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Why I got my Safari fixed at a local body shop & not the service centre

26th March 2024, 11:36 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I met with an accident. A Honda H'ness CB350 rider collided with my 2023 Tata Safari facelift head-on.

BHPian Thinking_Slow recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Reporting an unfortunate minor accident with my new Safari. First and foremost, there are no injuries to anyone involved.

The car's front bumper took the hit when a Honda Hness CB350 bike collided head-on at about 25KMPH. My car was standing still.

Damages:

The left rivet of the HSRP number plate broke
Some clamp clips on the lower part of the bumper joint came out. Not sure if they broke or just opened. I could not push them back inside myself.
The radar plate hung loose. With a little push, it snapped back into place. This is when I realized that the plate is just a façade to conceal the sensor behind it. Tested Adaptive cruise control right after the accident and it worked fine.
The little plastic door, in the center of the chrome colored lower bumper, that conceals the tow hook (at least that is what I think it is) opened. It snaps back but not as neatly as I would like (maybe because it got a little bent due to the impact)

Thankfully, there is no metal damage/dent anywhere.

Due to the previous bad experience with this specific Tata service centre, I was reluctant to go there but went anyway as they were closest from the accident spot. The body shop advisor took the car in and mentioned they would try to fix it and if not fixable, would recommend replacing the bumper. He mentioned that only after completely removing the bumper, they can tell whether it is fixable or not. I mentioned that I was OK with whatever his recommendation was but asked him to send the car's front picture AFTER removing the bumper.

He never sent any pictures. I went back in the evening to check the progress and to my surprise, I was told that the bumper was not removed and just from outside inspection they can tell that it needs to be replaced. The part to be replaced will be the entire front bumper assembly (shown in red outline below). Since it has a substantial metal part, it will need painting. Estimate is 25K (covered under insurance). It was heartbreaking to hear it about my 2-month-old car but it is what it is.

Part to be replaced (as recommended by ASS)

I decided to only get the number plate fixed and took the car back. I am currently evaluating the following options:

Try to get it fixed in a local body repair shop. Advantage is that I do not have to replace the bumper and risk color mismatch with the rest of the body
But if not fixable, ask another ASS to order the part and get it replaced

Update

Visited Trend Automobiles today. Found about them from this thread.

It is a pretty decently equipped body shop in a locality called Garebhavipalya on Hosur Road in South Bangalore. Luckily it is only 15 minutes away from my place. The damages are shown in my previous post. They were able to fix it within 20 minutes!

I monitored the entire process and it looked super simple. They removed some screws under the chrome bumper (shown in the image below) and it came off easily. They used a heat gun to straighten the bumper and then nicely pushed it back. That area now looks as if nothing has happened!

This made me realize that the quality of that Tata service centre is really poor. They wanted to replace the whole front bumper for a minor damage. This also made me realize that Tata Safari is a well-built car and the bumper material is very high quality and repairable.

Trend automobiles earned a long-term customer today (hopefully I won't need them again though, LOL). I am going to have a great weekend!