Bedside dent and paint damage

Was in an unloading zone yesterday and Karen backed her Subaru into my driver's side bedside pulling out of her parking spot. There's a pretty decent dent (depending on the angle you view from), a crack in the paint down to the metal, and my bumper is lookin a little funky.

Her insurance is taking care of it but was curious what you folks think the repair might come out to. It doesn't look all that bad but the paint repair would be pretty labor intensive, I imagine:



Should have gotten that high clearance bumper.

 

Take the check and get the HC

 

That's what I was thinking, I'm just not sure if it'll be over $1,500. I think the CBI HC cuts off the exact portion that's dented.

 

If the bumper needs to be replaced it'll be over $1500 for the whole project. The body shop will have to re-paint and re-texture the whole quarter panel.

 

dammit Karen!

 

Depends heavily on which shop is doing the repairs. One shop might do it for $1000, another could be $2000+. If it were me I'd take it to the Toyota dealer of choice and go with the body shop they recommend. Unless you have a high end shop that you already feel comfortable with.

 

I have to take it to one of the shops approved by her insurance for a repair estimate, first. Then I can go to any shop I want once they cut me a check (I think - or they might only pay shops directly I'm not sure, yet).

 

Buy one of these decals and call it good

 

Quick tip: I recently had some body work done. My insurance gave me three options to get an estimate: go to "partner" body shop in my area, use a mobile appraisal service that the insurance co will send out, use their app to take pictures and get a quick quote.

I opted for the app/quick quote. I would not recommend this. The app walks you through what kind of pictures to take and then sends it to someone sitting at a desk who plugs what they think is wrong into some formula. The quote I got back was wayyyyyy low. 1800 vs 6700 actual cost. Because it was so low, the insurance co made my body shop try to fix it their way first, then submit a supplement. The whole process probably added an extra three weeks to the total fix time. Long story short...having a human put their hands on the vehicle during the inspection will benefit you. There's less chance of lowballing.

Last time this happened I used the mobile appraiser and got a much more accurate quote from the beginning.

 

I agree the app estimate will be a low ball. A human coming out in person will also be a low ball, usually not as bad. Either way the estimate changes once the vehicle is torn down/disassembled.

OP I would fight for that bed side panel to be replaced. The bed sides on these trucks are a bolt on piece, not welded. Tell them you do not want bondo/filler on your new truck.

 

It sounds like it may be too late but I would avoid getting insurance companies involved on such a minor dent. Try and get her to pay for it to be fixed or even split it with her. If you use insurance both of your rates are going to be jacked up for several years and in the end you will pay more $$ than the repair will cost. Not to mention the fact that your VIN will come up with an accident on record I believe.

I learned all of this the hard way.

 

The texturing is a bitch to do again. Even the high end shops hate doing it. It's like a 4 stage process from what I'm told.

 

If the other party admits fault from the get-go (which they did) then my insurance isn't even involved.

 

It will still go in the VIN of your vehicle. So the accident will be on record

 

Only the at fault party will get increased insurance rates. The only positive to staying outside of insurance, is that it will not be reported to carfax. But that's all too late now since insurance has been contacted.

 

This is pretty terrible advice.

 

Agreed. The only person who benefits from an insurance not getting involved is the at-fault party. I personally wouldn’t worry about the car fax, just save the pictures of the damage and the bill to fix it. Every time someone has shown me those things I’ve still purchased the car, stuff happens. It’s the sketchy craigslist people who have “minor accidents,” don’t have pictures or receipts yet their “fixed”car drives in a straight line with the body like 20 degrees skewed that take the hit in value.

 

Time to trade in!

 

I dont know guys. I had a woman back into my tacoma while I was in line at chic fil a and we got insurance involved. Her insurance payed for my bumper to be replaced and I thought everything was great until I realized that MY insurance rate went up due to now having an "accident" on my record even though I was not at fault. I calculated the amount my rate went up and over 5 years (the length of time an accident affects your insurance) it will be more than the cost of the damage to replace the bumper. In the end I wish I just asked the lady to pay to have it fixed or at least for most of it. Considering how minor the damage appears on the OPS truck I would just ask for the $$ and not even have it fixed. I guess I am just cheap though.

 

You 100% do not need to go to their "approved" shops. That's a lie.