Tesla only sells parts to certified shops. Certification is tens of thousands of dollars, mostly to get the equipment to repair the aluminum structure. The biggest thing about electric cars is understanding how to do repairs without A) Killing yourself, and B) Damaging the car and its battery.

Fun tidbit; a coworker of mine bought an old VW bus a little over a year ago and has been documenting the refurb and travels on instagram. I haven’t noticed any “sponsors” or ads on the site yet, but his wife is a higher up at an ad agency that indulges him in his project cars while he’s just a lowly insurance…

I wasted a lot of time, drank a lot of booze, and got some unimpressive grades while in college anytime it was NHL playoffs. Being 15 minutes outside D.C. and a huge Caps fan, 09-12 just had me a mess right before finals.

The seats look great with the exception that they should be quilted and not whatever late 70s/early 80s stitching they have going on. I can’t wait for them to start being worn out and broken in 10 years when 2nd and 3rd hand owners start trying to get them covered on their insurance claims...

I’d love to see NASCAR expand the drivetrain rules to make it closer to “stock” in terms of the different brands and where they seem to focus. Chevy would stick to a big V-8, Ford would bring a TT-V6, and Toyota some kind of hybrid V6.

Biohazard means blood or bodily fluids. I go to Copart or IAA at least twice a week for insurance claims, usually they put red crashwrap over the car and a yellow sticker on the windshield to warn everyone. It could be as simple as a few drops of blood on an airbag to pieces of flesh; I’ve seen quite a few chunks of…

I bought a Cobalt back in 2008 because I needed better gas mileage and could only get in a Chevy without a cosigner as an 18 with no credit history. My dealer held a clinic showing you how to do routine maintenance yourself, including a handy sheet on how to reset oil life monitor and reset tire position for the TPMS.

I got flown out to Dallas to do insurance claims for the storms they’ve had over the past 2 weeks. I can’t keep track of how many 2015+ full size trucks I’ve written estimates for. These are trucks that sticker for $60,000+ and serve as regular passenger vehicles instead of work trucks. I get that land is cheap out…

This makes me glad we didn’t wait for the Si and just jumped into a 17 Hatchback. Of course Honda fanboys will pay for it, but I can’t see paying $4k more to 25 more HP and mechanical mods that aftermarket can probably do better.

Cash for Clunkers pretty much ruined my chances of getting a cheap work truck. We put our 07 Camry with 232k miles on Craigslist for $5k and got tons of hits, yet if I want an 01-04 Tundra with 200k ish miles they’re still near $10k in our area. Silverados and F150s also run well over $10k for early 2000s models if…

Silver last gen Chevy Impala. Particularly an SS model, because every rental company and government agency used it so they’re ubiquitous. No one will suspect you and no one in business will scoff because you can play it off as a rental.

I can’t wait to see the markup on these things. A dealer I looked at when getting a 17 Hatchback put a $2500 markup on every hatch but the LX models, they stated the demand was so high for them. Sport models with a stick were marked up $3000, it was a little bit of a cash grab...

Real talk, I’m buying a house soon (inspection is Monday and as long as that doesn’t reveal problems the deal is done...) and need a cheap mode of transporting goods the 4 miles from Lowes to said house since it’s a 76 year old fixer upper. As much as I’d love a full size GM pickup from the early 2000s, my budget in…

I’m on CCCOne. When Tesla first came out VIN wouldn’t decode so we had to use generic sedan database and copy the shops estimate. Payment wasn’t issued until part order quotes were faxed to the shop, so we could verify the shop wasn’t marking them up too much.

Aluminum repair or body panels isn’t a big deal anymore, its structural repair that’s something to be concerned with. I’m actually in my 3rd class for aluminum vehicle damage analysis, pretty interesting stuff. The biggest issue Tesla faces is making enough crash parts available, since it seems like they don’t stock…

Same boat, I felt paying $21k for a new Civic was a stretch. Even if the lady and I made $100k+ I’d have a hard time buying a car with $40k MSRP.

Ran into that with a customer last June. Bought a 2017 Hyundai Elantra, hit a curb and needed the rear axle beam. Guess what, the car that had only been on sale for 2 months didn’t have parts available. It was a Korean built model too, so the dealer couldn’t see a US built one even if they were available/same part due…

Tesla only offers service instructions and sells parts to certified body shops. The only Tesla shop in the eastern half of my state used to be in my territory; I couldn’t stand to go in there and deal with them because at the time Tesla didn’t provide their data to our estimating software so I had to take the shops…

I find the decision a little confusing, because there are plenty of Tacomas running around that cost well north of $45k... Unless they plan on trying to sell this for loaded full size truck money, why not ship some here and see how they sell. I’m seeing a lot more Colorados and Canyons on the road over the past 6…

Core support is composite, looks the same as regular Focus. It’s a fairly easy/cheap part to replace. This car was totaled so the insurance company could avoid the headaches associated with owners of cars like the RS, STI, etc... Unless the rails have a kink somewhere, this car can easily be repaired, probably under…