Parked the car on the street today during our yard sale and a guy cut it short in front our house and did the damage in the pics with his rear bumper.

He is insured and took responsiblity for it. How much would this repair cost? I was trying to sell the car for $4300 and I think that is a good price, the problem is his insurance is going to book it way too cheap and try and total it I am guessing. The rest of the paint is faded and there is no way to match anything.

 

First, I hope you got all his info. Second, his insurance company will definitely low ball you for repairs or if deemed totaled. Take it to at a minimum of 2 body shops for repair estimates. This way YOU will have an idea what it will cost to repair your car vs what the insurance company will offer to pay. Depending on your cars condition, options, etc., start looking around internet sites for what cars similiar to your are going for. If you find some, copy the info for proof to back up why you feel your car is worth more. Nobody will just take your word for it. What the blue book value states does not always equal what the current selling rate is for the car. Remember this, stick to your guns against insurance companies. This guy hit you and you don't need to suffer any type of loss because of this. I speak from experience. Someone totaled my Trans Am worth $4,500. His insurance said my total was worth $2,000. I fought them as I stated above and got my $4,500. Good luck to you!

 

Thats an Oxymoron.

I will be highly surprised if they total a car for that damage. I would either try to fight for a full paint job. Or just cut the loss when you go to sale the car.

 

doubt they will total it for that little damage. if u can do yourself, certi-fit has a reproduction fender for $35
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doubt they will total it for that little damage. if u can do yourself, certi-fit has a reproduction fender for $35 and if you have a pull-a-part junk yard near by, thats about $50 for the bumper u just have to remove the part yourself. then replace with new parts. repaint and sell for more with brand new paint job.

 

I thought it would be some big coin because the entire front is one big piece, or can that be fixed. The fender I know is cheap, but the nose seems like it would cost a lot, and then the whole color issue. I will start getting prices of other similar cars.

 

The front bumper cone will definitely need to be replaced. It could be repaired, but it would never be the same. I got one for $50 at a junkyard. Brand new GM is around $350 last time I checked. You could probably fix that fender without much problem and save a little money. Paint matching is going to be the killer.

 

That nose is actually repairable. The insurance company is going to quote LKQ (likekindquality) which is semi-repaired salvage parts. The body shop will either find these parts for your car or call the insurance company and they will ship it to the shop, the customer usually doesn't know what the source is. If you saw an LKQ when the shop recieved it, you would be like- What? your putting THAT! on MY? car????
Bumper covers I've seen have been peiced together from as many as five different wrecked peices.
Plasti-weld has come a long way over the last 20years, and its common type of repair in the Motorcycle industry. The biggest determining factor here will be Labor hours, sometimes its just more feasable to buy a LKQ than to repair what you have. That nose could easily end up in a LKQ source vendor, be repiared, and sold to some one else for less than you could repair it for.
The paint fade its going to be BLENDED, any decent paint shop can accomplish this, but that doesn't mean its going to match the entire car. Unfortunatly the insurance companies have convinced a lot of shops that it's acceptable deveation, so long as its not plain glance at obviouse.
Take plenty of pictures to document whats damaged now, that way the next buyer can't hard ball you down as much, because they will always assume you are lieing about the true extent of damage.
If you end up having to hire a lawyer these pictures will be invaluable to help strengthen your fight for diminished value compensation.

 

Raise hell about it, he hit you.
You should get a new fender, front end, and with engouth arguing a new paint job to make it match.

 

The insurance company will not give him a new paint job. His paint is not new and he dosen't get a free one because of the damage done. Insurance is to make you whole again not give you extras. This is something you will have to negotiate with the insurance company. They have to pay to paint the parts that were damaged, but because you don't have a new(er) paint job they will not pay to paint your whole car. When you take it in to get estimates, find out how much they will charge to paint the whole car. For example: the shop says it will cost $1000 to paint the whole car, you negotiated with the insurance company for $500 to paint the repaired damage. It will cost you only $500 out of your pocket to get a whole paint job. Not bad IMO. You can also ask the shop to estimate how much just to paint the damaged sections. With this information, you're much better informed to fight the insurance companies low ball tactics.

 

You might be better off to get the price of a good repair from his insurance company, cash the check, and sell the car as is for a little less money.

 

Call you insurance company and work with them. I had my alero totalled last year (and i mean totaled i was stopped and a guy hit me with a lincoln towncar comin off the freeway to fast and wedged me under a dodge ram.) his company wanted to give me 4,500. The car had 68000 miles and was immaculate. Statefarm fought for me and got me 7,750 and they're still taking care of settling my hospital and chiropractic bills. Hopefully your insruance agent will do the same, I barely had to do anything. The low ball stuff is just for people that need cash fast to get the car running. Yours is totally driveable fight it like hell you should get decent repairs and fully covered. Goodluck the damage isn't bad theres no way they'll total it. Like said above a new bumper and fender hsould run you like 150 from certifit. I fixed my friends tracker after he hit a t-pole for under 300. Thats bumper cover, impact bar, and fender.

 

I had thought about selling it for less with the damage, if I could get the whole car done for an extra 500-800 I would be able to sell it for that much more and probably have an easier time. When painted, I will probably want to keep it. I thought if I got my insurance company involved in any way in this it would be a claim. I lucked out with my last car, I only had liability and they paid out for an accident I had. I will see what they would do if it was their claim.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter wether you call your insurance company or not. If you make a claim that your car was damaged and it is filed by any insurer or the police make an incident report even without contacting an insurer, it still ends up eventually being filled with the credit reporting agencies. It will count as 1point if no injuries, 2points for sever damage no injuries, 3points for injury related claims.
Once any I-man gets a call, they got your info, and your credit score is affected. Your credit rating is what the insurance companies base your rates on.
Typically the credit report only looks back 3 years for car insurance. So you could concievably get by with nearly 2 years unaffected rates before it catches up to you. It really depends on how fast the reporter contacts the credit people. Obviously if you call your insurer they will know about it right then. Even if they do absolutly nothing, they will still add the minumum 1 point to your rate!
I have had several accidents over the years, and I've been round and round with Progressive, State Farm, Allstate, and a couple others. GET YOUR OWN photos, copies of the guy's drivers license, Verify his ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERS, both at work and home. Get an estimate from a CHEVROLET DEALER, and at least two other well known and RESPECTED independent body shops, before settling on any decision. The extra leg work will pay off in the end when you try to get this settled. Don't show the insurance adjuster's paper work to the body shop, and don't have the adjuster estimate the claim at any body shop either, make them come to you, ask him questions, and don't try to aurgue with him about the answers, he's just there making an initial assesment.
I've done umpteen estimates for a motorcycle shop and gotten to know several insurance estimators really well, and staying freindly with these guys will get you much farther than pissing one off. These guys, if they are freindly, can even be able to help you find all sorts of salvage parts at discount rates, if you can get their phone number/card.

 

I got my first estimate today for $1500. They said it would cost another $2,000 to paint the whole car. They said the car was a good car to restore but I don't have the cash for that, and I am not sure I would come out any better on the car if I had it done. Really it is a front fender and a new nose, then it would be in the same place it was before, needing a paint job. I would like to find a place that it would cost another $500 to spray the whole thing.

 

Unfortunatly $2000 is about right for a good paint job of the entire car. But if they were to paint the entire car, then the nose and fender repair should be considerably less,not in addition too. That may not be the shop to use, keep looking. You might want to call them back later and verify that they will really expect $3500 for the complete job.
$1500 doesn't seem to be to outa line for the repair needed, I just think that $2000 is right to PAINT the ENTIRE car. That would effect the labor on the original repair. Of course there will be labor to remove and replace the parts but the cost to paint it should be included as part of the $2000.
Check the price they Quoted for the parts, you may be able to buy replacement parts for less, just don't expect them to use old salvage parts without it affecting the labor costs. Inevetably used parts will need some massaging too.
Don't get down, that's your first quote, get another, and don't forget to get one from the CHEVY DEALER. That's the one that will be your best bargaining chip with the insurance adjuster most likely.

 

If you're getting quotes for painting the whole car, don't let them know it's insurance related. They tend to jack up the price if it's covered by insurance. I'd check around some more. That seems like a high end of painting.

 

GM dealer said $900. He said that the insurance company will try and get me to pay for fixing the rest of the panel based on the faded condition of the paint if the quote was more. I thought GM would be higher.

 

I bet the dealer quote will be really close to what the insurance estimator is going to come up with. This quote seems much more in line with the BLENDED part of doing repairs that I mentioned before. I also bet that even if you did take it to them that the final bill will likely go up a little bit, but that would be covered by the insurance company.
Is that the only Chevy dealer near you? If not it wouldn't hurt to try another one. If you are going to have the repair blended it would be best if done at the smallest part of the fender, over the wheel, it would reduce just how different in appearance the repair actually is. If you replace the fender then you are forced to blend the color on the door, and that would stick out much more.
Is the cars paint just sun faded or is it begining to crack. It might be possible to have the rest of the car wet color sanded and new coat of clear put on to save a little money and bring the brightness back out. Its really tricky but I have seen proffesionals who are highly experienced, do this over and over with amazing results.

 

The paint is to the primer on the horizontal surfaces. The car was repainted once and then BAKED in the AZ sun. The body shop guys have been impressed with how solid the car is and feel it would be worth restoring. Everyone here quotes at least $3500 to paint a car, I have been asking without telling about the insurance. The car was originally a fire red, which under the hood and the jambs looks really red. It could be a cool car done.

 

Yeah, to the primer kinda sucks, repainting a repainted car is no fun with the base coat clear coats needing sooo much more sanding in order to get the surface right.

 

Hang in there Shribe. Thanks for keepings us updated

 

Well, I am getting a check for a little under a grand. I will lower the price and probably sell it easier. Since the whole car needs paint, a $50 fender, and a used nose cover won't add much to the prep.