I have a '11 Honda Insight, which is a wonderful car, but it served it purpose, (75mile commute for an 18 month job @44.5mpg average), and it is time to get a car that can fit my whole family in. The problem is that I have a little dent in the car, near where the gas fill cap is. Since it is on that panel that goes all the way around the car, the shops are quoting $1000 - 1200 to fix it. I got a place to agree to do it for $800, if leave it there a week. My question, is what will the dent take off of the trade in value or the value in the car if I sell it to someone?.. the dent is purely cosmetic about the size of a fist (though that is not how it came to be)… will it take grand off of the price??
@Not2Lucky I’ve personally seen those paintless dent guys work magic on many cars. You’ve got nothing to lose by getting a quote from them. Maybe they can’t/won’t fix it, but you’ll never know if you don’t contact them.
Me too on the paintless folks-but there are good ones and not so good ones. They took out about 21 hail dings on my Pontiac roof, hood, and trunk and did a perfect job with no painting.
Yes I was skeptical but pleased afterward. It didn’t cost me anything but the bill to the insurance company was only about $1100. So a deal all around.
@Not2Lucky
Dent, what dent. Really, you are the only one who cares or notices. It’s a matter of how much you can live with it. Let it go for another year, then after you get a few more dents, either decide they are all worth fixing together or all worth neglecting. My insurance company, like all has bilked me out of so much money, any free fix for anything is well deserved. If you have to pay one additional cent, wait and see if you get an attitude change…IMHO. Personally, if I had to pay $1000 myself for a fix, a new set of golf clubs looks really good right now.
Dents on cars are like scars on people; they signify you are living a worthwhile and experienced filled life.
A noticeable dent in a '11 car will hurt the value. How much is hard to say, but it is a decent sized dent in an area that is easily seen. I’d say it will decrease the selling price significantly, perhaps $1000+ dollars. I like giving a paintless dent remover shop a crack at removing the dent.
If the paintless dent repair people can’t handle it (usually because there’s some creasing of the metal), then my understanding is that you won’t get anywhere close to your money back on a trade-in. On a private sale, you’ll get closer, but probably still not the whole amount. If you were still planning to drive the car for a bit, so that you’d get some enjoyment out of having a dent-free car again, then it might be worth fixing now, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.
I’m also wondering how this happened and why it wasn’t covered by insurance.