Damage estimate

My truck got rear ended yesterday sitting at a stoplight and I’m wondering if someone can give me an idea of what the repair bill may look like. I’m working with the insurance company, but it’ll be a few days until the collision centers can get me in and I’m trying to plan ahead where I can.

2015 tundra crewmax. The rear bumper will for sure need to be replaced, the tailgate is also pretty dented, and the rear quarter panel on one side is crushed/deformed just a bit with some visible surface cracks. Of course this is just the visible damage and something could be worse underneath, but I won’t know that until I get in the shop.

Any thoughts/best guess on the repair costs are appreciated.

Thanks.

 

About tree fiddy.

 

Without seeing any images hard to say. I turfed up the passenger bed panel on my old DC and that was a $2500 job. They just replace the panel depending on the extent.

Some pics would be helpful. Like this one:

 

Few pictures here. Difficult to see the damage on the quarter panel in them.

 

Pick a number that seems reasonable. Then triple it. This will probably fall short of the estimate. Labor is ridiculously high these days.

 

Not terrible! To help prevent this, one can and should consider adding more lighting. For example, a license plate brake light bar. It's all about being noticed, hence school bus color.

 

That’s kind of what I’m trying to plan for. It’s a 10 year old truck so I’m hoping they’ll repair, but with the labor costs now I’m afraid it could get close to that total threshold.

 

You can always buy it back from the insurance company if totaled. Usually a really good deal for a decent vehicle that you know and like.

 

I'd guess $2500-6000 depending on what they decide to repair vs what gets replaced.

 

Cheapest route would be to source a donor bed in the same color with tailgate and replace the bumper. Could be done under $2-3k that way.

 

Perfect time for an aftermarket bumper

 

This was $5800 worth of damage per the body shop and was enough to total the vehicle. I kept it and the check. Didn’t even fix it. Just some lower door and beside dents. They would seriously have totaled it over this. Deer hit me from the side.

 

This is a great idea if you don't mind turning wrenches, OP.

 

This

 

Agree with this, but in this case the driver just wasn’t paying attention. Rush hour and was distracted...I looked back in my mirror and could see the panic on her face when she realized that everyone in front was stopped.

 

May have to consider this. I did all these upgrades on my old 4runner. Just have to decide if I have the time to get around to it these days. I’ll take a look at what options are out there now.

 

I think it looks lot worse than it actually is.

New half of bumper (it is cheap), plastic cover.
Tailgate - PDR and repaint.
Quarter panel - pull, patch and repaint.

New/replacement bed and tailgate is certainly an option.

 

The money is in the body work and paint labor. If you can avoid that, you can save $$$

 

This. And like with everything (but I think good quality auto body work is sadly getting harder to come by these days in our throw away world):
1. Excellent quality
2. Quick time frame
3. Inexpensive

Pick 2

 

You might be right. The bumper is definitely a full replacement. Little hard to tell in the pictures but the whole thing is pushed in and off center.

 

If you do in fact keep the truck and get an aftermarket bumper, I would suggest looking at options that would allow you to incorporate more lighting features. I have seen too many of these trucks nicely modified, yet totally destroyed by rear end collisions. Really don't want to fall in that category, so I even went a step further with lighting on a headache rack and rear red fog lights as well. On top of that, I fabbed a hitch step with a crumple zone that uses a plastic mounting pin which will shear and at that point the tube will impact the low pressure spare tire to help absorb shock. Finally, I finished it off with about 28" of reflective DOT tape on the face of the step.

 

The stock bumper and mounting hardware is super-flimsy. An offroad bumper would only get a few paint scratches.

 

I would be really shocked if they totaled it. Despite being 10 years old, Tundras hold their value very well (anyone shopping in the used Tundra market can attest)

 

If that’s totaled lemme know. I’ll buy it and run it as is. Haha.
Id consider that to be pretty minor. Bumper, tailgate if you must. Drive it.