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A few weeks ago I was driving behind an armored truck who suddenly hit his brake in the middle of a block and unfortunately I didn't have enough time to react - i swerved to try to go around but ended up hitting my passenger side front end with his reinforced bumper.
Not a scratch on the truck and he left the scene - no idea why he stopped short but so it goes...I was probably only going about 15mph when I swerved and hit the rear of the truck. I pulled over and my GS had a damaged front bumper, passenger side fender misalignment, headlight corner chipped, wheel scratches and wheel well damage. Adrenaline was pumping after the accident, but thankfully no injuries to my better half or myself.
All parking sensors, headlights, fog lights, etc. were working without issue after the accident. I thought long and hard about replacing with the F-Sport bumper and getting a pair of pre-refresh OEM triple LED headlights, but the costs were just too high. I ended up getting a new OEM bumper ($483) and new OEM non-AFS headlamps ($2560 for the pair on mylparts.com with CL5 discount code).
Pics right after the accident:
After the body shop worked their magic ($1700 paint/labor/repair costs):
Its been a LONG time since I was in any sort of accident - i'm grateful no one was hurt and the GS held up its end of the bargain. The shop gave me an option to get an aftermarket bumper for $250 and I could've bought aftermarket headlights for $600/ea but decided to just go OEM. I know the body shop owner and he was able to turn the repairs around in less than 3days.
Everyone, be safe out there and stay far far away from armored trucks !!
Sorry to hear that this happened to you but I'm glad that you and your passenger were not injured and that your beautiful GS has been brought back to glory.
Glad no one was hurt and the damage was minor enough that another GS wasn't lost!
Repair looks great! I'm always a fan of OEM in most cases especially with headlights. I see so many bad non-OEM headlights (and bulbs) on the road that don't project the light properly on the road. Doing the pair was smart too (albeit expensive!) - whenever I've seen someone just do one headlight or one tail light you can tell which is old and which is new pretty easily.
Sorry to hear that this happened to you but I'm glad that you and your passenger were not injured and that your beautiful GS has been brought back to glory.
Thank you! It's refreshing to see the front end look brand new again.
Originally Posted by LexusGSboy
Glad no one was hurt and the damage was minor enough that another GS wasn't lost!
Repair looks great! I'm always a fan of OEM in most cases especially with headlights. I see so many bad non-OEM headlights (and bulbs) on the road that don't project the light properly on the road. Doing the pair was smart too (albeit expensive!) - whenever I've seen someone just do one headlight or one tail light you can tell which is old and which is new pretty easily.
Agreed - I knew one headlight would look dated compared to the other which is why i decided to get both. I actually still have the old ones - was planning to sell the undamaged one on eBay but its so weathered. I tried the Maguires 2-step headlight restoration kit but its still pretty cloudy. I may just take the old lights to the junkyard eventually.
Originally Posted by PGA71
Glad you guys are safe and the car is back to beautiful!
On the bright side any road chips on that bumper are gone. Maybe some XPEL PPF on the Head Lights and bumper to keep it like new.
Initially, i bought a DIY eBay 3M pre-cut headlight PPF kit but for some reason, either it was the angle or the cut or maybe my lack of experience (or combination of all three) I couldn't get the driver side headlight PPF to stretch and stick perfectly. I ended up removing it - $48 down the drain but was a good learning experience.
I ended up doing Xpel PPF on the headlights and front bumper from a local shop. I debated on the PPF because its kinda pricey. The local guy who does all the Teslas (he has a contract with Tesla of Brooklyn, NY), charged $600 for the bumper and $150 for the headlights saying they hand cut the film to the bumper/lights. Kinda steep but I splurged and it came out great.
Three day turnaround on repairs and the shop I went to for a fender replacement from a parking lot accident quoted me 4-6 weeks. Sheesh should have found another shop.
Three day turnaround on repairs and the shop I went to for a fender replacement from a parking lot accident quoted me 4-6 weeks. Sheesh should have found another shop.
As long as you're happy with the work but I can say the first shop I went also run by a few family friends were backed up for about 10days. I would've been without my car for too long going with them.
The shop where I got it done: i hadn't been to him in over 12yrs for repairs but he has an enormous physical location with a lot of resources and workers. My bumper and headlights were delivered by Lexus quickly and he wasn't busy hence the quick turnaround.
Be thankful the damage didn't get into the bumper bar area or the insurance company would have deemed it a total loss. Body shops won't fix those anymore.
Be thankful the damage didn't get into the bumper bar area or the insurance company would have deemed it a total loss. Body shops won't fix those anymore.
I did instinctively try to swerve left to avoid a direct collision with my GS's bumper and the truck's bumper. Certainly very grateful it wasn't worse!
I was quoted around $5000 to fix this fender scrape, and around a month of shop time. To be clear, this is a shop that specializes in high end brands, and is apparently committed to some kind of completely perfect repair. Insurance seems to be playing along, so . . .
@sbowden99 hate to see that happen...but that quote seems excessively high - unless they are telling you they need to replace/repair a lot more than just the fender. A new OEM fender for the GS is somewhere between $300 - $450 depending on the dealership.
Is there any kind of suspension damage/wheel out of round/wheel well/retainer issues/etc. that we can't see with the naked eye which might be causing the price to be so high?
I agree: the cost seems quite high. I think the insurance company brought them down a bit. As you note, parts are cheap, but they're proposing around 75 hours of labor to complete the job, including paint blending with the rear door.
I agree: the cost seems quite high. I think the insurance company brought them down a bit. As you note, parts are cheap, but they're proposing around 75 hours of labor to complete the job, including paint blending with the rear door.
If you are in DC you have a few Lexus Dealers close to you. I would get a opinion from the Body shop the Lexus Dealers use. The High end shop may be wanting to cut out a whole new rear section and reweld back in. Not a repair I would want to have done for a wheel well repair that can be worked out and repaired without cutting out the whole section. Likely if they do the cut and weld a whole new rear section that's also going to show up major on a Carfax. Those Specialty shops also want like $275 - $400 per labor hours instead of the average $75 rate.
Something stinks to me because for $5k, seems like there is $3k in labor somewhere, nor should there be $2k in parts. Have a couple of Lexus Dealer body shops estimate it for you.
Is that the front wheel well or back? I can't tell?
I'm not sure what the standard operating procedure for armored trucks in NY is. Not opening their doors is one thing due to robbery attempts, but leaving the scene of an accident seems out-of-the-norm. Did you file a police report? It's not hard with a 100 cops on each block and tons of cameras everywhere. I'm assuming you had a dash cam and at 15mph, you should have a very clean shot of the license plate.
10-31-23, 10:51 AM
Accident & Repair
