So a Jaguar meets a Garage Door...
 

I need some advice, guys:

Many of you may remember that I finally made the commitment to buy an XF in June. For those of you unfamiliar with me, I purchased a 2009 XF Premium with 20,033 miles on it. I took delivery June 13, and have loved the car. Now up to just under 23,000 miles on it. It has done fairly well with no major issues ;keyed once and the sunshade motor has gone (I just haven't gotten around to getting either fixed yet).

And then today came. Backing out of my garage today, just like any other day. I have gotten in a bad habit of sometimes leaving my keys in my pocket since the car is push-button start. Never again. Apparently the Jaguar "smart key" hit the garage door button while I was backing out. When I was about half way, I heard this grinding noise on top of the car. At this point, panicing, I tried to back out faster (bad idea) and luckily the door started going up. There for a minute, I thought I was a 'goner'. Got out to inspect the damage. Lots of minor scratches, the worse is it shaved right across the top of the antenna and about an 8-inch dented in scratch above the passenger side door, going down to the paint.

I took it to two different garages, first my friend's body shop, then the local Toyota/BMW body shop.

My friend has a local one and they do a lot but he said this would be the second roof job he's had (apparently these are rare). Scratches no problem, but he noticed two spots behind the sunroof where it closes that are in the frame. He said that there were two options: 1) They try to weld them out. Since the roof is a flat surface, this could (and probably would) ruin the entire roof. $1,000 if the welding miraculously works, but $3,000 for a new roof (he's 90% sure it would be the latter). He said if they didn't do that...water would leak down under and rust the frame. I thought the frames were Aluminum (therefore can't rust) or is that only the XJ? I'd trust this guy with my life, but I had him repair a front fender two Camry's ago and I wasn't happy with how he left it (though he might not have even seen it leave the shop...its a big operation).

Then to the Toyota/BMW dealer body shop. They said the same thing about the scratches (roof needs repainted, blah blah blah). In regards to those two dents, they said that since the Jaguar's sunroof is flush mounted on the inside, there is no way that water can get down under because it angles down under in such a way that water can't get in. Plus, I've never used a sunroof in any car I've owned, so it's not like it would be open for exposure. Their total for the job: $825.

I also liked that Toyota/BMW would order the OEM Jaguar parts they'd need (though I don't think they need any just buffing and painting...) whereas my buddy's garage uses "Quality Aftermarket" parts.

What are your thoughts...should I get a third opinion, or just suck it up and take it to a dealer. There are 2 dealers in my area (Pittsburgh, where I will be for the next two weeks). Bobby Rahal doesn't have a collision department, though I believe A&L does and it's pretty highly distinguished at that.

I will upload some pictures of the damage.

Sorry to hear that, I can imagine the feeling!
I wouldn't be too concerned about it being a Dealer bodyshop as long as your confident with their reputation, but having said that there is no harm in getting an opinion from them.
Is this a Jag secialiast place or a multi franchise dealership where the body shape works on all kinds of vehicle.
Doesn't the garage door have a safety electric eye to prevent this?

Neither are Jag specialist places...let's put it this way: there are 2-3 other Jags within a 50 mile radius of me...so it is highly improbable that either have ever even touched a Jaguar.

Here's the thing with the garage door. There is a safety eye mounted about 4 inches off the ground on both sides, sensing straight across. My rear tires were already out when it started coming down. Because the height of the bottom of the car is 5-6 inches, it didn't sense anything because there was nothing in the direct path...it was ABOVE IT! Therefore, it didn't stop and go up until the front tire told it to...luckily I caught it before that, so my windshield is fine! (and luckily my rear window!)

Pictures are coming.

And when I say 2-3 other jags within 50 miles, I'm not talking about dealerships...I'm talking about the cars themselves.

I meant the dealer bodyshop not the ones you visited.

I had a feeling you would say that about the eye, the standard fitting seems to be very low, I wonder if it's a code?

Figuring out how to upload pictures (Norri - an old post of your's is helping me!) so my next post will have pictures.

The Jaguar Dealership (A&L) is a Jaguar/Land Rover/BMW dealership and their collision center has all sorts of Jaguar awards for excellence in collision repairs.

Certainly worth an opinion then.

Wanted to make sure you all had full image clarity and whatnot so hosted them on photobucket...link:

http://photobucket.com/xfdamage

Another thing to do is to raise the eyes up several inches so there's no repeat..

Should mention that I included a picture of my now-warped garage door to show that THE CAT FOUGHT BACK! :(

If you decide on another opinion, Quality Auto Body on Draper Dr. in Fairfax City does very good work. I have used them several times.

I thought about that, but was wonderig if there was a reason they are so low, you could have two sets if the low setting was a code.


It was a bad day!

Thanks WhiteXKR - your recommendation is welcomed. I may call them (I wasn't planning on coming down to the DC area for a few weeks, but could swing a trip tomorrow if they can see me...); will see!

Garage door company guys coming Tuesday, so will be sure to ask if that's possible...I don't know the slightest about building codes...

I feel for you. Before you let a body shop go to town on it, find a reputable independant "paintless dent repair" guy and get his opinion. With luck, it's only your top coat that's damaged. I've had dents that I thought also had paint damage, and the pros just hit it with some fancy paste and a microfiber cloth and viola!

Here's a few links to get you started (I know nothing of these guys, just a quick google search)...
Auto Detailing Rockville Gaithersburg MD - Total Recon Auto Salon
Dent Repair Maryland & Virginia | Dent Masters
Go Dentless, Inc. | Paintless Dent & Hail Repair - Auto Reconditioning Chantilly & Manassas, VA

I did some research and it seems that the idea of the sensor is to detect a child or person lying in the beam and are supposed to be no more than 6 inches from the floor.
I'd imagine that there is much more chance of arlingtonmans type of incident happening so maybe a second higher sensor could be installed in series to detect a car in the opening?
I have a scar on my S Type rear bumper which was there when I got it and I'm sure it was from a door when the car needed to be a couple of inches forward, and have seen the same mark on other vehicles.

How did the smart key activate the garage door. Does the 09 have such a button on the smart key?

Lots of good advice here, particularly starting with dentless repair. I would get multiple opinions incuding a reputable Jag dealer. Go with a process and a shop that it will get right the first time. If they don't have a stellar reputation there is a reason.

Will your insurance cover this?

Thanks, Escolar, I will start with these.

Yeah, because people really lay across the bottom of the garage door opening. My idea is if someone is stupid enough to lay there, they deserve getting crushed by the door. And if a parent is that negligent, their kid won't be around for long anyways.

That's what I'm hoping they'll do on Tuesday. Not getting my Jag fixed till next week, obv, and I'm going to park it in front of the door so they see what it did when they come. Why all garage door companies don't install 2 in the first place is beyond me. I hope the poor repairman wets himself when he sees what it did to my roof.

No, I have my garage door opener and my smart key on the same key ring. The button is pretty big on the opener, so I assume (well, am certain, actually) that it brushed against it and caused it to come down.

Yeah, I'm sure it would, but with a $500 deductible, I'm not going to bother with the hassle if its an $825 job. If it's $3000...then its a different story. But it leaves me without the car for 18-22 days if I go through a claim...otherwise, I'm looking at 3 days, so huge difference.

Thank you to all of you for your help...I love it. Keep 'em coming!

How I'm going to make a killing in life:

I'm going to invent a sensor panel that runs the entire height of the garage door opening that is about 2 inches wide and has sensor strips every 6 inches going up the panel, to be mounted where the eye normally is. You can't tell me one luxury car owner wouldn't spend an extra $100 or $200 when having a garage door installed to have this feature.

Ah, if any of my ideas ever came to fruition!

Do you have the buttons on the mirror to program your garage door so that you wouldn't need to carry a fob on your key ring?