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A couple of weeks ago, while pulling into a tight parking spot, I ended up scratching the bumper of another car. It was a minor scratch, with paint rub off as seen in the picture (no dings). I offered the person to pay rather than reporting to insurance, as I was hoping it should be a fairly small job (around $100). The person is nice enough to call me back, but says that the body shop wants $450 to fix it (they have a invoice to show it).
My driving record is good (no claims in several years), looking for some advise on if it is better to go through insurance claim process, or fork out the money to avoid any possible premium increases. If I pay her, what kind of release documentation should I seek from the person so they won't also file with insurance in future ? Appreciate any advise.
I would pay it for sure since it's a small cost. $350-$450 is about retail cost to repaint a bumper. Make sure you hang on to your photos, copy of your check, and the invoice from the body shop. If you really want to play it safe, just draft a letter with the incident, and have all parties sign. Since you didn't cause any bodily harm, I wouldn't worry about them coming after you for anything.
That's nothing. I'd try a mild rubbing compound first. It only cost a few bucks and will only take a few minutes to polish. I bet it will remove 90% better.
If they want cash from you most likely they will have the body shop buff it out and they will pocket the extra. Nothing you can do to force them to spend the 450. I would get a recipe saying "paid in full "" and that the car was repaired properly. Then if they try to file on your insurance it will be criminal fraud.
I agree with Igt. The majority of that looks like it's probably just paint transfer from the other car and could be buffed off. There's a small spot near the bottom crease and the larger spot at the top crease that look like they may actually be through the paint, but they could be made to look ok with some touch-up.
There are bumper repair businesses that primarily do work for dealerships to repair this type of damage on cars they receive for trade and are going to sell on the used line. I do work on the side for a guy who is getting into this and he will be training me to do it soon. These places usually charge less than $300 to paint an entire bumper and for a corner repair like that it would probably be $150 or less. You might visit your dealer and see if they have someone like that doing work for them.
There are many franchised bumper repair companies that will do this job for MUCH LESS. I just had a bumper cover replaced on my car - $450 out the door so this is a good quote HOWEVER, I also drove around for two years with a similar bumper (someone backed into me) in the hopes it would happen again and I would catch them! Never happened. Sold the car with the scratch/dent, after all it's a bumper for cryin out loud! Be sure to get a RELEASE of DAMAGES.
You could be sneaky and require an estimate from a real repair shop . Then forward the estimate to car fax..I bet the car owner doesnt want car fax to get any documentation like that. It could lower the cars resale value...The way I look at it if you are paying for 450 in damage at least let there be a record of it.
That is missing some paint and $450 to repaint the bumper seems reasonable to me.
Other cheaper option would be to touch up and wet sand but it will not be perfect in many cases as we are talking about matching old paint to new.
In my understanding, a claim is a claim and I don't think insurance looks at the cost unless it is really substantial?
I would say to pay $450 and call it a day because it is not worth it to have that claim on your insurance for this amount IMO.
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