I backed into someone this weekend in a parking lot. Corner of my bumper caught the corner of his. The dent in mine literally popped out on the drive home.

I asked him to get a quote before we involved insurance as it was probably cheaper for me to just pay to fix it. For the small dent and scratched paint the quote was $50 in parts and $900 in labor (close to 15 hours).

Guessing I should just pay it and move on? In my mind there's no way it takes 15 hours to pop a dent and touch up paint. But I'm sure I'm over simplifying it.

I did basically the same thing, very minor damage.

My insurance went up over $1000/year.

Yep out of pocket.

$950 to fix it.

$1050 to replace it with a new one.

Anyone had a bumper replaced (or repaired) for cheaper? Just looking at all options before pulling the trigger.

If you pay out of pocket be ready for that price to go up when "it doesn't goes the way they thought it would"

I'm a roofing contractor and we had a shingle fall on a car and scratch the hood. Initial estimate was one price. We approved and then had 2 more calls to approve additional cost as the body shop kept adding stuff.

"We thought we'd be able to buff this part but no got to repaint"

"Now with repaint it doesn't match door, got to repaint"

Really felt like I was being taken for a ride. Really frustrating. Ended up being at least 2x original bid I believe just going off memory.

I pointed out a while back that the hidden cost of these ridiculously expensive vehicles would be astronomical insurance costs.

you asked him for a quote, so if you want to settle out of pocket you are going to have to subject yourself to a bit of this. if i was the other guy and you start arguing with me about unreasonable quotes, then i just file with insurance and move on.

Definitely go out of pocket. That quote seems reasonable.

I backed into someone 3-4 years ago. I paid him $700 for the repairs to his truck (but for some reason have never bothered to get my own SUV repaired - a dent on a piece of the bumper that I could probably pop out myself)

So I had him get one more quote just to compare. I called Nissan to see who they recommended; he was happy to go there.

Shop basically says shop #1 does not follow DMV or Safety Regulation codes. (Which, honestly, I'm not totally shocked.) New quote is $2200, whole new bumper, recalibrate sensors, the works. Keep in mind impact happened at 5mph tops and dented just the corner of the bumper about the size of your fist. I went back and looked at pics and there is a sensor located 12-14" below the dent and to the inside. New quote has like $600 parts, $800 labor, $685 "miscellaneous" and then of course tax.

Thinking I'm going to take the high ground and get insurance involved at this point. He's not pushing one way or another but insurance will do what's best for them and fight any BS. I'm guessing rental car may be included, etc.

#theHouseAlwaysWins

Love your last paragraph sir. Wish more people were considerate of others like that.

I have USAA - for EVERYTHING, not just Auto Insurance. I'm 51 and have been on USAA since age 16. Loyal customer.

They handle claims pretty well, but they've done some **** that has me even scared to call them and report claims - and that's awful, what is insurance for if I am scared to even submit a claim?

I'm afraid rates will go up, like everyone else. In addition to that, they twice flagged drivers in my house (me, daughter) for "Hit and Run". One was me getting sideswiped by another driver, I called the cops but the other driver had run, I started a claim with USAA and *I* get flagged for a Hit and Run on USAA record. My daughter also swiped a car at 5 mph or less in High School parking lot. Spoke to other driver and no concerns on the scene. Later the other driver forced us to file incident report with HS, rather than just tell me what, if any, damage was caused and how much to repair. That led to my daughter getting a "Hit and Run" on USAA records even though she spoke to other driver and filed a HS incident report. Rates went up.

My wife's car was hit with flying road debris 2 weekends ago. I have full coverage. Don't even want to call USAA because rates will go up, some at fault thing might get recorded for my wife.

However, like the OP on this thread, I know that going through insurance WILL get the car fixed fully and correctly. There are scratches in upped grill, hood, in the windshield, on passenger rear view, on A pillar. Nothing horrendous but multiple body pieces and panels impacted and won't be a trivial quote.

Just for another opinion here, I don't think you'd be out of line at all to offer the original estimate amount to the guy releasing you of liability if he wanted to take the cash option and fix it or not.

I agree. He may be happier just pocket the money