nice tits"

[CIS121]

I've had work done by Barons BMW in Hindhead and it was a superb job. Pricey though, but completely faultless and you get what you pay for

[m3pilot]

On a new car i would expect any decent bodyshop to blend the colour though the door as two slightly miss matched coloured pannels next to each other looks terrible. I expect they would reduce the price if you said not to paint the doo but you'd have to accept the possability of a slightly off paint colour.

[JeffC]

£600 is insane to paint and blend a scratch Ive been a paintsprayer for 20 years and only wish I could get paid as well !

a smart repair would set you back less than £100 , depending where the damage is it can prob be contained within the wing without blending away, pick your painter by recomendation and if the guys any good you wont be able to tell no matter how you look at it .

[Anatol]

JeffC said:

£600 is insane to paint and blend a scratch

What he said.

Going to the main dealer offers you no automatic benefit in terms of finish match or quality. Most people not in the trade assume that their dealership will 'use the original BMW factory paint' or in some other way ensure a closer match to the original finish. Not so.

A well-recommended local independent bodyshop or SMART repairer (ahem) will likely be significantly cheaper. Depending on the extent of the denting and original colour, to refinish a front wing/arch and blend into the door if necessary, we'd be charging in the region of £250+vat, so double that seems very excessive!

Can you post photos of the damage?

HTH

Tol

[Ginger2003]

Pics here

http://www.axwl14.dsl.pipex.com/damage/damage1.jpg
http://www.axwl14.dsl.pipex.com/damage/damage2.jpg
http://www.axwl14.dsl.pipex.com/damage/damage3.jpg

Sorry, I don't know how to insert the picture into the message itself.

Maybe someone can enlighten me?

[Anatol]

If that were much lighter the paint damage would almost polish out - but it's too deep, sadly.

A decent dent tech will be able to sort the denting for you without any difficulty given how easy access is. A localised paint repair is then straightforward, blending paint into adjoining panels should be unnecessary.

We'd quote £200+vat to collect the car from a Cambridge-or-nearby address, complete the repair and return the car same-day.

£600 for that is just silly money, even for main stealer!

Tol

[Ginger2003]

Top chap, Anatol. Thanks for the email.

[wiggy001]

I needed a similar amount of work on my E36 - local bodyshop did it (blending in through the door and wing) for £180.

[Pickled Piper]

In my experience taking your car to a BMW dealer for repair doesn't guarantee you anything other than you will pay absolute "top dollar" for the job.

The dealers invariably subcontract the job to a local bodyshop and then add their charge on top. I've had good and bad jobs done through a dealer. I'm in the process of having a bad job rectified and the attitude from the dealer is very much "looks OK to me Sir".

Personally, I would seek out a good local bodyshop based on recommendations and then cut out the middle man. This way your chances of getting a good job at a reasonable price are greatly improved.

pp

[Ginger2003]

Well thanks to Anatol, my car is looking like the incident never happened!

Price for the main scratch was as he quoted on this thread, plus another £35+VAT for a nasty/beginning to rust stone chip on the rear left wheel arch.

Total price £276 inc VAT! As compared with a quote of £600+£200 = £800 from BMW.

To be fair to BMW, they were quoting to completely remove and respray the offending panels. However this was completely unnecessary in this case, and they didn't offer an alternative method of repair. A bit like saying, "Oh look I've spilled some red wine - best be buying a new carpet then!"

If anyone in the Cambridge area has the need, I can give my highest recommendations to Anatol and his team!

Nice one.

Edited by Ginger2003 on Wednesday 15th August 19:38

[burwoodman]

Nice to see PH working at its best-Good result fellas.:thumbsup:

[eliot]

jj. said:

my local BMW garage doesn't have a paint shop and told me they send all their work to the local Wayside (Audi/VW dealer....?)- eh..?
jj

Yes that is true - and it took them three goes to get the paint the correct colour on mine. They are a shower of sh1te. They kept saying the colour was a good match in the booth, I said well its a crap match in broad daylight - do it again. It actually was returned 5 times in total - very bad experience.