1LE backed into, not sure if I want to go through insurance or fix it myself
 

Unfortunate day as my 1LE was backed into at a gas station by an unmarked white utility van. Gas station cameras picked up the incident but no view of the plates. I'm in Florida which is a no-fault state.

It appears id need the following parts for the repair
84618143 - Front fascia $405
84061552 - Front fascia bracket guide $5
84140556 - Front fascia reinforcement $36
23221296 - Fender $260
84363604 - Fender bracket $14
23438029 - Fender brace $20
along with a few multi purpose rivets and nuts, total cost of parts is approximately $740.

Plan A
Purchase the parts, have my buddy who works at an auto paint and body shop paint the new fender, fascia, blend the passenger door, driver side fender, and hang the passenger side fender. After he's done id install the new brackets, fascia, and swap all the parts over. Luckily my headlight, grille, and all the other components are fine and can be reused. We're guessing that would be around $1,500 worth of materials and labor + the $740 in parts for a total of around $2250.00 to fix it out of pocket.

Plan B
Simply go through insurance.

Id like to not go through insurance to keep the accident off my carfax and keep my rates low. The car suffered no suspension or structural damage. Would you go through insurance here or fix it yourself / through a shop without getting insurance involved?

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/pictu...ctureid=170105
https://www.camaro6.com/forums/pictu...ctureid=170104
https://www.camaro6.com/forums/pictu...ctureid=170100

Looks like "A" is the way you want to go.

I'd opt for option A.

Well, I guess maybe I understand keeping it off a carfax. I guess it would depend on what my plans for the car were. If I plan to keep it for the forseeable future, who cares if it's on the carfax. If it's been professionaly repaired... I don't know...

As for keeping your insurance down. I guess I never understand this reasoning from people. You pay insurance premiums and then when you need to use it, you don't stating you don't want to have your premiums raised. I had just over $6k of repairs to my Harley because the shipping company delivering it to me damaged it. I went through my insurnace and it didn't raise my rates a penny. As a matter of fact the next year renewl dropped. My insurance company said it wasn't my fault so it would have no effect on my premiums. I have accident forgivess too on my insurance (Allstate).

My first choice would always be to use my insurance unless the repairs were less then then my deductable.... but since my deductable is only $500 and I have a disaperring deductable that normally would never happen that it'd pay out of pocket. To each his own, but I pay for my insurance so if I have to use it, I can. (Option B)

I would let the body shop where your buddy works do it and file an insurance claim of hit and run. It shouldn’t reflect on a Carfax and your insurance shouldn’t go up because it was a hit and run accident. Not sure if you would have to have a police report though. Good luck and you do what’s best for your situation.

Add a dashcam to what ever your decision is if were me

Plan A for sure.

That is a collision loss period. The insurance Co and the body shop should both be required to report that info and the OPs car fax will no longer be clean. Do not involve the insurance co. A collision loss is a collision loss your fault or not and if a claim is made and the ins. co pays there is a record. Once the claim is processed, underwriting determines the rate increase and they do not care if its a hit and run, or if you ran into something yourself.

Whatever is best for his situation is my advice which I stated at the end of my reply to his post!

Honestly im not too worried about keeping my rates low, I dont think this would raise them much if at all anyways - I use my insurance, but for situations like these where were talking minor dents and damage from being backed into, I rather not have an accident reported on the carfax. This type of damage could have been done by a baseball bat. I dont think its reasonable to be considered an "accident" on carfax, and thats what would happen if I used my insurance

After reviewing your thoughts, I think option A makes the most sense…unfortunately. (I hate insurance co’s and car fax reports that swipe with a wide brush)

Personally I would go through insurance. You’re gonna lose roughly that amount when you go to sell the car, or pay roughly the amount you listed above to fix it. Personally I’d rather just keep the 2250 right now and let my insurance handle it. Check your policy over. I know my insurance wouldn’t raise my rate if something wasn’t my fault. Clearly you weren’t at fault here. I once got rear ended (car behind me got rear ended into mine) and my insurance did not go up. I had a cat stolen off my car and again my rates did not go up because I wasn’t at fault.

By the way if you trade the car in instead of private selling it the dealer WILL KNOW paint work occurred on your vehicle and will deduct your trade in value. They have devices that can tell if metal or aluminum body parts have been repainted. If your fender hadn’t gotten damaged I would have said option A because the paint gauges dealers use can’t read plastic.

A body damaged car even after repairs is never the same in my eyes or heart. If going out of pocket I don’t see the need for a new fender, I think a PDR guy could get most of the fender looking good and just have a small area of the front fender needing a skim coat of filler and painted. I would not want blending on a door that has no issue. The nose looks like it could easily be fixed too. The key to me in this repair is the people doing the repairs, matching color and blending with attention to detail. Even with all the other work, I feel like I could spot the repair by looking at replacement fender paint but that’s just me. Sorry to see, good luck!

It sounds like you have your answer to your original question.


Agreed