[NinjaBum]

I was driving down the road the other day and there was a Jeep that had just gotten in some sort of horrible head on collision that decided "I think I will drive away and get on the freeway."

Long story short a lot of its parts were flying off and one of its headlight housings or something flew off at speed and crossed several lanes of traffic and as fate would have it hit my front end and did a number on the paint on my front bumper as well as gouging the bumper itself pretty good.



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The bumper definitely needs to be repainted. But there is also a chip on my hood caused by some of the other broken pieces flying all over the road.



Not too big, but the guy at the shop gave me two options. He said he can touch it up and you won't be able to tell from a few feet away that anything is there but when you get closer you will definitely be able to tell, or they can make it look like nothing happened which will require repainting the whole hood and blending the fenders.

Obviously I'd rather it look like it did before anything happened but I am just nervous repainting all that on a car that looks like it is hard to match paint for this one chip.

They are probably the best shop I could find here, the BMW dealers send their damaged cars to them to repair and they seem to do a good job, I'm just nervous.

Has anyone else had to have this color repainted anywhere on their car? If so how did it match? Could you tell it has been resprayed if you didn't know?

[Glen e]

Any good body shop can respray a current model year new car and get a perfect match. The mixes are computerized now. The lower part will require filler and sanding as paint and plastic are missing.

[Ozark]

I would call your insurance and explain the circumstances. I'm pretty sure you don't want a "make-up" repair that's good from a few feet away. Ask them that if you make a claim will this affect your premiums. Pay your deductible and get it repaired like new.

[Realist]

That blows, I would only touch up the hood and paint the nose. It maybe best to pay out of pocket instead of filing a claim. Depends on repair cost, deductible and any possible rate increase due to a claim. On the bright side, it could have been worse.

[NinjaBum]

Cool. Yeah I filed a claim cause I had followed the other car until they pulled over like 7 miles later after their coolant system went out due to hemorrhaging their coolant all over the freeway for the past 20 minutes.

Got their license plate and pics of their front end. The dispatcher I talked to kept telling me not to confront them so I didn't exchange insurance. The driver caught me taking pictures of their vehicle and got pissed and started cussing me out so I just walked back to my car to wait for the patrol car that never came in the next 3 hours.

Either insurance finds them and abrogates or they don't have insurance in which case it's a mandatory state maximum deductible of $250 because so many people here don't have insurance. Like 1/3 of cars are uninsured here.

They told me either way it won't count against my premiums. We will see if that holds true.

[cleoent]

Originally Posted by NinjaBum

Cool. Yeah I filed a claim cause I had followed the other car until they pulled over like 7 miles later after their coolant system went out due to hemorrhaging their coolant all over the freeway for the past 20 minutes.

Got their license plate and pics of their front end. The dispatcher I talked to kept telling me not to confront them so I didn't exchange insurance. The driver caught me taking pictures of their vehicle and got pissed and started cussing me out so I just walked back to my car to wait for the patrol car that never came in the next 3 hours.

Either insurance finds them and abrogates or they don't have insurance in which case it's a mandatory state maximum deductible of $250 because so many people here don't have insurance. Like 1/3 of cars are uninsured here.

They told me either way it won't count against my premiums. We will see if that holds true.

You did everything right. Nice job! Now let your insurance take it from here. Have the car properly repaired and then please spend the money to get a clear bra put on!

[tchowe]

See if you can get your insurance to file it under your comprehensive insurance, if so it shouldn't affect your rates and you'll just have to pay the deductible.

[NinjaBum]

Do you guys think I have a case for diminished value?

How hard is it to get that?

[cleoent]

Originally Posted by NinjaBum

Do you guys think I have a case for diminished value?

How hard is it to get that?

No. it's just paint.

[NinjaBum]

Yeah but it will still lower the value in the eyes of buyers will it not?

If someone checks a carfax that has some obscure "front end damage" line they aren't going to purchase that vehicle vs. the same vehicle with a clean report for the same price.

I know I would buy a car with a clean record vs one that had the whole front half of the car resprayed.

[Ozark]

Originally Posted by NinjaBum

Yeah but it will still lower the value in the eyes of buyers will it not?

If someone checks a carfax that has some obscure "front end damage" line they aren't going to purchase that vehicle vs. the same vehicle with a clean report for the same price.

I know I would buy a car with a clean record vs one that had the whole front half of the car resprayed.

He should check with the carrier and body shop to see if they report a minor paint issue like this? My Civic was "attacked" by a BMW - damages were $900 - and I was advised by my carrier I had 2 years to report a diminish value claim if the report showed up on CarFax.

[NinjaBum]

Luckily for me I got my car appraised for trade in a couple of weeks ago at our BMW dealership. I'm going to go back after it gets fixed and say "hey, same car, looks perfect, but here is was got repainted" and see what their offer is.

I spoke to an independent appraiser and he said it probably loses at least a thousand having that much paintwork if not more.

Makes sense 9/10 people out there are going to pick the car without a history if choosing between two superficially identical Camaros.

[gringo]

I don't know what's worse. The lazy police who did not respond to your call for help when this parts spewing hit and run driver damaged your car.

Or, these ridiculous bodyshops that have to blend half the car just to fix some minor paint damage at the front tip of a bumper. If their paint match skills are that bad on Hyper Blue, I think they need to get out of the autobody business.

They have to paint half the car for a spot on the front bumper???

[ron scubadiver]

OP is lucky something did not penetrate the windshield and injure him. That car should look perfect when repairs are completed. Annoying, but no big deal. Insurance should not be problem because OP is not at fault.