dowe

i'm at the local grocery store and my baby gets backed into (2008 535i -- sapphire black). although it was very low speed (i was in the car at the time), the rear bumper has a major 10" dimple in it. the insurance company came by and said it'd cost $1100 for a new rear bumper, paint, removal & reinstallation.

now in addition to that, my front bumper has a curb scrape underneath on the lower right (ok, so its kinda hard to see -- i notice it!), and i'm thinking maybe i ought to look into getting both front and rear fixed...

so i head to the body/paint shop my local bmw dealer recommends, and we start talking options (everything includes removal and installation):
1) replace/paint rear, repair/repaint front: $1100 for rear, $700 for front (complete strip & repair to front)
2) replace/paint rear, replace/paint front: $1100 for rear, $1100 for front
3) i buy new front/rear bumpers + sideskirts and they paint: cost of parts, plus $1500.

i looked into the parts cost of number 3... i'm not sure whose i should get (e.g. bmw m-tech, 3rd party) -- the price differences are huge, and i'm not sure about fitment.

so... what do you think i should do? for whatever option you recommend, are the prices above too steep?

sorry for being a little long-winded, and thanks to anyone who replies!!!

-d

spinitch

So they're charging you $1500 to paint and install?

Complete mtech replica kit is around $850 so total would be around $2350 and you get $1100 from the insurance company. So a total of $1250 for a mtech kit painted and installed isn't bad and your car would look a lot nicer.

dowe

you think its too much for the paint/install?

turboawd

to buy a full oem m-tech kit costs around $12xx + shipping from garry at bmw of newport:
https://5series.net/forums/topic/180...sory-discount/

1500 to install is a little on the high side, but not totally out of whack. depends if its a quality shop.
for reference, i had a reputable body shop do just the paint for my kit, and it cost me 800.

spinitch

$1500 is indeed on the high side but if it's a legitimate european auto body shop they can probably justify charging you that. I don't think they will just paint it for you and let you install it because the other insurance company probably wants to make sure you leave the body shop with all the panels intact.

Persian_535i

I paid 1000 for install and paint, 1500 seems a bit high I'd try to talk them down to 1200

dowe

did you go to a tx chain persian? trying to figure out if i can find one here in fw...

btw, i always laugh when i see your idrive pic