Well, it seems I'm being ripped off and it's too late to stop at this point

[darby2018]

Greetings.

I was in a collision and the other person was held 100% at fault so their insurance is paying for my car damages.

Because it's a 2004 model (5 series), I was afraid the car would be declared totaled so I purposely went to a shop where they give very affordable prices.

Turns out the car wasn't close to being totaled, and I think the guy has completely cut corners on this job.

I had both the front and rear bumpers replaced. Yesterday, they were lying on the ground of the shop and the rear bumper was an old used one with scratches. The front one was a new bumper that the insurance company approved.
Today, the guy told me that my car would be ready tomorrow!

What kind of paint job on a BMW can be done in one day?? I thought it took a couple weeks to get the paint done right, the different coats, curing, buffing, sanding...whatever.

I had gone to this shop before and thought they did excellent work. They spent a lot of time and did extra work for free on a different car that I had, they went above and beyond the call of duty I thought so I trusted them.

I guess my question is, what can I do? Since it's a 2004 car, it's really not worth that much money anyhow. It has been very well-kept and looks brand-new and still has features that many cars don't have today. As long as it's safe I think
I'm just going to have to live with this.

There also is not a lifetime warranty, so I now expect the paint to start peeling off, etc. Honestly being in this accident stressed me out and I had to figure a lot of other things out so I didn't get the right information in time. I also was
biased because as I said, they what I thought was excellent work in the past. If they used cheap paint, there isn't much
I'll be able to do at this point but is there anything I should insist on if I go to the shop tomorrow and the car looks excellent yet I know it was done in one day?

Thanks!

[TostitoBandito]

Totally depends on how much paint work they need to do. It certainly won't be weeks. If that were the case it'd be dozens of hours of labor alone and a $5-10K+ bill.

I know for the two times my new Mazda has been rear ended in the last year, in both cases the repair only took a few days from when I dropped off the car. The painting portion took 1-2 days max. The amount of labor couldn't have been more than a couple hours since I think in both cases the total repair was under $1200 or so (billed to their insurance). That includes parts like an entirely new rear bumper/body assembly, in addition to labor and paint costs.

[MIKYZZ4]

If no lifetime warranty, another shop for me!

[XnWarden]

You took it to a cheap shop, you get a cheap job man. To be honest a shop could prep and paint your bumper in a few hours. It only takes so long to turn around because they have loads of other cars to work on too.