Karen

While away for a mountain biking weekend, we forgot about the bikes on top of the roof, and drove them straight into the low roof of a parking garage. (For all those complaining about their girlfriends wrecking their cars, this was in fact not the fault of the woman- my fiance was driving the car :P ) Result- dents in the roof where the rack previously rested, and deep scratches in the rear window, continuing down along the trunk and bumper. My fiance has been great about getting estimates this morning, and we now have a choice between 3 body shops in the nothern chicago suburbs: "Ultimate Paint" in Lake Bluff (Recommended by the Audi Exchange); "Last Detail" in North Chicago; "Auto Artists" in Highland Park off of route 41 (recommended by the insurance co.) <br>Does anyone have any experience with these body shops?? Or can anyone recommend anyone else? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!<p>Karen

Cameron

All right, your rear window is going to be the big problem. The rear window in the A4 contains your antenna assembly for the radio, the broadcast antenna for your car phone, and the defrosting mechanicals. I haven't had to replace a rear window, but I've helped buddies replace windshields before, and usually industrial epoxies are used to fasten them properly.<p>The roof panel is more easily fixed than replaced, obviously, though perhaps only barely. Paint matching might be a challenge, especially if your car is a 1996 and the paint has faded a bit. The rear bumper cover isn't as big a problem, but the trunklid could pose problems. Is your taillight assembly dislodged or cracked? Are you sure? Replacement trunklids are sometimes available prepainted, or from junkyard A4's that were involved in front-end collisions.<p>The rear bumper may be surprisingly costly, though the roof and rear window would cause more worry if this happened to me. Email me with whereabouts in Chicagoland you live, there's a great shop in Waukonda that is doing some work on my car next month. I can't mention them here because they don't advertise on A4.org, but they are an outstanding shop, and the main guy (Harry) does Porsche, Audi and BMW work routinely.<p>Cameron<br>Rhetoric@aol.com

agaur

Gerber Auto Body in Downers Grove (with other locations in the Chicago area).<p>We have an 98 A4 QT and a 97 Maxima SE. The Maxima was in an accident earlier this year (15 months old).<p>Gerber did a great job -- most of my friends had no idea which part of the car had been hit. Color matched well -- all scratches and dings gone.<p>HTH.<p>AG