Advice on a fender bender..............

[stevens]

Hey well i just got in my first fender bender today. It was after cross country practice and i backed out of my space with looking to closely and i accidently hit this girl that goes to my school in the front passanger door. I was going maybe 2mph and when i checked it out and there was only a little scratch on her door. So i gave her my cell number and she said she would call me when she found out how much it would be to fix it. Well she calls me back a little later and said that there is actually a little dent on the door the we didnt see before and that she is gonna go and get an estimate. She was very cool about this whole thing and i feel absolutly horrible about it so i dont really want to make her do to much to get it fixed, but she called me back and said that the estimate was $800. She said that she could get another estimate but i dont know if i want to make her. For that that have had minor dents repaired does it usually cost this much? There was abloulty no damage to my car at all so it makes me think that the car place may be trying to rip her off. She is driving a Toyota 4 runner if that matters at all. Can someone give me the some advice on the best way to handle this? Thanks

Steven

 

[iamwiz82]

that is prob. the price to replace the door. Sounds about right when you figure in labor and paint.

 

[mpitts]

Sounds fairly accurate. What about insurance?

 

[PowerMac4Ever]

I think they have to paint the whole door when a scratch happens. That might be why the price is high. Maybe you should see if insurance will cover it, but I'm no expert..

 

[stevens]

Well the thing is that i dont want to go through insurance bc it will practically double and it will be cheap to just pay for the repairs out of pocket. Ok i just have never delt with any of this before and i just wanted to make sure that $800 wasnt hight bc the door scratch was in a plastic peice and not even in the metal of the door but i havent seen the dent yet so i cant really comment on that. That is probobly the more most costly thing.

 

[cmdavid]

well it sounds like she is going to have the whole door replaced.. that is understandably 800$ because of parts/labor.. now if she were to get it repaired instead of replaced, which you may be able to talk her into doing, then you could probably drop her cost in half.... im guessing she went there, they assumed she wanted the door replaced and they gave her an estimate for that.... if the dent/scratch are very small (which im assuming the dent is if you didnt even see it), it should be fairly easy to fix by either popping it out w/ a suction device, using some bondo and smoothing it out.. then re-painting it.... you may wanna suggest getting the door repaired instead of replaced, if she's willing...

 

[bunker]

I'd very politely ask her to get another estimate and ask about repair instead of replacement. As long as she's still being cool about it. Also, make sure she let's the shop know it won't be an insurance job, the prices seem to magically drop when they have a paying customer.

 

[cmdavid]

Originally posted by: bunker
Also, make sure she let's the shop know it won't be an insurance job, the prices seem to magically drop when they have a paying customer.

good point... it makes a HUGE difference....

 

[narzy]

depends on the scratch there are a few ways to deal with it.

if its just the top coat, we try buffing it out if that doesnt work then comes strategy number two
if we can't buff it out, we can spot shoot there are problems with this method tho, one big one is that getting a color match is difficult, every paint is a LITTLE bit different then any other can, and if its off by x amount it becomes noticible. with spot shooting you sand a good portion of the door area around the scratch shoot it and blend it with color, then a top coat, the top coat likes to fisheye when sprayed on another top coat (clear coat) so you have to avoid that or else sand and buff / reshoot the fisheyes depending on how bad.

dings are harder to fix then "dents" in other words if its concaved sharply like a rock hit it, you have to sand and grind it out and fill it and repaint. if its a dent like an indent in a hood over a larger area it can be pulled to look like new easy as cake. I learned from the best auto painter in salem, and whats cool is I don't paint cars, but he lives next door (I painted mine.)

newayz there is some insite into it, 800 bucks is a bit high if you ask me. seeing that a door isn't even half a car, and you can get a car repainted from places like macco for 2000 bucks or less. with ding and dent removal.

 

[narzy]

Originally posted by: stevens
Well the thing is that i dont want to go through insurance bc it will practically double and it will be cheap to just pay for the repairs out of pocket. Ok i just have never delt with any of this before and i just wanted to make sure that $800 wasnt hight bc the door scratch was in a plastic peice and not even in the metal of the door but i havent seen the dent yet so i cant really comment on that. That is probobly the more most costly thing.

dood that is way wacked for plastic, you can buff it (i've done it) and or repaint it, or even replace it, its just modling it pops off with a little unf and the right tools, probably get the part from the dealer for no more then 200 bucks, and replacement takes about an hour so figure in a 70 buck labor charge, dent pulls probably 70 to 100 (good places) plus some mark up, probably pay 350 or 400 bucks. (high estemates) but these are prices in a high quality shop.

 

[smooth1]

Originally posted by: bunker
I'd very politely ask her to get another estimate and ask about repair instead of replacement. As long as she's still being cool about it. Also, make sure she let's the shop know it won't be an insurance job, the prices seem to magically drop when they have a paying customer.

I second that.

 

[Miramonti]

Get the name of a bodyshop that people you know recommend and ask her to get an estimate there. Repairs are very expensive but even $800 is high for something that small. Thats a heck of alot of hours when something doesn't need replacing.

 

[jemcam]

Sorry, you're all wrong. I've been in the auto repair business for most of my life, and $800 is nothing. It sounds right. The paint alone, if done properly could be almost half that amount alone.

If you don't believe me, wait til the insurance company gets involved, they'll only pay what they have to right? They'll pay more than that in the end, trust me, it's right.

Call a bodyshop on your own (either a dealer or an independent, or your own insurance agent for that matter) and ask him if $800 is unreasonable to repair a dent and paint a door.

You're getting out easy at $800.