Pranged the Golf . repair options

My wife has damaged the front of our 2010 Golf Variant, and has been quoted $2,300 in GST for the replacement of the front bumper bar, bumper bar cover (including $300 for painting this) and front grille.

Is this reasonable? We'll get a couple of alternate quotes (though quite a lot of body shops are busy at the moment), but any advice on how to get value for money on this repair?

well the not busy ones i would be worried of what workmanship comes from these ones. its not that they must be bad , the quote sounds cheap to me any new car the slightest scratch cost 2500$ and more to repair .
So you should base the repair on quality of workmanship not price
For example a client has a isuzu mu the door got bent backwards the repair was charged 600$ for by whom i dont know but it was a penal shop she told me . you cant even immagin what it looks like now
and you dont want these morons repairing your vw thats for sure.
all i can say i told here i dont htink it will pass a wof like this and i am probably having to fix the mess so it can pass a wof . not looking forward to try and fix that mess!

What does the insurance company say? Surely a 2010 car is insured.

We self insure, though we have 3rd party. 23 years of driving and this is the first accident - with first party insurance at about $400 a year and $500 of excess we're still well ahead.

Seems about right but yes there is huge variety of prices for this type of work. I found a highly skilled and proffesionals guy who works mobile and home workshop to keep overheads down and therefore did a fine proper job for less. This is Nelson but maybe someone local like that for you.

If you're handy with tools you could pull things apart yourselves and get secondhand bits maybe? Depends if actual panel damage, but grill and bumpers may be simple bolts. Worth looking at. There's a guy posted a question about his golf with stuffed gearbox earlier today. Maybe his car is perfect doner for yours? Worth checking his post in this forum.

Another vote for checking for quality of work as well as price. I used to deal with lots of panelbeaters in my old business and was amazed at the difference in professionalism between business's.

I think the price doesn't sound too bad if it's a quality job. I would ask what sort of parts they are using, genuine new, used or aftermarket. Sometimes aftermarket may not fit quite as well, especially if they are much cheaper.

Normally I would be advocating for importing your own parts and doing everything bar the painting yourself (often can be quite easy if it's just those parts needing replacement). However I think the freight will kill it with bulky panels. You could always do a price/freight check on rexbo and see, but I am not expecting a significant saving.

A wrecker may be worth a call too, but they often want lots for those front parts if available, another option is a nose cut from Japan but not sure I would rate your chances finding one ready to go in NZ. Importing would likely have the car off the road too long unless it's tidy and drivable at present.

Realistically, I think the best you are going to do is a few hundred dollars difference for quite a lot of effort. But certainly no harm in exploring the options and doing the math. you know what they say about assumptions!

Best of luck with it all.