Body work on paid off car

[Anonymous]

Curious what others thing is reasonable. I have a white 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I bought in cash (my feelings would probably be different if I was still paying on it and it was damaged). This summer, I took a huge scrape to my bumper that I believe came from a poor attempt of someone trying to parallel park and a very sharp door ding in the curved molding on the front passenger door (which changes the whole line of that side of the vehicle). Because of how it’s parked in my garage, the first thing I see every morning is that door ding and it pisses me off. Then I walk around the back of the car and see the bumper damage. Then I just want to sell the car and start over (kidding, mostly).

I plan to keep this car for 10-15 years and that’s a long time to be upset about damage. I know that living in a city means this is probably going to happen again. Is it reasonable to fix it? I found someone who says he can take care of both issues for $1300. Factor in the car rental for a week and it’s more like a $2000 fix all-in. I just refinanced my house, so I actually have “extra” cash from skipping that one mortgage payment.

So, fix it? Live with it? Sell and buy a new one ?

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't base cosmetic repairs on loan/no loan status. It's only two years old so that's pretty new. In this case it could be worth it since it's new and annoying you so much. A lot of people have a dent in the bumper and just ignore it. Most often it's just the bumper cover which is a plastic cover over the real bumper that's there for cosmetics.

You call yours a scrape and not a dent which to me implies that it just needs to be repainted. Now, you can actually attempt this with touch up paint but it will never look as good as a professional but it may be worth trying out just because it's a lot cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Call dings out right for the ding. Will be around $100 I think. Definitely fix that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call dings out right for the ding. Will be around $100 I think. Definitely fix that.

There is paint damage inside the ding so that’s $350 to fix and repaint because the whole “Grand Cherokee” badge has to be removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't base cosmetic repairs on loan/no loan status. It's only two years old so that's pretty new. In this case it could be worth it since it's new and annoying you so much. A lot of people have a dent in the bumper and just ignore it. Most often it's just the bumper cover which is a plastic cover over the real bumper that's there for cosmetics.

You call yours a scrape and not a dent which to me implies that it just needs to be repainted. Now, you can actually attempt this with touch up paint but it will never look as good as a professional but it may be worth trying out just because it's a lot cheaper.

It’s an 8 inch scrape down to the plastic and also on a trim piece, so not a DIY situation unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

If it bothers you every day and you have money available to fix it, just fix it! No one else can give you the "right" answer here, because the question is one of spending money you have on something you care about.

[Anonymous]

You have the luxury of shopping around for this repair. Find a small shop with the best price and offer cash. One of my teens car needed some paint work and I told the the guy I wanted a decent paint repair, but didn’t need to be perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have the luxury of shopping around for this repair. Find a small shop with the best price and offer cash. One of my teens car needed some paint work and I told the the guy I wanted a decent paint repair, but didn’t need to be perfect.

+1

$2,000 sounds high for this repair. An entire bumper cover is only a couple hundred dollars for the part + labor install cost. Go to an autobody shop and see the cost to replace the entire bumper cover. I'd wager it's less than $2,000.

[Anonymous]

Try http://saintautopaint.com/. I have personal experience of them being excellent. Will come to you, so no rental. He repainted a bumper for me on my BMW (ie a nice car I cared about). Like new, under $400.