david7878

Our 2 weeks old brand new GLC300 was backed into concrete wall in the parking lot.

The parking lot is designed that there is a hollow space at the bottom of the concrete wall which you should park only with forward drive instead of reverse, and it happened when only paying attention to the 360 and backup camera instead of the actual mirrors.

It happened fast that it created big dent on the tail gate and of course the Mercedes emblem was smashed into 2 pieces...

I went to several body shops and came back with 3 kinds of quote and I can't decide which option is the best for us. I am hoping if anyone could give us your opinion.

The price from each shops are all about the same:

Option 1: Replacement of the rear hatch shell, lifetime warranty USD $2500~$2800

Option 2: Repair on the dent and new paint, lifetime warranty, USD $1400

Option 3: Repair on the dent and new paint, NO warranty, USD $600

Option 4: Leave it dent and try to stick a new emblem onto it. USD $30

Here are the pictures:











added comment:

Some of the quote that we've got was from Mercedes "recommended" repair shops.
As far for the insurance, we have the "first time accident forgiveness" credit on our insurance policy and we are thinking to save it for the future in case of a bigger accident.
Otherwise, we would definitely go for 3000 replacement.

dieseldoc

Take it to a Mercedes certified body shop. Get it repaired correctly. I would insist on a warranty post repair. Have you contacted your insurance carrier?

mikbar2

A good body man could do option #2 with minimum filler. It ain't that bad. They could work most of it out from the inside. I'd go with 2.

david7878

Hi Dieseldoc, some of the quotes that we've got was from Mercedes "recommended" repair shops.
As far for the insurance, we have the "first time accident forgiveness" credit on our insurance policy and we are thinking to save it for the future in case of a bigger accident.
Otherwise, we would definitely go for 3000 replacement.

Thanks : )

dieseldoc

Repair or replace with Warranty is the best option. Would use Mercedes certified shop.

david7878

mikbar2,

For option 2, One of the shop explained to me that they will make whole bunch of holes and try to pull the sheet metal out and apply fillings, I was afraid that it may look bad down the road.

For Option 3, they explained to me that they will need to do over filling with fiberglass material, does it make sense at all? It seems to me that it will fall one day.

wmc021

Man you wheels are two weeks old repair the thing correctly option 1

Sigp232

+1

fabbrisd1

1st - if you have a loan on your rig - frankly any insurance claim will report to CarFax - and you will have lower trade-in-sale value down the road
If you pay out-of-pocket - with no insurance claim - whoever does do the repair - have CLEAR understanding No Report to CarFax !

2nd - if you are on lease - then make sure the repair will be legitimate - and frankly #3 and #4 frankly seem to be bullsh*t

3rd - a Mercedes Certified Collision Center quote is the place to mark the high end - use this link to locate closest in TX:

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/deale...R&stateCode=TX

If it was me - then with the other #2 sounds legitmate if you DON'T have metallic Designo Diamond White - which would be higher

glassbloke

Option 2 is pretty much how sheet metal has been repaired for years. Use holes and a puller to get the metal approximately right and then use Bondo (or whatever they use nowadays) as filler and then file and sand until the correct shape. I will assume painting is the entire hatch which it should be. Done right, you would never know it was repaired unless you ran a magnet across it (old way of looking for prior body damage). The warranty should cover anything that might happen to it.