Title is self explanatory. Quiet upsetting. My fault.
Contact your insurance agent and explain that you damaged your brand new car.
They’ll tell you to go body shops to get estimates for the repair.
Tester
Isn’t that going to raise the insurance? Damage seems kinda minor no? Would a little touch up paint fix it? Plus I doubt it would cost more than the $500 deductible to repair this…or am I wrong?
Depends on the insurance company.
Some forgive the first accident.
If that’s a plastic component, touch-up paint will work.
Tester
Touch up paint is you choice . .for you to do.
A body shop will re-paint a whole panel or seam to seam and not touch up.
If it raises you rates is 100% up to your insurance . . we can’t anser that question.
Did you pick the wrong insurance plan ? . . or the wrong insurance company ?
No I doubt it’s the wrong company, It just seems stupid to make a claim one day after getting the car. I’m just wondering if there is an easy do it yourself solution to fix it. I can live with it of course. I also thought about getting wheel arch mouldings, which would cover it up, but that’ll cost around $400.
How particular are you about the result? It’s hard to do a perfect job with touch-up paint if you’re a novice.
That was tongue in cheek of course . . referring to the TV commercials that say that . .as if. When THEY are advertising the fact that they want you to buy their insurance PLAN ( full car replacement ) with their company !
It doesn’t need to be perfect, but unfortunately I am a complete novice.
Ahh okay! Actually I did get the full car replacement with my insurance, stupid?
If it was me , I’d likely research doing touch -up work on the web & fix it myself . For those companies that advertise first accident forgiveness , this very minor accident would probably qualify as that first accident .
Just get a repair estimate and quit guessing. That is how you make informed decisions. It is a new car do you really want it to have blemish you see every time you use it?
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You can also choose to NOT to involve the insurance at all.
Compare touching up with full repair then . . you … . decide.
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If you need to ask how to repair it, you should not attempt to fix it yourself in my view. Its a new car and you want it to be fixed properly which means re-painting that area. There is no way you are going to be able to use the touch up bottle, or spray can and make it look like it did. See a body shop and pay for it yourself. When I had a mysterious dent in my Acura, I simply paid the shop to fix it. This is not an insurance matter.
The OP does not say and it not our business anyway but if this is a leased vehicle not having it repaired properly could be a problem at turn in time.
I can not see if the quarter panel is bent too or not, I guess not and it is only the bumper. If this is a regular daily driver, I would not worry much about the bumper, it is there for bumps. Ideally you want to keep it nice for 6 months, but alas, your car matured early.
I would try to buff the area out, then put masking tape and go at it with touch up paint and a fine brush. Don’t use the brush that comes with the touch up paint, buy one from an arts and craft store ($2) and use that one. If you mask the areas well, you could wet sand over the touch up paint with a fine sanding paper to make it smooth. You just have to be patient with a steady hand.
I have fixed stuff like this and while selling the car, I have pointed the areas out to the buyer as an FYI and they admitted that it looked as good as new and just bought the car.
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Not if someone hits the same area before lease end.
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Volovo made a good point. one of the disadvantages of a lease car is that you can’t decide that minor damage isn’t worth fixing professionally. You’re screwed.
If it’s owned, and these scratches are the only damage, AND the panel is plastic, I’d suggest carefully touching it up with a touchup bottle. It’s a sparkly silver paint, and if the panel is plastic it’ll have flex agent, and that can be very, very hard to match exactly. A pro can do a great job, but chances are that it’ll be an obvious repaint under certain lighting conditions. I’d rather have some touched up scratches than a repainted panel. The former is obviously minor scratches, the latter leaves doubt as to the extent of the damage.
Someone gouged the front bumper cover on our Silver 2004 Kia the second year we had it. Sold it 2014 and it still looked like it had never been replaced and painted.
You should look very carefully to see if it’s really scratches or if it’s paint transferred from whatever you bumped. It often is. That comes off with a very fine rubbing compound or some similar product you buy at a car parts store.