Finally got my cayman back after a repair from a deer strike last summer. Deer tried to jump over the car and caught the top end of the windshield and roof. Driver's side A-pillar and front of roof sustained some denting, in addition to a shattered windshield.

I'd appreciate some feedback on what's 'acceptable' coming back from the bodyshop. The impact area looks great to me, but there are now other spots on the car that were great before and now look worse for wear. Mainly:

• Underside of dash/door card scored
• Small ding on the roof rail by driver's window
• White reside in hard-to-clean spots + new small scratches around the car
• Rear bumper edge alignment out, plus new paint chips
• Window seal install is different (not sure if a problem)

Under the dash near the parking brake/corresponding area on the door card has been scored by something. Not sure how best to address, given difficulty of replacing these bits and you don't technically see these spots when in/outside the car.









Noticed a small ding on the roof ridge right above the driver's door. It's not obvious, but definitely annoys me knowing its there, especially given the location.





There's a fair amount of this white residue all around the car, some of which has seeped into spots that are difficult to clean.









Plus some new small scratches on various bits around the car:









Rear bumper alignment on the driver's side was pretty out, with some new chips around the edge.



The window seal install is different. Not sure if this is problematic, but that gasket seems to have been tucked up behind the trim before.









Major impact area before:





And after (matte PPF removed):

 

Never going to be perfect, especially when you are actively looking for it. But I'm not sure if be particularly happy with that unless insurance paid out more than just the repair...if I bought it like that at discount though, none of that would bother me.

 

Man, sorry to hear about your bad experience. That job is horrible, at least to my OCD standards, but to be brutally honest, at least where I live, that's pretty much what I'd expect. That's why I was bummed as hell when I also hit a deer on my week-long CO trip last fall with my car barely broken in. I barely cleared the big dude head on, which would have caused massive damage, and ruin my trip. But hit the freaking girlfriend behind him, on my side. At least she was much smaller, and lifted her neck, clearing the windshield and A-pillar. But she slammed on the side, right behind my window. It sounded horrible, so was expecting significant damage to roof, side, and possibly tail-lamp. To my absolute surprise, there was NO damage at all, even scrutinized under LED lighting. What a freaking relief!!! First time I ever hit one of those suckers, and hopefully the last. And super glad I wasn't on my bike, or it'd had been a very different story. Anyway, she hit the hardest on the rear fender, which is the beefiest part of the car, apparently. The irony is that I hardly ever drive at night, especially when traveling, and even less in deer country, precisely because it's a lot more dangerous, due to lack of visibility, and when they're active. And even with LEDs, my car doesn't have the best headlamps, which didn't help. By the way, that fall night I had no choice, because there were no rooms in Durango, so had to travel to Cortez. But will never again travel at night, no matter what.

Going back to your problem, that job is totally unacceptable to me, BUT, I'd NOT go back to that place, for obvious reasons. You should post where you live, and hopefully get recommendations of a better shop, and try to get reimbursed later. Best of luck, and keep us posted.

 

I feel your frustration. Due to a previous bad experience with a body shop working on my girlfriend's Nissan, I took several photos of one of my cars immediately before taking it to a body shop a couple years ago to have some rust repaired at the edge of the roof where the top of the windshield ends and to have a new windshield installed since the old one had to be removed to do the repair. When I went to pick up the car, there was sand all over the (previously pristine) interior of my car, the windshield trim was installed incorrectly, the paint blending on the roof looked like it was done by an amateur, and there was a very sticky blob of something on the dash. I pointed all this out - they vacuumed the car, reinstalled the trim, and attempted to clean the dash resulting in permanent damage in a highly visible area on what was previously a perfect dash. Despite having photo evidence that the dash was perfect before this shop touched my car, they tried to deny responsibility. I spoke with the windshield installer to whom that work was subcontracted, who adamantly insisted they didn't cause any damage. I suspect the car was parked outside under a tree with no windshield and tree sap fell on the dash. The body shop owner became very confrontational - I could've taken them to court, but the remedy - finding a perfect dash for a car that went out of production 22 years ago and then having the dash swapped - wasn't going to be worth my time, was unlikely to be feasible, and likely would've ended with a bad result in the unlikely event a suitable replacement dash was found.
I would ask the shop to pay for professional detailing to try to get rid of the white substance, reinstall that mirror sail trim since it looks wrong and will likely create wind noise, touch up/fix the rear bumper, and pay for a new door card and dash underside piece if it's available separately. They will likely fight you on all of it - in my case, even with my photo evidence, the shop did not want to accept responsibility. Good luck.

 

I think it's likely that any shop which caused this damage as well as the indicated poor level of work will deny responsibility. They did this, then presented the car to you as finished work- on a Porsche. Maybe they will care enough about the on-line rating they'll likely get from you to fix the things they can. Best of luck!

 

Honestly, unless there is some kind of major emotional attachment to this car, I would try to negotiate a diminished value claim and then dump it at carmax, carvana, etc.

 

Was this repair done through insurance, or were you paying for the repair out of pocket?

If through insurance, I would go back to them with the pictures of the damaged caused by the body shop and seek their advice. I know most insurance companies guarantee their work, I'm not sure if that means they would cover additional damage caused to the car during it's repair. Something to ask I guess.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. Will start negotiating with the shop to get the car cleaned up, bumper touched up/improve the alignment, window seals redone, dash addressed (repair/replace), and maybe PDR out that ding in the roof. I'd certainly mind the stuff a lot less if buying used and getting a discount, but I wanted a very clean example and found one (bought at 2.7k miles). Paid extra for that, kinda feels pointless now.

Repair was done through insurance, total cost a little over $8k. Since the car wasn't worked on at an 'insurance-preferred' shop, they won't offer any assistance. Everything is just between me and the shop.

Diminished value claim for the additional stuff that the body shop caused? Didn't think about that before. Had written off selling due to the Carfax ding from the repair (plus I do like the car), but I'll keep that option in mind.

 

Even if your car was fully restored to its previous condition, it is now worth significantly less because it has accident history. I did a quick google search, and due to the nature of your accident, unfortunately it looks like you cannot do this, so please disregard.

 

Was there a reason you didn't use an "insurance company approved" shop? We had our Subaru in a large chain body shop (Caliber Collision) that AAA uses. They did a great job on the car, but didn't meet a deadline. We had waited a month to give them the car and had agreed to a reasonable date for completion. I won't go into details. So, I threatened to contact AAA if they didn't meet the new deadline. One hour later the #1 person in the shop called me back to make amends and ensure confidence in the job. Everything was kosher from then on.

FYI we have used Caliber Collision and will continue to do so in the future. They have done great work. This was just one of those incidents.

Point of story: You have some weight when using the Insurance company's preferred shop. They don't want to lose future business.

 

I would've had that PDR'd and just paid out of pocket for a windshield. Sorry you got done wrong. Bad bodyshops are everywhere. Good ones are VERY rare.

 

Insurance approved shops were not Porsche certified. The car is still under warranty, then has another 2 years CPO after that, so I didn't want to risk messing with that. The shops local owners recommended were also not on the insurance preferred list.

Went over the car while washing and found 30+ black/white flecks and divots in the resprayed areas. Plus hard white residue at the edges of the resprayed area, white residue in the gaps between parts, and likely overspray on the passenger side mirror housing and window trim. I had hoped that the paintwork would at least be exceptional, but the entire result looks like it's sloppy.


White and black spot under clear coat

White spot

Black spot

Overspray on mirror housing

Hard white residue on panel edge

White residue between taillights and bumper

 

And this mob was Porsche certified? This is an absolute hack job. If the shop doesn't want to take any responsibility, I'd have my lawyer send a letter of demand. It might be enough to have them come to the party with some form of rectification or compensation. If they still don't want to come to the party, well you can take them to court, or cop it on the chin and move on.

 

All of these deficiencies can be repaired, go back to the shop and give them the opportunity to make it right with the understanding if they don't get it corrected you will take it to another shop for corrective repairs and will pursue them for the bill. Once you have given them the opportunity to make it right you will have reason and recourse to go after them for the bill.

 

All things considered, this may be the best possible outcome I've seen from a deer strike...

Trenton O. Gibson
tgibson@highline-autos.com
Highline Autos
Direct: 602.909.9216
Office: 480.348.0777