The side of my 2009 Forester was hit by a dear on the side damaging the front fender and both side doors. I was told by a friend Hewitt's are "crooks" after an owner change but may as well just ask for an estimate. I called them and had a couple of questions, "what's your hourly rate?" I was put on hold for them to find out "can I bring my own parts?" I was put on hold again. I came in and received a very lukewarm greeting from the receptionist I believe it was Tyler that came out to take a look at my car, I told him what happened and he explained to me that there weren't deer in the area that I got hit by one as we were going to look at my car. The whole atmosphere has me weirded out at this point. After taking a look he asks if I was going to make a claim to insurance, I told him I would not.
My car is 2 forester generations old at this point so I find this next part weird, I asked him for a rough estimate and he says $3-4k. My car is worth about $8k. He told me that he would also give me an estimate to just make it road legal (I was missing a mirror and the door barely opened). He also told me that he would not be able to make it the correct color to match my car for $3-4k, its unclear from the final estimate if that changed. So the next day I made 3 phone calls, on the third I found the 3 parts I needed for $400 including them taking them off the car for me which was a good deal for their condition, when I got there they loaded the parts for me. Looking online the 3 parts together worst case scenario and without negotiation are maybe $550 although places I called had prices about it line with $400 I'm not an expert but maybe just calling is how you get deals vs online pricing. Looking at my final estimate their parts without painting them which was much more came to $1,225.93. the cost to make it drivable which only included a mirror and "temp repair on fender to make drivable" was $227.24 about $30 more than the cost of a used door including a mirror. The parts I found were the correct color, I cannot tell the difference in normal lighting. Me and a friend did the repair in about 7 hours total having no prior experience.
Doing some research online many places round up to 1 hr on work for hanging a car door, lets say the fender would take 2 hours to be safe, they also have to take the broken doors and fender off and replace the door lock. Lets give them 4 hours for that. So 8 hours would be a nice amount of time for them to charge given my research and experience doing it. I'm not saying that places charge for the exact amount of time they work, nor am I saying everyone has the time to work on their car. More important to my situation, I'm not saying a used car door is ideal or that mine are in perfect condition, there are no dents on them accept one lower on the fender by the wheel arch, its plenty noticeable to someone looking for flaws but not really otherwise. I'm 19 and told him I would be paying out of pocket, so maybe he was going to do a really good job for $3,303.78 (and 1 month from then according to his estimate) and make it look showroom quality (I would like to return to the fact he told me it would be the wrong color in person, I don't know to this day if the final quote was making it the wrong color.) But I'm 19 and paying out of pocket. according to my research he could've found a new front door with a mirror in the right color for $200, lets give them $200 in labor to put that on (4 hours to remove the old door, put the lock in the new one, put the door on.) for $400 he could give me a perfectly drivable car that doesn't include paying $227 to just make my car legal but still make me have the 3 parts ill want to replace eventually. or paying $3,303.78. So back to hours wise, lets give them 10 to do it., 2 more than I estimated being lenient. Using the hourly rate from my quote that's $480, the hourly rate given on the phone its $350. So $400+480= $880. I didn't take my car anywhere else for a quote admittedly but for those playing along at home that is $2,400 less than $3,303.78. Paint labor and supplies added up to $900 and the last I was told that was just him painting it the wrong color (or maybe using parts he knew he already had and not actually painting at all). My final quote included such items like taking off my bumper that comes off with the grille attached.... Then removing the grille from that. Removing both my tail lights. Removing my rear quarter window. I feel like I was taken advantage of because I am 19 years old not only that they weren't even friendly while they were doing so. If I hadn't told them I was paying in cash with that clearly being stated on the quote I'd assume its just some light insurance fraud.
16 days ago I asked Tyler A. for an estimate if I brought in my parts and if he didn't do any paint work, I don't have an email back. read more