Yikes! Replacing front clam shell, need home loan

[NoKarbs]

Unfortunately I hit some debris on the freeway (ok, I screwed up, it was dark out and the debris was black) which caused the lower right "bumper" to separate from the body. To my chagrin a body shop with extensive experience in Elise repairs here in Socal provided me with an estimate in excess of 12000! Apparently this can't be repaired and the entire clam shell needs to be repaired. This truly sucks. Even though my insurance company is being very cooperative and basically agrees with the body shop on the number, this is outrageous. Apparently these kinds of numbers are quite common for repairing seemingly minor damage. I bought the car mainly for the track (where it rocks) . Its relative fragility and ridiculously high cost of repairs are causing me to rethink this decision. I'm also guessing that insurance rates for all Elises will soon sky rocket (sorry). One would think that the factory could come up with a more reasonable, ie modular solution to what I believe is or will be a fairly common problem...I will be sharing my concerns with
Lotus...

[lateapex]

Shop it around, sounds like yet another body shop insurance rip-off.

Heck, you could buy a CF clam for less.

[MickOpalak]

According to LOA, the front clam is $2,100. Add paint and and labor to that and you got about $5,000.

[ready4-1]

'Tis truly outrageous that isolated body damage could cost 25% of the cars total value... this does not bode well... man, alot of little things make me nervous about MY delivery next month...hope it is all worth it.

[Randy Chase]

I would not conclude that replacing a clam is that expensive, as that one estimate would lead you to believe.

You can buy an entire front clam, unpainted for a little over $2000. It only takes a few hours to swap a clam. The only additional cost is paint and replacing any protective film you had on it.

[NoKarbs]

...apparently, replacing and painting the clam shell is a very labor intensive process. The itemized cost for the clam shell is 3500 (verified by the insurance company) The estimate is about 50/50 betweem labor and materials. Even at half the price (5-6k) I would say this a very pricey item...

[ChrisB]

There certainly isn't $6,000 in labor to replace a clam!

And I don't know where another $6,000 in parts come from. Your description sounds like the damage would only be to the clam and maybe one oil cooler grill piece. The front underbody tray might also be damaged...a simple piece of aluminum. I think some of these body shops have found a gold mine in the Elise.

The Europeans haven't been complaining of exorbitant repair charges so I wonder what there experience has been. Arno recently replaced a front clam, I wonder what that cost?

Arno?

[Randy Chase]

MSRP is not $3500 or close to it, unless you are including other parts?

[Arno]

Originally Posted by ChrisB

Arno recently replaced a front clam, I wonder what that cost?

Arno?

My repair after a low speed head-on collision with a motorbike was:

- front clam (totally knackered and cracked completely top to bottom)
- front crashbox (cracked when the bike landed on the nose)
- radiator (bent into a diamond shape, but incredibly it didn't leak!)
- all plastic surrounds and supports that live under the clam and around the radiator (cracked/fragmented the lot)
- new headlight (old one totally destroyed)
- new indicator (ditto.. just a few fragments left..)
- labor cost to remove and reinstall everyhing (including cuttting off the old crashbox, removing the old glue and bonding on a new one to the chassis)
- painting (lighting yellow, so a pearlescent paint)

Total cost was 9400 Euro's or roughly $12000 USD for the whole job.

Very costly items are headlights (think in the region of 1000+ per headlight) and crashbox and radiator parts.

Clam is not cheap, but at least you get a big item for that

Painting is usually one of the 'killers' in cost here.. (environmental regulations have made running a paint shop very very expensive and prices reflect that)

So yes.. Prices can get 'up there' pretty rapidly, but for only a clam+painting+removal/installation (without additional damaged parts) I'd guess around $4000 would be a more resonable estimate.

Bye, Arno.

[KMS Elise]

CF Clam anyone?

[Stan]

What did you hit, what speed, etc?

[scottyb]

Seriously, if you bought the Elise for the track, buy a CF clam and replace it yourself. It’s not that hard. Especially since you have the insurance company paying for it. Just my 2¢.

(Sorry had to put the 2¢ for Weggie)

[MotorCade]

Out of curiousity, which shop was it?

Cade

[NoKarbs]

...Motorcade, the shop is Advance Collision Technologies in Torrance. They were reccomended by my dealer, South Bay Lotus. When I visited the shop they had 3 or 4 Elises there in various states of disrepair. They do know the cars...which is important to me. The insurance company barely flinched at the number...

Randy (if you happen to read this), what is your source for clam shells?

CF seems attractive (its light) but at least with fiberglass you have a shot at repairing it. Also don't the cars need to shed more pounds in the rear?

[SilverArsenal]

[quote=NoKarbs]...Motorcade, the shop is Advance Collision Technologies in Torrance. They were reccomended by my dealer, South Bay Lotus. When I visited the shop they had 3 or 4 Elises there in various states of disrepair. They do know the cars...which is important to me. The insurance company barely flinched at the number...

I've had a front clam replaced there, before the whole cliff dive thing. The guys there do know what they are doing, they are even British. The final cost was a little under $10,000 and that was talked down from $12,000 by the insurance company. BTW, if you have Progressive insurance, Ross is really familiar with these cars by now, having seen at least mine and one other I know of. Most of the cost is in the labor, as they itemize the charges at $100 an hour (exotic rate). They charge for removing headlights, grills, basically all the pieces of the front of the car individually. That's where the labor cost comes from. I'm sure I could have looked around more, but I figured insurane was paying and I might as well get it done right. My next car gets scuff guards and anything else I can do to protect that fiberglass.

[raggedy1]

yes, the insurance companies are paying the high costs right now, but we (the owners) will all pay for "it" in the end with higher insurance rates.

i'm afraid to look at my next insurance statement!

[NoKarbs]

Originally Posted by raggedy1

yes, the insurance companies are paying the high costs right now, but we (the owners) will all pay for "it" in the end with higher insurance rates.

i'm afraid to look at my next insurance statement!

Raggedy, thats really the point...I think Lotus needs to address this...

SilverArsenal, are you a "football" fan? If so, you have some recent cause for celebration (even if it was a shoot out)

btw, what are scuff guards?

[NMRJock]

Originally Posted by SilverArsenal

I've had a front clam replaced there, before the whole cliff dive thing.

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but are you saying that you had already wrecked your Elise once and had a clam replaced before you totalled it? What happened the first time?

[Keeper]

I'm betting our insurance doesn't change at all. Maybe someone could explain why it would. Perhaps an example of another model where it happened. It just doesn't seem likely to me.

[NMRJock]

It would change because the rates are based on an anticipated number of accidents at some estimated average cost per incident. If they're getting wrecked more often than the insurance companies thought that they would (and it seems like they're getting wrecked a lot) and damages are more expensive than had been anticipated (and the cost for minor incidents seems staggering) then the rates will go up when the insurance companies have gathered more data.

I think this happened with the early first gen MR2s and has probably happened with other cars that I am not aware of.