I know this is a tale as old as time but I have a question about some damage to the rear of my 2020 X3M Comp.

My wife backed into the BMW with her car (don't get me started...) causing damage to the rear hatch and bumper cover. I took it my local shop (guy I've used for more than a decade), and his estimate was ~$3,500. All OEM, nothing after market.

I then took it to Sewell, and it was...over $12k!

My curiosity is sincerely piqued. I was thinking it would be 7-8 from Sewell, so I was surprised it was over 3x the price as my guy.

Are the dealerships THAT much more typically speaking? Sewell has a great rep and all but not that great.

So Sewell is awesome for so many reasons. I interned there and worked there for awhile after college. So much respect for the company and still have friends there 20 years later. Their body shop though is going to be significantly more expensive because they basically deconstruct the car parts that are affected and use as much factory stuff as possible and their paint detail is impeccable. But it'll cost you. My wife was hit in her Cadillac XT6, and we took it to a regular shop that quoted like $6,000. Sewell was over $20,000. Luckily it was the other persons insurance that was paying and they agreed to it because the car was relatively new and low miles, and they had good insurance. But if we HAD been paying out of pocket, I'd have gone with the regular collision shop. Just my $.02.

That helps and what i figured. Thanks

If you're in Houston, consider River Oaks Jeep collision. I had 2 major repairs to 2 different X3M comps with fantastic results. They were also extremely friendly as it relates to CarFax reporting.

PSA: Don't ever hold CarFax as the truth for anything.

i had my CTS-V repaired at sewell way back on someone else's insurance. i wanted what i felt was the best and didn't care how much it cost the other guy haha.

if you have a shop you already trust as well that does quality work then no reason not to go with it if you are OK to do so

Sewell ain't what it used to be. Though their sales department is still great.

I had a 6" gouge on hatchback from garage door opener. Took it to dealer recommended and major body shops. Three estimates, all 2500 +/-. Wife wanted to insure it was fixed "perfectly".
Over wife's objections, Took it to my guy... Told her if not fixed perfectly we would spend the "big bucks".
Fixed perfectly $500.

Brad_97 said:

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Hincemm - would you be willing to share the independent shop you've had great luck with? I feel our wives may be similar drivers and I'm always in need of a good recommendation.

The last time was two weeks after we had just gotten it fixed and she decided she just had to get around the trailer partially blocking our alley and creased the exact panels we just had fixed. Why....just why? And you thought you needed / could make that tight of fit work and it was worth it to try? Ahhhhh....

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Happy to. The name is G&M Collision in Arlington. Owner is Don Harris.

Don't judge a book by its cover...it's not the prettiest of facilities (i.e., Sewell ) but he does great work at fair prices. I regret to say I've taken way too many vehicles there (paid both out of pocket and using insurance).

Thanks. Will definitely check them out for the crease repair....though I'm waiting to see if we acquire more in the meantime so I can go for the bulk discount.

Complete Idiot said:

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Gee I wonder why auto insurance costs have been skyrocketing

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Isn't it Texas law that you can take it wherever you want?

You can, but insurance doesn't have to pay more than they think is reasonable. If one shop can return it to like kind and qualify for $2,500 and the dealership is going to charge $10,000 for it, insurance can tell you they'll cover the $2,500 and that's it. I was shocked we got my wife's car approved with Sewell's number.

Hincemm said:

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Martin Q. Blank said:

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Complete Idiot said:

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Gee I wonder why auto insurance costs have been skyrocketing

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Isn't it Texas law that you can take it wherever you want?

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I have a slightly different perspective (and maybe it's what the post was getting at).

in one case, you have an independent body shop who seems to give straightforward pricing based on reasonable labor/parts cost. with the other, you have a company who has possibly inflated costs (labor and parts, the latter being ironic since it's a BMW dealership) and is trying to squeeze as much as they can from insurance companies because they know they can fight those additional costs and get them paid at the price of someone's premium.

i'm not faulting sewell if that's the case; they are a business after all; make as much money as you can. but if they can charge over 3x an equally reputable business, then i think you can argue there's a broken system.

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Agree with this, and it's a tough subject. But quotes that are 2 - 5 times more than others, when the others are also reputable shops, you really have to question what motivates that and what benefit you get.

It's tough because someone is hit by another driver, at no fault to the person hit. Maybe a nice car, a new car, and there is a lot of anger when getting hit by someone else when you are driving something new, nice, and you are proud of. Of course one wants it fixed as good as it can be, and it might be reasonable to expect highest quote might mean it's the best, or a dealership might have the most success? And no matter how nice the fix is, you still have to deal with that accident record on a carfax report and some diminished value that results from that.

But, this is obviously a system that can be gamed by shops trying to make money off insurance companies. High quotes, shoddy work, pocket the difference. Good quality work, but still ridiculous high over the top quotes replacing any and all parts that they think they can get away with making a cut off every part purchased and the labor that results from installation.

But when you get a quote for $3K and another for $10K, and both have good reviews from past customers, it makes you wonder and also if everyone is pushing the $10K repairs whenever they can that will of course drive rates up for us all.

Not sure what regulation stops bad actors trying to game the system.

IF there is no damage to any of the sensors or camera in the rear, it should be okay for the local guy to fix it. It can be a pain to calibrate the sensors/camera/electronics properly...

I would get a quote from another BMW body shop because you never know what's actually involved when they take everything apart for the repair.