unfortunate_gallardo

Thanks a lot everybody for your feedback, its much appreciated. I am going to get a second (or third?) opinion for sure. Maybe the whole thing is overblown, I'm a bit upset over it, but the car isn't going to fall apart or anything. It's just an annoyance.

Just welding would be more like $5k. It would jump to $10k if the welding burned the paint (which they would try and avoid but cannot guarantee against) and significant repaint and blending were needed. Thanks for the good wishes, the insurance is an interesting angle.

As you can imagine, this is a very sensitive issue and as such I'm not posting identifiable details (this is a throwaway account). The shop is a Lamborghini factory authorized body shop (they do warranty work). Their rates are definitely higher than most body shops, so I don't doubt the same work might be done somewhere cheaper. However I don't believe there is any profit-seeking here as they are pretty much telling me that I shouldn't fix it due to low likelihood of success in all but the most high-dollar path. They also tell me it's possible to just put some sealant in the crack, and it might quiet it down, for a while. In asking for advice, rather than looking for technical solutions, I'm wondering if there are precedents for this kind of issue, avenues of redress, etc. I understand that it's quite likely that such avenues don't exist.

I bought a low-mile pre-LP Gallardo about 5 months back at a non-franchise dealer. It's been great mechanically, but there's been a rattle/creak noise that I wasn't too worried about. Most rattles turn out to be trim panels etc and are not a big deal. I finally got it looked at by a body shop that is very experienced with Lamborghinis. After significant dis-assembly, it turns out that there is a failed factory weld, resulting in a crack. The cheaper "maybe" fix will be $5-10k (depending if paint is required) and involves re-welding the part that they can get at. This fix would not be warrantied as its possible the failure extends to a portion of the quarter panel that is not able to be accessed. The "real" fix would be $40k+ and involves quarter panel replacement. When you buy these cars, you have to be prepared for maintenance issues, if you need to drop 8k on a clutch, that's expected. This is something else though... There is no way I will spend 40k+ to fix this car, and I have reservations about $10k on a 'maybe' fix. I'm soliciting feedback/ideas on how to handle this. The shop has verified that the car has never been in an accident, and this is for-sure a factory weld failure/manufacturing defect. The car has obviously been out of warranty for years, but on the other hand, this kind of failure seems to be unheard-of and is pretty much a worst case scenario for buying a used G due to severity and difficulty of detection. I could have literally picked any other Gallardo for sale, and been better off! Is this the sort of thing the factory would care about? I've been quite the evangelist for Lamborghini since I bought the car, but who that I tell about this would buy one? It's really damaged my enthusiasm for the brand.