As I blogged about earlier, a few weeks ago I ended up driving the RAV4 through an unexpected flock of low-flying geese. I ended up taking out two of them, and they ended up taking out the RAV’s grill and the left headlight. The bodyshop guy guessed it would cost at least $1000 to fix.
Well, we just got the RAV back from the body shop, and it turned out to cost a lot more than that. In addition to replacing the headlight and most of the grill, the body shop also straightened and repainted the hood and the right fender, and replaced the radio antenna.
The real damage, however, came because the goose that struck the grill ended up breaking through to strike the air conditioning condenser, bending it in the process. That, in turn, bent the radiator and one of the mounting brackets. As the body shop guy explained to me, even though both of those parts could probably have been fixed, neither he nor the insurance company ever wants to hear about this incident again, so they decided to give me a brand new radiator and condenser.
Total cost of parts and labor for repairing a Toyota RAV4 after driving at 30 mph into a flock of geese: Just over $3000.
Frickin’ geese.
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